ListenDaily - 01 June 2009: Cut away or lifted up?
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. John 15:1-8 NKJV (find any passage at www.Biblegateway.org)
“Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away..." I was at a graduation party for one of my daughter's friends this past Saturday. Being late May in Delaware, the conversation soon turned to local produce, specifically who would be picking their first tomato before the first of June rolled around, then to secrets for growing healthy plants. My good friend Bob explained that he clipped the branches from his tomato plants that had no blossoms, had no fruit. He explained that, besides not bearing tomatoes, these branches took nutrients away from the fruit-bearing ones, and that the overall plant would be healthier without them.
This is how John 15:2 has often been translated; that God clips away those of us that do not bear fruit.
There is another perspective which bears hearing out. The above type of pruning is horticulturally sound, and it may be an appropriate metaphor when looking at the world population as a whole in relation to Christ, for He often spoke of trees not planed by God, or trees that do not bear fruit, being destroyed.
But Jesus refers here to the branches that are "in Him", and He says that every branch that abides in Him "bears much fruit".
So then, what does this mean?
Different translations say "prune", "cut away", "remove", etc. The original Greek word is "kathairo," and means "to cleanse." Pruning is more that cutting away, it is also to clean, to cleanse. It was the practice of those that tended to grapevines to watch closely for those vines which 'got away'. Those vines, would get down in the dust, or mud, and choke -- become unable to bear fruit. The vinedresser would gently lift up those vines, a little at a time, and dust them off or rinse them, then carefully place them with the other vines on the trellis. There, out of the muck and mire, they could receive the water, the air, and the sunlight; there, they would soon begin to produce.
In the next verse; "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you", the Greek word translated "cleanse" is "katharos," which is like "kathairo," and means "to free from impurities."
Jesus lifts us up out of the muck and mire (Psalm 40 anyone?). There we can receive the water, the air, the Light. There we can bear fruit, as we...
...abide.
Abide.
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Questions:
1. How does this perspective strike you? 2. How about this type of pruning? 3. How do you abide?
INTERESTING THOUGHTS:
"We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise.
We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.
We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful
C.S. Lewis
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