The Work of the Vinedresser
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 (John 15:1-2).
Parents want their children to live productive lives.
So does our Father in heaven.
Once we become His children, He works to accomplish His will in our lives.
When the Vinedresser notices that any branch is not producing fruit, He goes to work to remedy that.
Although many translations say takes away in verse two of John 15, a clearer translation of the Greek word airo would be to take up or lift up.
This same word - airo - is used in Matthew 14:20, John 4:11, John 5:8, and John 11:41 where it is rendered took up, bear thee up, take up and lifted up.
New branches have a natural tendency to trail down and grow along the ground, but they don't bear fruit there.
Leaves get coated in dust.
When it rains, they get muddy and mildewed.
The branch becomes sick and useless.
The vinedresser goes through the vineyard with a bucket of water looking for those branches.
After he lifts them up, washes them off and wraps them around a trellis, the branches begin to thrive.
That's the way of our Father.
In loving kindness, He lifts us up from the grime of living too close to the ground.
Mature pruning is expressed in the Bible as the testing of your faith (James 1:3-4 and 1 Peter 1:6-9).
Karen Cutler, author of The New England Gardener's Book of Lists, gives below a pruning guide.
She states the general goal of pruning is to keep vines healthy, vigorous and productive.
My comments are in brackets.
We will live with Him forever, but He wants us to have something to bring with us when we enter the gates of heaven.
"You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you (John 15:16).
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 (John 15:1-2).
Parents want their children to live productive lives.
So does our Father in heaven.
Once we become His children, He works to accomplish His will in our lives.
When the Vinedresser notices that any branch is not producing fruit, He goes to work to remedy that.
Although many translations say takes away in verse two of John 15, a clearer translation of the Greek word airo would be to take up or lift up.
This same word - airo - is used in Matthew 14:20, John 4:11, John 5:8, and John 11:41 where it is rendered took up, bear thee up, take up and lifted up.
New branches have a natural tendency to trail down and grow along the ground, but they don't bear fruit there.
Leaves get coated in dust.
When it rains, they get muddy and mildewed.
The branch becomes sick and useless.
The vinedresser goes through the vineyard with a bucket of water looking for those branches.
After he lifts them up, washes them off and wraps them around a trellis, the branches begin to thrive.
That's the way of our Father.
In loving kindness, He lifts us up from the grime of living too close to the ground.
Mature pruning is expressed in the Bible as the testing of your faith (James 1:3-4 and 1 Peter 1:6-9).
Karen Cutler, author of The New England Gardener's Book of Lists, gives below a pruning guide.
She states the general goal of pruning is to keep vines healthy, vigorous and productive.
My comments are in brackets.
- Remove any dead, damaged, diseased or unproductive stems.
[God will gently remove anything in our lives that is not our best.
It may be a diseased way of thinking (harboring bitterness, etc.
) or something we carried over from our life before Christ which is damaging our witness, or an unproductive habit.
Is there anything you have been holding onto that you suspect God is trying to trim away?] - Remove overly tangled stems.
[God will continually remind us that we are in the world, but not of it.
Put first the kingdom of God.
Are you the same on Monday as you are on Sunday?] - Remove errant stems, especially those growing away from the support.
[God will always work to bring us back to Himself.
In the case of the prodigal son, he needed discipline as a son, but he was still a son and the father was watching continually for his return.
If we are truly interested in bearing fruit for God, He may prune us by pulling us back before we go to the "far land.
" Christians struggle against good, better and best.
Are you achieving God perfect plan for your life or are you just doing good things?] - Direct its growth.
[This may be one of the primary reasons for being pruned: God's loving hand is directing us to be all He created us to be.
Even the most adventurous of us do not invite the pruning of the Vinedresser.
Yet pruning is a primary way He expresses His love to us.
]
We will live with Him forever, but He wants us to have something to bring with us when we enter the gates of heaven.
"You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you (John 15:16).
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