He Takes Away?

Lesson #238

The vinedresser checks the branches attached to the vine and “Every branch in [Jesus] that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit” (John 15:2 ESV). As believers, we are like branches connected to the vine, to draw nourishment that is needed to produce fruit. The Holy Spirit that was given to each of us is like the sap that flows from the vine to the branches. Any branch in Jesus must be a believer, which raises a question about the meaning of “he takes away.” A quick check of Strong’s Concordance shows that “he lifts up” to be a better choice. Some translations replace “he takes away” with “he cuts off.” This presents a problem because if a branch is in Jesus Christ, it implies one who is saved and then to cut off the branch, or even to take it away, implies the loss of salvation, which is not possible because once you are a child of God you are always a child of God. “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37 ESV). Jesus will never cast us out and we do not have the ability to cease being a child of God.

If we rewrite the first part of the verse to read, “Every branch in [Jesus] that does not bear fruit he lifts up” and look at a possible meaning. In a vineyard, grape vines are trimmed to grow along horizontal wires stretched along a row of posts. If a branch growing along the bottom wire becomes dislodged and falls to the ground it will not bear fruit, but if it is cared for by lifting it back up to its supporting wire and attached it will once again become productive. This idea carries over to believers. If believers fall down into sin, should we just ignore them or try to lift them up again to godly living? Because of my agricultural background and because of Christians who make bad choices and need to be restored, I am going to embrace the choice of words “he lifts up.”

“and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” If left unattended, branches will add extra growth and look nice and green and full, but this is an unhealthy condition as this extra foliage draws away nourishment needed for fruit bearing. This extra foliage needs to be trimmed away to produce more fruit. The same applies to believers. We can become distracted by so many things in the world that we leave little energy or time to do good works, called fruit bearing. Our Father will keep his eye on us and will trim where needed. Some of this trimming may be painful and come in the form of trouble or trials in our lives, but his goal for us is to do the good works he has assigned to us to do. This may not sound very enjoyable if your focus is on your selfish desires, but remember our Father chose us and assigned to us work to do and he expects obedience out of our love for him. He does not expect us to live a life of self-gratification as friends with the world. If this is your focus, then you should check to see if you are really a branch in Jesus Christ and not part of the group mentioned in Matthew 7:21 – 23.

Prayer

Father, from this lesson we see that it is essential that believers bear fruit. As believers we are left here on earth, on assignment to do our Father’s will. It appears, by our lifestyle, that we have a greater interest in seeking what the world has to offer than we are in spending our life to the glory of God. As we work through future lessons, help us see the importance of fruit bearing.