Pruning

It is an interesting fact of life that if we have a grape vine or a fruit tree and want to increase the quality and amount of fruit produced then we must prune it considerably. My dad had been employed on fruit orchards at Leeton in the N.S.W. Riverina and he showed me how to prune the trees and vines at home. Very briefly, with grapes, last year’s growth had to be cut off about 4 centimetres from where it had branched off the main stem. With the peaches, nectarines etc, last year’s growth had to be cut off to within about a pencil length of the previous year’s wood. Thus we had stacks of lovely large fruit. If we had failed to do this there would still be fruit but it would be smaller, there would be less of it and the long thin branches would break under the weight of the fruit they did produce.

Jesus put us right in this picture by describing himself as the vine and us as the branches and God as the one in-charge of the vineyard. Of course branches are dependent on the vine. He made the scary statement that any branch that didn’t bear fruit would be cut off and burnt (I’m sure I don’t want to be one of those branches, do you?).

 In this context, to “bear fruit” means to spread the Gospel and thus encourage others to become Christians; you see, we were “bought with a price,” (1Corinthians 6:20) and have a Spiritual job to do, and like any employee if we don’t do our work sincerely and to the best of our ability we run the risk of being sacked; it is as simple as that. On the other hand Jesus said that if we do “bear fruit” then he will prune us to bear even more fruit. (John 15). So just as the gardener doesn’t want the vine to spend too much energy in growing foliage, likewise God doesn’t want us to get sidetracked into spending too much time and energy on material things and neglect the Spiritual.

Is that fair? It certainly is when you consider the facts: You see “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself” So if we accept his gift of forgiveness and endeavour to obey His commandments, we become citizens of the Kingdom of God and this was achieved at great cost to God and Jesus. Now when it comes to “bearing fruit,” as mentioned above, there is often a misunderstanding because Jesus said the 2 most important commandments were to “Love God and love your neighbour as you love yourself”. The first of these commandments should be automatic because when we consider how Jesus sacrifice has saved us from Hell, it is logical for us to love Jesus and God. Secondly, if we love our neighbour then surely when we find this treasure of forgiveness (that has a value beyond anything in the world), we should share it with our neighbours and not keep it to ourselves! If we don’t share it we become one of the “unfruitful branches” mentioned above and therefore forfeit our citizenship in the Kingdom by breaking the second commandment.

Actually, to not share this knowledge of Salvation would be the most selfish and thoughtless act one could perform; lots of people do it though, simply because they have never thought much about it at all or have possibly never read these relevant texts, and assume that spreading the gospel is the duty of the Minister, Priest or Pastor. But I’m afraid it goes much wider than that as Jesus was talking to his followers generally when he said: “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature...” As I have said before Jesus points out in Matthew 25:22 that we don’t all have the same ability, nevertheless, Jesus also makes it very clear that He expects us to do our best!

Recently I have come across people who seem to have a half-hearted attitude to their own salvation too, having a “She’ll be  right mate” attitude, but that won’t do either; Jesus when talking to John about the Christians at Laodicea said that because they were “Luke warm” he would reject them (words to that effect)(Revelations 3:16). Now if you are not a Christian please don’t adopt the attitude that this doesn’t apply to you, because it certainly does, you have just heard what a remarkable thing God has done for you and what He expects you to do for others. Therefore this is your opportunity to ask God’s forgiveness through Jesus sacrifice and turn and follow those two commandments and His directions as outlined in the New Testament which is also available on line for your convenience.   Best wishes with this food for thought,  Tom.