Pruning

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful."  John 15: 1-2

At our old home in Drayton Ontario, we had a beautiful Macintosh Apple Tree in the center of our back yard.  It was especially beautiful in the spring when it exploded with splendid pink blossoms.  What wasn't so splendid about our tree though, was the fruit.  Now don't get me wrong, it certainly produced fruit - lots of fruit.  Problem was, that it produced an abundance of small, diseased apples that pretty much ended up rotting on our lawn and providing all of the local wasps and hornets with a bountiful smorgasbord.  There were really only a couple of apples worth eating, and they were at the top of the tree and extremely difficult to get to.

It was towards the end of our time there, that a friend from the fruit belt region of Ontario (after listening to me complain about my tree) schooled me on the process of pruning.  Pruning, he said (without getting too technical) is the cutting off of branches that are not producing fruit or dead, and even cutting off excess branches.  This not only allows the tree to focus it's growth on less branches - and produce more quality fruit, but it also gives more fruit exposure to the growth giving sun.  

The theory behind pruning is that less branches will actually produce more and higher quality fruit.

Isn't it interesting that Jesus describes our heavenly Father as a gardener, and us as a fruit bearing branches inter-connected with Jesus.  As mentioned in a previous post - bearing fruit as a disciple of Christ is a non-negotiable (it's what's expected of us).  Jesus ominously states that those who do not bear the fruit of Christ-like growth in love are cut off.  Perhaps more interesting to me today, is the line from Jesus that our Father will spiritually prune us as we are bearing fruit so that we will be even more fruitful for His sake.

What does this mean for our journey of discipleship?  Sounds painful doesn't it?

I think spiritual pruning is somewhat painful.  Because in spiritual pruning, God removes those sinful things from our lives that are preventing us from fully obeying Him in love.  Many times these sins have been ongoing in our lives for years and years - we have grown accustomed to them and they become a part of who we are.  The removal of these sins is often akin to the feeling Linus must have had when finally forced to part ways with his security blanket.  Sometimes we don't realize just how attached we are to our sinful ways until they are forcefully removed by our Father.  Sins are like dead branches that compete with our fruit bearing branches for our time and energy.  They strangle and choke out our spiritual growth.  Sure we will still produce fruit (because we are connected to the Vine), but it will be a weak batch and not nearly what we could produce sans sins.

But God, through the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sins, forgives us of our sins, and gives us the spiritual strength to repent from our sins.

It really is amazing grace that God would chose to prune us rather than just letting our sins overtake and consume us - He truly wants us to bear fruit!  And while He does the work, we can certainly aid Him in this discipleship process by actively confessing and repenting of those sins that are preventing us from the growth that God so wants us to experience.

Whenever I see a fruit tree, I am reminded about this important discipleship principle - real, fruitful growth cannot occur so long as unrepentant sin remains tangled up in my life.

May God the Gardener continue to be graceful and faithful with us, even as we seek to have sin removed from our lives.



Be God's, Pastor Scott