Pruning John 15:2-3

Back in 2014, our family moved to north Alabama and we got to experience something completely new: we went to an apple orchard. I was completely enthralled with the notion of going to the orchard and getting fresh, ripe apples for our family. Imagine my shock when I saw how ugly the trees were! They weren’t attractive trees at all. The truth is, these scrawny little trees didn’t have much to commend themselves except one thing: the apples! In the orchard, skilled farmers had done their work to insure that their trees were maximally fruitful and that’s exactly what God is doing in our lives!

God Works to Make Us More Fruitful

I. God Lifts v. 2

Our passage begins with an action that seems a little unclear: He “takes away” branches that don’t bear fruit

What does this mean? There are two possible ways to interpret it:

One is that it speaks of a removal, but this is a possibility that we will explore later on in the passage

The other is that this is a reference to lifting, pulling the branch out of the muck and the junk of the vineyard and positioning it for fruitfulness

I believe that the second possibility is the best interpretation for us

The issue before us is one of positioning; some of us are not positioned for fruitfulness

However, I believe that if we abide in Him, He will do the lifting

This is a work to clean us up from the dirt of sin that is hanging onto us

This is also a repositioning; not every season or moment is particularly easy or fruitful. In God’s wisdom He will move you from where you are to where you need to be

We must have the order of priority right, though:

We must first abide in Him, and then we will bear fruit

Too often we try to get it backwards, attempting to fix our own lives in our own power and positioning ourselves according to our own desires. Then, we hope to have a fruitful Christian life

This is out of order; we do the abiding and we trust Him to do the work!

Occasionally, you will see a math problem floating around online that seems to have multiple answers, depending on the order of operation. If you work it in one order you get one answer, if you work it in a different order, you get a different answer. How do you know what order to follow? There’s a rule called PEMDAS (parentheses, exponent, multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction) that tells us the order of operations. If you don’t follow the order, the answer isn’t right! The same thing is true in our spiritual lives: if we do not abide first, we cannot bear fruit!

II. God Prunes vv. 2-3

Likewise, God has a plan for branches that are fruitful

He prunes them so that they will bear even more fruit

In so many ways, this seems unfair! Why should the reward for fruitfulness be a kind of cutting away?

It is to remove what is dead

It is to remove what is fruitless

It is to focus the total energy of our lives on that which is most important and critical to success

Pruning is a work of the Lord, but it is a work that we are invited into:

By observing Sabbath and resting

By pursuing spiritual disciplines

By reprioritizing your life

However, it is also a work that He loves you enough to pursue on His own

In the life of every fruitful believer there will be challenges, losses, and setbacks that feel like failures

It is possible that they are God’s way of redirecting you to those areas that are most fruitful

This is both a past and a continuing action:

You are made clean through the Word of God and faith in Jesus Christ

You are being made clean through the wise action of the Lord!

Hebrews 12:5–9

[5] And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,

nor be weary when reproved by him.

[6] For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,

and chastises every son whom he receives.”

[7] It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? [8] If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. [9] Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? (ESV)

III. God Separates v. 6

Finally, we see another kind of action that has a different focus

It is not directed toward an abiding branch but to the branch that is disconnected to the vine

In His wisdom, He separates those branches from the rest of them

Who are these disconnected branches?

They may be lost men and women who give an appearance of godliness, yet are lost and have never truly known the Lord

They may be believers who are living in ways that are disconnected from the life of Christ and whose lives are marked by fruitlessness

Either case ought to be a wake up call!

If my life is not marked by fruitfulness, I need to be concerned because God is not going to leave me as I am

You will be divided out from the other branches

You will wither and the spiritual life that you had will diminish

You will be burned and experience destruction; this is true in the life of both the believer and the unbeliever

We must not take this reality lightly!

This is a call to self-examination

This is a call to trust God for His good work in our lives; He prunes for a purpose!

During the Great Depression a good man lost his job, exhausted his savings, and forfeited his home. His grief was multiplied by the sudden death of his young wife. The only thing he had left was his faith. One day as he combed the neighborhood looking for work he stopped to watch as men did stonework on a church building. One was skillfully chiseling a triangular piece of rock. Not seeing a spot it would fit, he asked. “Where are you going to put that?” The man pointed toward the top of the building and said. “See that little opening up there near the spire? That’s where it goes. I’m shaping it down here so it will fit up there.” Tears filled the hurting man’s eyes as he walked away thinking of the words: “shaping it down here so it will fit up there.”