March 22, 2011
Branches
Next week a member of our congregation, who is a Master Gardner, has volunteered to give a hands-on instructional class for anyone interested. The notice in the bulletin gives the time and place for the “Pruning Class”. Actually, for some of us, every worship day can be a time of pruning. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 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 NIV)
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Gail;
-----In last week’s Sunday school our pastor asked, “What kind of fruit does a Christian bear?” Everyone’s mind goes to Galatians 5:22. But there, Paul only lists nine attitudes. What of charitableness, graciousness, honor, and forbearance? What of the many other attitudes exhorted by the Word? Are they not fruit? Or do they extend from the nine? Or were the nine listed merely a sampled tasting of all the godly attitudes? How many of the whole variety must be in the Christian’s life, and how prominently must each be there? If the observation of fruit on the branches is subjected to a scrutinizing for particulars, then most all trees bearing some fruit are to be hewn down and burned.
-----Jesus presented this concept of fruit in general terms. “So, every sound tree bears good fruit.” (Mat 7:17) He neither spoke of a particular variety of fruit, nor a particular combination of varieties, nor a particular amount of fruit born. We seem to do that. His expression at John 15:1-2 implies the sufficiency of a trace amount: “...no fruit...” rather than little fruit gets the branch cut off, while “...does bear fruit...” gets it pruned. Some fruit is fruit. A little fruit is fruit. A trace is even more than none. So it seems to me that when we go looking over the trees around us, we must observe this same principle that the Pruner observes. I am not going to say any one variety of fruit is more important than another, but I will imply that forbearance is like a good set of spectacles. Through it a lot more fruit-bearing trees come into plain sight.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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