Someday, each of us who is born again and a member of Christ’s family will have an accounting to face. We each get the tremendous responsibility of standing alone in front of the nail-scarred hands of the One who loved and purchased us. At that meeting, He will evaluate our lives based on two tests: what was âgoodâ in our lives and what was âbadâ in our lives.
In God’s Word, we know what the definitions of good and bad are in this context, right?
Good is that which was variously described in the New Testament as âgold, silver, precious stonesâ, âwalking in the Spiritâ, and as we are currently learning about — âfruitfulnessâ.
Bad is what was worthless, earthly, and fleshly in our lives.
Fruitfulness and fruitlessness are not separate ideas or concepts. The Bible is one integrated divine message. From cover to cover, God has watched over His children and sought for them to invest their desires in HIM. He still watches this morning.
God has a plan to make us fruitful for Him. It is simple, there are two parts: clip and prune! In the New Testament, these two parts are called chastening and sanctification. These two Biblical truths are set forth side by side more clearly here than anywhere else in God’s Word. If we can see them, learn them, and respond to them in our lives, God has great plans ahead for us, plans for lifelong fruitfulness.
In the context of John 15, listen to the direct intervention God the Father has declared He wants to make in our lives. This morning, let’s follow along with Christ’s description of what He is doing. Then, with the amplified picture, we draw from the rest of the New Testament.
John 15:1-8 âI am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
Eugene Peterson paraphrases this passage along these lines:
âI am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer. He cuts off every branch of me that doesnât bear grapes. And every branch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more. You are already pruned back by the message I have spoken. âLive in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch canât bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you canât bear fruit unless you are joined with me.
Are we cleansed?
Are we clipped?
Are we Christlike?
Letâs pray!
(WFM-28; 020127AM)
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