I found Mike Ratliff’s post of his Andrew Murray reading quite thoughtful. I made this comment…
Old John Gill wrote this comment on John 15:2. “And every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. These are the other sort of branches, who are truly and savingly in Christ; such as are rooted in him; to whom he is the green fir tree, from whom all their fruit is found; who are filled by him with all the fruits of his Spirit, grace, and righteousness.
These are purged or pruned, chiefly by afflictions and temptations, which are as needful for their growth and fruitfulness, as the pruning and cutting of the vines are for theirs; and though these are sometimes sharp, and never joyous, but grievous, yet they are attended with the peaceable fruits of righteousness, and so the end of bringing forth more fruit is answered;
for it is not enough that a believer exercise grace, and perform good works for the present, but these must remain; or he must be constant herein, and still bring forth fruit, and add one virtue to another, that it may appear he is not barren and unfruitful in the knowledge of Christ, in whom he is implanted.
These different acts of the vinedresser “taking away” some branches, and “purging” others, are expressed by the Misnic doctors (p) by פיסולה, and זירודה. The former, the commentators (q) say, signifies to cut off the branches that are withered and perished, and are good for nothing; and the latter signifies the pruning of the vine when it has a superfluity of branches, or these extend themselves too far; when some are left, and others taken off.”
Having just “pruned” which I read as different than “grafting”, our small plum and larger apple trees, we hope for more fruit. A friend down the street who gets great Granny Smith apples says it works best for her to prune every two years….
Like my fruit trees, I can think of a number of things in my own branches of faith that grew out long and wild, that have been pruned off or back over the years. But even this is God’s doing, branches don’t prune themselves nor graft themselves into the root or vine.
Something to think about as we approach and remember the Cross and Resurrection….it’s all in Christ….and we come to that through the work of God the Father, Christ the Son and the Holy Ghost all working together, to bring us to faith, out of sin and into Righteousness and Holiness.
One last thought, using Murray’s metaphor, of the talking tree. We probably should be careful not to assume the role upon ourselves of the vinedresser, saying to neighboring tree…”Hey, you have some long and wild branches, let me prune those back for you!” It’s best to just pray for that and let God’s word in the Bible and the work of the Holy Spirit handle that.
Rainbow Trout 