Talking about bringing forth fruit St.Jn.15:1-5

[Linda F. Smith]

In the book of John, Jesus was teaching His disciples about the importance of bearing fruit. He told them to remain in the vine so that they would be able to bear fruit, because the branch cannot bear fruit on its own except it abide in the vine. He went on to say, that "I AM the true vine and my Father is the Husbandman. Every branch in Me that beareth fruit, He purges.....Let's stop there for a moment. Jesus talked about the Father purging the branches in Him which bear fruit. We understand that is so the branch will be able to bear more fruit. Now, with that being said, why is it neccesary to purge or cut off some thing if it is producing what it's intended to produce? well, to purge, first of all, is to wash or cleanse the apparatus [branch], which in this case, to cleanse or rid of impurities, foriegn matter, or undesirable elements from the branch. It also means to free from a charge of imputation of guilt, or to empty or cause one to empty his bowels. Web. Colig. Dict.pg.1165. I sort of like the latter meaning best because it denotes the character of an individual whose desire is to please God and is willing to be cleansed of any and all defilement that he/she may be used more effectively as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It puts me in mind of one letting go or releasing guilt or pain, disappointments of unrealized goals one may not have attained. sometimes the pruning or purging process has to do with forgetting things that are less important that we may reach the desired goal in our ministry Phil. 3:7-9. Prioritizing what is best at the moment to be accomplished for the Work of the Lord. I wondered what could be the reason for purging if the branches are developing or producing good fruit. What I found as well as what Web. Dict. shared, was a memory of when I was a small child when my mother would prune her plants. She has such a green thumb, I knew how well she grew her plants but wondered how did she do it. One day while she was caring for one of her many beautiful plants, I saw her cut some of the leaves off and clean the area where she had cut off. I asked her why did she do this to the plant and that it looked great to me! She said, "I have to clean the area by cutting off the parts that are not growing because they are starting to die". I said, "But it looked fine to me. What happened?" She told me, "Come. look closer. I did. Look at this part right here. I did. You see where the green part is? I said, "Yes." She said, "Now you see this little part right here which is turning yellow?" I said, "Yes!" Yes, mommy, I see it! Oh, okay. Now I know. When the part that doesn't grow start to fade, you have to take it off because it's dying. And if you don't take it off, it will cause the whole plant to die." Mommie said, well this branch would die and if unchecked then the whole plant would die." Now, in God or rather in Christ, when where there are areas in us that are not producing fruit our branches start to fade and become yellow, discolored and eventually die if God did not purge out the useless portion of our chrisitian character.

[Linda F. Smith]

To add to the message, if we do not progress in the things which God has called us to, then God cuts off what is non-productive. this even includes when a  work has been completed and we don't discontinue functioning the same thing. We have to understand that when God is done we are done To continue working on a certain thing when it can produce no more fruit we cause the work to become stale and it becomes unfruitful. Last years harvest cannot produce a quality harvest this year. The soil has yielded all its strength.