seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
John 15:1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
a. John 15:2 The Greek for he prunes also means he cleans.
This is a very difficult set of verses. The idea is quite simple but it's foreign to us because unlike the descendants of Jacob [Israel], we don't do a lot of pruning our grape vines. So this is a foreign to us today and we skip over it. It's actually a quite essential part of understanding how all the Christians will have rooms in Heaven.
I use to date a Marine. He had a t-shirt that said.... "kill 'em all.... let God sort 'em out". Well in these verses.... God's doing the sorting.
Jesus is the main vine. The main vine has the root that goes to into the ground and draws the water and nutrients to feed the whole vine.
There is this practice of Propagation. I had a rose tree that was like this once. The nursery took a good trunk and removed all of the branches and leaves from it.... they left only the trunk and the roots. Then they cut a series of slits in the trunk. They took pieces of branch from rose bushes, dipped them in a "root tone" and then planted them in the slits. After a while [a few days really] the new branch started to become part of the tree.... nana roots came out of the shoot and worked their way into the meat of the trunk so they could draw up nutrients from the root through the trunk... and soon... those same branches started to bloom.... with roses.... red, white, and pink roses on the same "tree". It was really pretty..... and it stayed healthy for a long long time.
A grape vine goes through the same thing. At least once a year... the guy goes down the whole vine. It's his job to trim away any vines that didn't produce grapes.... while he's at it... he will splice in a few branches from another vine to replace the ones he trimmed away. Those new branches are dipped in a "root tone" and placed in a fresh cut in the vine.... where they "take root" and grow.
I tried something different in my yard with some English Ivy [also a vine but not a productive one]. Our house was on a hill... and the guy who lived up the hill from us never mowed his grass or raked leaves. When it rained... it poured down the hill and my foundation took a beating. So... I planted a green fence. I built a short fence and some English Ivy to cover the fence and create a natural retention wall. I took cuttings of one English Ivy plant, coated them with "root tone" and stuck them in the ground. They grew just like they were always there. They "took root" quickly.
Jesus was talking about His new family.... His new rose bush. His Father , the One True Living God.... is the guy doing the trimming. His Father is the gardener who will cut out the "pew sitters" and the "false teachers". He will replace them with Gentiles who Believe that God sent His own son to save humans from death.
It doesn't matter if the original vine was meant to be made up from the descendants of Jacob [Israel]. When those branches didn't want to produce any fruit.... there were plenty of other branches on other vines to take the place of those dead branches. Jesus wasn't just there for those sacrificing descendants of Jacob [Israel].
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
Whoever Believes.... Noah had three sons.... This was after Sodom..... Noah had three sons.... Seth, Japheth, and Ham. God had Noah build an ark and bring his family with him so that God would have a few humans to repopulate the earth. God created time.... so God controls time.... and God can look into the future and see how human decisions turn out. God knew Ham, Noah's son, would make some kind of remark when Ham saw Noah naked... and get himself cursed. God could have left Ham off the Ark and let him drown in the flood... but He didn't. He had Noah bring all three sons, knowing that Ham would do it. Some think Ham was the source of all the homosexuals on earth today. God must have been ok with that.... He let Ham on the Ark.
The roses on my rose bush were not all from the same bush, originally. There were pink, white, and red roses... there were roses from at least three different rose bushes.... all grafted in. The trunk and root adopted the grafted in branches as part of the family. The adopted branches produced beautiful, sweet smelling roses that lasted a long time.
The family of God is now the result of propagation. Those descendants of Jacob [Israel] who didn't believe.... are not Christians... and when they get to the Judgement Day.... they will be rejected. Those descendants of Seth [Noah's son] who didn't believe.... are not Christians... and when they get to the Judgement Day.... they will be rejected. It doesn't matter that God lead some of them out of Egypt to the Promised Land and called them "chosen".... they rejected Him so He's going to reject them too.
Those descendants of Japheth and Ham though.... the ones that weren't initially "chosen" but they believe.... they are "grafted in" or "adopted into the family" in place of anyone who doesn't believe. They accepted Christ as their Savior.... They accepted the Father as the One True Living God.... they bloom in their original color with a sweet smell of salvation. God will make them part of the family..... the children of Japheth and Ham who Believe will be "adopted into the family".
When I think of the people who have occupied a pew with me in churches over these last 70 years.... my heart goes out to those who will be cut away. When the twin towers came down back on 9/11... I cried for all the lost souls who ran out of time. And now... I feel that way about all the pew sitters who are going to run out of time.
Sometimes the "root tone" doesn't do the job. Sometimes the branch just doesn't put out little tiny nana roots that will work their way into the meat of the trunk and become part of the plant..... sometimes the transplant isn't meant to be... and no amount of "root tone" or preaching will help.... they are dead branches taking up water and light. Most of those "pew sitter" branches don't even bother to produce a leaf {a promise or hint that they might be healthy]. They are there to take a place....to see and be seen.... but a good gardener... will cut them out and replace them with a cutting that will use the "root tone" to become part of the family. The "root tone" is the Word. God it?
So these verses are about how God is going to Propagate the family of humans..... cutting out the unbelieves and grafting in the Believers.
Christians are the adopted children of God. Jesus, the Messiah, is our Big Brother. This is the result of thinning out the unbelievers and grafting in the Believers. God is great at Propagation.
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