I remember as a child playing on my great grandparent’s farm in Romania. The family would often gather on the farm to look after the crops.
Courtesy of Egor Vihkrev from Unsplash.com
One of the most laborious jobs was cutting off dead branches from fruit trees. Like weeds that choke out plants in gardens so do dead branches “choke” trees and inhibit their ability to produce many good fruits.
The dead branches were thrown into a pile and eventually burned. They didn’t fulfil the purpose for which they were created and were thrown aside.
For Jesus we are analogous to the branches on fruit trees. In John 15:5 Jesus says,
I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing (verse 6).
If our lives are not rooted in Jesus we can achieve “nothing” in the same way a branch apart from a tree withers and dies.
By “nothing” I don’t mean sitting around and relaxing. Unfortunately, we are very good at being busy and doing things, but that doesn’t mean being “useful” in the spiritual sense.
Blind business is not holiness.
By patiently asking the Holy Spirit to guide you in your day you will achieve more meaningful and fulfilling things then if you just were busy for the sake of being busy.
My devotion to Jesus gives me focus and context.
Avoiding the Flames
Jesus continues to say,
If a man [or woman] does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned.
This sounds harsh. Is Jesus saying if our lives are not rooted in a friendship with him we will end up in hell? ….Yes.
If you and I know that we have the choice to root our lives in a friendship with Jesus, yet we intentionally strive to live apart from his love, hell is a logical consequence in the same way death is a logical consequence of a branch that is cut off from its host tree. Except in our case we cut ourselves off from our source of life.
Conversely, if we continuously strive to be rooted in Jesus we will experience life to the fullest and bear fruit beyond our greatest imagination.
In Christ.