“Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”
John 15:2, ESV
“Dead wood is worse than fruitlessness, for dead wood can harbor disease and decay…God removes the dead wood from his church and disciplines the life of the believer so that it is directed into fruitful activity.”
Merrill C. Tenney
In order to become fruitful we must accept the knife.
It takes a sharp eye and a sharper knife to do the Father’s work of cutting. He slices to the quick, and all that is not useful falls to the ground. The vine must produce grapes, and every bit of “grape-energy” needs to be used productively. Fruitlessness will be cursed, sterility is condemned. This is a hard choice to make.
I want to encourage you though–fruitless believers can possibly become fruitful ones.
Understand, the vine dresser isn’t attacking the vine with his knife. He is not malicious or vengeful. All that He does is for the good of the vine. He is motivated to produce fruit. That is what He thinks about as he cuts away the dead branches.
Pruning and fruit are concepts that we vacillate over, some days we understand and other days we don’t. After over 40 years, I’ve heard every “John 15 sermon” known to man. And most of the time I turn down my spiritual hearing aid. That is tragic–I listen, but I don’t listen.
I need to grapple with this imagery. If I don’t, bad things are bound to happen.
For years I have asked God to “show me His ways.” I’d like to believe that this understanding of pruning has changed me. I would like to think that I have attained a clearer view of wisdom. This pruning business is all well and good. But being sanctified by the knife is decidedly unattractive and uncomfortable.
I grew up in the northwoods of Wisconsin and wondered if the trees that were designated with a ‘red X’ understood that they were the ones to be cut down by the lumbermen. I wondered if these trees that were marked with spray paint understood what was up? (Maybe they felt special with their new found prestige?)
You will be pruned!
I completely and absolutely declare this to you. (It’s one of those “thus says the Lord” moments.) Pieces of your life are earmarked to be lopped off. You will probably not understand why and you will chafe at what is coming.
The Christian life is as much about subtraction as it’s about addition.
He will cut you and you’ll think you’re dying. But I assure you, Jesus loves you, and all that He does is for your good. He trims you to bring you true life.
There is simply no other way He can work.
“And if it be painful to bleed, it is worse to wither. Better be pruned to grow than cut up to burn.”
John Trapp
Alaska Bible Teacher 
