John 15:2 Commentary | "Disposing of Dead Weight, Pruning for Productivity"

What follows is an excerpt from a John 15:1-8 Bible Study that was streamed on 5.18.22

Commentary
- Fruit
- Prune For Productivity
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Commentary

Continuing in John 15:2, Jesus says:

Every branch in Me that does not produce fruit He takes away. And every [branch] that does produce fruit, He prunes to clean so that it will produce more. (Jn 15:2, AT)

Now a vinedresser has no use for barren branches.¹ Farmers who tend vineyards are striving to cultivate the growth of grapes. So, every branch that doesn’t produce fruit is taken away.²

You see, barren branches are just dead weight. And, farmers need to give fruit-bearing branches room to grow.³ And gardeners need all of the plant’s nourishment to go to branches that are actually bearing fruit.⁴

Fruit

But what is this fruit?

Here, bearing fruit can refer to bringing converts to Christ.⁵ Yet, more generally, in the context of His Farewell Discourse, bearing fruit entails experiencing Christ’s presence ⁶ and keeping Christ’s commands.⁷

(In the Old Testament, the prophets also called for fruitfulness (cf. Is 27:6; Hos 14:4-8).⁸

In fact, keeping Christ’s commands are how we express our love to Christ.

For example, earlier, in John 14:15, Jesus says:

“If you love me, keep my commands. (Jn 14:15, NIV)⁹

Then, a few verses later, in John 14:23-24, it says:

23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home [μένω | menō] with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. (Jn 14:23-24, NIV)¹⁰

Christ makes it quite clear. Those who love Him, will obey Him. Those don’t love Him, will not.

The question is, how much do we love Jesus?

Moreover, those who love Him will be loved by He and the Father, and they will remain with them.

Also, in John 15:10, He says:

If you keep my commands, you will remain [μένω | menō] in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain [μένω | menō] in his love. (Jn 15:10, NIV;¹¹ cf. Jn 15:14)

Now, as I’ve said before, when I was a kid, I thought about a running away from home. I couldn’t play video games for as long as wanted to, so I was about to pack up and leave. It just wasn’t fair.

I mean, little Johnny and little Susie got to play all they wanted, but I couldn’t.

So, I was going to grab a couple of Lunchables, a couple of juice boxes, some G.I. Joe’s, some Hot Wheels, and I was about to hit the road. I couldn’t take it no more!

But can a child who runs away from a wholesome home truly experience the depth of their parent’s love?

Well, if we are constantly running away from our Holy healer – in disobedience – how can we truly experience the depth of His love?

You see, to remain or abide in Christ’s love, we must abide by His commands. To show God our loving adoration, we must show God our loving obedience.

As John writes in 1 John 5:3:

In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome. (1 Jn 5:3, NIV)

You see, if we love God, we will obey God. If we are connected to the root of Jesus, we will bear the fruit of Jesus. Fruit is the outward evidence of our inward connection with Christ.¹²

Fruit is an organic¹³ byproduct¹⁴ on a branch that is connected to a living vine. And Christian fruit is all the organic byproducts of being connected to Christ.¹⁵

In this chapter, we see that such fruit includes not only obedience (Jn 15:10), but joy (Jn 15:11), love for one another (Jn 15:12), effective prayer that glorifies God (Jn 15:7, 8, 16), and effective witness to the wicked world (Jn 15:16, 27).¹⁶

Now, if a branch is producing apples, you know it’s connected to an apple tree. If a branch is bearing oranges, you know it’s connected to an orange tree. If a branch is growing grapes, you know it’s connected to a grapevine.

But, how can we say we are connected to the True Vine, if we don’t bear any godly grapes? How can we say we are faithful to the Father if we don’t bear any faithful fruit?

All true Christians who are truly connected to Christ will bear Christian fruit.¹⁷

And, in this extended metaphor,¹⁸ those who don’t bear fruit will be taken away. Branches that bear no fruit have no life.¹⁹ And dead branches are to be cut off.

Now, recall that after the Last Supper, Judas has just left to betray Jesus. And, in this context, when talking about a fruitless branch being taken away, Jesus is likely primarily referring to Judas.²⁰

Prune For Productivity

In any case, I’m no gardener, but apparently pruning is the process by which gardeners cut off unnecessary growth from their plants.²¹ They cut off dying, unfruitful parts, so that the branches can produce even better fruit. ²²

You see, when you cut away the dead parts of a plant, this allows the other parts to get more sunlight.[1] And when God cuts away some spiritually dead parts of our lives, we can get more of His Son’s light – the light of His Son – who said: I am the light of the world (cf. Jn 8:12).

Moreover, even though pruning a plant can make it less fruitful in the short-term, properly doing so can lead to much fruit in the long-term.²³

Likewise, sometimes God can be pruning us and cutting spiritually dead things out of our lives.

It might not seem like the best season. It can be painful (cf. Heb 12:4-11).²⁴ But take heart, He can be getting us ready for more growth in the next season.

You know, I used to be so seduced by secular shows that I could binge-watch seasons of a series in no time. But now I know time is precious, and He’s enabled me to binge on the Bible.

I used to so be addicted to television, but God pruned me so I could be more productive and tell-The-Vision of God.

I used to be so fascinated by people on the field, captivated by players on the court. But now it’s less about who wins games, and more about how to win souls.

I used to be so enthralled by thespians and ESPN, that I couldn’t really be truly committed to Christ. A lot of my free time went to entertaining and games, instead of training for godliness (cf. 1 Tim 4:7).

But, thanks be to the Lord, my life has been pruned for productivity. Pruned for productivity.

Brothers and sisters, are there any areas in your life that the Lord can prune – so that you can be more productive for the Lord?

Lord knows I’m still a work in progress. And, I want to progressively become more and more productive – through pruning.

You see, on a vine, weak branches that bear little fruit can be strengthened by pruning. Their productivity can increase.

Moreover, sometimes, a plant can be infested with pests. So cutting away the infested parts can ensure the infestation doesn’t spread.[2] In cases like these, pruning a plant can save it’s life.

Likewise, sometimes, from certain parts of our lives, God cuts out some ungodly people and some ungodly practices – before that ungodly infestation spreads. And that can save our life.

You know, I used to get mad about certain things in my life not working out just the way I wanted them to. But, in hindsight, I’m glad that – at those moments – God didn’t give me the desires of my heart.

If He did, I likely would’ve gone down the wrong path. Our hearts may be fickle, but our God is faithful.

Thanks be to God, He put some roadblocks on my highway to Hell. Thanks to the Gardener, He pruned me to make me clean.

And in John 15:2, Jesus uses a relatively rare word that refers to pruning, but also means cleansing.²⁵ (Also see Jn 13:10).²⁶. This prepares us for the wordplay in verse 3 (Jn 15:3).²⁷