“If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown out like a branch, and dries up; and such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, and are burned.” (NET)
Into the Text
A simple fact: a branch that is not connected to the vine has no life flowing through it, so it withers and dies. Without a true connection to Jesus, a person is like that branch, dead and unable to bear any Lasting Fruit.
Jesus has already said in verse 2 that His Father, the Vinedresser, “takes away every branch that does not bear fruit in me.” And in verse 8, He says that the proof of a person being a true disciple is that he or she will bear much Fruit.
While there are many in the church today who claim to be Christians, if all they produce is bad, rotten Fruit, they are not true disciples of Jesus and have never been attached to the Vine. While such people may fool others for a while, their Fruitless life will ultimately make it clear that they did not belong to Jesus. The Father will judge and destroy such branches in the end. The Vinedresser is not surprised by this, and He is still in control.
At the same time, we may be confident that if we have truly surrendered ourselves to Jesus, the Father will make sure that we bear Fruit. He has promised it. He will judge those who don’t belong, but He prunes and disciplines those who do. He will cut away the dead branches but cultivate the living ones.
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