A while back South campus pastor Bruce Dial gave a really good teaching from today's chapter in John that was a real eye-opener, and very encouraging to our staff. He graciously consented to be our guest blogger today, so here from him is a portion of the teaching he gave:
John 15:2(a) says "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away;" You may believe that Jesus is saying, "If you don't live right, I'm cutting you off".
But let me encourage you. Many of your Bibles may have a footnote by "takes away". Mine does. The footnote in my Bible gives the correct translation of the Greek word Jesus uses here. The Greek word used by Jesus is "airo" and is correctly translated "lifts up". Strong's Concordance verifies this. Some versions of the Bible translate "airo" to say "takes away", others even say "cuts away".
Also, note that in the context of verse 2, Jesus says, "every branch in me". There is a "cutting off" and "separating" in verse 6, but notice that is for the branches that do NOT abide in Him. (These branches in verse 6 are even "thrown into the fire"!!)
Grape vines naturally will want to grow along the ground. But on the ground, they won't produce grapes. They will produce leaves, bunches of leaves. The vine will also get dirty, maybe even filled with mildew while growing on the ground. Vineyard owners know that they have to attach the vines to trellises, and then prune back the vines, so that grapes will grow.
Now back to the phrase "lifts up" in verse 2. I can imagine Jesus and His disciples walking through a vineyard, and Jesus stopping to use the grapevine as an illustration. Can you see Jesus, speaking to His disciples in this vineyard? And maybe to illustrate "lifts up" to His disciples, He goes down to a knee, lifts up a wayward, ground growing vine, cleans it with his cloak, and places it back on the trellis? All the while, reassuring His disciples (you and I too!!), that as long as we are "in Him" (vs. 2), he will always reach down, lift us up, clean us up, and put us back where we belong, so that we can produce fruit.
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