Jesus was concerned about fruitfulness

JESUS WAS CONCERNED ABOUT FRUITFULNES
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
John 15:2 2
He cuts off every branch in me that bears
no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he
prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
The Vine And The Branches
John 15:1-8
J.R. ThomsonIf these words were spokenin the house, they may have been
suggestedby a creeping, Clinging vine trained againstthe wall; if upon the
footpath, by the vineyards on the slope of Olivet; if in the temple, by the
golden vine wrought upon the gates.
I. THE VINE IN ITSELF IS A SUITABLE EMBLEM OF CHRIST. Its
beauty, as planted, trained, or trellised; its grateful shade; its fruit, whether
fresh and luscious or dried; its wine," that maketh glad the heart of man;" -all
render it not only interesting, but suitable to set forth in symbol the excellence
of the Redeemer, his nobility, beauty, preciousness, anduse to man. Palestine
was a land of vineyards: witness the grapes of Eshcol;Judah binding his foal
to the vine, etc. Hence most naturally the vine was used in Old Testament
Scripture as an emblem of the chosennation, and hence Jesus in his parables
put the noble plant to the same use. No wonder that our Lord applied to
himself and to his people a designationso instructive.
II. THE VINE IS AN EMBLEM OF CHRIST, ESPECIALLY AS THE
SOURCE OF SPIRITUAL LIFE.
1. He is the divinely appointed Rootand Stem upon which the branches
depend; the Superior with which they, the inferior, are related in dependence.

The vine-stock survives even if the branch be cut off and left to die. We are
dependent upon Christ; he is not dependent upon us.
2. A close and vital union joins the branches to the vine, and Christians to
their Lord. The life which is naturally Christ's becomes ours through our
union by faith with him.
3. Yet it is a mutual indwelling. As Jesus himself has said, "I in you; you in
me." What condescensionandkindness in this marvelous provision of Divine
wisdom!
III. THE BRANCHES ARE INDEBTEDTO THE VINE FOR THEIR
FRUITFULLNESS;SO ARE CHRISTIANS TO THEIR LORD. The
branches of the living vine evince the life and health of the plant first by their
vigor, their verdure, their luxuriance, their comeliness;signs of spiritual life
are manifestedin the Church of God by the peace, the cheerfulness, the
spiritual prosperity, of its members. But the greataim of the husbandman's
care and culture is that fruit may be yielded in abundance. What shall we
understand by spiritual fruit, the fruits of the Spirit?
1. PerfectionofChristian character.
2. Abundance in Christian usefulness.
IV. THE TREATMENT OF UNFRUITFULAND FRUITFUL BRANCHES
FIGURES THAT OF THE NOMINAL AND THE REAL DISCIPLES OF
CHRIST.
1. The cause of unfruitfulness is stated. "Severedfrom me ye can do nothing."
2. The doom of unfruitfulness is anticipated. To be castout and burnt, like the
vine-parings in the Kedron valley.
3. The condition of fruitfulness is mentioned. Close union with Christ.
4. The means of increasedfruitfulness is also explained. Divine pruning and
discipline, i.e. affliction and trouble tending to spiritual strength and fertility.
V. THE MOTIVES TO CHRIST-ABIDING AND FRUIT-BEARING ARE
URGED. Stress is laid here upon two.
1. Thus the heavenly Husbandman, the Divine Father, is glorified.
2. Thus Jesus securesforhimself true and worthy disciples. What powerful
motives to induce Christians to be "neither barren nor unfruitful"! - T.

Biblical Illustrator
Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit.
John 15:2
Believers branches in the true vine
J. Benson.I. WHAT IS IMPLIED IN BEING A BRANCH IN CHRIST AND
WHO ARE PROPERLYBRANCHES IN HIM.
1. In order to be such, we must be cut off from the stock, whichis wild by
nature (Romans 11:24). This stock is our natural and sinful state (1 Peter
1:18). Growing in this stock, we bring forth evil fruit. We begin to be cut off
from it when we are convinced of our sin, and brought to repentance. Hence
we begin to die to all dependance on our own wisdom, righteousness,and
strength; to all love of the world and sin (2 Corinthians 6:17).
2. We must be ingrafted into Christ (Romans 11:24). The usual way of
ingrafting is not to insert a wild scioninto a goodstock, but a goodscioninto a
wild stock.
3. Hence it appears evidently who are branches in Him —(1) Negatively;not
all who have been baptized, and are reckonedmembers of the visible Church
(Romans 2:25-29), who profess to know God, and to have religion (2 Timothy
2:19; 1 Corinthians 13:2, 3).(2) Positively. They are those who have
experiencedtrue repentance and faith, and are in Christ new creatures (2
Corinthians 5:17).
II. WHAT IS THE FRUIT WHICH SUCH ARE EXPECTEDTO BEAR.
This implies the cultivation of truth, justice, mercy, charity (Hebrews 13:16;
Titus 3:8; Philippians 1:10, 11). Such must also cultivate, and maintain
towards themselves, temperance in all its branches, chastity, self-denial,
purity, universal holiness (Hebrews 12:14).
III. THE CONSEQUENCES OF BEARING, OR NOT BEARING, THIS
FRUIT.
1. If we do not bring forth this fruit, our grace, notbeing exercised, is
withdrawn and lost. We are actually cut off from Christ, as an unfruitful

branch is lopped off from a vine. We wither in our fruits, our blossoms, and
our very leaves;in our works, graces, andgifts.
2. If we do produce fruit, — we are purged, or purified, by the Spirit, through
the Word (John 17:17), which is believed, and obeyed (Acts 15:9; 1 Peter
1:22); by affliction (Hebrews 12:4-11).
IV. HOW WE MAY BE ENABLED TO BEAR THIS FRUIT.
1. By abiding in Christ, and Christ in us (ver. 5). We shall not otherwise be
fruitful (ver. 4), for otherwise we shall want life, inclination, knowledge, and
power.
2. We abide in Him by abiding in faith, in God, in His revealedwill, in His
Gospeland its truths, in Christ, in the promises (John 6:47-58;Galatians
2:20; Hebrews 10:38; and especiallyRomans 11:16, 24). By continuing in love
(John 15:9; Galatians 5:6). Hence arise deadness to the world, and powerover
sin. By continuing to obey (John 15:10;John 14:23, 24)In order to these, the
use of all prescribed means is necessary, as the Word, prayer, watchfulness,
self-denial.
(J. Benson.)
Useless branches
Abp. Trench.!— In the natural world branches of the vine which are not
goodfor that to which they were speciallyordained, viz., for the bearing of
fruit, are goodfor nothing. There are trees which may be turned to secondary
uses, if they fail to fulfil their primary. Not so the vine. As timber it is utterly
valueless (Ezekiel15:3, 4). It is with it exactly as with the saltless salt, which,
having lostits savour, is fit only to be eastout of doors;both of them being
meet emblems of the spiritual man who is not spiritual, who is goodneither
for the work of this world nor of a higher.
(Abp. Trench.)
Characterand doom of unfruitfulness
J. Viney.I. THE POSITION YOU OCCUPY. The Saviour speaks ofthose who
are in Him. This, in a sense, is true of you; not in the highestsense, indeed; by
the supposition, you are not in Him by that vital union which faith produces,
and which secures fruitfulness, but you are so in a real, though a subordinate
sense. You have some relation to Christ, are not like those to whom His name
is unknown; you have heard of Christ, whence He came, whatHe did, how He
suffered, how He is able and willing to "save to the uttermost" — a fact by
which, while your ears are blessed, you are also involved in responsibility. To
Him you were dedicatedin Christian baptism; by parental piety, in His

Church, His name was named upon you, and His blessing invoked. More than
this. You have been trained and nurtured amid Christian influences:
Inefficacious as these may have proved, they have existed; you canremember
them. The possibility of such outward and visible union, as distinct from the
inward and spiritual, is variously illustrated. "Have not I chosenyou twelve?
and one of you is a devil." "Demas hath forsakenus, having loved the present
world." Such, then, is your position.
II. YOU ARE UNFRUITFUL. What do we mean by this? Notthat you have
no capacityfor fruitfulness. You might have been so different, as different
from your present self as light from darkness, life from death. Not that you
have been unfruitful in all senses. Yourintellect, perhaps, has been active,
become acute and strong; your judgment has become matured; your
affections have budded, blossomed, and brought forth fruit; your character,
so far as this canbe perfectedwithout the motives and principles of Christian
life, has become developedand firm. It may be, too, that in the years we are
now reviewing and charging with unfruitfulness, you have done much, been a
philanthropist, a patriot, a projectorof useful schemes. In what, then, are you
chargeable with unfruitfulness? By lacking such principles as these. Love to
God. Faith in Christ. Obedience. Humility and repentance, too. It might be
supposedthat sense of deficiencywould have produced at leastthese. Have
they? Has your heart been broken for sin? Have you offered the sacrifice
which God will not despise, the brokenand contrite spirit? Thus you see,
there are fruits which you have not borne, the most important fruits, and
those without which all others God esteems, if not "abomination," yet
certainly most subordinate.
III. SOME OF THE AGGRAVATIONS OF THIS UNFRUITFULNESS. You
have had greatadvantages. Consider, too, the time you have wasted. How
insufficient the causes, too, whichhave produced your infertility. It were wise
for you seriouslyto inquire what these have been. Decree, fate, providence,
necessity— you cannot charge these with the future. Your conscienceis too
enlightened for that. No! the cause is not from above. Nor from beneath
altogether. Satanhas no compulsory powerover us. Where, then, is the cause
to be found? In yourself only; in your yielding to outward influences. It is a
further aggravationofyour sin, that all the time of your unfruitfulness you
have been positively injurious. Think, for example, of the incomparable
mischief a father does in his family all the time he is living a worldly and
carelesslife.
IV. THE DOOM OF THE UNFRUITFUL BRANCH. It is one proof, among
many, of God's willingness to save, that he announces punishment before He

executes it. None are led blindfold to justice. "Every branch in me that
beareth not fruit, He takethaway." This is fulfilled variously. It is sometimes
in the loss of capacity. Then there is Death. This is common to man as the
penally of sin; but to different men, how different! Whateverheaven is, and its
glory is inexpressible, such are takenawayfrom it; whatever hell is, and its
dolefulness, as describedby Christ, no darkness canpaint, they are taken
awayto it.
(J. Viney.)
Every branch that beareth fruit He purgeth it.
A sharp knife for the vine branches
C. H. Spurgeon.I. THE TEXT SUGGESTS SELF-EXAMINATION.It
mentions —
1. Two characters who are in some respects exceedinglyalike;they are both
branches, and are in the vine: and yet for all this, the end of the one shall be to
be castaway, while the end of the other shall be to bring forth fruit.
2. The distinction betweenthem. The first branch brought forth no fruit; the
secondbranch bore some fruit. We have no right to judge of our neighbours'
motives and thoughts, exceptso far as they may be clearly discoverable by
their actions and words. The interior we must leave with God, but the exterior
we may judge. "By their fruits ye shall know them." Paul has given us a list of
these fruits in Galatians 5:23. Say, professor, hastthou brought forth the fruit
"love?" etc. It is so easy for us to wrap ourselves up in the idea that attention
to religious ceremonies is the test, but it is not so, for "Exceptyour
righteousness shallexceedthe righteousness ofthe Scribes and Pharisees,"
etc.
3. The solemn difference betweenthem leads to a solemn result.
(1)Sometimes Godallows the professorto apostatise.
(2)Or else he is allowedto fall into open sin.
(3)Some have been takenaway in a more terrible sense by death.
II. CONVEYS INSTRUCTION.The fruit-bearing branches are not perfect. If
they were, they would not need pruning. Whenever the sap within them is
strong, there is a tendency for that strength to turn into evil. The gardener
desires to see that strength in clusters, but alas!insteadit runs into wood.
When the sap comes into a Christian to produce confidence in God, through
the evil that is in him, it often produces confidence in himself. When the sap
would produce zeal, how very frequently it turns into rashness. Suppose the

sap flows to produce self-examination, very generally, instead of the man
doubting himself, he begins to doubt his Lord. How often have I seeneven the
joy of the Lord turned into pride. That love which we ought to bear towards
our neighbours, how apt is that to run into love of the world! Gentleness often
turns to a silly compliance with everybody's whim, and meekness,whichis a
fruit of the Spirit, how often that becomes anexcuse for holding your tongue,
when you ought boldly to speak!
2. Pruning is the lot of all the fruitful saints. It is generallythought that our
trials and troubles purge us: I am not sure of that, they certainly are lost upon
some. It is the word (ver. 3) that prunes the Christian. Affliction is the handle
of the knife, the grindstone that sharpens up the Word; the dresserwhich
removes our softgarments, and lays bare the diseasedflesh, so that the
surgeon's lancetmay getat it. Affliction makes us ready to feel the word, but
the true pruner is the word in the hand of the GreatHusbandman. Sometimes
when you lay stretched upon the bed of sickness,you think more upon the
word than you did before, that is one greatthing. In the next place, you see
more the applicability of that word to yourself. In the third place, the Holy
Spirit makes you feelmore, while you are thus laid aside, the force of the word
than you did before.
3. The object in this pruning is never condemnatory. God chastises, but He
cannot punish those for whom Jesus Christ has been already punished. You
have no right to say, when a man is afflicted, that it is because he has done
wrong; on the contrary, just the branch that is goodfor something gets the
pruning knife. It is because the Lord loves His people that He chastens them.
4. The real reasonis that more fruit may be produced.(1) In quantity. A good
man, who feels the powerof the word pruning him of this and that
superfluity, sets to work to do more for Jesus. Before he was afflictedhe did
not know how to be patient. Before he was poorhe did not know how to be
humble, etc.(2)In variety. One tree canonly produce one kind of fruit usually,
but the Lord's people, the more they are pruned the more they will
produce.(3)In quality. The man may not pray more, but he will pray more
earnestly.
5. What greaterblessing cana man have than to produce much fruit for God?
Betterto serve God much than to become a prince.
III. INVITES MEDITATION.
1. "If the righteous scarcelybe saved, where shall the ungodly and the wicked
appear?"

2. What a mercy it is to the believer that it is pruning with him and not cutting
off!
3. Think how gently the pruning has been done with the most of us up till now,
compared with our barrenness.
4. How earnestlywe ought to seek formore fruit.
5. How concernedshould every one of us be to be efficaciouslyand truly one
with Christ!
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Hard times, God's pruning knife
C. D. Wadsworth, D. D.(Thanksgiving Sermon): —
I. TODAY WE SHOULD BE THANKFUL because —
1. Hard as the times are, they might be worse.
2. The times are not so hard as we deserve.
3. They are not so hard as we represent.
II. WHAT WE CALL HARD TIMES ARE THE BEST FOR US.
1. Goodfor man's physical nature. The frugality and self-controlthey induce
are preciselywhat the athlete practices.
2. Goodfor his intellectual nature. No greatgenius ever daudled into
inspiration.
3. Goodfor his moral nature. They remove the excrescences of —
(1)Covetousness.
(2)Luxury.
(3)Indolence.
III. THE RESULT WILL BE BETTER FRUIT.
1. A new style or higher type of manhood.
2. A higher type of politics. Hard times teach befooledpeople to think, and to
rise above party dictations.
3. A higher type of religion. God has ever developedthe higher Christian life
in times of trial.
IV. AFTER ALL, THE PRUNING KNIFE IS ONLY ONE OF THE
IMPLEMENTS OF CULTURE. Softrain and genialsunshine are the larger
experience of the vine. And so even in hard times our afflictions are not one to
a thousand of our blessings.

(C. D. Wadsworth, D. D.)
Pruning, a reasonfor gratitude
C. D. Wadsworth, D. D.Brambles certainly have a fine time of it, and grow
after their own pleasure. We have seentheir long shoots reaching far and
wide, and no knife has threatenedthem as they luxuriated upon the commons
and waste lands. The poor vine is cut down so closelythat little remains of it
but bare stems. Yet, when clearing time comes, and the brambles are heaped
for their burning, who would not rather be the vine?
(C. D. Wadsworth, D. D.)
Means of fruitfulness
H. Macmillan, D. D.The word translated "purgeth" is kathairo, which
includes all the means that are necessaryto developthe fruitfulness of the
plant, and the removal of all hindrances. It means to purify the ground and
prepare it for sowing, by removing weeds and rubbish — to winnow the corn,
to separate the chaff from the wheat. Its root idea is purity, freedom from all
that is foul, false, useless, ornoxious. It is interesting to notice the close
resemblance that exists betweenthe word kathairo, to purge, and kathaireo,
to destroy. The addition of one letter makes the one word to mean a very
different thing from the other. And so there is a resemblance betweenthe
purging of the fruitful branches and the taking awayof the unfruitful ones. In
the gardenduring spring, the process ofdigging the ground, cutting the roots
and branches, seems purely a process ofdestruction; but in the added beauty
of summer and the richer fruitfulness of autumn, it is seento be a remedial
and constructive process. And so the means which God employs to promote
the fertility of His own people seemso like those which He employs to punish
the wicked, that the righteous are not seldom perplexed. In considering the
means of fruitfulness, let us look at —
I. THE NATURE OF THE SOIL in which believers are planted.
1. Some of the finest grapes are produced on volcanic soil. From the rich red
mould into which lava is disintegratedwhen long exposedto the weather, the
vine draws the juices that form the largestand most generous clusters. The
passionof the soil, as it were, passes into the produce. Palestine, the native
country of the vine, exhibits, for its size, more than any other country,
evidences of extraordinary geologicalconvulsions. Thesefeatures were
paralleled by the historicalrevolutions which were intended to make Israel
the true vine of the Lord. And so it is in the experience of every nation that is
intended to produce much fruit. Africa, with its uniform geologyandits
monotonous history, has done little for mankind compared with Europe,

whose geologyand history are exceedinglyvaried and complicated. It is as
true of individuals as of nations, that because they have no changes, they do
not fearGod or prosper. But God plants His vines amid fiery trials, where
they are exposedto constanttemptations, lava floods of the wrath and malice
of the Adversary and of wickedmen. Since the ground beneath them is
insecure, and liable to constantconvulsive shocks,they are thereby induced to
settheir affections more firmly on things above, and to walk as pilgrims and
strangers on earth.
2. The influence of external circumstances upon objects so plastic as plants is
confessedlyvery powerful, leading often to greatmodifications of form,
structure, and substance. Hence the endless variety of grapes and wines of
different countries. A similar modification in the characterof the growth and
fruit of the Christian is causedby the circumstances in which God's
providence places him. One thing, amid all the changes ofhis circumstances,
the Christian can command if he will — and that is the sunlight of God's
countenance. He does not, however, always availhimself of it. And hence, as
the spice trees in our hot houses are destitute of aromatic taste, because we
cannot supply them with the brilliant direct sunshine of their native skies, so
the Christian, amid all the privileges of the Church, is often destitute of the
rich aromatic fragrance of spiritual joy, because he seeks to make up, by the
heat of forced spiritual emotion originating in himself, for the full, bright,
joyous sunshine that beams from God's face.
3. Under this head may be noticed the discipline of life's daily work as one of
the means of developing Christian fruitfulness. Like the vine, the Christian
requires to be trained along the trellis of formal duties and orderly habits.
4. I may also notice the fact, that God's tenderestvines are often placed in the
most trying circumstances. It seems a strange appointment of nature, that the
growing points of all trees should be their weakestand most delicate parts. So
it is with God's ownpeople. Many of the most delicate and sensitive of them
have to bear the full brunt of life's storms. Tender women have often to
withstand the severestshocksofcircumstances. The soresttrials often meet
the Christian at the beginning of his course. He puts forth the tenderest
growths of his nature often into the biting air of doubt, and fear, and
despondency. But it is goodthus to bear the yoke in our youth. The elasticity
and hopefulness of the young Christian canovercome trials which would
crush the more agedand less buoyant. And the very patience and tenderness
of those sensitive ones, who have to bear greaterhardships and evils, disarm
these evils of their bitterness, and turn them to profitable uses.

II. PRUNING IS ONE OF THE MOST COMMON METHODSBYWHICH
INCREASED FRUITFULNESS IS PRODUCED.No plant requires more
pruning than the vine. So bountiful is its sap, so vigorous its vital force, that
we are amazed at the abundance of superfluous growth which it annually
produces. In order to adapt it to our conditions of cultivation we must
systematicallycripple and restrict it in every part.
1. The head, or leading shoots, are carefully broken off; and the long,
luxuriant, lateral shoots are cut back to a few joints.
2. But besides the pruning of the suckers onthe branch the branch itself is
sometimes pruned. In almost every branch, owing to deficiency of light and
heat, or overcrowding, many of the buds that are put forth every year become
dormant. Some of these torpid buds retain a sufficient amount of vitality to
carry them forward through the annually deposited layers of woodand bark;
so that they still continue to maintain their position visibly, year after year, on
the outside of the bark. In most instances, however, they are too feeble to keep
pace with the onward growth of the branch; and, in that case, they fall behind,
necessarilysink below the surface, and become buried beneath succeeding
annual deposits of woodand bark. The branch, instead of developing them,
employs the sapwhich ought to have gone for that purpose, into growing fresh
shoots. But the gardener comes, and with his sharp pruning knife lops off
these useless suckers;and the consequence is, that in a little while the sap goes
back to the dormant buds and stimulates their slumbering vitality. And so
God prunes every branch in the True Vine for two reasons;first, in order to
remove rank and useless qualities;and, secondly, to develop latent graces. In
no Christian is there an harmonious spiritual growth, a perfect expansion
from a perfect germ in childhood. On the contrary, growth in grace in us is
always unsymmetrical. Solid and valuable qualities are united with weak,
worthless ones;gracesthat charm by their beauty lie side by side with defects
that repel by their deformity. Some graces,also, are dormant in the soul,
repressedby unfavourable circumstances ofcontinued prosperity, or starved
by the over-development of other graces. Some besetting sins, suchas
irritability, covetousness, worldliness,pride, impatience, are allowedto grow
up and exhaust in their noxious growth the life of the soul. Now, to repress the
evil and stimulate the goodqualities of His people, God subjects them to the
pruning of His providence. But, the pruning of God's providence would be
very unsatisfactorydid it only lop off noxious qualities, mortify easily
besetting sins. Such injurious growths may be repressedby affliction, but
unless the discipline develops the opposite goodqualities, they will spring up
anew, and make matters worse than before. Spiritual graces must be

developed in their room. In order to getrid of worldly mindedness,
spirituality of mind must be cultivated; covetousnesswill only yield to a larger
experience of the Love that for our sakesbecame poor:angerwill only be
extirpated by meekness,and pride by humility.
3. But we must be guarded againstthe idea that affliction of itself can develop
the fruitfulness of the Christian life. We find that in the fruit tree the pruning
is only of use when there are latent or open buds to develop. And so, unless we
have Christian life and Christian capabilities, affliction, so far from doing us
good, will only harden and injure us. But, while affliction cannot impart
spiritual life, there are instances in which God uses it to quicken the soul dead
in trespassesand sins. And here, too, we find an analogyin nature. The buds
of plants almostalways grow in the axil — the vacant angle betweenthe leaf
and the stem, where the hard, resisting bark which everywhere else invests the
surface of the plant, is more easilypenetrated, and allows the growing tissues
to expand more easily. The axil is, so to speak, the joint in the armour of the
stem. Now, "a wound is virtually an axil, for the continuity of the surface is
there broken, and consequently, the resistance ofthe external investiture
diminished." Now, we all invest ourselves with a strong, resisting envelope of
pride, worldliness and carelessness. Ourproperty, our friends, our reputation,
our comfort, all form a kind of outer crust of selfishness,whichprevents our
spiritual growth. But God removes our property or our friends, blights our
reputation, destroys our carnal ease,and by the wound thus made in our
selfishlife an axil is formed, from whence springs up the bud of a new and
holier growth.
4. There is one process ofunusual severity which the gardenerhas recourse to
in cases ofobstinate sterility. The barren branch is girdled or ringed — that
is, a narrow strip of its bark is removed all round the branch. The juices
elaboratedby the leaves are arrestedin their downward course, and
accumulatedin the part above the ring, which is thus enabled to produce fruit
abundantly; while the shoots that appear below the ring, being fed only by the
crude ascending sap, do not bear flowers, but push forth into leafy branches.
The prophet Joelsays, "He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree."
Many Christians are ringed to prevent the earthward tendencies oftheir
souls, and enable them to accumulate and concentrate all the heavenly
influences which they receive in bringing forth more fruit. Their present life is
separatedfrom their pastby some terrible crisis of suffering, which has
altered everything to their view, which has been in itself a transformation, and
has accomplishedin a day, in an hour, in a moment, what else is effectedonly
by the gradual process ofyears. The lot that is thus halved may be more

useful than in its full and joyful completeness.Ceasing to draw its
nourishment from broken cisterns of earthly love, the lonely branch,
separatedfrom its happy past, depends more upon the unfailing clue and
sunshine of heavenly love.
5. Sometimes eventhe roots of the vine require to be dug about and cut short.
There is a correspondencebetweenthe horizontal extensionof the branches in
the air and the lateral spreading of the roots in the earth. For this reasonthe
roots require pruning no less than the branches. If they are allowedto develop
too luxuriantly, the branches will keeppace with them, only they will be
barren. We are prone to root ourselves too firmly in the rich soil of our
circumstances, to spreadour roots far and wide in searchofwhat shall
minister to our love of ease and pleasure. But God digs about us. Our
circumstances crumble awayabout our roots;the things and the persons in
which we trusted prove as unstable as a sand heap on a slope. But, from roots
bare and exposed, or cut off and circumscribed by uncongenialsoil, we should
seek to develop a higher beauty and richness of character.
6. The leaves also need sometimes to be takenaway, as superabundant foliage
would shade the fruit and prevent the sunshine from getting accessto it to
ripen it. So the fruit of the Christian is sometimes prevented from ripening or
filling out properly by the superabundance of the leaves of profession. There
may be more professionthan practice, more of the rustling foliage than of the
silent fruit. The most common fault of believers is letting their professionof
the Christian life run ahead of their experience. Notmore necessaryare the
leaves of a natural tree to the production of the fruit, than the professionof a
Christian is to the formation of the Christian character. But God, by some
appropriate discipline, regulates what leaves ofprofessionshould be stripped
off and what leaves should remain.
7. Many of the tendrils of the vine require to be nipped off, in order that no
sap may be wasted, or diverted from the fruit. If left to itself, the vine would
put forth a tendril at every alternate joint; for it would seek to climb to the
top of the highest tree. In like manner, it is necessarythat the excessive
upward tendency of some Christians should he restricted, in order that the
common duties, and the homely concerns of ordinary life — which in their
own sphere are equally important — may not be neglected.
8. The fruit itself must be thinned. The gardener prunes the clusterof grapes
when young and tender, in order that the berries which are allowedto remain
may be larger and finer. In the Christian life there must be concentrationof
effort, conservationofforce. Much moral energy is spent without effecton a

multiplicity of objects, which, if husbanded and focussedon a few of the most
important, would lead to far greaterresults.
9. It has been observedthat the hues of the sunbeam which the growing plant
does not reflectat one time are absorbed, like a stream running underground
for a while, and reappearin some after part. So is it with God's discipline of
His people. Much of it may seem to be void and lost — to make no adequate
return; but in some part or other of the life the effectof it is seen. If it fails to
manifest itself in the leaf, it comes out in the blossomor fruit.
10. It may happen, however, that the purging, whose various forms and
relations I have thus considered, may be here, and the fruition in eternity.
Christians are placed in an unfavourable climate. Tropical by nature, they
have been carried, like a wind-wafted seed, into a temperate zone, and have
striven in vain to grow and floweramong the hardy plants around them. But
it is a comforting thought, that what bears about it here the marks of
incompleteness, andto our eyes the appearance offailure, belongs essentially
to some vaster whole.
III. ANOTHER METHOD OF PURGING THE BRANCHIS FREEING IT
FROM ITS ENEMIES. The natural vine, owing to its rich productiveness, is
peculiarly exposedto the attacks ofnumerous foes which prey upon it.
1. A species ofvegetable parasite not unfrequently assails it, called the
"dodder." This strange plant is a mere mass of elastic, pale red, knotted
threads, which shootout in all directions over the vine. It springs originally
from the ground, and if it finds no living plant near on which to graft itself, it
withers and dies; but if there be a vine or any other useful plant within its
reach, it surrounds the stem in a very little time, and henceforth lives on the
fostering plant by its suckers only, the original root in the ground becoming
dried up. The dodder is exceedinglyinjurious to the plants it attacks,
depriving them of their nourishment, and strangling them in its folds. Can we
imagine a more striking natural emblem of the law of sin and death with
which the believer has to contend, and from which he longs for deliverance?
We canonly hope to prevent the dodder growing and spreading by
perpetually breaking and dividing its stalks before they have time to fruit;
and we can only hope to keepdown the remains of corruption within us by
incessanteffort, watchfulness, and prayer; not allowing them to develop into
fruit and seed. How blessedwill be the deliverance when this terrible despoiler
of our peace and usefulness is finally and completely removed from us, when
we are savedforever from the powerand presence ofthat sin from whose
guilt the blood of Christ has freed us!

2. Every one has heard of the terrible grape mildew which, on its first
appearance, utterly destroyed the vineyards in many parts of the world, and
still annually reappears to levy its tax upon the vine grower. In consists ofa
fungus, whose growthspreads a white, downy mould over the surface of the
grape, checking its development, and converting its pulp into a sour and
watery mass of decay. But it does no harm unless the conditions of its
germination exists — which are cold, wet seasons, withlittle sunshine — in
which case it starts into life, and grows with inconceivable rapidity, spreading
ruin on every side. To a species ofmoral mildew the fruit of the Christian is
also exposed. In cold seasons,whenclouds of unbelief rise up betweenthe soul
and the Sun of Righteousness,intercepting His light, this mildew is peculiarly
destructive. It is a very solemnthought, that the spiritual atmosphere is full of
the devices of the Prince of the power of the air — that the existence of
another world of evil beyond our own world, makes allremissness on our part
most dangerous.
3. In this country, the greatestpestof the vinery is the little red spider, whose
movements over the leaves and fruit are exceedinglynimble, and which makes
up by its vast numbers for its individual weakness. It punctures the fruit, sips
its juice, and thus injures its appearance and quality. In the East, the land of
the vine, the specialfoe of the vineyard is the fox. "Take us the foxes, the little
foxes, that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes" — or small
grapes just out of blossom— says the beautiful Song of Solomon. These are
fitting symbols of some weakness orinfirmity of believers — some sin of
temper or tongue — which, although it may not endangertheir safety, will,
nevertheless, greatlymar their peace. Peevishness,irritability, etc., may seem
so small and trifling as to be hardly entitled to be calledsins at all. They may
be extenuated and explained away, but they are in reality red spiders — little
foxes, that spoil the tender grapes of the soul.
4. There is a disease called"rust," which makes its appearance onthe berries
of the vine a few days after they are out. It is supposed to be causedby
handling the berries while thinning them. Our vines have indeed tender
grapes. The beauty of holiness is easilyblurred: self-consciousness rusts it;
affectationbrushes off the fine edge — the delicate beauty of the various
graces.
5. Another disease knownto gardeners is "shanking," whichmakes its
appearance just as the grapes are changing from the acid to the saccharine
state, and arrests the transformation at once;the berry remaining perfectly
acid, and at length shrivelling up. It begins in the decay of the little stem or
shank of the berry, and is supposedto be causedby the roots of the vine

descending into a cold, wet subsoil. How often, alas, is it true of the believer,
that his fruit is shanked, remaining sour when it should become sweetand
palatable!
(H. Macmillan, D. D.)
Spiritual pruning
J. Viney.What is pruning? Whateverit be, two things are observable. It is
effectedby the husbandman, and applied to each. It is a pleasantthought that
all the discipline is from the hand of our Father. There may indeed by which
we are exercisedbe subordinate instruments, the "wicked" being God's
"sword," but it is still "the Lord's doing." A work so important as the
spiritual culture of His people He commits wholly to none. "He pruneth," nor
are any exempt. "Everybranch" is the subject of pruning. As all need, so all
have, discipline. In the deepesttrial there has nothing happened to you but
what is "common to man." And why this? For greaterfruitfulness. Not
"willingly," for wantonness, forpleasure, for any benefit the husbandman
secures, but for fruit. The subject, then, is, Fruit as the result of affliction.
Affliction! What a scene does this word open to view. It is well to bear in mind
that it is confined to earth. There are whole races ofbeings who
experimentally know not the meaning of the word, who never felt a pain,
never breathed a sigh, never wept a tear; others to whom it is a thing of the
past. How truthful in this, as in all other respects, is the Bible. How large a
portion of the Scriptures is occupied with scenesand truths bearing on
affliction! The terms by which it designates it, how various — "adversity,"
"correction,""chastisement," "calamity," "distress,""grief,""judgment,"
"stripes," "smiting," "trouble," "visitation," are some of the literal
expressions;while the figures of "fire," "water," the "rod," the "yoke,"
"gall," "wormwood," "roughwind," "sackcloth,""ashes,"and many others,
are significantly employed as its symbols. You know, too, how deeply all the
histories of the Bible are tinged by it: Job in the ashes, Jacobmourning his
children, Josephin the pit, Moses in the desert, David in the wilderness, the
youths in the furnace, Danielin the den — what are all these familiar tales of
life, but scenes ofaffliction, showing how it was experiencedand borne? It is
not of affliction, however, whether in fact or description, we have now to
think, but of its fruit, the "more fruit," which it is designed to produce, the
"peaceable fruit" which "afterward" it yields.
1. Affliction deepens on the mind a sense of the reality of eternal things. It is
said that after an earthquake, men tread more warily. The foundations having
been shaken, a sense of insecurity is felt, which produces solemn impression.

2. Another valuable result of affliction is increasedsense ofthe value of
religion. When Israelpassedthrough the desert they learnt, as they never
otherwise could have done, the worth of many things — water, manna,
guidance. As the dove beaten by the tempest to the sheltering ark, as the
tosseddisciples to the mighty One who walkedon the billows, we repair to
Christ. Certain colours require certainlights to show them. There are views of
Christ as a Saviour, a Friend, a High Priest, an Example, which only the
shadow of affliction could enable us to discern, but which, when once seen,
remain foreverupon the vision of the soul. So with God's Word. To enjoy
plaintive music or a minor key, a certainstate of mind is requisite; and who
but one in trial can fully enter into the deep bass of sorrow and wailing in the
Lamentations or the Psalms. Prayeris another exercise ofwhich affliction
teaches the value. "I will go and return unto My place till they seek My face,
in their affliction they will seek Me early."
3. Another valuable effectof affliction is the cultivation and growthof the
passive virtues. The importance and value of these we are apt to overlook.
Constitutionally active, we are all prone to honour the more stirring graces
rather than the gentler ones. By far the largerproportion are passive virtues.
What are these? Patience,submission, acquiescence. To take awaywilfulness,
waywardness, self-determination, and suchlike natural excrescences, andthus
secure the opposite growth, He prunes even the fruitful branch.
4. Another fruit of affliction is increasing fellowship with Christ. There are
communications for which affliction is indispensable, and which the Saviour
reserves for this season. To see the stars we require darkness. Certainflowers
open only at night. The sweetestsong is heard in the dusk. The most beautiful
effectof colour requires a camera obscura, a darkened chamber. It is even
thus with affliction. Would Abraham have heard the angelhad it not been for
the outstretchedknife? And it is worth while to be afflicted to have such fruit
as this. Is it necessaryto pass through spiritual darkness and desertionin
order to know the unchanging love of Christ.
5. Another result of sanctified affliction is increaseddesire for heaven. Such
are some of the fruits of sanctifiedaffliction. Some, not all. Eachaffliction
comes with its specialmessage,as wellas its generalone. "Every branch" has
its own particular deformities, and these the pruning knife first cuts. It may
be, too, that affliction sometimes comes speciallywith reference to others — is
rather relative than personal. Trial may be vicarious. The child suffers for the
parent, the sisterfor the brother, the minister for the people. Learn, then, to
estimate affliction aright. Seek earnestlyto getthe benefit of affliction. Look
through affliction to that which is beyond.

(J. Viney.)
COMMENTARIES
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(2)Everybranch in me that
beareth not fruit he takethaway.—The two chief duties of the vine-dresser,
cutting off all fruitless tendrils, and cleansing those that bear fruit, supply
illustrations of the training of human souls by the Divine Husbandman. We
are not to interpret these words, as they frequently have been interpreted, of
the unbelieving world, or of the Jews;but of Christians in name, who claim to
be branches of the true vine. These the Husbandman watcheth day by day; He
knoweththem, and readeth the inner realities of their lives, and every one that
is fruitless He takethaway.
And every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it.—Better, he cleansethit.
(Comp. Hebrews 1:3.) This means in the natural vine the cutting off of shoots
which run to waste, and the removal of every excrescencewhichhinders the
growth of the branch. It means in the spiritual training the checking of
natural impulses and affections, and the removal of everything, even though it
be by a pang sharp as the edge of the pruner’s knife, which can misdirect or
weakenthe energy of the spiritual life, and thus diminish its fruitfulness. A
vine which has been pruned—here a tendril cut off, and there one bent
back—here a shootthat seemedof fairest promise to the unskilled eye
unsparingly severedby the vine-dresser, who sees it is worthless—herea
branch, in itself good, made to yield its place to one that is better, and itself
trained to fill another place—suchis the familiar picture of the natural vine—
such, also, to a wisdom higher than ours, is the picture of human life.
BensonCommentaryHYPERLINK "/john/15-2.htm"John15:2. Every branch
in me — True believers, who by faith have an interest in, and union with
Christ, are the branches of the vine here spokenof. Though, as to the place of
their abode, their religious sentiments in lessermatters, and their modes of
worship, they may be distant from eachother, yet they meet in Christ, their
root and stock, andthe centre of their unity. That beareth not fruit —
Answerable to his advantages, fruit suitable to the relation in which he stands
to me, and the union which by faith he has had with me: he whose faith in me
and my gospeldoes not work or continue to work by love, and whose love does
not continue to manifest itself by his obedience;he who does not bring forth,
with constancyand perseverance, the internal and external fruits of the Spirit,
namely, all goodness, righteousness,and truth, Ephesians 5:9; he taketh away

— Such unfruitful branches the vine-dressercuts off in his righteous
judgment, and entirely separatesthem from me, depriving them of all the
advantages forfruitfulness, which they derived, or might have derived, from
their connectionwith me, and their receptionof my truth and grace. And
every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it — Or rather, pruneth it, cuts
off from it every thing superfluous, and removes all the hinderances of its
fruitfulness. Thus God, in the course of his providence, by various sufferings
in the minds, bodies, families, circumstances,and situations of his people, and
by his word, and their faith therein, and obedience thereto, (1 Peter1:22;) and
by the influence of his Spirit, mortifies and destroys what is still corrupt in
their affections and dispositions, with what remains in them of the carnal
mind, and prevents their bearing fruit to perfection. That it may bring forth
more fruit — Than it brought forth before, to God’s greaterglory, the greater
benefit of mankind, and their own greaterprogress in holiness here, and a
fuller reward of felicity and glory hereafter. Dr. Campbell reads the verse,
Every barren branch in me he loppeth off: every fruitful branch he cleaneth,
by pruning, to render it more fruitful: remarking upon it as follows:“Critics
have observeda verbal allusion or paronomasia in this verse. To the barren
branch the word αιρει, [he loppeth off,] is applied; to the fruitful, καθαιρει,
[he cleanethby pruning.] It is not always possible in a versionto preserve
figures which depend entirely on the sound, or on the etymology of the words,
though sometimes they are not without emphasis. This verse and the following
afford a remarkable instance of this trope. As our Lord himself is here
representedby the vine, his disciples are representedby the branches. The
mention of the method which the dressertakes with the fruitful branches, in
order to render them more fruitful, and which he expresses by the word
καθαιρει, leads him to take notice of the state wherein the apostles, the
principal branches, were at that time: ηδη υμεις καθαροι,&c., now are ye
clean, &c. It is hardly possible not to considerthe καθαιρει, applied to the
branches, as giving occasionto this remark, which immediately follows it.
Now, when the train of the thoughts arises in any degree from verbal
allusions, it is of some consequence to preserve them, where it can be easily
effectedin a translation. It is for this reasonthat I have translatedthe word
καθαιρει by a circumlocution, and said cleanethby pruning. It is evident, that
καθαιρει, in this application, means pruneth. But to have saidin English,
simply, pruneth, would have been to throw awaythe allusion, and make the
thoughts appear more abrupt in the versionthan they do in the original; and
to have said cleaneth, without adding any explanation, would have been
obscure, or rather improper.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary15:1-8 Jesus Christis the Vine, the
true Vine. The union of the human and Divine natures, and the fulness of the
Spirit that is in him, resemble the root of the vine made fruitful by the
moisture from a rich soil. Believers are branches of this Vine. The root is
unseen, and our life is hid with Christ; the root bears the tree, diffuses sap to
it, and in Christ are all supports and supplies. The branches of the vine are
many, yet, meeting in the root, are all but one vine; thus all true Christians,
though in place and opinion distant from eachother, meet in Christ. Believers,
like the branches of the vine, are weak, andunable to stand but as they are
borne up. The Father is the Husbandman. Neverwas any husbandman so
wise, so watchful, about his vineyard, as God is about his church, which
therefore must prosper. We must be fruitful. From a vine we look for grapes,
and from a Christian we look for a Christian temper, disposition, and life. We
must honour God, and do good;this is bearing fruit. The unfruitful are taken
away. And even fruitful branches need pruning; for the best have notions,
passions, and humours, that require to be takenaway, which Christ has
promised to forward the sanctificationof believers, they will be thankful, for
them. The word of Christ is spokento all believers;and there is a cleansing
virtue in that word, as it works grace,and works out corruption. And the
more fruit we bring forth, the more we abound in what is good, the more our
Lord is glorified. In order to fruitfulness, we must abide in Christ, must have
union with him by faith. It is the greatconcernof all Christ's disciples,
constantly to keepup dependence upon Christ, and communion with him.
True Christians find by experience, that any interruption in the exercise of
their faith, causes holyaffections to decline, their corruptions to revive, and
their comforts to droop. Those who abide not in Christ, though they may
flourish for awhile in outward profession, yet come to nothing. The fire is the
fittest place for withered branches; they are goodfor nothing else. Let us seek
to live more simply on the fulness of Christ, and to grow more fruitful in every
goodword and work, so may our joy in Him and in his salvationbe full.
Barnes'Notes on the BibleEvery branch in me - Everyone that is a true
followerof me, that is united to me by faith, and that truly derives grace and
strength from me, as the branch does from the vine. The word "branch"
includes all the boughs, and the smallesttendrils that shoot out from the
parent stalk. Jesus here says that he sustains the same relation to his disciples
that a parent stalk does to the branches; but this does not denote any physical
or incomprehensible union. It is a union formed by believing on him; resulting
from our feeling our dependence on him and our need of him; from
embracing him as our Saviour, Redeemer, and Friend. We become united to

him in all our interests, and have common feelings, commondesires, and a
common destiny with him. We seek the same objects, are willing to encounter
the same trials, contempt, persecution, and want, and are desirous that his
God shall be ours, and his eternal abode ours. It is a union of friendship, of
love, and of dependence; a union of weaknesswith strength; of imperfection
with perfection; of a dying nature with a living Saviour; of a lost sinner with
an unchanging Friend and Redeemer. It is the most tender and interesting of
all relations, but not more mysterious or more physical than the union of
parent and child, of husband and wife Ephesians 5:23, or friend and friend.
That beareth not fruit - As the vinedresserwill remove all branches that are
dead or that bear no fruit, so will God take from his church all professed
Christians who give no evidence by their lives that they are truly united to the
Lord Jesus. He here refers to such casesas that of Judas, the apostatizing
disciples, and all false and merely nominal Christians (Dr. Adam Clarke).
He taketh away- The vine-dressercuts it off. God removes such in various
ways:
1. by the discipline of the church.
2. by suffering them to fall into temptation.
3. by persecutionand tribulation, by the deceitfulness of riches, and by the
cares ofthe world Matthew 13:21-22;by suffering the man to be placedin
such circumstances as Judas, Achan, and Ananias were such as to show what
they were, to bring their characters fairly out, and to let it be seenthat they
had no true love to God.
4. by death, for Godhas power thus at any moment to remove unprofitable
branches from the church.
Every branch that beareth fruit - That is, all true Christians, for all such bear
fruit. To bear fruit is to show by our lives that we are under the influence of
the religionof Christ, and that that religion produces in us its appropriate
effects, Galatians 5:22-23.Notes,Matthew 7:16-20. It is also to live so as to be
useful to others, As a vineyard is worthless unless it bears fruit that may
promote the happiness or subsistence ofman, so the Christian principle would
be worthless unless Christians should live so that others may be made holy
and happy by their example and labors, and so that the world may be brought
to the cross ofthe Saviour.
He purgeth it - Or rather he prunes it, or cleanses it by pruning. There is a use
of words here - a paronomasia - in the original which cannot be retained in
the translation. It may be imperfectly seenby retaining the Greek words

"Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he takethaway αἴρει airei; every
branch that bearethfruit, he purgeth it καθαίρει kathairei;now ye are clean
καθαροί katharoi,"etc. The same Greek word in different forms is still
retained. God purifies all true Christians so that they may be more useful. He
takes awaythat which hindered their usefulness;teaches them; quickens
them; revives them; makes them more pure in motive and in life. This he does
by the regular influences of his Spirit in sanctifying them, purifying their
motives, teaching them the beauty of holiness, and inducing them to devote
themselves more to him. He does it by taking awaywhat opposes their
usefulness, howevermuch they may be attachedto it, or howeverpainful to
part with it; as a vine-dresser will often feel himself compelledto lop off a
branch that is large, apparently thrifty, and handsome, but which bears no
fruit, and which shades or injures those which do. So God often takes away
the property of his people, their children, or other idols. He removes the
objects which bind their affections, and which render them inactive. He takes
awaythe things around man, as he did the valued gourds of JonahJon 4:5-11,
so that he may feel his dependence, and live more to the honor of God, and
bring forth more proof of humble and active piety.
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary2. Every branch in me that
beareth not fruit … every branch that bearethfruit—As in a fruit tree, some
branches may be fruitful, others quite barren, according as there is a vital
connectionbetweenthe branch and the stock, or no vital connection;so the
disciples of Christ may be spiritually fruitful or the reverse, according as they
are vitally and spiritually connectedwith Christ, or but externally and
mechanicallyattached to Him. The fruitless He "takethaway" (see on
[1857]Joh15:6); the fruitful He "purgeth" (cleanseth, pruneth)—stripping it,
as the husbandman does, of what is rank (Mr 4:19), "that it may bring forth
more fruit"; a process oftenpainful, but no less needful and beneficial than in
the natural husbandry.
Matthew Poole's Commentary And concerning his Father’s care, he tells us,
that as the goodvine dressercutteth off those branches in the vine which
bring forth no fruit, so his Father will take awaysuch branches in him as
bring forth no fruit. But here ariseth a question, viz. Whether, or how, any
can be branches in Christ, and yet bring forth no fruit?
Answer.
1. Some say, there is no need of translating the words so, which may as well be
translated, Every branch not bringing forth fruit in me. Indeed no true fruit

can be brought forth but in Christ; but yet much that looks like fruit, much
that men may callfruit, may be brought forth without any true spiritual
union with Christ. All acts of moral discipline, or any acts of formal
professionin religion, may be brought forth without any true root and
foundation in Christ; and God will in the end discoverand cut off those who
bring forth no other fruit. But:
2. Men may be said to be branches in him, by a sacramentalimplantation,
being baptized into him, Romans 6:3; and are hereby members of the visible
church, and make a visible professionof adhering to him, with respectto their
own goodopinion and persuasions ofthemselves, though they be not so in
respectof any true, spiritual, and real implantation. But those who in the last
sense are not in him, bring forth no fruit unto perfection, and God will cut
them off, either by withdrawing his restraining grace, andgiving them up to
strong delusions to believe lies; or to a reprobate mind, and vile lusts and
affections;or by taking awaytheir gifts; or some wayor other, so as they shall
never have an eternalcommunion with God in glory. But if any man bringeth
forth true spiritual fruit in Christ, him God the Fatherwill purge, by the
sprinkling of Christ’s blood yet further upon his conscience, Hebrews 10:22;
and by his Holy Spirit working on him like fire, to purge awayhis dross, and
like water, to purge awayhis filth; and by his word, 1 Peter1:22, by faith,
Acts 15:9, by crossesandtrials. Isaiah 1:25 Isaiah27:9; that he may be more
fruitful in works of holiness and righteousness.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleEvery branch in me that bearethnot
fruit,.... There are two sorts of branches in Christ the vine; the one sort are
such who have only an historical faith in him, believe but for a time, and are
removed; they are such who only profess to believe in him, as Simon Magus
did; are in him by professiononly; they submit to outward ordinances,
become church members, and so are reckonedto be in Christ, being in a
church state, as the churches of Judea and Thessalonica,and others, are said,
in general, to he in Christ; though it is not to be thought that every individual
person in these churches were truly and savingly in him. These branches are
unfruitful ones;what fruit they seemedto have, withers away, and proves not
to be genuine fruit; what fruit they bring forth is to themselves, and not to the
glory of God, being none of the fruits of his Spirit and grace:and such
branches the husbandman
taketh away;removes them from that sort of being which they had in Christ.
By some means or another he discovers them to the saints to be what they are;
sometimes he suffers persecutionto arise because ofthe word, and these men

are quickly offended, and depart of their own accord;or they fall into
erroneous principles, and setup for themselves, and separate from the
churches of Christ; or they become guilty of scandalous enormities, and so are
removed from their fellowship by excommunication; or if neither of these
should be the case,but these tares should grow togetherwith the wheat till the
harvest, the angels will be sentforth, who will gatherout of the kingdom of
God all that offend and do iniquity, and castthem into a furnace of fire, as
branches withered, and fit to be burnt.
And every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth
more fruit. These are the other sort of branches, who are truly and savingly in
Christ; such as are rootedin him; to whom he is the greenfir tree, from whom
all their fruit is found; who are filled by him with all the fruits of his Spirit,
grace, and righteousness.These are purged or pruned, chiefly by afflictions
and temptations, which are as needful for their growth and fruitfulness, as the
pruning and cutting of the vines are for theirs; and though these are
sometimes sharp, and never joyous, but grievous, yet they are attended with
the peaceable fruits of righteousness, and so the end of bringing forth more
fruit is answered;for it is not enough that a believer exercise grace, and
perform goodworks for the present, but these must remain; or he must be
constantherein, and still bring forth fruit, and add one virtue to another, that
it may appear he is not barren and unfruitful in the knowledge ofChrist, in
whom he is implanted. These different acts of the vinedresser"taking away"
some branches, and "purging" others, are expressedby the Misnic doctors (p)
by and The former, the commentators (q) say, signifies to cut off the branches
that are withered and perished, and are goodfor nothing; and the latter
signifies the pruning of the vine when it has a superfluity of branches, or these
extend themselves too far; when some are left, and others takenoff.
(p) Misn. Sheviith, c, 2. sect. 3.((q) Maimon. & Bartenora in ib.
Geneva Study BibleEvery branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away:
and every branch that bearethfruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth
more fruit.
EXEGETICAL(ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Meyer's NT CommentaryHYPERLINK "/john/15-2.htm"John15:2. As on the
natural vine there are fruitful and unfruitful branches (i.e. tendrils, Plat. Rep.
p. 353 A; Pollux, vii. 145), so there are in the fellowship of Christ such as
evince their faith by deed as by faith’s fruit, and those amongstwhom this is
not the case.

The latter, who are not, with Hengstenberg, to be taken for the unbelieving
Jews (as is already clearfrom ἐν ἐμοί and from John 15:5), but for the lip-
Christians and those who sayLord! Lord! (comp. those who believe without
love, 1 Corinthians 13), God separatesfrom the fellowshipof Christ, which act
is conceivedfrom the point of view of divine retribution (comp. the thing,
according to another figure, John 8:35); the former He causes to experience
His purging influence, in order that their life of faith may increase in moral
practicalmanifestation and efficiency. This purification is effectedby means
of temptations and sufferings, not solely, but by other things along with these.
πᾶν κλῆμα ἐν ἐμοί] Nominat. absol. as in John 1:12, John 6:39, John 17:2,
with weighty emphasis.
αἴρει] takes it awaywith the pruning-knife. It forms with καθαίρει a “suavis
rhythmus,” Bengel.
τὸ καρπ. φέρ.] which bears fruit; but previously μή φέρ.: if it does not bear.
καθαίρ.]He cleanses, prunes. Figure of the moral καθαρισμός,—continually
necessaryevenfor the approved Christian,—through the working of divine
grace, John13:10.
For a political view of the community under the figure of the vine, see in
Aesch. adv. Ctesiph. 166;Beck.:ἀμπελουργοῦσί τινες τὴν πόλιν,
ἀνατετμήκασί τινες τὰ κλήματα τὰ τοῦ δήμου.
Expositor's Greek TestamentHYPERLINK"/john/15-2.htm"John15:2. The
function of the vinedresseris at once described: πᾶν κλῆμα … φέρῃ. κλῆμα, or
more fully as in Xen., Oecon., xix. 8, κλῆμα ἀμπέλου, is the shootof the vine
which is annually put forth. It is from κλάω, “I break,” as also is κλάδος, but
Wetsteinquotes Pollux to show that κλάδος was appropriated to the shoots of
the olive, while κλῆμα signified a vine-shoot. Of these shoots there are two
kinds, the fruitless, which the vine-dresserαἴρει: “Inutilesque falce ramos
amputans,” Hor. Epod., ii. 13; the fruitful, which He καθαίρει [“suavis
rhythmus,” Bengel]. The full meaning of αἴρει is describedin John 15:6 :
καθαίρει here denotes especiallythe pruning requisite for concentrating the
vigour of the tree on the one object, ἵνα πλείονα καρπὸνφέρῃ, that it may
continually surpass itself, and yield richer and richer results. The vine-dresser
spares no pains and no material on his plants, but all for the sake offruit. [Cf.

Cicero, De Senec., xv. 53.] The use of καθαίρει was probably determined by
the καθαροί of John 15:3.
Cambridge Bible for Schools andColleges2. Everybranch] The word for
‘branch’ in these six verses occurs here only in N.T., and in classicalGreekis
speciallyused of the vine. The word used in the other Gospels (Matthew
13:32;Matthew 21:8; Matthew 24:32; Mark 4:32; Mark 13:28; Luke 13:9),
and in Romans 11:16-21, is of the same origin (from ‘to break’) but of more
generalmeaning,—the smaller branch of any tree. So that the very word used,
independently of the context, fixes the meaning of the allegory. It is every
vine-branch, i.e. every one who is by origin a Christian. If they continue such
by origin only, and give forth no fruit, they are cut off. The allegorytakes no
accountof the branches of other trees: neither Jews nor heathen are included.
Christ would not have calledthem branches ‘in Me.’
he taketh away]Literally, He takethit away; in both clauses we have a
nominativus pendens.
he purgeth it] Better, He cleansethit, in order to bring out the connexion with
‘ye are clean’(John 15:3). The Greek words rendered ‘purgeth’ and ‘clean’
are from the same root. There is also a similarity of sound betweenthe Greek
words for ‘taketh away’and ‘cleanseth,’like ‘bear and forbear’ in English
(airei and kathairei). This may be intentional, but it cannotbe reproduced in
translation. By cleansing is meant freeing from excrescencesand useless
shoots which are a drain on the branch for nothing. The eleven were now to
be cleansedby suffering.
bring forth] Better, as before, bear.
Bengel's GnomenHYPERLINK"/john/15-2.htm"John15:2. Κλῆμα, branch)
A most delightful simile, Romans 6:5; Romans 11:17-18;1 Corinthians 3:6-
7.—αἴρει·καθαίρει)A sweetrhythm (similarity of sounds), even though
καθαίρω does not come, as if it were καταίρω, from αἴρω. Καθαίρω is an
expressionθεία καὶ σεμνὴ, of a divine and solemn character, among the
ancients, as Eustathius observes. Ourheavenly Fatherrequires that all things
should be ‘clean’ (καθαρὰ)and ‘fruit-bearing.’ Cleanness and fruitfulness
mutually assistone another.—τὸ)Emphatic. The other clause, viz. μὴ φέρον,
has no article, as this has, πᾶν τὸ καρπὸνφέρον.[357]—πλείονα more
abundant) Those excrescences whichare redundant are takenawayby
internal and external affliction: by those very means the fruit is increased.
[But if thou shouldestbe unwilling that the things which are bad should be

takenawayfrom thee, it will become necessarythat thou thyself shouldestbe
takenaway.—V. g.]
[357]“Every non-fruit-bearing branch; every branch which beareth fruit—
every such branch as that which beareth fruit.”—E. and T.
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 2. - Every branch in me; i.e. this unity of life
betweenme and mine is graciouslyhandled by the Father - my Father! The
branches are of two kinds - unfruitful and fruitful. The indefinite statement,
in nominative absolute, calls greatattention to it. "Every branch in me that
beareth no fruit." Then it is possible to come into this organic relationwith
the true Vine, to be in it and to be a part of it, and to bring forth no fruit. If it
were not for Ver. 5 we might say that these branches were nations, customs,
institutions, and the like; but the context forbids it. The relation to him must
therefore be one that is insufficient to secure life, or fruit, or continuance.
Baptized, communicating, professing, partially believing Christians there may
be in abundance, who, though in him, yet cannotcontinue in him. (See stony
ground, thorny ground, and unripe ears, of the parable of the sower;and the
bad fish caughtin the net (Matthew 13; 1 John 2:19, etc.). He takethaway(cf.
John the Baptist: "Everytree that bringeth not forth goodfruit is hewn
down," Matthew 3:10; and Deuteronomy 32:32;Micah 7:1). What is done
with the valueless prunings is said afterwards. Every branch that beareth
fruit, he pruneth (or, cleanseth), that it may bring forth more fruit. Let the
non-reappearance ofἐν ἐμοὶ be observed. The suavis rhythmus of Bengelis a
mere accidentaltouch. The words αἴρει and καθαίρει ρηψμε with eachother;
but the latter word is not connectedwith καθαίρεω, a compound of αἵρεω, nor
is it equivalent to καταίρει, the true compound of κατὰ with αἴρω;but it is
derived from καθαρός, clean, andmeans "to cleanse with libations," and
perhaps "to prune with the knife." The Husbandman aims at more fruit,
more of meekness, gentleness, love, and faithfulness, in fact, all those fruits of
the Spirit enumerated in Galatians 5:22, 23. The word κλῆμα, used for
"branch" in these verses, occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. The
word κλαδὸς, elsewhereused(Matthew 13:32; Matthew 21:8; Matthew 24:32;
Mark 4:32; Mark 13:28;Romans 11:16-21), means the smaller "branches" of
a tree. The term means here vine-branch, the essentialconstituentelements of
the vine itself, and is so used in Aristophanes, AEschines, and Theophrastus
(see LXX., Ezekiel15:2).
Vincent's Word StudiesBranch(κλῆμα)

Occurring only in this chapter. Both this and κλάδος, branch (see on Matthew
24:32;see on Mark 11:8) are derived from κλάω, to break. The word
emphasizes the ideas of tenderness and flexibility.
Purgeth (καθαίρει)
Cleanseth, Rev.
PRECEPT AUSTIN RESOURCES
A Sharp Knife For The Vine Branches
BY SPURGEON
“Every branch in Me that bears not fruit He takes away:and every
branch that bears fruit, He purges it, that it may bring forth more
fruit.”
John 15:2
THESE are the words of Jesus. Unto YOU that believe He is precious, and
every word that He speaks is precious for His sake. Youwill be sure, then, to
give every syllable its weight and to let eachword fall upon your soul as
coming directly from His lips. These are the words of our Lord Jesus just
before His departure from the world. We reckonthe words of dying men to be
worth keeping, and especiallyofsuch a matchless Man as our Lord and
Master.
It may be said of Him, “You have kept the best wine until now,” for in this
chapter and in that which follows we have some of the choicest, deepest, and
richest words that the Masterever uttered. You will endeavor, then, to hear
Him speaking as upon the verge of Gethsemane. Youwill listen to these
sentences as coming to you associatedwith the groans and bloody sweatofHis
agony.
These are words, moreover, about us, and therefore to be receivedby us with
profound attention. The most of us who are here, are in Christ, some one way
or another. The majority of us profess to be Christians. The text, then, is
directed to us. When Jesus speaksaboutanything, it is weighty and demands
our ear. But when He speaks aboutourselves to ourselves, we must give Him
the heart as well as the ear, and give most earnestheedto the things which He

speaks to us, lestby any means we let them slip. We may have to regret one
day that we did not listen to His voice in love, for we may have to hear it when
we must listen to it, when the tones have become those of judgment, and Jesus
the Judge shall say unto us, “I know you not,” eventhough we shall venture to
plead that we ate and drank in His Presence,and that He taught in our
streets.
Having, then, your solemn attention, we will read the text again: “Every
branch in Me that bears not fruit He takes away:and every branch that bears
fruit, He purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” The text suggests
selfexamination. It conveys instruction, and invites meditation.
1. In the first place, it SUGGESTSSELF-EXAMINATION. Ihear in these
solemn words the tones of His voice of whom Malachisaid, “Who may
abide the day of His coming? And who shall stand when He appears?
For He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers' soap.” I discernin these
two heart-searching sentences,the voice of Him of whom John said,
“His fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and
gather His wheat into the garner. But He will burn up the chaff with
unquenchable fire.” Truly the Lord’s “fire is in Zion, and His furnace in
Jerusalem.” Happy shall that man be who can bear to be thrust into the
flames and to be coveredwith the hot coals ofthe burning Truths of
God here taught! But he shall be found reprobate who cannotbear the
trial.
Observe that our text mentions two characters who are in some respects
exceedinglyalike. They are both branches, they are both branches in the
Vine: “Every branch in Me.” How much alike persons may apparently be,
who, in God’s sight stand at opposite poles of character!Both the persons
describedin the text were in Christ: in Christ in different senses, itis obvious,
because the first persons were not so in Christ as to bring forth fruit,
consequently, as fruit is that by which we are to judge a man, they were not in
Christ effectually, graciously, influentially, or so as to receive the fruitcreating
sap.
If they had brought forth fruit, their fruitfulness would have been a sign that
they were in Christ savingly. Who will venture to say that a man who yields
no fruit of righteousness canbe really a Christian? Yet they were in Christ in
some sense or other, that is to say, the two characters were equally esteemed
to be Christians. Their names were enrolled in the same Church register–in
the common judgment of men they were equally Christian. According to their
own professionthey were so. In many other respects which we need not now

catalog, theywere both in Christ as His avoweddisciples–assoldiers
professedlyfighting under His banner–as servants wearing His livery.
These two persons were probably equally sound in their doctrinal views. They
held the same precious Truths of God. If they heard falsehood, they were
equally earnestto denounce it. When they listened to the Gospelthey received
it with joy, and so receivedit as to be willing to assistin the spread of it–and
even to make sacrifices forits extension. These persons were equally attentive
to ordinances. How often has it happened that two persons of widely different
states before the Lord have been baptized at the same hour, in the same
water, into the same name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit! And they have then broken bread togetherwith equal apparent
fervency, and with equal professions ofenjoyment and devotion!
These people have been equally fair in their profession. Theirmoral conduct
has, in the judgment of all onlookers, beenmuch the same. They have avoided
everything of ill repute and they have, in their measure, sought after that
which was comely and lovely in the estimationof men. Ah, there will often be
found two who publicly pray alike, have an equal gift in prayer–and what is
worse, preachwith equal earnestnessand zeal! And to all appearance their
family prayer is maintained with the same consistency. Butfor all this the end
of the one shall be to be castawayas a branch to be burned–while the end of
the other shall be to bring forth fruit unto perfection–witheverlasting life as
the reward.
Ah, Friends, man cancounterfeit cleverly, but when the devil helps him he
becomes masterof the art! You will see pieces ofcoinage whichit is almost
impossible for you to discoverto be mere counterfeits by their appearance, or
even by their ring. In the scalesofweight they almostdeceive you–but you put
them into the fire–and then the discoveryis made! Doubtless there are
thousands in all Christian Churches who have the stamp and the impress of
the King upon them. They look like the genuine shekels ofthe sanctuary who,
after all, are only fit to be like bad money, fasteneddown on the footstoolof
the judgment seatwith a nail driven through them–to their everlasting
reprobation and disgrace!
How can we tell a bold man from a coward? Two soldiers wearthe same
uniforms–they talk equally loudly of what they will do when the enemy shall
come. It is the battle that tests and proves them. Some peculiar phase of the
conflict will bring out the difference. But till the battle comes how easyit is for
the base cowardto play the hero while, perhaps, the bravest man may
modestly shrink into the rear! Our text, then, brings before us two characters
apparently alike.

Then, in the secondplace it shows us the distinction betweenthem–the great
and solemndifference. The first branch brought forth no fruit. The second
branch bore some fruit. “By their fruits you shall know them.” We have no
right to judge of our neighbors'motives and thoughts except so far as they
may be clearly discoverable by their actions and words. The interior we must
leave with God, but the exterior we may judge, and must judge. There is a
sense in which we are not to judge men, but there is another sense in which he
would be an arrant foolwho did not constantlyexercise his judgment upon
men. “Bytheir fruits you shall know them,” is our Lord’s own canon of
sacredcriticism. If you would judge men and judge yourselves, this is the one
test–“bytheir fruits.”
Now, then, what do you professors saywho are present here today–you who
are so regular in your attendance upon the means of Divine Grace? Willyou
now searchyourselves to see whether you have any fruit? That you may be
helped in such an investigation let me remind you that the Apostle Paul has
given us a list of these fruits in his fifth chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians.
He says in the 22 nd verse, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-
suffering, gentleness,goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.”
Nine kinds of fruit–all of these should be “in us and abound.” Let us question
ourselves whetherwe have any of them. Say, Professor, have you brought
forth the fruit of love? Searching question, this! I do not ask if you cantalk of
love, but, do you feel it? I do not say, is love upon your tongue? But, does love
rule your heart? Do you love God as a child loves its father? Do you love the
Savior from a sense ofgratitude to Him who bought you with His blood? Do
you feelthe love of the gracious Comforterwho dwells in you, if you are,
indeed, a child of God? What do you know about love to the Brethren?
Do you love the Saints, as Brothers and Sisters in Christ whether they belong
to your Church or not? Whether they please you or serve your turn or not?
Say, do you love God’s poor? Do you love God’s persecutedand despised
ones? Answer, I pray you. What about love to the kingdom of the Lord’s dear
Son, and to the souls of men? Canyou sit still and be satisfiedwith being
saved, yourself, while your neighbors are being damned by the thousands?
Are your eyes never wet with tears for impenitent souls? Do the terrors of the
Lord never get hold upon you, when you think of men plunging themselves
into perdition? “He that loves not his brother whom he has seen, how can he
love God whom he has not seen?” Have you this fruit, then? If not, “every
branch in Me that bears not fruit He takes away.”
Next comes joy. Does your religion evergive you joy? Is it mere matter of
duty, a heavy chain for you to drag about like a convict, or is your religion a

harp for you to dance to the tune of? Do you ever rejoice in Jesus Christ? Do
you know what the “joy of the Lord” means? Does it ever give you joy to
think that He is the same even when the fig tree does not blossomand the herd
is cut off from the stall? Do you feel a joy in reading the promises of God’s
Word? Have you a joy in secretprayer–that joy which the world never gave
you–and cannot take awayfrom you? Have you a secretjoy, like a spring shut
up, a fountain sealedwhich is only open to you and your Lord, because your
fellowship is with Him and not with the sons of sin?
He that never mourned because ofsin has never repented, but he who has
never rejoicedbecause offorgiveness cannothave seenthe Cross!Come, then,
have you produced this fruit of joy? The Lord give it more and more to you!
If you have never had it, then hear the sentence–“Everybranch in Me that
bears not fruit He takes away.”
Next follows peace. Oh, blessedfruit! An autumn fruit, mellow and sweet, and
fit for an angel’s tooth. It is the fruit the blessedfeed upon in Heaven–peace
with God, peace ofconscience, peacewith one’s fellow men–“the peace ofGod
which passes allunderstanding.” The peace which “keeps the heart and mind
through Jesus Christ.” “Greatpeace have they which love Your Law: and
nothing shall offend them.” “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Ah, my Hearers, some of you make a greatdeal of noise, perhaps, about
religion, and yet never have peace of conscience!This is what ceremonialists
never can obtain. “We have an altar, whereofthey have no right to eatwhich
serve the tabernacle” ofoutward ordinances, and carnal, vainglorious,
pompous ceremonies. Ofour altar, where the finished sacrifice is eatenas a
peace offering, they cannoteat. They find no peace afterall their “masses,”
and holy offices, and processions, andsacredhours, and priestcraft, and I
know not what! Poorslaves, they go down to their graves as much in bondage
as ever–with the dreary prospectof a purgatorial fire before them–no
delightful prospect of waking up in the likeness ofChrist! They have no sense
of the truth of that glorious passage, “andyou are complete in Him.” He that
has Christ has this one of His fruits, namely, peace. He who knows no peace
with God has goodneed to tremble.
Mention is next made of long-suffering. I fear there are many professors who
have very little of this, a quality which may be viewed in many aspects. There
is patience, which bears God’s chastising hand and does not turn againstHim,
but says, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away;blessedbe the name
of the Lord.” Long-suffering towards God–suffering long. Then there is long-
suffering towards man–bearing persecutionwithout apostasy. Bearing slander

and reproachwithout revenge–bearing the errors and mistakes of mankind
with tender compassion. The Believershould have much of this.
Some of us, perhaps, may be naturally quick-tempered. Divine Grace must
overcome angry passions. It is not for you to say, “I cannot help it.” The fruit
of the Spirit is long-suffering–youmust help it! If there is no change in your
temper, there is no change in you at all–you still have need to be converted. If
the Grace ofGod does not help you, in a measure, to keepunder that temper
which will be there, but which you must restrain, you have need to go to God
and ask Him to make sound work in you, or there is no work of Grace there
as of yet. We must have long-suffering–orwe may be found fruitless–and then
woe unto us.
Next in order is gentleness,by which I understand kindness. The Christian is
a man of kindness. He recognizes his kindness with his fellow men. He wishes
to treat them as his kin. He has compassionforthose who are suffering. He
endeavors to make his manners kind and courteous. He knows that there is a
natural offense in the Cross to carnalmen. He does not wish, therefore, to
make any offense of his own. He desires in his own life not to be morose,
suspicious, harsh, proud or domineering, but he seeks to imitate his Master,
who said of Himself, “TakeMy yoke upon you, and learn of Me, for I am
meek and lowly in heart.”
The Believerin Christ should be gentle towards all men with whom he comes
in contact. This is one of the fruits of the Spirit, and, I may add, a fruit of the
Spirit in which many professors are terribly deficient. Do not think that I
judge you. I judge you not–there is One that judges you, it is this Word of God
which we speak. Gentlenessis the fruit of the Spirit and if you have it not, you
have not this fruit of the Spirit–and what says the text, “Every branch in Me
that bears not fruit He takes away!”
We are next reminded of goodness, by which is undoubtedly meant
beneficence, benevolence, generosity–notmerely kindliness of manner–but
bounty of heart. Oh what a fine thing it is when our Christianity gives us a
noble spirit! We cannot all be nobles in pocket, but every child of God should
be a noble in his heart. “Come in,” said a poor Scotchwomanto some of the
Lord’s people, “I have room for ten of you in my house, but I have room for
10,000ofyou in my heart.”
So should the Believersay, “Come in, you that are in need. I have not the
powerto help many of you, but I have the will to help all of you if I could.”
The Christian should be like his Lord and Master–easilyentreated, readyto
communicate, making it his delight and his business to distribute, like a cloud

that is full of rain and empties itself upon the earth. A Christian should be like
the bright and sparkling sun scattering his beams abroad and not hiding or
hoarding his light. If you have not this fruit of the Spirit in some measure I
beseechyou to remember the solemn words of the text, “Every branch in Me
that bears not fruit He takes away.”
Then comes faith, by which is probably not meant the Grace of faith which is
rather a root than a fruit, yet that is included. The fruit of the Spirit is,
indeed, faith in God. Without this there is not even the commencementof
anything like security in the soul. Do you believe on the Son of God? Have you
faith? If you have faith but as a grain of mustard seed, it is a signof life within
you. If you have little of it, pray, “Lord, increase our faith!”
But the faith here, I think, means faithfulness–faithfulness towards God,
faithfulness towards conscience. How little some Christians make of that
nowadays!Why they swallow their consciences!There are ministers who
subscribe to words which they know to be deceiving the people and help to
buttress a Church which is doing its utmost to lead this nation into downright
Popery. The goodand gracious ministers in the Establishment are the prop
and pillar of it and by their influence they maintain a system which enables
traitors to pollute this land with Popery.
O that our friends had a little more tenderness of conscienceand would come
out from their unhallowed alliance with the Popish Ritualists. How earnestly
do I pray that none of us have the remotest connectionwith anything which
would take us back to that Antichrist which God hates–whichHe so hates that
He has bid His servant John call the apostate churchby a dreadful name–a
brand of infamy, a name which God never uses till He has castoff and utterly
abhorred a thing.
My Brothers and Sisters, may your consciencesbe faithful and may you be
faithful to your consciences!Men that trifle with doctrine, it seems to me, little
know what sins they commit. I tell you who trifle with doctrines that you are
as bad as thieves! You are worse, forthe thief only robs men, but you rob God
and your own souls!By helping to fostererror, you are heaping togetherthe
elements of a pestilence which, unless Divine Grace prevents, will utterly
destroy this land.
We must have faithfulness, also, in our dealings with our fellow men in
business. Saints are men of honor. The Christian man “swearsto his own
hurt, and changes not.” He does not take an oath, but his word is his bond. O
that we may have this fruit of the Spirit–faithfulness, directness, straight-

forwardness, doing the right, loving the true, and walking uprightly before the
Lord our God!
The next fruit is meekness.Maywe possessmuch of this for there is a peculiar
benediction promised to the meek–“Blessedare the meek: for they shall
inherit the earth.” The Christian is to be as harmless as a dove. In his
Master’s battles, bold as a lion, but for himself and for his own causes,tender,
gentle, shunning debate, loving quietness, ready to take a rebuke rather than
to administer one–feeling himself to be weak and frail. Moses wasthe meekest
of men, often provoked, but only once speaking unadvisedly with his lips. It is
marvelous how he bore with the people! They were the most provoking people
in the world, exceptourselves–butyet, like as a nurse is tender with a sick
child–even so was he with a foolish people.
How often did they provoke him and grieve his spirit! He grew angry in
ignorance and dashed the two tablets of stone upon the ground when he saw
the idolatry of the people. Moses, the meekestofmen, could not bear that!
And God’s meekestservants grow wrathful when they think of the idolatry
into which this land is sliding so rapidly. But meek we must be towards all
men–and if we have not this fruit, the Mastersays, “Everybranch in Me that
bears not fruit He takes away.”
Do not forgettemperance, which is now generallyused in respectto meats and
drinks, but which has a far wider significance, thoughit includes that. The
man who indulges the appetites of the flesh and cannot control himself as to
eating and drinking need not even pretend to be a Christian. He has first to
prove that he is equal to a beastbefore he may pretend to be a child of God!
He has first to show that he is a man before he may claim to be a Christian.
Those who indulge in drunkenness shall drink of the wine of God’s wrath
before long, and then how bitter will their sweetwines be to them! How will
that which has been sweetto the throat be as poison in the heart foreverand
ever! If we have not that kind of temperance, evidently we canknow nothing
about true religion.
But there must be an equal temperance in all other things, a temperance in
your dress, in your expenditure, in your temper and, indeed, in every act.
There is a moderation to be observed, a narrow road to be followed which the
tutored eye of the spiritual man can see and which it is a fruit of the Spirit for
the spiritual footto tread. Godgrant that we may have these fruits. Belovedin
the Lord, I am persuaded that no Truth of God needs to be pressedmore
upon my own souland yours than this–that positive fruit is the only test of our
being in Christ. It is so easyfor us to wrap ourselves up in the idea that
attention to religious ceremonies is the test, but it is not so, for, “Exceptyour

righteousness shallexceedthe righteousness ofthe Scribes and Pharisees,”
who were the most religious people of their day, “you shall in no case enter
into the kingdom of Heaven.”
I know it is easyto think, “Well, I do not indulge in drunkenness. I am no
rogue. I do not do this or that.” This matters little! Remember that the
judgment will not be about those things which you do not do, but about
positive things. How does Jesus Christ put that judgment matter? “I was
hungry and you gave me no meat. I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink. I
was a strangerand you took Me not in. Naked, and you clothed Me not. Sick,
and in prison, and you visited Me not.” The absence ofpositive fruit was that
which condemned the lost. “Every tree,” says John, “that bears no fruit shall
be hewn down and castinto the fire.” He does not say, “Everytree that bears
bitter fruit, or sour grapes,” but “Every tree that brings forth no fruit.”
Fruitless professors, tremble! I may not speak so as to make this Truth of God
penetrate as I wish it should into your inmost souls, but I pray the eternal
Spirit to make it like fire in the bones of every deceivedman and woman! If
my Lord shall come to you, my Hearer, day after day, as He once came to the
fig tree, and should find leaves upon you and no fruit, I tell you He will say,
“Henceforthlet no fruit be on you forever,” and you shall wither away. What
is His own parable The master of the vineyard said to the husbandman,
“Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none:
cut it down; why cumbers it the ground?”
And when the husbandman interceded, you will remember his intercession
was only so far: “If it bears fruit, well: and if not, then after that you shall cut
it down.” Jesus the IntercessoragreeswithHis Father the Husbandman.
Mercy agreeswith Justice–ifthere is no fruit–the tree must come down. May I
beseechyou to lay these things to heart. You must bear fruit unto God by the
powerof the Spirit or it is down with you! God fingers His axe this morning.
It is sharp and if He does but lift it, woe to you, barren fig tree! Woe, indeed,
to me also, if I am found barren in the day of the Lord’s appearing!
In closing this weighty business of self-examination, I must remind you that
our Lord tells us that although these persons were in some points alike, the
solemn difference betweenthem led to a solemn result–“Everybranch in Me
that bears not fruit He takes away.” There are many ways in which the Lord
takes awaybarren branches. Sometimes He allows the professorto apostatize.
He gets rich and then he will not go to the place of worship which he used to
frequent when he was a poorer man and was humble enough to hear the
Gospel–he must go to some fashionable place where he can listen to anything
but the Truth of God–andthus by his own pride he is takenaway.

Or else he is allowedto fall into open sin. We always should regret the falls of
professors, but sometimes it is possible that discoveredsins may be a blessing,
for they take awayfrom the Church men who never ought to have been there
and who were an injury to it. Many bright professors have stoodwell for a
long time, but at last they have been snuffed out ecclesiasticallyby reasonof
their outward sins. God has takenthem away. Some have been takenawayin
a more terrible sense, by death. God has removed them. They have lived in the
Church and died in the Church, but have been takenawayin solemn
judgment and castinto the fire.
Then there is a taking awaywhich is worstof all, when the Mastershall say,
“Depart, you cursed!” Now, remember, these were respectable people. These
were people like you–decent, goodpeople, who attended a place of worship,
and contributed, and were very moral–but still they had not Divine Grace in
their souls. They had nominal Christianity, but not the fruit of the Spirit, and
what was done with them? “Lord, cannot some mild means be used? How sad
to see these branches cut off!” “No,” He says, “if they bring not forth fruit,
they must be taken away.” “But, Lord, they never reeledin and out of the gin
palace!Lord, they were much too goodand much too amiable to be found
among the debasedand the debauched!”
“Take them away!They brought no fruit, and they must be taken away.”
“But, Master, they were so diligent in the use of ordinances. Theywere so
constantand regular in the form of prayer!” “Theybrought forth no fruit,”
says He, “take them away.” There is only this one thing for them–if they had,
through saving faith, been made to bear the fruit of the Spirit, they would
have been saved–but as there was no fruit, take them away. What is done with
that which is taken away? If I could take you just outside the garden wall I
would let you see a heap of weeds and slips that are takenfrom the vine.
There they are heaped togetherwith a little straw, and the gardenerburns
them. The other branches with their purple clusters are in honor, but these
dishonored things are burnt outside the gate.
I cannot describe to you that day of doom, that terrible fate which shall come
upon fruitless branches of the spiritual vine. They will be outside the gate with
a greatgulf fixed betweenthem and Heaven, where the smoke of their
torment goes up forever and ever–“wheretheir worm dies not, and the fire is
not quenched.” If such people are castaway, what will become of some of
you? If these goodpeople who were in Christ, in a way, still perish because
they brought forth no fruit, O you who are like hemlock in the furrows of the
field, you who produce the grapes of Gomorrahand the apples of Sodom–

what shall be your doom in the day of accountwhen the Mastershall come
forth in robes of judgment to execute righteousnessamong the sons of men?
II. Briefly on the secondpoint. THE TEXT CONVEYS INSTRUCTION.
Looking at it carefully we observe that the fruit-bearing branches are not
perfect. If they were perfect they would not need pruning. But the fact is there
is much of original inbred sin remaining in the best of God’s people. So
wheneverthe sap within them is strong for the production of fruit there is a
tendency for that strength to turn into evil, and instead of goodfruit evil is
produced. It is the strength of the tree and the richness of the sapwhich
makes the branch produce too much woodso that it needs pruning. The
gardenerdesires to see that strength in clusters, but alas, insteadit runs into
wood.
Now observe that in a Christian when the sap comes into him to produce
confidence in God, because ofthe evil that is in him it often produces
confidence in himself, and he who would be strong in faith becomes strong in
carnalsecurity. When the sap would produce zeal, how very frequently it
turns into rashness, and insteadof zealwith knowledge, fanaticismis brought
forth! Suppose the sap flows to produce self-examination? Very generally
unbelief is the outgrowthand instead of the man doubting himself, he begins
to doubt his Lord. How often have I seeneven the joy of the Lord turned into
pride, and when the man should rejoice in Christ Jesus he has beganto rejoice
in himself, to grow proud and say, “Whata fine experience I possess!”
That love which we ought to bear towards our neighbors–how apt is that to
run into love of the world and carnal complacencytowards its evil ways!The
gentleness whichI praised just now often turns to a silly compliance with
everybody’s whim. And meekness,which is a fruit of the Spirit, how often that
becomes anexcuse for holding your tongue when you ought boldly to speak!
The fact is, it is very difficult to keepourselves, whenwe are in a flourishing
state, from producing wood insteadof grapes. Godgrant us Divine Grace to
keepus from this evil! And I do not know how the Grace cancome exceptby
His judicious pruning.
I say the fruit-bearing branches are not perfect because theybear a great deal
that is not fruit, and, moreover, not one of them bears as much fruit as it
ought to do. I do not agree with Mr. Wesley’s opinion about perfection. It is
very difficult to see how he could have done more than he did, but I do not
doubt that even he felt that he might have been more like his Lord. None of
the Lord’s people with whom I ever came into communion have dared to
think themselves perfect–andif they had said so, and proved it–I should have
rejoicedto think that there were such people, but greatly sorrowedto find

Jesus was concerned about fruitfulness

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