[As to] every branch in me not bearing fruit, he takes it away; and [as to] every one bearing fruit, he purges it that it may bring forth more fruit.
The Lord calls Himself the true vine and His Father the vinedresser. One test sorts the branches: fruit. He removes one kind and cuts the other back. Why does the same hand that removes also wound what it loves?
An Earthly Picture, Not a Heavenly One
Commentators point to one key that unlocks the passage. Vines grow on earth, so the union in view here is an earthly one.
"Every branch in Me that bears fruit," He says. This shows that the branch must be in Him, the true Vine, if it is to bear fruit. This sentence gives us the key to the passage. The union spoken of here is an earthly union, for vines do not grow in heaven… So our union with Christ as members of His body is not what is meant here. That union cannot be broken, and it does not depend on us at all.
Why a Branch Can Be Taken Away
If every branch had real life, this removal would make no sense. Writers answer that the vine includes everyone who claims Christ's name, real or not.
True blessing and fruitfulness for God no longer depended on being children of Abraham by birth, able to call Jacob their father. It all depended on a living connection with Christ. He was the true vine here on earth… So the question of profession comes up, and with it the question of fruitfulness. A vine might have branches on it that bore no fruit. A person might claim to be Christ's disciple without the claim being real. As the vinedresser removes the barren branches of a vine, so the Father, shown here as the vinedresser, takes away those whose discipleship is not real.
Missing this difference costs more than clarity.
There is an immense difference between salvation and fruit-bearing, between being a branch of the vine and a member of Christ's body. If you miss this difference, you lose the teaching of John 15. Worse still, you put at risk the peace of conscience that belongs to those who rest on Christ and His work. When I think of salvation, I think of grace; but when fruit-bearing is before my mind, I think of responsibility.
Who Is Taken Away
Commentators differ on who is taken away.
There is the sad possibility that some branches, though having a living link with the vine, may bring forth no fruit. Such the Father takes away. These branches are very different from the withered branches of verse 6. Here it is the Father who takes away; there it is men who throw them out and burn them.
The Fruit the Father Looks For
The vinedresser is not chasing activity in general. He is watching for something specific.
The Father is seeking fruit from those who are branches in the True Vine. It is a privilege given and jealously watched over by the Father. The fruit He seeks and values is the reproduction of the virtues of His Son. Therefore as a true vinedresser He removes what does not bear fruit and prunes and helps on what does, to increase yet more the fruit He delights to see.
The Knife as a Compliment
Trials often come just when a believer starts to bear fruit. This verse explains the timing.
Many of the Lord's dear children are dismayed when they find themselves in trial… They overlook the blessed truth revealed to us here: pruning always follows fruit bearing. Bear even a little fruit, and you may be sure the vinedresser will not spare the pruning knife. Once, walking round an orchard, I saw a tree that had not been pruned. I asked the gardener why he had neglected it when all the others showed the marks of his care. He replied, "That tree is half dead. I have no hope of it bearing more fruit, so I do not think it worth the trouble of pruning." Another day I saw a tree cut back so hard that to my eyes it looked almost ruined. Again I asked the gardener, "Why was this?" "Ah Sir," he replied, "that is my finest tree. I look for more fruit from that tree in autumn than from any other in the garden."
The cutting has a target, and how we take it decides what it produces in us.
The Father chastens and disciplines us to remove everything that keeps the character of Christ from showing. It may indeed be painful, for "no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it" (Heb. 12:11). If we take His dealings to heart before the Father, hardship will not sour us or make us bitter. It will soften us instead, so that the character of Christ is seen in us and we bear fruit.
What Gets Cut
Pruning does not only remove what is wicked. It removes what is merely spare.
A vineyard, above all, shows the need of pruning… To get the fruit that is wanted, a vine needs the knife used on it without sparing… The lesson is the need of concentration: turning all our energy into what has profit in it, and spending none on what is merely harmless. This is not legalism or strict self-denial. As we may learn from the connection here, it is what makes for happiness as well as fruitfulness.
Summary
- Vine — the picture is earthly, and it covers everyone who takes Christ's name. Being a member of His body is a separate truth, and that link cannot be cut.
- Fruitless — fruit is what shows the claim is real. The Father removes the branch that has none.
- Fruit — what He looks for is the character of His Son showing up in His people.
- Knife — pruning follows fruit. Trial is a sign of value, not of rejection. The tree left alone is the hopeless one.
- More fruit — the knife cuts away what hinders Christ's likeness and what is merely spare. It puts all our energy into what bears.