How/why does God prune us?

I again direct your attention to His words in John 15. "Every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit." Dear brethren, though we have fellowship with Christ, and sit with Him in heavenly places, our earthly nature is still in a defiling world. The world and Satan act on this nature; these and its own sin (for it is still enmity to God and all that He loves) are continually drawing the believer to dispositions and objects that defile the conscience, hide from him the glory of Christ, and hinder the blessedness of fellowship with Him and communion with the Father. How is their influence prevented? The Father purges every branch in the true vine. While the flesh lusts against the Spirit, the Spirit acts against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other. The Spirit Himself directs the believer to everything opposed to the flesh, it fills him with communion and earnest desires to enjoy his fellowship with Christ and the Father: Satan, the world, and nature work against this. How is the flesh subdued that God's children may enjoy their precious liberty? Precisely in this way: the Father purgeth them that they may bring forth more fruit. He sends afflictions and trials, to increase their separation from the present world, and to weaken the sin that works in their members; then that word within them, which is Christ, has dominion, and by Him they bring forth more fruit. Thus does the Father purge every branch in the vine. He ploughs up their hearts to remove from them everything that prevents their fruitfulness; He suits the affliction to the particular need for it, that it might root out of their hearts the lust of other things which tends to choke the seed. The other things, as I have said, are all and everything which is not Christ. Everything but Christ prevents our fruitfulness, the least contact with the world (for who can touch pitch and not be defiled?) everything nature desires and loves. These causes destroy not the seed where God has given it root, for it is the incorruptible seed which liveth and abideth for ever; but, dear friends, they are the reason why we bring forth fruit, some thirty, some sixty fold, instead of that hundredfold which affords such blessedness.

Another important item in the subject of fruit-bear ing is the care of the divine Husbandman for the branches and His work of purging them that fruit and more fruit might be borne to His glory. The Lord said: "my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit." (vv. 1-2).

It is the Father who is the husbandman and as such He looks after the branches in tender love and watchful care. He combines perfect wisdom and love in His treatment of the branches and knows how to cause them to bear fruit and more fruit. The fruitless professor He removes and the fruitful one He purges and cleanses so that more fruit may be borne. He cuts away out of our lives everything that hinders our being like Christ and bringing forth fruit to His delight. He may use the pruning knife to cut away superfluous things in our lives so that more and better fruit may be produced in us. He chastens us and may put us through the fires of affliction that the dross may be removed from us and that "we might be partakers of His holiness." The process may be painful and grievous, "nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteous ness unto them which are exercised thereby" (Heb. 12:10-11).

The Father's dealings are represented by the methods of the husbandman. First 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. Very different are such branches to the withered branches of verse 6, which are cast forth and burned. Here it is the Father that takes away, there it is men that cast them forth. Was it not thus with some of the Corinthian saints whose walk was such that the Father would not leave them here to bring reproach upon the name of Christ, so took them home, as we read, "many sleep" (1 Cor. 11:30). Then there is the gracious action of the Father with those who bear fruit, in order that they may bring forth more fruit. Such He purges. The chastening and discipline of the Father is to remove all that hinders the expression of the character of Christ. It may indeed be painful, for, "no chastening at the time seems to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them which are exercised thereby" (Heb. 12:11). If exercised before the Father as to His dealings with us, we shall not be soured and embittered by adversity, but rather softened and mellowed so that in result the character of Christ is seen in us and we become fruitful.

"Every branch In Me … that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit." Many of the Lord's dear children are dismayed when they find themselves in trial; they get alarmed and troubled and question why it is that now they meet with trials unknown till they became the Lord's children. They overlook the blessed truth revealed to us here, that purging necessarily follows fruit bearing. Only bear a little fruit and you may be sure that the husbandman will not spare the pruning knife. One time when walking round an orchard I remarked a tree unpruned: on asking the gardener why he had neglected it when all the others bore marks of his care, he replied, "That tree is half dead, I have no hopes of it bearing more fruit, so do not think it worth the trouble of pruning." Another day I remarked a tree very closely cut, to my eyes almost ruined, so unsparingly had the knife been used on it. 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." Just so you may expect to feel the pruning knife if you are bearing fruit; but remember it is a Father's hand that uses the knife. "If ye endure chastening God dealeth with you as with sons." Will you consent to be treated as a son, or would you miss this proof of sonship, because "no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous?"

"Every branch in Me … that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit." Many of the Lord's dear children are dismayed when they find themselves in trial; they get alarmed and troubled and question why it is that now they meet with trials unknown till they became the Lord's children. They overlook the blessed truth revealed to us here, that purging necessarily follows fruit bearing. Only bear a little fruit and you may be sure that the husbandman will not spare the pruning knife. One time when walking round an orchard I remarked a tree unpruned: on asking the gardener why he had neglected it when all the others bore marks of his care, he replied, "That tree is half dead, I have no hopes of it bearing more fruit, so do not think it worth the trouble of pruning." Another day I remarked a tree very closely cut, to my eyes almost ruined, so unsparingly had the knife been used on it. 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." Just so you may expect to feel the pruning knife if you are bearing fruit: but remember it is a Father's hand that uses the knife. "If ye endure chastening God dealeth with you as with sons." Will you consent to be treated as a son, or would you miss this proof of sonship, because "no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous?"

But there is another side to the question of fruit-bearing, namely, the purging and the chastening of the Father's hand (vv. 1-2). If you are a fruit-bearing branch, and the desire to be constantly abiding in Christ would be a bit of evidence that you are, the Father's eye is never withdrawn from you. He sees all the tendencies in you that would lead to self-confidence or dependence on men or things instead of upon Christ, and these can only spoil the fruit, so in faithful love He cuts and prunes at these. Are you ready to be wholly in the Father's hands as to this matter? It may mean painful experiences and disappointments, but with great compensations; for what is cut away will make more room for Christ and His life; and though you may not be quite so showy, like a vine closely pruned, yet “Herein,” says the Lord, “is My Father glorified,” and that is your desire.

But there is another side to the question of fruit-bearing, namely, the purging and the chastening of the Father's hand (vv. 1-2). If you are a fruit-bearing branch, and the desire to be constantly abiding in Christ would be a bit of evidence that you are, the Father's eye is never withdrawn from you. He sees all the tendencies in you that would lead to self-confidence or dependence on men or things instead of upon Christ, and these can only spoil the fruit, so in faithful love He cuts and prunes at these. Are you ready to be wholly in the Father's hands as to this matter? It may mean painful experiences and disappointments, but with great compensations; for what is cut away will make more room for Christ and His life; and though you may not be quite so showy, like a vine closely pruned, yet "Herein," says the Lord, "is My Father glorified," and that is your desire.

This is a line that accounts for much of God’s ways with us. It does not stand in the light of punishment. It is rather the Father’s gracious design by which a fruitful branch in the true vine may bear more fruit; in other words, the way in which a fruitful Christian may become more fruitful.

The branch may be making too much wood, and the husbandman’s skilful hand purges the branch, and effects the desired result, more fruit. How often the Father has brought in some physical trouble, family bereavement, reverse in circumstances, etc., and the result has been the weaning in spirit from the world, greater devotedness to Christ, greater zeal in His blessed service, more abundant fruit for God.

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 Husbandman 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 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 Husbandman He removes what does not bear fruit and prunes and helps on what does, to increase yet more the fruit He delights to see.