“Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned.”
John 15:6 NLT
In the natural woods around me, I do not have to walk far before I find a tree branch that has fallen off, and lies mouldering amongst the leaf litter and the plants present on the forest floor. If I look up at the tree from which it fell, I can perhaps see the cause of the schism. Disease or damage has cut off the flow of the nutrient-rich sap, and the branch has withered and rotted until it no longer had the strength to resist the gales, falling to the ground often with a great crash. Skilled gardeners will examine their trees and shrubs, looking for signs of disease, and if they find any, out will come the pruning devices, to remove the offending shoots and branches before they affect the whole plant.
In Jesus’ spiritual example, He compared Himself as the Source of the life-giving “sap” so necessary for human beings to produce the fruit required of them. Some believers think that this verse, “Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned”, means that salvation can be lost. They surmise that anyone, believers who once believed in Jesus and followed Him, but who then turn their back on Him and cut themselves off from His life, can fall into the category of being a “useless branch” and are in danger of hell fire. Such a belief seems logical enough, if this verse is taken in isolation, but others believe that salvation cannot be lost, quoting Scriptures such as John 10:27-28, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me“, providing an assurance of eternal salvation regardless, or so they think. Another text supporting this position is John 3:16, “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life“. The problem is that some Bible translations interpret the Greek text in this and other similar verses as a once for all event, instead of what was intended, the continuous present tense. As an example, and looking at John 3:16, the text, “everyone who believes in Him” should perhaps be better read as, “everyone who [goes on believing] in Him”. But we are delving rather deeply here. To me the logical situation is as we read in Hebrews 6:4-6, “For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come— and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame“. Do such people become the “useless branch”Jesus was talking about? I’m sure everyone will have their own view on this.
But we pilgrims are firm believers, remaining in Jesus, feeding on the life-giving spiritual food that has only one Source. And the fruit we produce quietly grows slow and strong, on the only Vine that really matters, Jesus Himself. Yes, we will occasional feel Father God’s sharp knife cutting away the bits of us that are fruitless, but, amazingly, we grow stronger for that. And instead of being in a bonfire of “useless branches” we will instead find ourselves in a much better place one day.
Dear Master Gardener, we don’t like to be pruned but we know it’s necessary as we continue on our journey. We know we are not on our own and we than You for being with us. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 