Anyone who works with plants, knows that the pruning process is vital to maintaining the growth of the plant. The purpose of pruning a grapevine is to make a branch more even more fruitful by cutting away unnecessary wood so that which is left over can bear even greater fruit.
Read moreLessons from the Grapevine-Remaining
I have never seen a branch which was isolated from the vine, growing grapes. The only way that a branch grows and bears fruit is if they are constantly connected to the vine. Once a branch is severed from the vine, the branch dies as does any fruit that the branch was producing.
Read moreLessons from the Grapevine-Fruit
The first lesson is that the sole purpose of the branch is produce fruit, grapes. I don’t know of anyone who plants a grape vine because they like how they look and could care less if they bear fruit. I also have never heard on one of my trips to Lowe’s, someone asking the salesperson where the 2x4 made of grape wood were located. A grape branch cannot be used to make furniture, utensils or even a peg to hang your coat on. The only thing that a branch is good for is to bear fruit. The reason that the grape vine was created in the first place and the reason that a farmer plants a grape vine is to provide fruit.
Jesus as He was holding that small cluster of grapes in His hands, said to His disciples, “This is the reason that you were created. You were created because you are to bear fruit.” And by extension everyone who calls themselves a Christian and disciple of Jesus Christ was also created to bear fruit.
What fruit is Jesus talking about? Paul gives specifics in Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
The fruit that Jesus wants each of His disciples to bear is none other than the fruit of the Spirit which the Apostle Paul shares in Galatians. In other words, we as the disciples of Jesus are to be loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, thinking of others, faithful, gentle and self-controlled. This is the fruit that Jesus wants each of His followers to bear in their lives.
I don’t know about you, but that seems like a big task don’t you think? Sure, I can show each of those characteristics at certain points, but all of them, all the time? No way. Interestingly enough, I have yet to meet a person who exhibits all of those qualities all of the time. So what are we to do? Are we to sit back and say, “Well, I can’t bear fruit. It’s too hard or my personality doesn’t allow me to be kind or peaceful or self-controlled. I just can’t do it.” On the contrary, we like the branches of the grapevine were created to bear fruit, but how that happens is our second lesson we can learn from the vine, which is, the branches do not bear fruit on their own.
Lessons from the Grapevine
It was the sure sign that fall had come. As the temperature dropped and that first touch of frost came to the mountains of Western Pennsylvania, I knew what and I the rest of my family would be doing on an upcoming Sunday. We would pile into the car and go over to a friend’s house whose property line was lined with grape vines. I can still remember the smell of the ripe Concord grapes that were about to be picked. Even to this day, anytime I smell a Concord grape, I am transported to those Sundays
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