"If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned." John 15:6
"You will know them by their fruits..." Matthew 7:16 a
Often times the portion of Matthew 7:16 comes to me mind, both directed at me and others. Every once and awhile someone I know professes their faith in God, and yes, I start to analysis their fruit. In Matthew 7, Jesus is warning people to beware of false prophets. It's this chapter that we get the saying, "wolf in sheep's clothing" from, because they exist. So often we are told not to judge; people pull out the "judge not, that you be not judged" verse as their weapon of choice, which is the first verse of this chapter in Matthew. Please read, carefully, the entire chapter to see that you aren't told not to judge at all!
Sorry, I digress! Jesus goes on in Matthew 7 to talk about the fruit, how you can't get bad fruit from a good tree. So I wonder about the fruit that others produce. Is it good? Can I tell if they are really part of the Vine or do I suspect that they are just claiming branch-hood. Then I wonder if the lack of fruit I might see is actually one of those branches in their lives that needs to be pruned. Let's face it, we all have things in our lives, branches. that need pruning.
The verse from John is not about pruning though. It is about branch removal. If we produce no fruit that is evidence that we abide in Him, then we are cut off and thrown into the fire. God gives us many chance, Just check out the lives of those He called faithful and you'll see he gave them many! Yet there comes a point where one's not abiding in Him results in separation from God. Once the branch is burned it doesn't become a branch again. You can be pruned and produce even better fruit, but you can't be cut off and produce any.
I wonder if there is anything that I do or say that shows fruit from abiding in Him more than not. I am definitely in that "needs-some-pruning" group. I wonder if others see too much bruised fruit in my life. I want people to know me by good fruit. Too often I get caught up in me and produce selfish fruit. That is one negative fruit I am know I produce. Mind you, God has pruned some of it away, I hope more is pruned than not, but I know some is still there. I don't want people to see selfish fruit when they look at me and my life. I want the to see fruit that is evident that I am part of the Vine.
We are part of the they in Matthew 7. We need to look at our own fruit to make sure that what is being produced is evidence of abiding in Him and not evidence of being a sheep in wolf's clothing. This makes me want to abide more deeply. I want to be known by the fruit of God.
Well shared.
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