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The Sunday lectionary reading for Easter 5 in Year B is Jesus’ teaching that he is the true vine in John 15.1–8. It is a striking and memorable image that has three different elements of context to consider, and it reiterates themes from earlier in the Farewell Discourse as well as picking up ideas that were first sown at the beginning of the gospel narrative.
Come and join James and Ian as they explore the issues and implications of this passage.
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Ian Paul: theologian, author, speaker, academic consultant. Adjunct Professor, Fuller Theological Seminary; Associate Minister, St Nic's, Nottingham; Managing Editor, Grove Books; member of General Synod. Mac user; chocoholic. Tweets at @psephizo
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You have 7 branches? Don’t cut off Laodicia!
My ‘23 vintage was frozen but now I’m defrosting it and making wine. Unfortunately the brewing shop has closed so I’ve proceeded without any proper tools. I’m using 2 litre plastic milk bottles to ferment the juice in. The caps leak just enough to let the gas out. Looks similar to a bloated wine skin. I’ve no way of stopping the fermentation either but once it has stopped naturally it can be transferred to bottles. Next year I’ll probably just make juice, freeze it and drink it the following summer.
If churches are vines in the vineyard of Christ is not the Land itself, the Land of Israel, Jesus?
An ironic topic of Abiding and Pruning following the last thread on Charismatic theology. A failure to abide in Christ and in the truth resulting in drastic pruning for the benefit of His Church.
Thanks to James and Ian we are shown that we must not only see Abiding but also non-abiding and the sobering fact of Pruning.
It is incumbent upon us to declare the “whole counsel of God”
The reason why anyone plants a vine and lets it grow, is that at his own time he may cut it. The wood was the old order, which is being pruned down by the new Gospel, in which “the axe has been laid at the roots.”
The first “pruning” was no doubt the rebellious angels cut off and cast out to be reserved for the fire and ensuring that Heaven itself should not be polluted.
It is instructive that abiding is far more important than just a mere belief. One can recite a sorrowful confession every week if desired but without repentance and amendment of life it has no
validity being but a repeating of the same sacrifice each week.
Pruning is a fascinating word study and a much-neglected topic. That the Father cuts off from Christ those that do not “bring forth fruits unto repentance” nor” the fruits of righteousness”, is His work in the body of Christ.
Pruning has many facets both individual and corporate.
That the work of ministers is to bring saints to perfection/completion/ maturity. [chose which verb interpretation you prefer] and is the ministry of about 20 of the NT books.
Eph 4:13 “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
Colossians 1:28 Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
Gal 4:19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,
On Abiding
Psalm 125:1 “Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever.”
“Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.”
Abiding in Christ is to live in a different vast universe the longer one lives in this new universe, like Brian Cox, new vistas are revealed of which the length and depth cannot be measured, the wonders of it are evermore awesome, gigantic.
The apostle Paul encourages his readers to continue living in Christ. “So then, just as you received Jesus as Lord, [ not just Saviour] continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
The pure in heart see God
“for he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight” (Ephesians 1:4).
The apostle John also urged god’s children—those who longed to see Jesus’s face to face—to “keep themselves pure, just as he is pure” [holy] (1 john 3:3, NLT).
To consistently think on whatever is pure, believers must “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). James teaches, “To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted” (James 3:17, ESV).