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NASB | John 15:2 "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | John 15:2 "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that continues to bear fruit, He [repeatedly] prunes, so that it will bear more fruit [even richer and finer fruit]. |
Subject: What then, is the meaning of John 15:2? |
Bible Note: I've not heard this interpretation before, i.e. the barren branch is really a dead branch. To a vinedresser, there is cleary a difference between a dead branch and a barren one. If John meant "dead branch", why didn't he just say that? This is hard for me to accept because in this metaphor Christ is the vine, the source of life for all the branches. To suggest that it is possible for a branch in Him to die is contrary to the idea of "everlasting" or "eternal" life. It seems we would then be forced to suggest that those branches that died were never really "in Christ", as your examples may be interpreted, yet the verse clearly describes them as being "in Christ". Alternatively, if we accept that "barren" really means "barren" and not "dead", and "takes away" means just that, then we are confronted with the notion that we must bear fruit to remain in Christ. For confirmation of this, we could appeal to James 2:26 "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead", but I'm not sure this is appropriate. For James, deeds are in fact the fruit of faith, but he is talking about how we glorify God to others; faith alone is useless as even the demons have faith, v19. People are convinced by what they can see, faith in action. To me, John is speaking to theological issues, not the practicalities of daily living, so to take James remark to support this view of John seems like a stretch. However, the harmony of the Bible cannot be denied. To me, the best translation of "take away" is "lift up" and the best interpretation is that the vinedresser is working to bring the branch into fruition. I acknowledge this could just be wishful thinking on my part. Parable |