Day 5 · Friday
The Vinedresser's Knife
John 15:1–8
You Can Hear with Joy, but the Harvest Tells the Truth.
Read
John 15:1–8 · ESV
1“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.
2Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
3Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
4Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
5I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
6If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
7If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
8By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
Reflect
Dead wood does not feel the knife.
If you have felt the Father's knife, take heart. He only prunes living branches.
Walk through a vineyard in January and you would think the vinedresser had lost his mind.
He moves down the rows with a blade in his hand, and he cuts. Not only the dead wood. He cuts the living canes, the green ones, the ones that grew longest last summer. He cuts them back to a few buds. The ground at his feet is covered in good wood. A stranger walking by would say, "You're killing them."
He isn't. He is making room for grapes.
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit." Did you hear the two kinds of cutting? The dead branch is taken away and gathered for the fire. The living branch is pruned and left on the vine. The knife touches both, but for opposite reasons.
So when conviction cuts you after you sin, rejoice. When the Father trims away a comfort you loved, a plan you made, a pride you protected, do not conclude that He has abandoned you. Dead wood does not feel the knife. The Vinedresser does not prune what He plans to burn.
And notice what the branch does all year long. Nothing heroic. It does not strain to make grapes. It simply stays on the vine and lets the sap rise. "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you." The fruit is His life showing through you: repentance, obedience, love, patience, perseverance. Some branches will hang heavy, a hundredfold. Some will bear thirty. Thirtyfold is still a harvest.
But if you have never once felt the knife, no conviction, no turning, no fruit, do not take comfort from a pew you have sat in for twenty years. Come to the Vine today. He has never refused a branch that came to Him.
Come September, the stranger walks back past those cut-back rows and stops. The vines are bending under the weight of grapes.
If you have felt the Father's knife, take heart. He only prunes living branches.
Respond
Where have you felt the Father's knife this year, and what fruit might He be making room for?
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Pray
Father, You are the Vinedresser. Thank You for every cut that made room for fruit. Keep me abiding in Jesus through every winter, and let my life hang heavy with the fruit that proves I am Yours. Amen.
