Pruning Produces More Fruit

My wife is originally from Crabapple, Ga.—a charming community north of Atlanta. When God blessed us with our first home, we thought it was a good idea to plant a crabapple tree by the path to the front door. We didn’t anticipate it growing too much and planted it too close to the walk and front porch.  

As the crabapple tree grew, it began obscuring the front porch. One fall, we decided to prune a few of the branches. The next summer, the tree was bent over with heavy branches, hanging low to the ground. As the fruit ripened and fell on the ground, porch and walkway. Everything was covered in crabapples!

It was then that we stumbled upon the principle of John 15:1-5—pruning produces more fruit. The Lord was using that analogy to illustrate spiritual growth in the life of a disciple.

Most of the people Jesus was talking to at the time would have connected the with the story because they lived in an agricultural community. It’s no less relevant to us today, just less familiar.

Seasons of Pruning

Another nature analogy that Scripture often uses is that of seasons. We typically think of the four seasons as it pertains to the span of one’s life. 

• Spring is our youth
• Summer is our working life
• Fall is retirement
• Winter is old age. 

But realistically, we go through many cycles of seasons. Like a fruit tree, we go through many cycles of pruning. We don’t like to think about pruning, but understanding what the Lord was teaching in this passage helps us greatly when it happens.

In John 15:1-2 the Lord explains that He is the vine and the Father is the vine dresser. The Father removes branches that are not bearing fruit, and those branches that are bearing fruit He prunes that they will produce more fruit.

The fruit certainly includes the fruit of the Spirit of Galatians 5:22-23 which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control and are the natural result of our growing relationship with the Lord Jesus.

What to Prune in Your Life

God’s purpose for our life is first salvation, which is us coming to know His Son as our personal Lord and Savior. From that moment forward, His purpose is that we grow and change into the image of His Son. To that end, He has ways of removing those things from our lives that are not producing fruit.  

Those are things that we can take or leave such as a hobby or an interest, a possession, even a friendship, and are usually not painful. But also to the end of spiritual growth and maturity verse 2 clearly states that “every branch that does bear fruit He prunes that it may bring forth more fruit.”  

Those may be the things in our lives that we see as good and productive such as our job, our 401k or savings, our health, the loss of a relationship or a ministry. Those pruned branches are often quite painful and leave us wondering what good can they possibly bring.

Growing Deeper Roots

Pruning of fruit trees is done in the fall. After fall comes winter, which is cold and grey. There are no leaves, no visible signs of life and it may appear that life as we knew it is over. But it is in the winter that roots grow deeper. 

The growth in winter is below the surface and it is the shock to the tree of pruning that drives the roots through the hard soil and rocks to the rivers of living water. Eventually, the days start getting longer, the soil begins to warm and lots of buds begin to form on the remaining limbs. Then bright green leaves signal the beginning of a new spring. 

As a new summer begins the buds become a new crop of fruit which mysteriously and miraculously produces a far bigger crop than the summer before though the tree had fewer limbs to work with.

Ultimately it’s not about the visible part of the tree above the ground that matters. It is the invisible part of the tree, the root system that produces the fruit.  It’s what the Apostle Paul was talking about when he said: “Though our outer man is perishing, the inner man is being renewed day by day.”  2 Corinthians 4:16

It’s also what David meant when he said:

“And he will be like a tree planted by rivers of water, that brings forth his fruit in his season, his leaf will not wither and whatever he does will prosper,”  Psalm 1:3

Something New is Growing

When we understand that God’s plan for our life may not necessarily coincide with our plan. When we understand the Biblical principles of spiritual growth, it helps us to put the seasons of fall and winter into the broader context that includes a new spring and summer.

God is always up to something in our lives! Whether the growth is below the surface in our personal relationship with the Lord, or above the surface with the fruit He produces, we are always growing and changing, becoming a little bit more like Him with each passing day.

May this be a year of incredible blessing in your life as He does exceedingly abundantly more than you could ask or imagine!