The True Vine: Biblical Lessons from the Garden
The spring season of planting and gardening has finally arrived! It’s an exciting time for gardeners, but there’s a lot of digging, toiling, bending, and plucking that must be done in order to enjoy the sights, tastes, and aromas of a good and plentiful harvest.
Our spiritual walk in Christ is a lot like this process, and scripture is packed with metaphors and symbolism related to planting, nurturing, and harvesting.
Successful Seeding: The Beginning of a Fruitful Life
Have you ever planted a seed in your garden, only to have nothing ever sprout up? After checking every few days, watering, and ensuring your little seed has everything it needs, it’s so disappointing to see nothing happen.
But when those sprouts do successfully pop out of the soil, it’s very exciting! Germination depends entirely on the environment around the seed. Similarly, before we see any growth or fruit in the kingdom of God, first comes the planting of a seed.
Consider Matthew 13:1-8, where Jesus tells the Parable of the Sower. This parable tells us how important the condition of the soil and the environment is for our spiritual growth.
As this sower went about, some seeds fell, and birds immediately snatched them up ate them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground and sprang up right away because of the lack of deep soil — they were eventually scorched by the sun.
Then, the last group of seeds fell into good ground and produced fruit bountifully!
Just like these seeds being planted, a seed was planted in the good, ready, and deep soil of our hearts about the kingdom of God. The condition of our hearts was critical in fostering growth.
The Need for Pruning
If you’ve ever grown tomato plants, you know the importance of pruning. This practice helps direct the fruit-producing efforts of the plant to certain stems and branches so that the plant is kept healthy, and it produces as much fruit as possible.
If pruning is neglected, many tomato plants focus too much on growing the wrong things — extra branches, excess leaves, etc. — and not on producing fruit. In the worst situations, extra branches can get too big, break off, and even damage the main stem of the plant.
It’s so amazing how God gives us physical parallels to spiritual concepts! Pruning is equally important for us.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus says:
“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. ”
At first glance this sounds unpleasant — even the branches that bear fruit are cut and pinched for the sake of even more fruit? But if we were to look at this from the perspective of our everyday lives, we can see Jesus wants us to know something that’s actually quite inspiring:
Just like those tomato plants, we need a cut there and a snip there in order to have a multiplication of Jesus in our character.
“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”
The vinedresser wants us all to produce good fruit, and we know that it’s by our fruit we will be known (Matthew 7:16).
Protecting Our Growing Hearts
When we plant something in a garden, there is a risk of it being nullified by outside sources. All over the world, there are invasive species that viciously take over gardens and forests, stunting or even demolishing a new generation of trees, flowers, and other plants. Even wildlife is affected by the destruction.
When we think about this spiritually, we can introduce something into our hearts and minds that is not native to God’s Word. It can take over quickly and affect our ability to bear good fruit.
Because we don’t seek God for understanding (or we assume we can handle something on our own), we can, unfortunately, be led astray. This can potentially lead to the ill fate of a fruitless future without God’s plan.
“I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. ”
A Fruitful Future
In order to bear good fruit, we can find peace in this fact: Everything we need to be sufficient and flourishing in God’s Kingdom is found in Christ alone. There may be pruning, redirecting, or even correction in our walks with God, but a willingness to abide and grow in Jesus will always produce fruit that the Lord of the harvest will be pleased with.
“They are strong, like a tree planted by a river. The tree produces fruit in season, and its leaves don’t die. Everything they do will succeed.”