Here is an excerpt of Scott's message that God used to speak to me, the Lead Pastor of the River.
Most people have understood this to be synonymous with verse 6 where branches are to be “thrown away” and “burned”, but I discovered while I studied this passage that the Greek word for “cut off” (airo = eye-row) is better translated as “to lift up.”
Points 1-4, meaning of “airo” ·
“Airo” has 4 basic meanings, which are:
1. to literally lift up, to raise from the ground,
2. to lift up figuratively, as in lifting up one’s eyes or voice,
3. to lift up with the added thought of lifting up in order to carry away, and
4. to remove, cut off (Boice 228) ·
In this case the sentence would read, “He lifts up every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit…” ·
The owner of a large vineyard in northern California explains that “new branches have a tendency to trail down and grow along the ground, but they don’t bear fruit down there. When branches grow along the ground, the leaves get coated in dust. When it rains, they get muddy and mildewed. The branch becomes sick and useless.” ·
They would never throw away those branches, because they are much too valuable to be discarded. Rather he walks through his vineyard with a bucket of water looking for those branches. He lifts them up and washes them off. Then he wraps them around the trellis or ties them up. Pretty soon they’re thriving.” (Wilkinson 34)
When you consider your faith, have you ever been, or are you right now, in a season where you feel like you are on the ground, coated in dust, in mud, perhaps even suffering from spiritual blight? ·
Do you sometimes feel the opposite of fruitful? Is your faith dying on the ground? ·
The Father is looking for you with his bucket of water, he’s walking between the rows, He wants to wash you, to restore you, to bind you up, to help you get some sunlight, so you can thrive.