Bear Fruit

Every Branch that Does Bear Fruit He Prunes.  Apparently, the time to prune blueberry bushes (and by extension all berry-producing plants) is late January into early February. Before the sap starts flowing at the spring thaw, there is work to be done. One of the many articles that I have been reading to overcome my ignorance about growing blueberries says: “Be severe.” Anything thicker than one’s thumb is too old for a blueberry cane, since age indicates a decrease in the number and the sweetness of its berries. “Cut them all the way to the ground.” That way the sap will flow more toward the new growth and the better berries.

After that, one must go further still: “Take out about 1/3 of all the canes that are left.” Wow, that is severe and thoroughly counterintuitive! In my state of ignorance, I would have assumed that having more branches makes more fruit involving less pruning. But now I know better! [Of course, bearing more fruit increases the chance of attracting more bears, or bear-fruit.]

My thumb is not even slightly green; a master-gardener I am not. But God is crowned with the title, in John 15:1, the vinedresser—the Master of all master-gardeners! His thumb is not only green, but it causes everything it touches to come to life. Step aside King Midas—your golden touch only brings only death. God is the eternal gardener, he causes life and invites those who have come to life by his gracious touch, to join him in his activity of cultivating life in others. We are both his field and his fellow workers in his field where he is growing life (1 Cor. 3:9). His crop is Christlikeness!

God has no ignorance about his vineyard. “Every branch that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit” (John 15:2). His activity may seem severe, and his pruning knife may appear counterintuitive from the worm’s-eye perspective, but he knows what he is doing and does what is in accord with all he knows! “Abide 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. I 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” (John 15:4-5).

The question for us, then, is: do we trust him? His pruning knife may seem terrifying, but his character governs his actions. “You are good and do good; teach me your statutes” (Psa. 119:68). As we abide, which means to remain vitally connected to God by faith, his sap, which is to say his character, flows through our vascular tissues producing his fruit in us. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law” (Gal. 5:22-23). “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples” (John 15:8). God is growing godliness in his disciples.

Being Prepared

Being Prepared.  Hyper-alertness and vigilant preparedness, living near our military installation has given me a new appreciation for constant readiness. While I might have already known some synonyms for the word readiness (e.g., watchfulness, attentiveness), I am now pleased to have an entire cadre of people who embody the reality of readiness in their collective commitment to make preparedness their constant focus. Readiness is no joke at Seymour Johnson, much like I suppose would be the case at any of our nation’s military installations. Drills and training, followed by more training and drills, it seems like the job of the military servicemember is to be and remain ready. Perhaps readiness remains more in the category of potential readiness in times of peace than in times of war, but whether at war or in peace, it takes an active and disciplined mind to maintain heightened alertness.

The Apostle Peter used this word, preparedness, twice in his First Epistle (1:5; 3:15). We who have been “caused by God to be born again” (1 Pet. 1:3) are also those “who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Pet. 1:5). In other words, God is hyper-vigilant for us, as in, on our behalf. It is his job, so to speak, to cause us to be prepared to display his salvation. The way he keeps us ready is by constantly testing us for “the genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire” (1 Pet. 1:7). God vigilantly makes us vigilant!

The second time preparedness appears in First Peter is in chapter three. As it was in chapter one, the church’s preparedness often braids together with testing and trials. In chapter three, Peter instructed the persecuted church, “In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect” (1 Pet. 3:15). When witnessing for Christ was a capital crime (as it is today in many countries) and when brothers and sisters were being imprisoned or killed for honoring Christ as Lord (instead of hailing Caesar as lord), Peter touched upon the fortitude of being prepared. It is our job to be ready always to bear witness to Christ, even if faithfulness to Christ might be regarded as treason to Caesar.

When Peter’s two uses of preparedness are fused together, they form a singular picture. Chapter one’s readiness is God’s work done in us to cause us to be ready. Chapter three’s readiness is our work done through God’s power to “make a defense to anyone who asks” (1 Pet. 3:15). Either way one looks at it, biblical readiness is God’s power enabling our obedience. Are we ready? God has caused us to be ready and he will continue to enable our readiness, even by using tests and trials, for giving reason to anyone who asks for our hope.

To Remain Quiet

To Remain Quiet.  Physics has always had its governing principles, but Sir Isaac Newton is famous for setting those observable principles down into his three Laws of Motion (1687). Google helped me to remember what they are, especially Newton’s Third Law of Action and Reaction, which states: for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. 

The Law of Action and Reaction collided with my week, or better put, potentially collided with my week. I made an action last Sunday morning which might have caused an opposite and equal reaction. I don’t know for sure, but it is conceivable. I indicated that my principal goal for 2023 was simple: more Bible at home, at church, and all points in between. Toward that goal, I created a space in the service for additional Scripture Readings, as they appear in the back of our blue, pew Bibles, with tear-off tabs on the communal cork board.

However, the technically unasked but legitimate question of who itched in my brain. Would someone in the congregation ask about the bearing that 1 Timothy 2:12 has on who can publicly read Scripture in the worship service (i.e., only the pastor, only the elders, only the men, only the members, etc.)? My quick answer to this unasked question was this: anyone and everyone. I still hold to my answer: anyone and everyone can read Scripture in public. Let me show you why I land and remain there, especially considering 1 Timothy 2:12, which is an important verse, but which talks about pastoring, not the reading of Scripture.

Paul wrote: “I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.” The pertinent word is quiet. What did it mean to Paul for women in the public worship setting to remain quiet. Significantly, he used the same word back in verse 2, applied to all Christians everywhere (not just Ephesus) to pray for all people (vs. 1) that the entire population “may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” (vs. 2). Clearly, quiet does not mean non-vocal in verse 2, and therefore can’t in verse 12. It means living harmonious with the established order that God has for society (e.g., under kings and rulers).

In the very next paragraphs, Paul gets into gender specific ways that peace, quietness, godliness, and dignity are expressed when the church assembles. All Christian males should resist their core temptation of passivity to God, but instead “pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or quarreling” (2:8). All Christian females should resist their core temptation of comparison toward others, but instead, “adorn themselves in respectful apparel, with modesty and self-control” (2:9). Our key verse sits here. The male church leaders “teach [and] exercise authority,” whereas the female church members follow, or remain quiet in the sense of living harmoniously within this God-established order in the church leadership.

Throughout chapters two and three, Paul continues his gender specific instructions: spiritually mature men serve as elders/pastors, if qualified (3:1-7), and spiritually mature women follow the elders’ leadership (2:11-14). This is what it looks like for peaceful, quiet, godly, and dignified Christian behavior in the church! It looks like unity, under Christ, in accordance with Scripture. Authoritative “teaching” (4:13b) is clearly distinct from “the public reading of Scripture” (4:13a). Therefore, it is biblical that anyone and everyone can read more Bible anywhere and everywhere, anytime and every time. Although no one technically asked!

God-breathed

Breathed Out By God.  I picked up bronchitis somewhere over the bridge into the New Year. It is mild but constant. Every breath is labored, like pulling oxygen through wet cotton. (Not like, it is exactly that!) Medicine helps, as do hot tea and honey, but the body simply must relinquish its determination that a threat is present and authorize the release of its extra, defensive layer of fluid that has swelled in my throat and lungs. (Sheesh, thanks for working so well, Mr. Immune System!)

As with every new day, there is a new lesson to learn, even while I am chewing on menthol cough drops like they are candy. (Not like, they are candy!) The inhale-exhale rhythm is physically remarkable and spiritually illustrative. We were designed to inhale, to take in a foreign molecule (oxygen) that exists naturally in a form that must undergo a change to become biologically useful. Respiration then infuses the converted oxygen to our bloodstream, which distributes usable oxygen to every cell in our body. Then, before we exhale, we link waste molecules (carbon dioxide) to the spent oxygen delivery system and carry it out again. The failure of any of these mechanisms is fatal within a few minutes. Inhale, exhale—even when asleep—inhale, exhale.

It is amazing that God created oxygen before he fashioned lungs to need oxygen. He provided air before he formed humans to require air. And he outbreathed his word before we inbreathed anything else in this world. It is no accident that God grabbed the inhale-exhale rhythm to explain not only the spiritual necessity of his word to life, but also its order: exhale-inhale. He provides before we need. Need comes later. God always precedes. Even if/when we use the air that God created and provided to formulate curses for hurling back at him—he provided that, too. Hang on, I need another cough drop because that sort of takes my breath away. (Not sort of, it does!)

“All Scripture is breathed out by God” (1 Timothy 3:16a). The Greek word is unique: theopneustos. Theo means God. Pneust means wind, or breath, or spirit. Put them together in an adjectival form to modify “all Scripture” and you get: God-exhaled. The word of God is the breath of God pushed out of his lungs, so to speak, which results in the inspired (think: inhaled, or inhalable) Scriptures. For eternal life we inhale that which God exhaled; we believe. All our spiritual activities, whether reading, praying, worshiping, teaching, evangelizing, fellowshipping, contemplating, lamenting, etc., are fundamentally built upon inhaling that which God has exhaled. *Whew*