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Ezekiel 15:1-5 1 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying:
2 “Son of man, how is the wood of the vine better than any other wood, the vine branch which is among the trees of the forest?
3 Is wood taken from it to make any object? Or can men make a peg from it to hang any vessel on?
4 Instead, it is thrown into the fire for fuel; the fire devours both ends of it, and its middle is burned. Is it useful for any work?
5 Indeed, when it was whole, no object could be made from it. How much less will it be useful for any work when the fire has devoured it, and it is burned? (NKJV)
John 15:1-8 1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. (NKJV)
We are compared to branches of the vine and branches of no other wood because we ourselves are not the valued part.
Intrinsic value of a vine branch.
Wood generally has value in itself, intrinsic value, and can be used to make a table, build a house, carve a decorative piece, but a vine branch has no value in itself and nothing of value can be made out of a vine branch (Ezekiel 15:3, 5) In all my life I don’t think I’ve seen a single product made of vine branch.
We, as branches of a vine are valuable only if we remain on the vine and draw life from that vine…
The difference between our value to God and our value to humanity.
I have to make a disclaimer here.
We must separate our value to God personally, and our value as a human being on earth towards the world, towards other people.
When we are talking about our value to God, not the service we do for Him on this earth, but our value to God directly, then we are immensely valuable intrinsically and intrinsically only, and our service to people is a by-product. (Intrinsically I mean innate, native, belonging to us value, our own value that originates out of ourselves).
If we are talking about the line between me direct to God, the value and ties are so awesome, that Jesus left everything in heaven and became lowest of the low to save us (Philippians 2:5-8, John 3:16), and then God the Father adopted me and deposited a guarantee into me of His most precious Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:14), and God made me an heir to all He has and co-heir with Christ (Romans 8:16-17).
Our intrinsic value to God is incomprehensible and He loves us for ourselves and loved us while we were sinners (Romans 5:8) and loved us before we were able to love anyone (1 John 4:19).
So that things we can do for Him and His Kingdom on earth is a command for the time on the earth (Mark 16:14-20), but not a condition of His love.
On the other hand, our intrinsic value for other people and our our value as of the Body of Christ is ONLY in bringing the gospel along with the Holy Spirit and His power to the world.
We are to bring the gospel, and God will do the rest of the work, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
Value of a branch on a vine.
We, as branches of a vine are valuable only if they remain on the vine and draw life from that vine (which means to abide in Jesus).
We are only valuable and do our job if we let the life of Jesus flow through us (which means Jesus abides in us, Jesus is the truth, way, and life), but we must pass on that life into a fruit and not retain it inside us.
We are kept alive and flourish due the that life, but not as the final destination for the life of Jesus, because if we take in all the life of Jesus into us we become lush and green and pretty on the outside, but the season of summer will end and season of fall will come and leaves will wither and fall off and such branch will be cut off and thrown into the fire.
Value of a branch off the vine.
A branch not on a vine, one that doesn’t abide in Jesus, is cast out and withers and nothing good can be made out of it so its only good to be burned and to serve as fuel. (John 15:6, Ezekiel 15:4, 6).
Without Jesus we can do nothing (John 15:5).
As I understand it, Jesus means nothing of value, nothing of eternal value.
Many people do much, even have grand business and are grand influencers, but in the end it meaningless and they take nothing with them and children inherit and don’t care, or event if they do care, in the end its just moving molecules around of a world that will perish (book of Ecclesiastes elaborates on this well).
Fruit. What is it?
If the vine branch does what its made for (so the person not seeking to be looking good and hoarding all that Jesus has given it, His life, and not seeking for intrinsic value, to be valuable for the world in itself), then it will produce fruit.
Isaiah 5:7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, And the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression; For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help. (NKJV)
So Isaiah says that the fruit is righteousness and justice and righteousness and justice are the foundation of God’s throne (Psalm 89:14).
These are grapes, though, it seems like, as the final product of grapes is wine through crushing and fermentation; wine represents the Holy Spirit in the Bible.
So the final fruit is the Holy Spirit, the most dearest understanding of God we have and the power which we receive to serve on the earth and to advance the Kingdom (you shall receive power… Acts 1:8) and Holy Spirit is resting on God’s government and His throne or righteousness and justice.
Bring the Holy Spirit to the people.
So, we bring fruit if we bring the Holy Spirit to people of this world, since gospel without God is a story that people read and write about without understanding it, because only by the spirit spiritual things can be discerned (1 Cor. 2:14) and people think that its foolishness if God doesn’t reveal it to them (1 Cor. 1:18).
We bring the gospel with the Holy Spirit or power of the Holy Spirit to the people in the world and their heart responds and they confess with mouth and start believing in their heart and then they receive salvation (Rom. 10:9-10) and by abiding in Christ become a living branch too, which will bear fruit in its turn.
We may bring the Holy Spirit to people and they don’t receive salvation or the message of the Gospel, but then they will see the Fruit of the Holy Spirit:
love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Gal. 5:22-23),
and eventually the fruit of our fruit (Holy Spirit is our fruit, what we bring to the people, and the qualities in our character are the fruit of the Holy Spirit in us) so eventually the fruit of our fruit, the character produced in us by the Holy Spirit, will draw the people to God and they will receive salvation and confess and abide and become a branch.
In either case, right away or with time, people need the Holy Spirit and His power to make a decision to follow Christ and Paul says that
he came to Corinthians not with eloquent speech and human wisdom but in weakness, and fear, and much trembling, and without persuasive words, so their faith would not be in wisdom of men, but in the power of God (1 Cor. 2:1-5)
and then the Holy Spirit will teach them and remind them (John 14:26) and will reveal truth to them and will not lie to them (1 John 2:27). That is all the job of the Holy Spirit, but our job is to bring our fruit, which is to bring the Holy Spirit to the people!
Bring ONLY the Holy Spirit to the people, don’t mix in yourself.
Seems pretty easy, we just have to watch that we bring the pure Holy Spirit to the people, not add our own attitude and thinking and ideas and convictions and analysis… which shows again that we have to be out of the picture completely, because the value is not in us, but in the fruit that we bear, in the Holy Spirit, and we live by abiding in Jesus and full of Him only, and nothing of ourselves.
Value is in being needed, used, and having God’s life flow through me.
We, as a branch, as a vessel, have no value, except what we carry and bring something, and if we are used by God.
Vine branch is good only for fire if its dead, and the most beautiful vessel without a master or a household lies useless, collecting dust and deteriorating.
We only have value if we have God’s life FLOWING, FLOWING, FLOWING through us to others (holding expensive wine or perfume or gold in a pot, is only valuable if there is hope for a use in the future, so its still a form of a flow).
Romans 9:20-21 20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? (NKJV).
We see from the verse above that even the honor and dishonor is ONLY defined by the MAKER, if the maker doesn’t decide what the thing is for, its useless and has no intrinsic value.
The only value I can bring to the world is God.
I have intrinsic value for the owner, He loves me, and for the time being, on this earth, He decided that I’m valuable and useful (He loves me either way) if I carry God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit to the people who don’t yet have Him.
That is my value, the flow of Jesus’s life that I get from abiding in Him into a fruit, which is to bring the Holy Spirit to people of this world.
Its not about what I can do for people with my abilities and thinking and ideas and so on, those things are actually a hinderance and they create controversies and arguments and disappointments, but its about what God can do when I bring Him to people.
I have no value without God for people, and even with God I still don’t have intrinsic value for people in this world if I don’t carry God and don’t bring God to others, but only hold on to the life He gives me.