NOTES for Joh 15:2-3

Jesus compares His listeners to branches on a grapevine, and not to fruitless branches, which are cut off, but to fruitful branches that the vinedresser must cleanse: from pests, from growths and scars that take away the sap. The Lord says that the word He preached brought His disciples such cleansing. What does He mean? Perhaps that His word, His preaching, builds in a person a clear dominant center, an awareness of life's meaning and direction. A word can crush, but it can also heal. The word of Christ, if it is heard and received, gives a person inner wholeness; it becomes in him an active power that allows him to carry joy and light into the world, for this is the word about God's love for us and about our love, the word about salvation and eternal life.