"And as they begin to grow ye shall clear away the branches which bring forth bitter fruit, according to the strength of the good and the size thereof; and ye shall not clear away the bad thereof all at once, lest the roots thereof should be too strong for the graft, and the graft thereof shall perish, and I lose the trees of my vineyard.
For it grieveth me that I should lose the trees of my vineyard; wherefore ye shall clear away the bad according as the good shall grow, that the root and the top may be equal in strength, until the good shall overcome the bad, and the bad be hewn down and cast into the fire, that they cumber not the ground of my vineyard; and thus will I sweep away the bad out of my vineyard."
Jacob 5:65-66
This is part of the parable of the trees in the vineyard, and I really like this part because of how the symbolism seems to relate to life today. In the parable, the Lord of the vineyard and his servant are basically gardening and trying to get the olive trees to bring forth good fruit. They have some that used to produce good fruit and they graft the branches into some wild trees, and wild branches into the original tree to try to strengthen the whole group. It doesn't work at first and there are all kinds of bad fruit, so the Lord of the vineyard considers just burning the whole thing and starting over, but the servant talks him into trying again. They try different things, in the end grafting the natural branches back into the tree where they started. Then they start to see good fruit coming back into the garden, which is where these verses come in. The Lord of the vineyard instructs his servants to remove the bad "according as the good shall grow" and explains that this is how he is going to "sweep away the bad."
Looking around in the world we often see a lot of bad things. Part of this is that the news and a lot of our entertainment media is hyperfocused on bad things, part of this is our own tendency to pessimism, and part of it (of course) is that there really are bad things out there. I think we forget sometimes that there are also an overwhelming amount of really, really good things. There are some areas where we as a society are making changes for the better, and I think if we would pay attention, we would also see some really amazing good things about the people around us.
The vineyard in this parable is symbolic of the world, and in order to help God sweep away the bad, we need to grow our goodness, and help the people around us grow as well. Let's think about how we can step it up a notch and make an impact. From the verses above, I think God is more than willing to match our efforts, and make room for us if we try. Let's find and magnify all the good we can, and make a difference.
For it grieveth me that I should lose the trees of my vineyard; wherefore ye shall clear away the bad according as the good shall grow, that the root and the top may be equal in strength, until the good shall overcome the bad, and the bad be hewn down and cast into the fire, that they cumber not the ground of my vineyard; and thus will I sweep away the bad out of my vineyard."
Jacob 5:65-66
This is part of the parable of the trees in the vineyard, and I really like this part because of how the symbolism seems to relate to life today. In the parable, the Lord of the vineyard and his servant are basically gardening and trying to get the olive trees to bring forth good fruit. They have some that used to produce good fruit and they graft the branches into some wild trees, and wild branches into the original tree to try to strengthen the whole group. It doesn't work at first and there are all kinds of bad fruit, so the Lord of the vineyard considers just burning the whole thing and starting over, but the servant talks him into trying again. They try different things, in the end grafting the natural branches back into the tree where they started. Then they start to see good fruit coming back into the garden, which is where these verses come in. The Lord of the vineyard instructs his servants to remove the bad "according as the good shall grow" and explains that this is how he is going to "sweep away the bad."
Looking around in the world we often see a lot of bad things. Part of this is that the news and a lot of our entertainment media is hyperfocused on bad things, part of this is our own tendency to pessimism, and part of it (of course) is that there really are bad things out there. I think we forget sometimes that there are also an overwhelming amount of really, really good things. There are some areas where we as a society are making changes for the better, and I think if we would pay attention, we would also see some really amazing good things about the people around us.
The vineyard in this parable is symbolic of the world, and in order to help God sweep away the bad, we need to grow our goodness, and help the people around us grow as well. Let's think about how we can step it up a notch and make an impact. From the verses above, I think God is more than willing to match our efforts, and make room for us if we try. Let's find and magnify all the good we can, and make a difference.
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