And if you don’t remain …
May 30, 2010
“If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.” (John 15:6 NIV)
The preachers talk all around this verse. This morning, my pastor at least said, “You figure out what it means. It’s not good.” The once saved, always saved crowd and their more honest Calvinist brethren won’t usually commit to anything more than “You’ll lose some of your reward in heaven” or, perhaps, “You’ll experience some kind of punishment before you enter heaven.”
Not sure what the biblical basis for either of those ideas is. Would like to know.
But it seems clear from the passage that Jesus is talking to someone who is abiding/remaining in him and warning them of the danger of not abiding/remaining. It’s not directed to someone who is only “almost saved” or “never was really saved in the first place.”
And what is the burning? Clearly it’s about destruction, not purification. Unproductive land might be burned off to make it more productive. Hebrews talks about that. But withered branches are burned to destroy them. They have no use and no future.
