And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it:
The gardener's answer is a plea to spare the barren fig tree one more year while he digs around it and enriches the soil in hope it will yet bear fruit before it is cut down. The dresser is the Son pleading with the Father, showing mercy working with justice and their oneness in love for the people under their care. The added year is a limited time of probation and visitation to prove whether fruit will come, and the digging and fertilizing are every means divine love can devise, from light and warning and entreaty to guarding care and affliction, to draw to the Saviour and make fruitful lives. The tree was the generation of Israel during Christ's personal ministry of healing, teaching and inviting, with the outcome left to their choice, and it stands for all who receive God's gifts and care yet show no fruit. The fruit required is a pure, Christlike character and useful service answering to blessings received, for mere profession, leaves and church membership without living connection to Christ leaves a life that blesses no one and will at last be cut down.
Words and Historical Setting
The request came after hearers reported that Pontius Pilate's soldiers had invaded the temple precincts and cut down Galilean pilgrims in the very act of slaying their sacrifices following a popular tumult in Jerusalem. They told it with secret satisfaction because they held that calamity is judgment for the sufferer's sin and that their own good fortune proved they were much better and more favored by heaven than those Galileans. They judged that those men richly deserved their punishment and expected condemnation of the Galileans to be spoken.
The answer belongs to a warning of the coming of the kingdom of God and a sharp rebuke of ignorance and indifference. It was addressed to a people quick to read signs in the sky that foretell the weather yet failing to discern the signs of the times that clearly pointed to the mission then present among them.
The gardener's answer asks the owner to spare the barren fig tree one more year while he digs about it and fertilizes it in hope it will bear fruit before it is cut down. The plea is to hold back cutting down the big leafy but fruitless tree, with the gardener with his spade standing by to dig about it and dress the soil with manure so it may yet bear fruit. The extra time is a period of probation illustrating patience with a people given rich opportunities and privileges and great advantages and sacred responsibilities, from whom fruit is still expected under threat of being cut down if fruitlessness continues. The tree stands for people who show no spiritual fruit and are accountable to bear good fruit, since avoiding wrong acts is not enough without doing the good made possible by grace, lest they be counted as cumberers of the ground.
The fruitless tree was one of the familiar works of nature used to impress important truths of the kingdom and connect teaching with the natural world. The barren soil and tree that bore no fruit were among the familiar sights joined to lessons about God, so that seeing them afterward would bring the lesson back to mind.
Dresser, Mercy, and Probation
The dresser pleading for the barren tree to be spared is the Son pleading with the Father, and the plea displays Christ's mission of mercy in its relation to justice and judgment. Their oneness of interest in the tree shows the Father and the Son are one in love for the chosen people. The final effort of the dresser was Christ coming in person to plead with the Jewish nation and give it a last opportunity to repent, while for the unfruitful person it is Jesus asking that light of truth be given a little longer before judgment follows.
The dresser does not dispute that a fruitless tree ought to be cut down, but he knows and shares the owner's interest in it. Nothing would give him greater joy than its growth and fruitfulness. He does not refuse to minister to so unpromising a plant, but stands ready to give it still greater care, making its surroundings most favorable and lavishing every attention upon it.
The added year is a limited period of probation, a day of visitation and further season of mercy to prove whether fruit will come. It is granted to those bearing no fruit and bears long with God's people, especially those with great advantages and in high and sacred trust, that old things may pass away and all become new and work corresponding to sacred truth may follow. The time is not endless and must be used without delay to repent, reform, heed the Spirit's warnings, produce good works and bless others, for a heart resisting the Holy Spirit becomes hardened. Continued fruitlessness and refusal of invitations and warnings bring judgment and ultimate complete separation from Christ like a dead branch severed from the vine, leaving each to the consequences of his own choice.
The digging about the tree and dunging it, with roots tended and branches pruned, mean increased opportunities and every means divine love can devise put into operation so they may become trees of righteousness bringing forth fruit for the blessing of the world. It is a further trial with divine light, the example of goodness, lessons, renewed advantages, and new opportunities. It includes goodness and mercy passing before the sinner, moment-by-moment guarding and angels' protection, warnings and entreaties, and loss and affliction and discipline to draw the wrongdoer to the Saviour. Those receiving talents and divine help are thus watched for a response to Christ's sacrifice and expected to bear fruit for His glory.
The care is unwearied and is not lessened but increased. God does not look coldly on the fruitless professed believer, turn away in indifference, abandon him, or leave him to destruction, but pities him and spares the cumberer who dimly knows it while pleading still. This added probation was shown in Christ's ministry for Israel, His prayer for forgiveness at the cross, and the first preaching of the gospel at Jerusalem. Yet if the heart remains unresponsive and hardened to the Holy Spirit, the sentence to cut down follows.
Fruit God Requires
The tree stands for people who receive gifts and watchful care yet show no spiritual fruit, given further opportunity and care while judgment remains possible. Profession of righteousness is not enough, for God looks for fruit-bearing lives, especially from teachers of the gospel who must feed others with pure teaching and represent its saving power everywhere. Church membership and hearing the gospel do not by themselves prove a living connection with Christ, which is seen in the fruits of the Spirit and in vital godliness and heart-holiness. The lesson pictures those who profess faith but do no useful work for God, like trees without fruit taking up ground and shading trees that could bear fruit. Such fruitless ones live hoping to grow better someday yet do not advance, lowering the standard to meet their attainments, failing to prepare against Satan, and failing to war against selfishness and pride and to crucify self.
The fruit Christ expects answers to the blessings received and to His sacrifice, a pure, holy, Christlike character marked by godliness, self-denial for others, meekness and loveliness of heart, together with penitence, faith and obedience to law and commandments. Avoiding wrong acts is not enough, for each must also do the good that grace enables, or be counted a cumberer of the ground. Profession of faith alone is not enough; God expects works in keeping with truth and light entrusted, useful service in which light received is let to shine to others. That life bears fruit in labor to lead others from sin to truth and righteousness, in care and effort for their salvation, putting time, influence, abilities and money into service so others may receive truth and bear fruit.
Gifts lavished on the unfruitful convey no blessing to the world, and the unproductive boughs only darken ground where fruit-bearing plants could flourish. They take up ground and shade trees that could bear fruit, occupying ground where fruitful trees could grow. In so doing they rob others of privileges that but for them might be theirs, while still receiving rain and sunshine and care and drawing nourishment from the soil. Those who are do-nothings and ignore work and personal responsibility only cumber the ground, and this stands against their names in the book of heaven.
The extra year is probation showing patience, yet those given great advantages and sacred responsibilities are still expected to bear fruit, and continued fruitlessness brings prospect of being cut down. Work corresponding to sacred truth must follow, old things passing away and all becoming new, or after probation ends comes complete separation like a dead branch severed from the vine for those already separated in heart. God gives time and care while rightly expecting fruit, examining each life for the fruit that religious privileges and sacred responsibilities should produce. He expects returns proportionate to blessings given, and expects fruit rather than leaves alone, with opportunity to respond by trusting Him. A life spent avoiding work leaves good undone, and each must answer for opportunities given, while the faithful who use what they have been given receive approval.
Israel's Last Opportunity
The barren tree is the generation of Israel standing under God's special care and blessing, and the three years of seeking fruit are Christ's own personal ministry among them. During that time He tended them as a planted vine, laboring to awaken them to receive Him as their hope and Messiah. His work was to heal and comfort, to forgive and teach, and to invite them to receive mercy, refreshing and nurturing hearts and characters with rich opportunities and privileges. For three years He brought solemn warnings and gracious invitations with repeated entreaties and blessings, seeking fruit among them.
The added year is lingering love unwilling to give up the chosen people even while guilt was filling up and light was persistently rejected. It means new experiments of mercy and grace, with increased pitying care rather than immediate abandonment or destruction, so the unfruitful might yet respond and bear fruit. Christ was reluctant to pronounce doom and did all He could to save, and that pleading continued in His prayer for forgiveness at the cross and in the gospel first preached at Jerusalem before probation ended. The opportunity was not endless, for a heart remaining unresponsive and hardened against the Holy Spirit brings the sentence to cut down.
The result is left untold and rested with the generation hearing Christ, who must decide whether the irrevocable sentence would be spoken. If they remained fruitless, cutting down was certain, the house left desolate, and destruction would follow. Calamities already fallen on Israel were merciful forewarnings of that destruction of the unfruitful, for the day of wrath was near. Christ's later act of cursing the barren fig tree shows the outcome chosen by failing to profit from blessings given. Jerusalem's refusal of the mercy offered brought its own doom, proving patience did not mean rejection could continue without end.
The fig tree represents not only the Jews but all who neglect heaven's gifts, from whom fruit is expected answering to blessings received and to Christ's sacrifice. That fruit is a pure, holy character marked by godliness, self-denial for others, meekness and loveliness of heart, together with penitence, faith and obedience to God's law after the pattern of Jesus' obedience to His Father.
Warning and Call Today
The sentence on the fruitless tree sounds as a warning for all time to this generation, to all churches and Christians and to every careless heart long receiving gifts while watched and waited upon for a return of love. God hates vain pretense, and the open sinner is less guilty than one who professes to serve Him but bears no fruit to His glory. Such a one takes the name of Christ and is outwardly a member of the church which is His body, often thrilled by the tender gospel message, yet conscious of no living connection with the great heart of love, with none of the tide of His life flowing through and none of the sweet graces of His character, the fruits of the Spirit, seen in the life. Living for self, pleasing self, gathering for self, observing forms of worship without repentance or faith, honoring the law in profession without obedience, and saying but not doing, is like the pretentious but fruitless tree, whose bitter and profitless fruit brings the warning that the tree will be cut down. Still receiving rain and sunshine and the gardener's care and drawing nourishment from the soil, its unproductive boughs only darken the ground so fruit-bearing plants cannot flourish in its shadow, so gifts lavished upon it convey no blessing to the world and rob others of privileges that but for it might be theirs.
Conferences, institutions and churches are that tree when appearing active but lacking the virtue in workers' lives that leads to the saving of souls, for Christ searches for fruit answering to care bestowed. The Owner had sought fruit for more than two years and patiently expects returns from those He has cared for. Ministers who stir up interest but fail to complete their work are after further time and care and a further test laid aside as cumberers of the ground. Workers in the vineyard who bear no fruit in soul-saving are given added care before removal, which means looking after men in different places to see the result of their labor, giving proper labor to help them bear fruit, and transplanting the tree to another field if it bears nothing where it is. If after that proper labor it still bears no fruit, it is to be removed as an unprofitable servant in soul-saving and encouraged to go into business to earn means to sustain laborers with tact and wisdom who in the fear of God will win souls, so large territory can be worked at little cost.
Church members who hear the truth but do no missionary work, who are do-nothings ignoring all work and personal responsibility, are the fruitless fig tree in God's vineyard that only cumbers the ground. Their position is sinful neglect to use talents given them and slothfulness for which they will be self-convicted and self-condemned, years behind what is required, leaving ministers to search out and display the jewels of truth while they fail to voice that truth and diffuse its light to others. Neglect of daily opportunities for service leaves people fruitless and withered, darkening with unproductive boughs ground that other fruit-bearing trees would occupy, and this will stand against their names in history in the book of heaven, leaving a blank where fruit should be. They should confess, Lord, I am that fruitless fig tree, recognize failure to do the work entrusted in the vineyard, repent of slothfulness and seek forgiveness. They are to become fruit-bearers doing duty to the world, using gifts to spread truth, diffuse light and work to bring souls from darkness to light, with every possible effort made to treat each such case rightly, lest they remain withered.
The reprieve is pleaded for particular persons still spared a little longer with care and another opportunity to bear fruit that will not last indefinitely. Jesus pleads for a little more time for Bro. V., given further opportunity to turn to the truth so that if converted he could serve as a pillar in the church and honor God through an influence made holy by truth. So also Brother Ball is given more time rather than cut off immediately, that if he turns his talents and influence can serve and honor God in the church. The same appeal spares a covetous person yet given time to earnestly seek the kingdom. One standing under Satan's banner in rebellion by refusing to keep the commandments is an unfruitful tree uselessly occupying ground and facing order for destruction at any moment, with life uncertain and able to be suddenly ended by disease or accident or loss of reason by death, yet judgment is held back in a present special invitation to come to Jesus Christ, with conviction by the Holy Spirit and love shown in giving His only begotten Son for eternal life, given only on condition of obedience in leaving rebellion to stand loyal and true under Christ's banner. Those living in disobedience have not yet been cut down as a useless burden, and when enlightened can undergo thorough religious reformation. A man is urged to repent and change conduct, and a wrongdoer left unwarned will go on in heedless indifference in sin until cut down like a cumberer, so plain words of reproof and counsel must be spoken and not withheld.
The call to the unfruitful is to consecrate self to God and center affections and hopes in Him. Those who have spent years in His care are to show the opportunity bearing fruit by growing in reverence, love, humility and trust, giving thanks for mercies, blessing others, representing Jesus in family life, and teaching God's works to children, so goodness and good deeds reveal a Christlike character. This requires putting the hand confidently in His hand, returning humble to wear His yoke and learn meekness to find rest, appreciating instruction so conviction and transformation follow, being nourished by the Word, crucifying selfishness and pride and fighting the natural heart. A life not nourished by the Word becomes weak and fruitless, unable to do God's will, and a self-important and self-deceived life without spiritual fruit needs converting power, while a self-important, defrauded, business-first life degraded by sin becomes weak and doomed when judgment comes.
The case is not yet hopeless while cultivated, for the owner is asked to spare it another year with further care, picturing patient mercy pleading for those who have neglected the good they could have done. God bears long and gives time for repentance and room to respond through strengthening grace, renewing benefits and calling after the wanderer because the kingdom is at hand, warning and disciplining and using loss, affliction and hardship to draw the wrongdoer to the Saviour. Being in His garden is not enough, for people are accountable to bear fruit for His glory and the good of others through His grace, and profession without good works is like flourishing leaves without fruit. Yet a heart that resists the Holy Spirit becomes hardened, and if warnings and discipline do not lead to the Saviour the opportunity ends and the fruitless tree is finally cut down.
The gardener's answer is a plea to spare the barren fig tree one more year while he digs around it and enriches the soil in hope it will yet bear fruit before it is cut down. The dresser is the Son pleading with the Father, showing mercy working with justice and their oneness in love for the people under their care. The added year is a limited time of probation and visitation to prove whether fruit will come, and the digging and fertilizing are every means divine love can devise, from light and warning and entreaty to guarding care and affliction, to draw to the Saviour and make fruitful lives. The tree was the generation of Israel during Christ's personal ministry of healing, teaching and inviting, with the outcome left to their choice, and it stands for all who receive God's gifts and care yet show no fruit. The fruit required is a pure, Christlike character and useful service answering to blessings received, for mere profession, leaves and church membership without living connection to Christ leaves a life that blesses no one and will at last be cut down.
Words and Historical Setting
The request came after hearers reported that Pontius Pilate's soldiers had invaded the temple precincts and cut down Galilean pilgrims in the very act of slaying their sacrifices following a popular tumult in Jerusalem. They told it with secret satisfaction because they held that calamity is judgment for the sufferer's sin and that their own good fortune proved they were much better and more favored by heaven than those Galileans. They judged that those men richly deserved their punishment and expected condemnation of the Galileans to be spoken.
The answer belongs to a warning of the coming of the kingdom of God and a sharp rebuke of ignorance and indifference. It was addressed to a people quick to read signs in the sky that foretell the weather yet failing to discern the signs of the times that clearly pointed to the mission then present among them.
The gardener's answer asks the owner to spare the barren fig tree one more year while he digs about it and fertilizes it in hope it will bear fruit before it is cut down. The plea is to hold back cutting down the big leafy but fruitless tree, with the gardener with his spade standing by to dig about it and dress the soil with manure so it may yet bear fruit. The extra time is a period of probation illustrating patience with a people given rich opportunities and privileges and great advantages and sacred responsibilities, from whom fruit is still expected under threat of being cut down if fruitlessness continues. The tree stands for people who show no spiritual fruit and are accountable to bear good fruit, since avoiding wrong acts is not enough without doing the good made possible by grace, lest they be counted as cumberers of the ground.
The fruitless tree was one of the familiar works of nature used to impress important truths of the kingdom and connect teaching with the natural world. The barren soil and tree that bore no fruit were among the familiar sights joined to lessons about God, so that seeing them afterward would bring the lesson back to mind.
Dresser, Mercy, and Probation
The dresser pleading for the barren tree to be spared is the Son pleading with the Father, and the plea displays Christ's mission of mercy in its relation to justice and judgment. Their oneness of interest in the tree shows the Father and the Son are one in love for the chosen people. The final effort of the dresser was Christ coming in person to plead with the Jewish nation and give it a last opportunity to repent, while for the unfruitful person it is Jesus asking that light of truth be given a little longer before judgment follows.
The dresser does not dispute that a fruitless tree ought to be cut down, but he knows and shares the owner's interest in it. Nothing would give him greater joy than its growth and fruitfulness. He does not refuse to minister to so unpromising a plant, but stands ready to give it still greater care, making its surroundings most favorable and lavishing every attention upon it.
The added year is a limited period of probation, a day of visitation and further season of mercy to prove whether fruit will come. It is granted to those bearing no fruit and bears long with God's people, especially those with great advantages and in high and sacred trust, that old things may pass away and all become new and work corresponding to sacred truth may follow. The time is not endless and must be used without delay to repent, reform, heed the Spirit's warnings, produce good works and bless others, for a heart resisting the Holy Spirit becomes hardened. Continued fruitlessness and refusal of invitations and warnings bring judgment and ultimate complete separation from Christ like a dead branch severed from the vine, leaving each to the consequences of his own choice.
The digging about the tree and dunging it, with roots tended and branches pruned, mean increased opportunities and every means divine love can devise put into operation so they may become trees of righteousness bringing forth fruit for the blessing of the world. It is a further trial with divine light, the example of goodness, lessons, renewed advantages, and new opportunities. It includes goodness and mercy passing before the sinner, moment-by-moment guarding and angels' protection, warnings and entreaties, and loss and affliction and discipline to draw the wrongdoer to the Saviour. Those receiving talents and divine help are thus watched for a response to Christ's sacrifice and expected to bear fruit for His glory.
The care is unwearied and is not lessened but increased. God does not look coldly on the fruitless professed believer, turn away in indifference, abandon him, or leave him to destruction, but pities him and spares the cumberer who dimly knows it while pleading still. This added probation was shown in Christ's ministry for Israel, His prayer for forgiveness at the cross, and the first preaching of the gospel at Jerusalem. Yet if the heart remains unresponsive and hardened to the Holy Spirit, the sentence to cut down follows.
Fruit God Requires
The tree stands for people who receive gifts and watchful care yet show no spiritual fruit, given further opportunity and care while judgment remains possible. Profession of righteousness is not enough, for God looks for fruit-bearing lives, especially from teachers of the gospel who must feed others with pure teaching and represent its saving power everywhere. Church membership and hearing the gospel do not by themselves prove a living connection with Christ, which is seen in the fruits of the Spirit and in vital godliness and heart-holiness. The lesson pictures those who profess faith but do no useful work for God, like trees without fruit taking up ground and shading trees that could bear fruit. Such fruitless ones live hoping to grow better someday yet do not advance, lowering the standard to meet their attainments, failing to prepare against Satan, and failing to war against selfishness and pride and to crucify self.
The fruit Christ expects answers to the blessings received and to His sacrifice, a pure, holy, Christlike character marked by godliness, self-denial for others, meekness and loveliness of heart, together with penitence, faith and obedience to law and commandments. Avoiding wrong acts is not enough, for each must also do the good that grace enables, or be counted a cumberer of the ground. Profession of faith alone is not enough; God expects works in keeping with truth and light entrusted, useful service in which light received is let to shine to others. That life bears fruit in labor to lead others from sin to truth and righteousness, in care and effort for their salvation, putting time, influence, abilities and money into service so others may receive truth and bear fruit.
Gifts lavished on the unfruitful convey no blessing to the world, and the unproductive boughs only darken ground where fruit-bearing plants could flourish. They take up ground and shade trees that could bear fruit, occupying ground where fruitful trees could grow. In so doing they rob others of privileges that but for them might be theirs, while still receiving rain and sunshine and care and drawing nourishment from the soil. Those who are do-nothings and ignore work and personal responsibility only cumber the ground, and this stands against their names in the book of heaven.
The extra year is probation showing patience, yet those given great advantages and sacred responsibilities are still expected to bear fruit, and continued fruitlessness brings prospect of being cut down. Work corresponding to sacred truth must follow, old things passing away and all becoming new, or after probation ends comes complete separation like a dead branch severed from the vine for those already separated in heart. God gives time and care while rightly expecting fruit, examining each life for the fruit that religious privileges and sacred responsibilities should produce. He expects returns proportionate to blessings given, and expects fruit rather than leaves alone, with opportunity to respond by trusting Him. A life spent avoiding work leaves good undone, and each must answer for opportunities given, while the faithful who use what they have been given receive approval.
Israel's Last Opportunity
The barren tree is the generation of Israel standing under God's special care and blessing, and the three years of seeking fruit are Christ's own personal ministry among them. During that time He tended them as a planted vine, laboring to awaken them to receive Him as their hope and Messiah. His work was to heal and comfort, to forgive and teach, and to invite them to receive mercy, refreshing and nurturing hearts and characters with rich opportunities and privileges. For three years He brought solemn warnings and gracious invitations with repeated entreaties and blessings, seeking fruit among them.
The added year is lingering love unwilling to give up the chosen people even while guilt was filling up and light was persistently rejected. It means new experiments of mercy and grace, with increased pitying care rather than immediate abandonment or destruction, so the unfruitful might yet respond and bear fruit. Christ was reluctant to pronounce doom and did all He could to save, and that pleading continued in His prayer for forgiveness at the cross and in the gospel first preached at Jerusalem before probation ended. The opportunity was not endless, for a heart remaining unresponsive and hardened against the Holy Spirit brings the sentence to cut down.
The result is left untold and rested with the generation hearing Christ, who must decide whether the irrevocable sentence would be spoken. If they remained fruitless, cutting down was certain, the house left desolate, and destruction would follow. Calamities already fallen on Israel were merciful forewarnings of that destruction of the unfruitful, for the day of wrath was near. Christ's later act of cursing the barren fig tree shows the outcome chosen by failing to profit from blessings given. Jerusalem's refusal of the mercy offered brought its own doom, proving patience did not mean rejection could continue without end.
The fig tree represents not only the Jews but all who neglect heaven's gifts, from whom fruit is expected answering to blessings received and to Christ's sacrifice. That fruit is a pure, holy character marked by godliness, self-denial for others, meekness and loveliness of heart, together with penitence, faith and obedience to God's law after the pattern of Jesus' obedience to His Father.
Warning and Call Today
The sentence on the fruitless tree sounds as a warning for all time to this generation, to all churches and Christians and to every careless heart long receiving gifts while watched and waited upon for a return of love. God hates vain pretense, and the open sinner is less guilty than one who professes to serve Him but bears no fruit to His glory. Such a one takes the name of Christ and is outwardly a member of the church which is His body, often thrilled by the tender gospel message, yet conscious of no living connection with the great heart of love, with none of the tide of His life flowing through and none of the sweet graces of His character, the fruits of the Spirit, seen in the life. Living for self, pleasing self, gathering for self, observing forms of worship without repentance or faith, honoring the law in profession without obedience, and saying but not doing, is like the pretentious but fruitless tree, whose bitter and profitless fruit brings the warning that the tree will be cut down. Still receiving rain and sunshine and the gardener's care and drawing nourishment from the soil, its unproductive boughs only darken the ground so fruit-bearing plants cannot flourish in its shadow, so gifts lavished upon it convey no blessing to the world and rob others of privileges that but for it might be theirs.
Conferences, institutions and churches are that tree when appearing active but lacking the virtue in workers' lives that leads to the saving of souls, for Christ searches for fruit answering to care bestowed. The Owner had sought fruit for more than two years and patiently expects returns from those He has cared for. Ministers who stir up interest but fail to complete their work are after further time and care and a further test laid aside as cumberers of the ground. Workers in the vineyard who bear no fruit in soul-saving are given added care before removal, which means looking after men in different places to see the result of their labor, giving proper labor to help them bear fruit, and transplanting the tree to another field if it bears nothing where it is. If after that proper labor it still bears no fruit, it is to be removed as an unprofitable servant in soul-saving and encouraged to go into business to earn means to sustain laborers with tact and wisdom who in the fear of God will win souls, so large territory can be worked at little cost.
Church members who hear the truth but do no missionary work, who are do-nothings ignoring all work and personal responsibility, are the fruitless fig tree in God's vineyard that only cumbers the ground. Their position is sinful neglect to use talents given them and slothfulness for which they will be self-convicted and self-condemned, years behind what is required, leaving ministers to search out and display the jewels of truth while they fail to voice that truth and diffuse its light to others. Neglect of daily opportunities for service leaves people fruitless and withered, darkening with unproductive boughs ground that other fruit-bearing trees would occupy, and this will stand against their names in history in the book of heaven, leaving a blank where fruit should be. They should confess, Lord, I am that fruitless fig tree, recognize failure to do the work entrusted in the vineyard, repent of slothfulness and seek forgiveness. They are to become fruit-bearers doing duty to the world, using gifts to spread truth, diffuse light and work to bring souls from darkness to light, with every possible effort made to treat each such case rightly, lest they remain withered.
The reprieve is pleaded for particular persons still spared a little longer with care and another opportunity to bear fruit that will not last indefinitely. Jesus pleads for a little more time for Bro. V., given further opportunity to turn to the truth so that if converted he could serve as a pillar in the church and honor God through an influence made holy by truth. So also Brother Ball is given more time rather than cut off immediately, that if he turns his talents and influence can serve and honor God in the church. The same appeal spares a covetous person yet given time to earnestly seek the kingdom. One standing under Satan's banner in rebellion by refusing to keep the commandments is an unfruitful tree uselessly occupying ground and facing order for destruction at any moment, with life uncertain and able to be suddenly ended by disease or accident or loss of reason by death, yet judgment is held back in a present special invitation to come to Jesus Christ, with conviction by the Holy Spirit and love shown in giving His only begotten Son for eternal life, given only on condition of obedience in leaving rebellion to stand loyal and true under Christ's banner. Those living in disobedience have not yet been cut down as a useless burden, and when enlightened can undergo thorough religious reformation. A man is urged to repent and change conduct, and a wrongdoer left unwarned will go on in heedless indifference in sin until cut down like a cumberer, so plain words of reproof and counsel must be spoken and not withheld.
The call to the unfruitful is to consecrate self to God and center affections and hopes in Him. Those who have spent years in His care are to show the opportunity bearing fruit by growing in reverence, love, humility and trust, giving thanks for mercies, blessing others, representing Jesus in family life, and teaching God's works to children, so goodness and good deeds reveal a Christlike character. This requires putting the hand confidently in His hand, returning humble to wear His yoke and learn meekness to find rest, appreciating instruction so conviction and transformation follow, being nourished by the Word, crucifying selfishness and pride and fighting the natural heart. A life not nourished by the Word becomes weak and fruitless, unable to do God's will, and a self-important and self-deceived life without spiritual fruit needs converting power, while a self-important, defrauded, business-first life degraded by sin becomes weak and doomed when judgment comes.
The case is not yet hopeless while cultivated, for the owner is asked to spare it another year with further care, picturing patient mercy pleading for those who have neglected the good they could have done. God bears long and gives time for repentance and room to respond through strengthening grace, renewing benefits and calling after the wanderer because the kingdom is at hand, warning and disciplining and using loss, affliction and hardship to draw the wrongdoer to the Saviour. Being in His garden is not enough, for people are accountable to bear fruit for His glory and the good of others through His grace, and profession without good works is like flourishing leaves without fruit. Yet a heart that resists the Holy Spirit becomes hardened, and if warnings and discipline do not lead to the Saviour the opportunity ends and the fruitless tree is finally cut down.