worthless and need to be cleared away. The fruit produced by a good branch is likeness to Christ. Paul identifies the fruit of the Spirit as “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Gal 5:22–23). Branches that do bear fruit Jesus prunes. Since kathairō (lit., “to make clean”) may be understood in both the figurative sense of moral purification and the more literal sense of pruning, it serves well the dual reference of the analogy. Branches are pruned