is thrown away as a branch, and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.” If a true Christian does not remain in fellowship with Christ, he will be thrown away (βάλλω ἔξω, “cast out,” much as a branch is severed from the vine) and discarded. As argued earlier, the point of the figure of the vine and the branches is not to portray organic connection but enablement and fellowship. This casting out then is not from salvation but from fellowship. The result