Root, Branch, Fruit and the Supply Chain of Love

In the Word of God we hear much about root, branch, and fruit. In Galatians we read of fruit the following:

"22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law" (Galatians 5:22-23).

It is evident that people do not produce such fruit separately from good deeds and faithfully doing their duty, whatever that may happen to be.

It is as evident that fruit depends on some bough from which it hangs, and that the fruit-filled boughs depend on the root from which they draw nourishment; if there is no root, how can there be branches? And if there are no branches, how can there be fruit?

We have already covered how those in the Parable of the Sower who were stony ground had no root in themselves; so that the seed perished. These people had no root in themselves because they had no love and no desire to become loving; and those without love and the hunger to be loving will automatically fail when trials test their love.

The seed itself is the truths of our Lord which falls into hearts more or less prepared to receive it. The root in this arrangement is the good of love itself; wherever you see root in a positive sense, something to do with love is meant. And just as the branches arise from the root from which they draw nourishment, so does spiritual understanding of the truths of faith, the seed of God, arise from the good of love to which they are designedly the helpmeet and companion.

One will here take this opportunity to point out that root, branch, and fruit -- since they mean love, the truth supportive of love, and the good deeds which result from the marriage of love and truth -- can be so expressed by our Lord that a different term is used which happens to mean the same thing. Here is a prime example of what I mean:

"But you, mountains of Israel, will produce branches and fruit for my people Israel, for they will soon come home" (Ezekiel 36:8).

As you can see, we have mention of mountain here instead of root; and then of branches and fruit as usual. The reason why we see mountain here instead of root is that both mountain and fruit involve the good of love; so that the Lord can easily use these correspondences interchangeably and thereby express the same point.

We have basically been looking at the supply chain of love whereby someone learns truths about becoming a loving person, diligently strives to apply these to their inner and outer lives, and gradually becomes more loving indeed.

The Word very frequently refers to the whole supply chain of love both in its healthy and unhealthy states. For instance, the supply chain of love begins with the Lord's sowing divine truth about love in the soil of human beings' hearts and minds. The supply chain continues from sowing to taking root to pushing forth shoots to preparing for the fruit -- whether it is fruit or grain or whatever the final product agriculturally speaking happens to be -- to fruiting to harvest to cooking to eating. 

The important thing to note here is that Word mentions each stage going well; and also each stage going horribly. In the Parable of the Sower, for instance, the Lord mentions birds' coming and eating the seed; this nips the supply chain of love in the very bud! But what are these birds? These birds are falsehoods and those who embody them which destroy the truths of faith with false beliefs and reasonings before they even have a chance to act upon the heart. 

We have already looked at those who have no root in themselves, no love in their hearts and no earnest desire for the same; which the Lord calls hunger for righteousness, while earnest desire for truth about love He calls thirst for righteousness in the Sermon on the Mount.

So what may happen if the seed does germinate and the root does spread into the soul and the shoots or branches do thrust into the sky towards preparation for the grain or fruit which is their destiny? At this point a variety of things can happen; we see mention in the Word of fire's burning up the root and branch, as in Malachi; and we likewise see reference to cankerworms and palmerworms, locusts and other vermin. All of these have spiritual meanings, because  they represent various ways in which our feeling and thought processes or outer behaviors can consume or burn up good and truth from God with sin and error. 

In Malachi, for instance, we are told that the wicked and the proud will burn up root and branch; this is because the Pharisees and the Sadducees who are there meant -- or any like them -- have busily rendered the commandment of God of none effect and undermined His truth so much that they "understand neither the scriptures nor the power of God". In fact burning up root and branch is quite similar to what we have already covered as to sons and daughters being devoured: the destruction of love and wisdom by sin and error. 

Let us see some confirmation of all this. This comes from Solomon's dedication speech of the house of the Lord:

"36 Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk, and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance. 37 If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be caterpiller; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be; 38 What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house: 39Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;)" (1 Kings 8:36-39)

We see here that the topic of the passage is definitely the "good way wherein [we] should walk". It is thus that the Lord inspires Solomon to mention all sorts of pests which can get in the way of that good in which we should walk; both inside and outside of ourselves.

For all the sicknesses and vermin mentioned in the Word are the same at bottom: they are threats to becoming more loving of God and the neighbor and more knowing as to the practice of those loves.

The relation of living a good life to "every man the plague of his own heart" is the sin and error nature of everyone of us; which acts as a kind of fire that burns up love and truth from God if we do not confront it and apply the truths of faith to eradicating it.

It is for this reason that a passage which is definitely about diseases of the heart mentions all these plagues and crop-destroying varieties of vermin; because such mentions always involve the heart in some way in the Word of God.

We are told in the Writings that there are devils who watch for the very appearance of decent thoughts about the neighbor and thoughts which lead to the carrying out of good deeds; and do their best to destroy these in their infancy or otherwise spoil them.

For instance, we can be doing work which benefits other people; and yet all the while we are doing it, the devils will encourage us to resent other people for making work for them. Or we will think like Martha did when she was upset that Mary was not helping her with the numerous household chores that were crushing her; and all such thoughts and feelings, if not patiently confronted with love and the truth of God, can vitiate our love from within even as it continues to appear to bear good deeds on the outside!

It is very important for us to consider the evil feelings and thoughts which can damage our becoming loving people and feeding thoughts which support that aim. When we are at work, we should be alert, watching and praying as our Lord commanded, so that the jobs we do are not rotted out from within by our doing them for selfish motivations or by our thinking wicked thoughts which undermine the apparently loving nature of our outward deeds. 

At every stage of our hearing and doing the Word, it is possible for the Hell to tempt us to destroy love and the understanding of love. Even when the grain has been harvested, the baker can fall asleep and the cake can burn:

"4 They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened.

5 In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners.

6 For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles they lie in wait: their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire.

7 They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth unto me.

8 Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned" (Hosea 7:4-8). 

We have already seen how devouring someone, here judges -- which means sin and error burning up divine truth -- is basically equivalent to burning up root and branch; here it would be most equivalent to burning up the branch, since Hosea is especially about perverted spiritual knowledge and reasonings and the negative effect these have on spiritual life.

We see here that the baker is drunk. This is wine in the reversed position, and wine is spiritual truth or falsehood; so his being drunk is his trying to bake bread using the recipe of spiritual falsehood. As we can see, this does not work very well and simply burns up or otherwise ruins the baked goods.

But even if we diligently get to the point of having bread, having brought it from seed to harvest to baking to table, it is still possible for evil to ruin our becoming more loving, knowing people! For we can eat the bread and drink the wine, as Paul says, unworthily. To live an evil life with a heart full of selfish desires would be to eat the bread and drink the wine unworthily; and it is notable that Paul refers to people who do this being "sick" or "asleep". See how the sickness may connect to the plague of every man his own heart to which Solomon referred? Ever and anon, the Word is talking about love and the obstacles which can stand in the way of its expression.

We have as projected looked at various aspects of the supply chain of love. I urge you to look for references to the positive and negative aspects of each stage of the supply chain of love as it is portrayed in the Word of God; and to diligently consider whether the feelings and thoughts you feed in your inner and outer life facilitate growing in love or hamper it. Because even when things are going fairly well, there is still going to be lost grain, there are still going to be issues in the bakery; we cannot afford to be complacent, every human as to the plague of their own heart. 

May this rubric be of assistance in understanding the numerous references to root, branch, fruit, and the supply chain of growing in love of God and the neighbor generally. Godspeed on the Way.

Appendix:

*While it was not mentioned in detail, the alert reader should carefully note the mention of heart in the passage of Hosea and consider its implications in relation to all the above.

"In Malachi:

Behold the day cometh burning as a furnace, and all the proud and everyone that worketh wickedness shall be stubble, and the day that cometh shall set them on fire, it shall leave them neither root nor branch (Mal. 4:1).

A "burning furnace" here denotes the same as before; the "root" denotes charity; the "branch" truth, which shall not be left" (Arcana Coelestia 1861).

"By the same expression is also described the consuming of the good and truth of the church, in Malachi:

Behold the day cometh, burning as an oven, wherein all that sin proudly, and every worker of wickedness, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall consume [kindle] them, said Jehovah Zebaoth, which shall leave them neither root nor branch (Mal. 4:1);

"the day that cometh" denotes the last time of the church, when the loves of self and of the world shall reign, and shall consume all the truths and goods of the church, until nothing survives in the man's internal and external, which is signified by "shall leave them neither root nor branch." The "root" of good and truth is in man's internal, and the "branch" is in his external. From this then it is evident that "to desolate" signifies to consume through cupidities, as is the case elsewhere in the Word" (Arcana Coelestia 9141).