21-22 If God didn’t think twice about taking pruning shears to the natural branches, why would he hesitate over you? He wouldn’t give it a second thought. Make sure you stay alert to these qualities of gentle kindness and ruthless severity that exist side by side in God—ruthless with the deadwood, gentle with the grafted shoot. But don’t presume on this gentleness. The moment you become deadwood, it’s game over.

23-24 And don’t get to feeling superior to those pruned branches down on the ground. If they don’t persist in remaining deadwood, they could very well get grafted back in. God can do that. He can perform miracle grafts. Why, if he could graft you—branches cut from a tree out in the wild—into an orchard tree, he certainly isn’t going to have any trouble grafting branches back into the tree they grew from in the first place. Just be glad you’re in the tree, and hope for the best for the others.

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21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.

22 Consider therefore the kindness(A) and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue(B) in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.(C) 23 And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.(D)

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