Fruit of the Vine

I once preached a message about how do we know if we’re doing well in the Christian life.  With  help from Neil Cole in ‘Organic Leadership’, i concluded that fruitfulness, faithfulness and finishing well are the consistent markers of spiritual growth and maturity according to the Scriptures.  Today I would like to give some thoughts on fruitfulness.

Jesus says:

“I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He takes away every branch that does not bear fruit in me. He prunes every branch that bears fruit so that it will bear more fruit… Remain in me, and I will remain in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.   ~John 15:1, 2, 4 (NET)

let’s look at what are the roles here:

“I am the Vine”- Jesus is the source of all spiritual fruit.  He is the channel of the life-giving water (John 4).  All that the Church and the individuals within her accomplish that is of eternal significance comes from Jesus.

“my Father is the gardener”- The Father cuts things away.  He cuts away the useless branches, those in Christ that don’t bear fruit.  (I believe this refers to true believers who forfeit rewards when they stand before Christ in judgment… not a loss of salvation).  But he also prunes those branches that do bear fruit to the effect that they bear even more fruit.  Pruning involves cutting away dead, overgrown or unwanted parts in order to enhance growth.

What does the believer do?  What part do they play in ‘bearing spiritual fruit’?

The fruitfulness of a believer is dependent on three things

1. The Son, the True Vine, providing life and Spirit and power for the believer
2. The Father pruning the unwanted parts that hinder the growth of the believer
3. The believer remaining in Christ

It should be noted that the first two are always working and are not in the believer’s control.  The Son is always providing life and nourishment to his people and the Father is always cutting out useless and harmful parts that hinder growth among his people.  The only part the believer plays in bearing fruit is remaining connected to the source of spiritual life: Jesus.

The rest will happen naturally, organically, spiritually.  The Father will cut away our unfruitful habits, thoughts, attitudes and influences and the Son will provide us with Life-Water endlessly through his Holy Spirit.  We only must let them do their thing and fruitfulness occurs.

On one hand this makes it all very easy.  It’s a relief.  We may stop trying to bear fruit–one cannot bear fruit  by behavior modification– and simply allow it to happen.  On the other hand it is also very difficult because we by nature are rebellious little branches who have a tendency to separate from the true vine.

It is a simple notion: abide and you will bear fruit.  The life of a believer in Christ is simple, but it’s not easy.  So what is meant by “Remain in Christ?”

“Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you; remain in my love.  If you obey my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.   ~John 15:9-10

I believe that in saying this Jesus gives us the key to abiding: obedience.  Obedience is the proper response to Jesus’ love.  It is not so concerned with doing things for Christ, as from our own preference or will, but doing what Christ asks us to do.  What good is it to listen to Christ’s words but not obey?  To sing songs about him or to him but not obey?  To gather in his name but not for his purposes?  The key to remaining in Christ and, therefore, bearing fruit is obedience.

We must simply get out of God’s way if we want to be fruitful.  Fruitfulness will happen naturally if we let the Father and Son do their work.  In saying this I am not arguing for lazy Christianity or passivity.  I  arguing against the idea that Christians must somehow produce fruit.  NEVER are we told in this passage to produce fruit.  We are called to bear fruit.  (NOTE: Most translations rightfully use the word “bear”.  The NLT, i believe, wrongfully inserts ‘produce’.)

To produce fruit would be to make it, create it or form it.  To bear fruit is to exhibit it, display it or carry it. We are to bear fruit.  This is what Jesus desires. We cannot create something spiritual by human means.

Spirit gives birth to spirit…  Flesh gives birth to flesh.   ~Wolfgang Simson

This truth–that we bear and not produce fruit–should alleviate the fear that we tend to propogate and foster in our churches.  We urge people to produce: to win souls, to achieve holiness and righteousness by trying harder, to ‘act like a Christian’.  These are things Christians feel pressure to do… to manufacture Christian success.  Be glad that that is not what is expected of you by Christ.  You don’t have to achieve righteousness because Christ is our righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30; Rom. 3:21-23; Phil 3:8-9).  You don’t have to win souls, that’s Christ’s job (Matt. 16:18; John 12:32).

What we must do is remain in Christ and we do that by obeying what he said.  This means that we simply do what Christ asks of us without asking questions and trust him with the results.  This means when Jesus says “Go proclaim the gospel to the whole creation”, we go and preach and let Jesus win souls to himself.  It means that when Jesus says ‘pray for workers to go out into the harvest’, we pray, and trust that Jesus will do it.  In this way we exhibit or display Christ without laboring to create or fabricate results that only he can achieve.

Perhaps this should be our new bumpersticker: fruit happens!  Well maybe that’s a little too close to another well-known bumpersticker.  But it is true nonetheless.  Too often our ‘obedience’ is really just putting to work our own initiatives for Christ rather than doing the good works that God has already laid our for us (Eph. 2:10).  It is astounding how much we try to do for Christ and how little we trust him to accomplish his purposes through us.  No wonder we see so little spiritual progress in our lives and ministries.  We need to learn how to trust the vine and the gardener.

This is good news!  Jesus even said, “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete.” (Jn 15:11).    This is guaranteed success.  If you remain in Christ by obeying him, then The Son will provide the life-giving Spirit and the Father will trim away the hindrances and fruit will result.  You will be podium of God’s work.  You will be the frame which displays his kingdom and his power.

My Father is honored by this, that you bear much fruit and show that you are my disciples.  ~John 15:8

You will bear fruit. No one looks at a cherry blossom tree in springtime and says, “Nice branches!”  No one looks at an apple tree in September and says, “yum those branches look good enough to eat right about now!”  The branches simply bear the fruit which the tree (vine) produces, they put it on display.  When people look at believers they should see Christ, not people trying to be like Christ by ‘acting like Christians’.  If we are abiding in his love and doing what he asks, he will make us fruitful.  He will show off his handiwork with our lives.  And the Father will lend a hand in making us even more fruitful.

A final word:

Remain in me, and I will remain in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.  I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me – and I in him – bears much fruit, because apart from me you can accomplish nothing.   ~John 15:4-5

If we are obedient, fruit happens.  If we don’t remain connected to the Son, we can do nothing.  Just do what Jesus says–which his Spirit will help you to do–and God will take care of the rest.  And you’ll be blessed.

The Christian life isn’t easy, but it is simple.