Bearing Fruit

Bearing Fruit

- Living Out A Righteousness That Is Not Your Own

Written by Eileen R. Jacobs

“My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” - John 15:8

I can't say I am much of an orchardist. We have a few trees in our back yard that bless us year after year with enough fruit for our family. This year, to our surprise, our cherry tree gave us a bumper crop. What a delight that was!

We've enjoyed a few pears and lots of plums and prunes. Our apple trees generally produce a great crop near the middle of September, but this year, a strange thing happened. One of our apple trees started the season with a promising group of buds, then the young apples started to grow, and we thinned as usual. All of a sudden, we noticed that the tree started looking very brown. Not too much later, the tree looked like it had withered and died. It is a stark contrast in our green yard.

Who knows what happened with the tree, but every time I drive by it, I am reminded of the story of the withered fig tree in the gospels.

“Now in the morning, when He (Jesus) was returning to the city, He became hungry.

Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only; and He said to it, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.” And at once the fig tree withered.” - Matthew 21:18-19 (emphasis added)

When we read this same story in Mark's Gospel account, we learn that this tree was not acting in accordance with it’s intended creation. The presence of the leaves was an indicator that there should have been some fruit on the tree, however it was too early in the season for mature figs to be on the tree. The tree was professing to have fruit by the presence of the leaves, but it had no fruit to share with the Creator. This tree was, in essence, lying, or not living up to its intended purpose! When a tree is acting in accordance with it’s intended purpose, there will be fruit when the season is right. Fruit on a tree or vine is designed to satisfy hunger. Suffice to say, Jesus is looking for fruit! In Luke 13, Jesus tells us another parable involving a fig tree in a vineyard. The owner came looking for fruit on it and could not find any. (Luke 13:6-9) If you do some meditating and digging as you study both of these stories, you can deduce that Jesus is illustrating something very important. It is that God does not consider a show of religion as bearing fruit. Some people can look very godly on the outside and have all kinds of religious practices and observances that make them seem like they have it all together, yet have no evidence of the fruit that God is looking for. There are many places in the Bible where God defines the fruit that He is looking for. (Hebrews 13:15-16, Philippians 1:9-11, Ephesians 5) It would be good to study these to see what God calls fruit. The fifth chapter in Galatians is the most telling as it explains the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. In summary, the fruit that God is looking for is the evidence of righteousness that springs forth from a genuine life of faith. But what if my life looks less like Galatians 5 and more like the fig tree with no fruit? The good news is found in how fruit is produced. You cannot simply apply yourself and expect that Galatians 5 fruit will result. The secret is found in John chapter 15.

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.

Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.

You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.

I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” - John 15:1-5

If you are united with Christ by believing in His death and resurrection, then you are connected to the True Vine. If you are "In Christ" and qualify as a branch that is not bearing fruit, He does not cast you out, or cut you off as some translations read. Do not be fearful. That would go against His nature as the loving vine-dresser who carefully tends His vineyard. Rather, "He takes away;" which according to the Greek definition means "to raise up out of the ground, to elevate." He takes the branch that is hanging low out of the dirt and lifts it back into the light. He raises you up out of the pit of life and your unfruitfulness. He places you back into the light of truth, so you will bear fruit. He washes off all the dirt of the ground; symbolizing the earth and it's impurities. Even when we become fruitful in our faith, we still have things that need to be pruned in our lives in order to be even more fruitful. The word for "prune" in the Greek is kathairō. It means to cleanse. So how does He prune us or cleanse us? He reveals Himself to us in His Word. It is a cleansing by His Word. First, He tells us here in the passage that we are already cleansed by His blood, forgiven and forever secure because of His death on the cross. We are then washed of all the earthly dirt by the constant cleansing of His Word. He reminds us that resurrection life comes from being one with Him in total unity and fellowship. The branch gets its life from the root source, and our source is Jesus. When we “abide” in Him, we remain in Him, we stay-put in the truth of all He has accomplished on our behalf. We continuously believe what God has done through Jesus Christ by believing what has been revealed in His Word. We see from His Word that the responsibility to produce fruit comes from the Vine itself. Jesus perfectly produced the fruit that God was looking for. Now, God has placed us "In Him." The fruit will come from Jesus and will be visible on our branches if we "stay-put" in the truth of all Jesus has done, and believe it by faith. If we try to produce fruit on our own simply by trying, we will be unable to produce anything. That is what we call “self-righteousness.” All that is necessary to produce the fruit God is looking for comes from the Vine itself. It comes from Jesus and His righteousness, not from us, the branch. The branch gets the pleasure of bearing or showing forth that which is produced by the Vine. Jesus produced perfect righteousness in heart and behavior, and when we live by faith in His righteousness produced in us, we show forth the fruit of His righteousness. What a deal! The Vine-dresser tends His vineyard and cares for all of the branches, even the dirt-stained, unfruitful ones. He may need to clean off our cares and worries in this world. He may need to flick off some of those time leaching bugs and insects that have attached themselves to us, sucking our leaves dry. He may need to elevate our branch away from our do-good, law-keeping in order for us to see the light of His grace. Why does He do all of this? Because His vineyard, which is us, His Church, is to be flourishing and fruitful, with every branch producing at optimal level. Jesus, The Only Begotten Son of the Father, brought Him perfect honor and glory. His Church, the abundant, fruit-bearing branches that are connected to Jesus, also bring the Father glory.

“My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” - John 15:8

Rest assured that if you are not bearing much fruit right now, your Heavenly Vine-dresser is washing you with His Word even now and making you ready for a fruit-bearing season. The withering tree in my yard, will never characterize your Christian life. Our Heavenly Vine-dresser cares too much for His vineyard to let it remain unfruitful for long. Now that, dear friends, is GRACE!

“Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.” - Hebrews 13:15

written by

Eileen R. Jacobs (September 2010)

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