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How Does a Christian Bear Fruit?
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 (John 15:1-2).
We have several fruit-bearing plants in our yard: two apple trees, three peach trees, a fig tree, a pear tree, a grape vine, and a tomato plant. Even in the brief time we have lived there they have helped me better understand what Jesus says about bearing fruit for God. When we moved in a year ago there were four apple trees, but two died and the other two look like they’ve been discovered by a “very hungry caterpillar.” Our peach yield was rather pitiful too, with only two of the trees bearing very small, hard, and oozing peaches unfit to eat. (Granted, we have done very little to help the trees.) On the bright side, the muscadine crop looks great for this fall (as it was last year) and the tomatoes are beginning to ripen.
What does it mean to bear fruit in the kingdom of God? Often we think of teaching and converting the lost, which is certainly a fruit that Jesus desires to reap from us, but I think it means more than that. In fact, we cannot limit the responsibility to bear fruit to just one aspect of our lives—we must yield results in every area. Consider the following passages:
“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love” (John 15:10). Jesus made this statement in the same context of bearing fruit. A few sentences earlier He said, “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples” (v. 8). A Christian who does not keep Jesus’ commandments will not bear any fruit, but one who obeys Jesus’ word (because it abides in him, v. 7) will prove himself to be Jesus’ follower by the fruit he yields. To bear fruit means we do all that Jesus says, and to start, that means loving one another as Jesus loved us (John 15:12).
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23). Paul is speaking here of the kind of people we must be, not just actions we take. Instead of yielding to the woks of the flesh (Gal. 5:19), we are to allow God’s Spirit to mold our character to His own. To bear fruit means we develop Christ-like attributes and attitudes toward ourselves, others, and God. Without such, we prove ourselves useless plants to God, and He will cut us down.
“For if these qualities are your and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:8). Earlier Peter listed the virtues we must diligently add to our faith: moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. To bear fruit means we render ourselves entirely to God’s will, allowing Him to work His will through us. Of course this involves evangelism, but will we be useful or effective in evangelism without these qualities? Bearing fruit necessarily involves personal growth, from which comes the zeal and love needed to tell others about Jesus the Savior. We cannot make bearing fruit merely about other people’s response to the gospel—it needs to be about our own response first. One additional point: if bearing fruit means simply that we convert people, what happens when the people we teach don’t respond? Have we still yielded a crop in the vineyard of God?
As Jesus taught in the parable of the sower, a worldly Christian is “choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and brings no fruit to maturity” (Luke 8:14). By contrast, the good soil “bears fruit with perseverance” (Luke 8:15). Brethren, let’s resolve to be that good soil in everything we do. What a shame it would be for us to be cut down when we could have yielded a healthy and abundant crop for the Vinedresser’s use.
