Friday, June 1, 2012

Being Fruitful

In John 15 Jesus talks about being the true vine and we are the branches…I am not sure many understand the gravity of this chapter. It is full of words like “you will” and “you can”…I don’t find any “if you want to’s” in the text. Jesus says we will bear fruit (not to be confused with being fruitful in Gen. 1:27!) if we are his branches. Actually, it says those branches who do not bear fruit will be pruned! And so many people believe they are bearing fruit for Christ by doing those nice little things that they enjoy doing for the Kingdom. However, a branch does not decide what fruit it will bear, the vine dictates that. The branches on a grapevine will not produce peaches. A branch on a cherry tree will not produce apples. The vine and/or tree decide that. If we are in Christ we will produce the fruit HE produced. Being religious or holding an attendance record at Sunday school is not Jesus’ idea of fruit. Jesus’ fruit is loving the unlovable, having compassion on the brokenhearted, and healing the hurting. Kind of makes that perfect attendance pin look like the cheap costume jewelry it really is! So rather than doing the things we want to do and claiming it as fruit, we are to “produce fruit that will last” (verse 16). Then Jesus goes on to broadly define exactly what fruit that will last is in verse 17, “So I command you to love each other.” Any questions?

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