Bearing Fruit

JESUS SAID,
I am the vine; you are the branches. 
If you remain in me and I in you, 
you will bear much fruit; 
apart from me you can do nothing.
John 15:5

All through ancient history the vine was used as a metaphor for God’s people. Time after time they disappointed Him in not producing fruit. In Psalm 80 the worship leader composed this Psalm of lament after the fall of Israel in 722 B.C. He laments the vine was brought out of Egypt planted in the promised land of Canaan but no measures were taken to protect it from thieves and wild animals who plundered and ravaged it. Isaiah speaks of the vineyard that God cared for with love and grace but yielded wild grapes that were of sour taste and fowl smell. Nevertheless God so loved the world, He sent his only begotten son to reveal to us how God nurtures His Vineyard.

After the last supper Jesus and his disciples may have been walking through a vineyard attached to the house or nearby as they headed to the garden (John 15:1-17). Jesus declares he is the true vine, God the Father is the Gardener or Keeper of the Vineyard and we are the Branches. Jesus warns us of branches that do not bear fruit the Gardener cuts them off.  Vines are planted in soils and places where they draw their sustenance to grow and flourish. Jesus’s Life is rooted and grounded in God the Giver of Life. The Life we receive from Jesus is from God Himself. The branches that bear fruit are lovingly cared for while the fruitless are cut off. Jesus is the vine from whom we the followers grow or get grafted in as the branches. If a branch is not connected to the vine it cannot grow and bear fruit. When Christ’s life flows through us in time we begin to bear fruit like love, joy, peace, etc (Galatians 5:22-23). It is only in Jesus that we find full and abundant life. 

God is love, whoever lives in love, lives in God and God in them (1John 4:16). Our relationship with God is an interdependent bond of love (Isaiah 43:7). We look up to God the Father for our daily bread and we are united to Christ in his love. The Holy Spirit works in our hearts and minds to make us more fruitful and Christlike. Though we have the free will to do as we please, it is Christ who has called us to do the will of our Father in Heaven. He has invited us to a new and intimate relationship with Him and to be God’s chosen people (Colossians 3:12). To grow or be grafted into the true vine and bear fruit. The fruit we bear are for the benefit and building up of our friends and family. To comfort and strengthen people. The taste and beauty of our fruits will depend on how much of the life of Christ we draw into our lives. William Barclay says there are two characteristics of disciples of Christ. Firstly they enrich their lives to be fruitful branches. Secondly they bring glory to God, by living lives that attract others to a life in Christ by the fruit they bear.

The gardener prunes the branches so that they may yield better fruit. The pruning in our lives could come in the form of pain, suffering, loss and frustration to name a few. It is the disciplining that we undergo to become fruitful disciples. C. S. Lewis says,“We can ignore pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” The pruning knife may be painful but if we continue to transform ourselves into being more Christlike we will glorify God. Philip Yancy elucidates in the video below how we are fearfully and wonderfully made and how the gift of pain saves lives.

In this world there are so many things we can accomplish without Christ. In one dimension it is so easy to see we can live by His teaching without drawing on His Life. We can become self-reliant, self-sufficient, and self-controlled die-hard radicals. But if we want to be Christlike we have to abide in Him. Dietrich Bonhoeffer says that either man models himself on the god of his own invention, or the true and living God moulds the human form into His image. There must be a complete transformation, a metamorphosis. It is through the working of the Holy Spirit within us that enables the transformation to come. The transformation has to start from within and begin to show itself in the abundance of fruits we bear on the outside. Lets us learn to live under the loving care of God our Father, as we abide in Christ the Son, and are transformed by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to bear bountiful and beautiful fruit. 

Prayer

Lord our Father, we look up to you to bless and prune us to bear the fruits of the Spirit in our lives. Fill our lives with your love, joy, goodness, and peace. Teach us to be patient, kind, gentle, faithful and disciplined. Help us to live our lives to be more Christlike in all our ways. Amen

The Four Seasons of Grapevine