This week, we’re looking at familiar passages that have either been misinterpreted or construed in ways that cause us to miss part of their meaning. We started by looking at Philippians 4:13 (What “All Things” Can We Do Through Christ?). Then, we turned to Matthew 5:44 (“Love Your Enemy” – What Does That Look Like In Real Life?). Yesterday, we considered Psalm 23 and the ways that God leads us (Psalm 23 – Finding Peace as God Leads Us).
Today, our passage is John 15:5: “I am the vine, you are the branches; the one who remains in Me, and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” Growing up, I always heard that “bearing fruit” meant “making disciples.” But as we look at this passage, and other Scriptures on this subject, I believe that Jesus’ focus is somewhere else. I suggest that Jesus’ primary focus is on the development of “spiritual fruit” in our lives.
Now, if we demonstrate and grow in “the fruit of the Spirit,” God will use our witness to attract others. If we truly love others (the first “fruit of the Spirit” in Galatians 5), we willingly seek to point them toward Jesus. But we don’t control other people’s responses; all we can control is our obedience. So let’s look at John 15, and other passages, and consider what it means to “bear fruit.”
We Bear Fruit By “Remaining in Jesus”
Jesus says that if we remain in Him, and He remains in us, we bear much fruit. So what does it mean to “remain in Jesus?” Later in chapter 15, Jesus expands on this idea. “Just as the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you; remain in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love” (John 15:9-10). So “remaining in Jesus” means that we keep His commandments.
God’s love is a concept that is often misunderstood and mischaracterized. People who do not follow Scripture frequently suggest that “God is love” means “God accepts and approves us no matter what we do.” Respectfully, it is absolutely absurd to suggest that our actions do not matter to God. The Bible clearly demonstrates that sin separates us from God. Jesus came to save us from our sin, not to simply make it irrelevant. Actually, God loves us as we are, but He loves us too much to leave us as we are. His purpose is to make us more like Jesus, which is why we need to remain in Him.
So we remain in Jesus by doing what He teaches us and following His example. That means that we willingly embrace God’s work in us, and acknowledge God’s sovereignty over us. After all, that is the example that Jesus set for us. He did not hold on to His privileges as the Son of God: “but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross” (Philippians 2:7-8).
We Remain in Him Through the Presence of the Holy Spirit In Us
If you read my blog on any sort of regular basis, you know that I emphasize the importance of context in understanding Scripture. In the case of today’s passage, the context is Jesus’ final teaching before His arrest and crucifixion. After Jesus predicts that Judas will betray Him, Judas leaves the group. When Peter declares that he is ready to lay down his life for Jesus, Jesus warns that Peter will deny Him three times that very night (John 13:38).
Immediately after that statement, Jesus begins to comfort His disciples. One of the main themes of His remarks is the coming of the Holy Spirit. Consider these promises about the work of the Spirit:
- “You will do greater works than these [that Jesus did], because I am going to the Father” (14:12).
- “He [the Holy Spirit] will be with you forever…He remains with you and will be in you” (John 14:16-17).
- “The Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and remind you of all that I said to you” (John 14:26).
- “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, namely, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, He will testify about Me, and you are testifying as well, because you have been with Me from the beginning” (John 15:26-27).
- “And He [the Spirit], when He comes, will convict the world regarding sin, and righteousness, and judgment” (John 16:8).
- “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take from Mine and will disclose it to you” (John 16:13-14).
The Spirit leads us in the truth, reminds us what Jesus taught, and empowers us to do it!
We Bear Fruit Because The Holy Spirit Works Within Us
All of this context is important to understand what Jesus means by “bearing fruit.” Paul’s writings emphasize a couple of critical points in this regard. First, in Philippians 2, he challenges us to “have the same attitude as Jesus.” That means that we have the ability to choose to have a Christlike attitude – or not choose it. We can choose to obey God, as Jesus did, or choose to not obey. And acknowledging Jesus as Lord means that He is sovereign over us. And the first part of the Spirit’s work is to enable us to say and demonstrate that “Jesus is Lord” (1 Corinthians 12:3).
That brings us to Galatians 5, and Paul’s contrast between the fruit of the Spirit and the acts of the sinful nature. The fact that Paul uses the phrase “the fruit of the Spirit” is very important, because it echoes Jesus’ teaching that we know people by their fruit. No one demonstrates the fruit of the Spirit apart from the Spirit’s presence – and everyone in whom the Spirit lives demonstrates the fruit of the Spirit, in at least some measure.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus crucified the flesh along with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:22-24). So, “connecting the dots,” we see that the fruit that Jesus calls us to bear is primarily the fruit of the Spirit. If we bear that kind of fruit, people will see Jesus in us – we remain in Him and He remains in us.
Spiritual Fruit Confirms God’s Work in Us
As disciples, our responsibility is to be witnesses. In Acts 1:8, Jesus said: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and as far as the remotest part of the earth.” So the Spirit bears His fruit in us, and He empowers us to bear witness to God’s work in us.
Because the Spirit is in us, we demonstrate love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We demonstrate that fruit in contrast to those who do not know God. We also demonstrate it more than we have previously. That means that the Spirit continues to work in us, and we continue to demonstrate that fruit in greater measure. As the Spirit produces more fruit in us, it becomes ever more apparent that there is something different about us. And that paves the way for us to tell the story of God’s work in us!
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