122. Fruit
John 15:2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
John 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
John 15:16a Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain.
Our purpose in life and God’s purpose in creating and redeeming human beings is that they should bear fruit. Now Jesus promises that those who abide in Him, like branches to the vine, will bear much fruit. There is a necessary and obvious condition: “he that abides in me.” A branch cannot bear fruit by itself; in fact, Jesus says that without him you can do nothing; of course, the branch must be connected to the vine, for nourishment, sustenance, growth and fruit-bearing comes from that connection. We must remain, stay, abide and connect to Jesus Christ = this means believing in Him; this faith comes by hearing the Gospel. This is abiding.
With much struggle, effort, trying and striving we will produce no fruit at all; we will just expend useless energy and harmful stress. It is hard to believe and harder to do that the better course of action is to simply abide in Christ and let the fruit and the results work themselves out naturally by the work of the Holy Spirit. It will always appear to our human minds that we should try hard and work hard to make something happen and produce fruit. But the harder way is to simply trust the promise of fruit that comes from abiding in Christ. It takes faith in the promise. It may seem like a waste of time to, for example, take time out of the day for personal Bible study and prayer, which is one way of abiding in Christ. “God helps those who are helpless and trust in God.” “Abiding” = hearing the Gospel, listening to Jesus. The world says: do something; Jesus says: abide in me.
Another aspect of the promise that is hard to believe is twofold: 1) if one bears no fruit he is taken away; 2) if one does bear fruit he is purged, or pruned. Pruning is hard, but every gardener knows how necessary it is. The Father is the gardener and He certainly knows best what to do. So we accept His working while we abide in Christ. We cannot prune ourselves any more than we can produce fruit; therefore, we abide in Christ, trust the Lord, believe His promise, and let Him do the work. Believing His promise, we are even able to let Him do the gardening in our lives. He has chosen me and ordained the fruit. I can’t improve on that.