Secret One: The Secret Of Living Is Fruitbearing
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The Secret of Living is Fruitbearing
He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit …
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last …
(Jn. 15:2, 8, 16)
What and who am I? Why am I here?
You must answer these questions correctly if life is to have meaning for you. The man who calls a spanner a screwdriver, and who tries to use it as a screwdriver, is heading for frustration and failure. The person who does not know who and what he is will experience the same kind of frustration and failure. It is this identity crisis that has threatened and even destroyed many people in society today.
The Christian need not have an identity crisis. Jesus tells us who we are and why we are here. We are branches, and he is the Vine. We are here to bear fruit. Once you accept this simple fact, you are on the way to making your life meaningful and useful.
How did you become a branch in Christ, the Vine? By trusting him as your Saviour and Lord. You have, by faith, a living relationship with Christ. You are not simply a member of a religious group; you are a living branch in the living Vine. When you yielded to Christ, a living union was formed between you and the Lord. Just as the branch gets its life from the vine, so the believer gets his life from Jesus Christ.
If you do not have this living union with Christ, you cannot bear fruit. Fruit is the result of life. You can manufacture religious substitutes, but they will not be fruit.
One of the reasons God saved you is that you might bear fruit in this world. You are living in a hungry world where people are starving for spiritual reality. The branch does not bear fruit for the branch to eat, but for others to eat. It is one of the great joys of life to share this fruit with others. That is why we are here.
Fruitbearing is a beautiful process. First there are the leaves; then the flowers; then the fruit. God provides the water from beneath and the sun from above. Day by day the branches develop; day by day the fruit is produced. If you are looking for instant fruitfulness, you will be disappointed. Fruit must be cultivated. As we shall see later, the branch must abide in the Vine and draw upon His abundant life.
So, the reason God made you and saved you is that you might bear fruit in this world. You are a branch and he is the Vine. He has put you where you are that you might accomplish His special purpose. There is fruit to be produced where you are that nobody else can produce but you. Accept the glory and the responsibility of being one of His branches.
What is this fruit that God wants us to bear? It takes many different forms.
Winning others to Christ and helping them grow is fruit. Paul wrote to his friends at Rome, ‘I planned many times to come to you … in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles’ (Rom. 1:13). There are many pictures in the Bible of the ministry of witnessing and leading others to Christ. ‘[H]e who wins souls is wise’, states Proverbs 11:30 (NKJV), and that word ‘wins’ calls to mind a hunter taking his prey. Sometimes we must track down a lost soul in order to ‘take him’ for Christ. Jesus compared evangelism to catching fish. ‘Come, follow me … and I will send you out to fish for people’ (Mk. 1:17). Paul compared the evangelist to an ambassador (2 Cor. 5:20), and Jesus said the soul-winner was a harvester (Jn. 4.35). Zechariah 3:2 pictures the soul-winner as a fireman, snatching a burning brand out of the fire.
All of these pictures are true, because the ministry of leading others to Christ has many facets to it. It is wrong to focus on only one facet, because this will lead to a static, mechanical kind of a witness. There are times when soul-winning is a dangerous, dramatic experience as we snatch the brands out of the fire. At other times, we calmly and patiently sow the seed and ask God for a harvest. Sometimes others work with us and we cast the net into the sea and catch many fish. Again, sometimes we have that personal witness to one soul and as faithful ambassadors share the good news of the gospel.
But in all of these pictures, one factor is constant: life. The hunter, the fisherman, the harvester, the fireman, and the ambassador must have life if they are to get their work accomplished. This life can only come from Jesus Christ. As we are united to him and abide in him, his life flows in and through us, and we bear fruit. ‘I am the Vine, you are the branches.’ It is not we who do the work; it is he who does it in us and through us. We make ourselves available to him, and he makes his life available to us. Paul expressed it perfectly in 1 Corinthians 15:10: ‘I worked harder than all of them – yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.’
It is a great joy and privilege to lead others to Christ. This ministry is not the automatic result of memorizing verses or passing courses. It is the result of allowing Christ’s love to flow through you and bear fruit. ‘No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me’ (Jn. 15:4).
Another kind of spiritual fruit is practical holiness of life. ‘But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life’ (Rom. 6:22). The theme of Romans 6 is victory over sin, and the fruit of this victory is a holy life. Never think of ‘holiness’ as a brittle kind of piety such as the Pharisees practiced. Holiness is nothing else but the beauty and character of God displayed in our everyday lives. Holy living means more than victory over sin; it also means growth in character so that we become more like Jesus Christ. It has both negative and positive aspects: ‘let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God’ (2 Cor. 7:1). As we share the life of Christ, we share the character of Christ.
Many people try to achieve holiness of life by means of some formula or religious discipline. Their system works for a time, and then they experience failure and frustration. Holiness is to the inner man what health is to the outer man; and both of them are a by-product of life. The person who eats properly, exercises, keeps clean and gets the right amount of rest, will usually enjoy good health. The Christian who abides in Christ and shares his life will produce the fruit of holiness. You cannot manufacture holiness. The Pharisees tried to do this and Jesus called them hypocrites. Holiness of life must come from within. It is fruit that we bear because we are branches in the Vine.
A third kind of fruit he enables us to bear is the sharing of what we possess. When Paul gathered a missionary offering from the Gentiles to the poor saints in Jerusalem, he called the offering ‘fruit’. ‘Therefore, when I have performed this and have sealed to them this fruit, I shall go by way of you to Spain’ (Rom. 15:28, NKJV). One of the characteristics of the early Christians was the joyful sharing of their possessions. It was not communism; it was Christian compassion. ‘All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need’ (Acts 2:44–45). God has not commanded us to follow their exact example, but he has encouraged us to share what we have with others. ‘If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?’ (1 Jn. 3:17).
Giving to God and, in His name, to others, is not something that we do; it is the result of what we are. When the branch is receiving life from the Vine, it cannot help but give. The branch exists to give! For the branch giving and living are synonymous. To live is to give; to give is to live. The believer cannot selfishly hold on to whatever material blessings God gives him. If he is abiding in the Vine, he cannot help but give.
Christian character is a fourth kind of fruit, and it is described in Galatians 5:22–23. ‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control …’ Who does not want to have these qualities in his life? How different life becomes when you produce the fruit of the spirit. The world has substitutes for these Christian graces, but it cannot duplicate them. Certainly unsaved people enjoy love, but not that deep agape love that comes from the heart of God. ‘We love because he first loved us’ (1 Jn. 4:19). The world manufactures entertainment and even happiness, but it cannot manufacture that deep joy that comes from Christ. You can purchase things to help you sleep but you cannot purchase peace. All of these marvellous qualities are spiritual fruit that only the Holy Spirit can produce when we, as branches, are drawing upon the life of the Vine.
Each of us wants to improve himself. There are weaknesses in our lives that we want to remove, and there are strengths that we want to develop. How do we do it? By being branches in the Vine. As the life of Christ comes in, we find old things passing away and new things taking their place. Just as the face of nature takes on new beauty and power when the spring life comes in, so the Christian experiences new beauty when Christ’s life comes in. Christian character – the fruit of the spirit – cannot be manufactured in our own strength. Only the life of Christ within can produce this fruit.
‘Bearing fruit in every good work,’ (Col. 1:10); this is another kind of spiritual fruit that we bear as His branches. We are not saved by our good works; we are saved ‘by grace … through faith’ (Ephesians 2:8). But the result of salvation is always service. ‘In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven’ (Mt. 5:16).
The unsaved person cannot perform any good works. He is dead as far as things spiritual are concerned, and he can only do ‘dead works’ (Heb. 9:14, NKJV). But when the life of Christ moves in, the result is service for God, ‘being fruitful in every good work’. And the beautiful thing about these good works is that they are tailor-made for each individual believer. ‘For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do’ (Eph. 2:10). Each Christian has his own ministry to fulfil, and no Christian is competing with any other Christian in the will of God.
Some of the branches produce their ‘good works’ fruit in their own homes. Others serve Christ in stores and offices, or even in the cabs of trucks or the cabins of jet planes. The teacher, the builder, the doctor, the city official, the gardener, and the printer – all of these and many more serve Jesus Christ (if they are Christians) by accomplishing the good works he has planned for them. In the Christian life, there is no such division as ‘secular’ and ‘sacred’. ‘So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God’ (1 Cor. 10:31). A Christian pilot can serve and glorify the Lord just as much as the missionaries he is flying to the field.
This tremendous truth elevates your vocation, whatever it is, and makes it a ministry for the Lord. Of course, there are some vocations that a believer would not want to enter because in them he could not glorify God. But God can use you in any honourable calling to bring glory to his name. You can be ‘fruitful in every good work’ and serve Jesus Christ.
Praising and thanking God is another kind of fruit. ‘Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips that openly profess his name’ (Heb. 13:15). The Old Testament worshipper brought the fruit of his field for a sacrifice to God. The New Testament worshipper brings the fruit of his lips. By our words, we praise and glorify God.
Some Christians find it difficult and embarrassing to witness and praise the Lord before others, especially unbelievers. In our own strength, we can never do this; but as branches in the Vine, we can receive His life and bear ‘the fruit of lips’. Praising God then becomes a natural thing, not a forced thing, and we do it joyfully and not with a feeling of guilt. A manufactured witness is a dead witness. Praise that is forced is empty praise. But when our words are the fruit of our union with Christ, they are alive and exciting. Our witness has power to it. We do not need to be afraid or ashamed when it comes to sharing Christ with others. God will produce the ‘fruit of lips’ and others will be able to eat it.
These, then, are some of the different kinds of fruit God wants us to bear in our lives: witnessing and winning souls, holiness of life, character, sharing, good works, and praise and testimony. But our Lord also makes it clear that this fruitbearing is to be a continuous experience: ‘fruit … more fruit … much fruit.’ He said, ‘This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples’ (Jn. 15:8).
How is this increase possible? There are two answers to the question.
First, as you and I as branches continue to abide in Christ, we establish a deeper relationship with Him. The hindrances that affect the fruitbearing are removed, and He is able to do more in us and through us. The longer we abide in Christ, the better fitted we become to bear more fruit.
Second, the fruit that we bear has seed in it for more fruit! As others partake of this fruit, they also begin to bear fruit; and this results in ‘more fruit … much fruit …’ This points up the difference between ‘results’ and ‘fruit’. It is possible to ‘get results’ in our Christian service, and even have impressive statistics; but none of these ‘results’ will bear fruit. It is only as we bear fruit that the seed is there for more fruit.
The following story has been told of both D.L. Moody and Sam Jones, the Methodist evangelist. No matter; the lesson is clear. The evangelist met a drunk on the street, and the drunk said, ‘Say, I’m one of your converts!’ The evangelist replied, ‘You must be one of my converts – you certainly aren’t one of the Lord’s converts.’ A good illustration of the difference between ‘fruit’ and ‘results’. Where there is true fruit, there is life; and where there is life, there is the seed for more fruit.
The secret of living is fruitbearing. God did not create you, and Christ did not die for you that you might go through life getting. God created you and Christ purchased you that you might invest your life giving. If you refuse to bear fruit, you will miss the true meaning and glory of the Christian life. If you yield to Christ and permit His life to create His fruit through you, then you will really live.
Are you willing to be a branch? Tell Him that you are.
Are you willing for His life to work in and through you? Then, tell Him.
By an act of faith, yield yourself to Christ for the purpose of bearing fruit, for the purpose of fulfilling that wonderful plan God has for you and you alone.