What Is the Fruit of Our Lives?
What is the fruit of our lives? Are we really bearing spiritual fruit as God wants? In the fifteenth chapter of John’s gospel, Jesus calls us to bear fruit, but He also gives us the key to bearing much fruit. It is a very interesting key as well. He does not call us into greater activity or more service necessarily. You would think if he wanted them to be really fruitful, Jesus would call them to some great act of sacrifice or piety. Instead, this is what Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5
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Jesus said, “Remain in me.” The phrase can also be “abide in me.”
Perhaps Jesus is even holding a branch in his hands at this point. Picture the place where the trunk of the vine meets the branch. This is the touch point between the two. This is the place of abiding. Here is the connection where the life giving nutrients in the sap can flow from the vine into the branch. The only limitation on the flow is the circumference of the branch. The branch with the largest, least obstructed connection with the vine is abiding the most and will bring forth the most fruit.
Jesus said the key to a life of much fruit is this – “Abide in me.” As we grow and bear fruit, God invites us to abide more deeply in Him that we might become even more fruitful. Notice that his purpose is not that go and do a lot more for Him, but that you choose more to be with Him. Jesus is saying that the greatest key to bearing fruit is found not in activity, but in relationship to Him.
Abide means to stay closely connected, to dwell, or to settle in for the long term. Jesus is saying that an ongoing deep connection and union with him will ultimately determine the flow of his supernatural power and life into yours.
As you abide in him, more of his life will be in you and more of his fruit will come from you. As you abide in him, his power will be at work in your life.
The word “abide” or “remain” is found ten times in John 15. As Jesus is preparing to die, he is making a passionate plea. He knows they are being called to start his church and bear a miraculous amount of fruit – enough fruit to turn the world upside down. And they cannot begin to produce that kind of fruit and make an eternal impact without the one thing they are most likely to forget: more of Him.
Abiding is about the most important friendship of your life. It is about getting as close to Jesus as possible. Abiding is not just about acquiring a bunch of Bible knowledge although Bible Study is excellent.
Abiding is about hungering, thirsting, seeking for, longing for, waiting for, and responding to a person … Jesus. More abiding means more of Jesus in your life, more of Him in your thoughts, desires and activities.
In our Western mindset of rushing around to do and to perform for God, we often falter at the most important thing … enjoying the presence of Jesus in our lives. Think again about the vine and the branch as they connect together. Jesus gave us an image of a living thing whose life force (the sap) is mysteriously out of sight. It is hidden where no one can see it. Not on the surface.
Could it be that our life source is a hidden relationship with Jesus where we abide with Him? It is not what happens on the surface of the branch that matters, it is what is happening deep inside. And that’s the Word.
