Abiding Fruit

 

John 15:1-6 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 

 

I have an old Anaheim Avocado and Valencia Orange tree in my backyard which bloom and bear fruit yearly. Old branches die back and new branches grow out of the main limbs off the trunk of the tree. The new fruit always comes forth on the new shoots annually. I lived in the Central Valley of California for a decade and watched the grape vineyard go through their seasons and the vine-dressing that the farmers performed, trimming off the old branches which died back and pruning of the remaining branches or cordons off the head of the truck for optimum growth and good fruit produced on new canes or shoots in the following Spring and Summer. 

 

The people of Jesus’ time understood the analogy. Jesus is the main truck, the true vine, from the roots to the head that supplies the water and nutrients for the vine branches (cordons) to grow, spouts canes and bud to bear fruit. God trims and prunes the branches accordingly for healthy growth and fruit production. This grape vine metaphor was an illustration of the repented, born-again Believer in kingdom work and life. John the Baptist referred to this also in Matthew 3:8-12 stating, “Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

 

John was explaining that God has no grandchildren. It doesn’t matter what your human parents believed, every individual must repent of sin and make a conscious and sincere decision to believe, receive and cleave to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord on their own to be saved by God’s grace through a sure faith unto regenerating transformation and conversion of the heart as a Christ-following, Holy Spirit-indwelling, child of God, each involved in the kingdom business of bearing useful good fruit. There are no pretenders of the faith; only contenders of the faith. The Lord Jesus explains in Matthew 7:17-19 “Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” The Christian must abide [remain] in Christ and obediently obey Him, following His teachings and executing His commandments. The student conforms to the Master’s perfect decrees. 

 

The fallen world is full of pitfalls, potholes, obstacles and hurdles to trips the Christian sojourner up in their walk with the Lord and kingdom work on earth. Jesus further illustrates this in Matthew 13:22-23 saying, “Now he who received seed [representing the Word of God] among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”

 

Psalm 92:13-15 proclaims, “Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bear fruit in old age; they shall be fresh and flourishing, To declare that the Lord is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.” May we, the branches, stay grafted into the Vine by abiding in Christ, receiving our nourishment from the Word of God and flourishing through the commandments and teachings of our Lord as we go through this glorious life, producing good fruit and lots of it.

 

In Christ, Brian