A FRUITFUL LIFE

“Without ME ye can do nothing.”

(please read Jn.15:1-16)

Jn. 15:5

This is one of those scriptures, among a great number of others, that it is essential to take in context; that is, to study its immediate setting. The “natural” man would have you in a corner if not. For, he would argue, a host of things can and are done without Christ. And he would be right. The background of the discourse is fruit bearing in one’s life. 

In our story, Christ is on His way to Gethsemane; it is the eve of His departure— His Homegoing.  When He uses the metaphor of the vine and branches, we see His desire for our life is that it may be a fruitful one. He makes plain that it is for our good and God’s glory! 

Some make this fruit He mentions as referring to soul winning, but it has a much more far-reaching meaning than one isolated fruit. If it has only to do with winning people to Christ then Noah, Jeremiah and Isaiah would not be considered to have had a fruitful life. Our text is speaking of “fruits of righteousness,” and the “fruit of the Spirit,”of which Paul tells us.

A branch is mainly good for only one thing— fruit bearing; but it must have a living relationship with the vine to be productive. That lifegiving sap must flow from the ONE to the other. Therefore, to abide is absolutely imperative. And what does it mean to abide? In Acts twenty-seven Paul tells those in the storm to abide in the ship if they want to live. The definition being: remain fixed to a person, place, or thing.

Jesus said there are those with fruit, much fruit, and more fruit. But adds also, sad to say, those with no fruit. What a dreary scene it is to see a tree standing alone, withered, and fruitless. From the beginning God told all of His creation to be fruitful. We are told throughout eternity we will behold, “In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month.”

An Old Disciple