No Fruit, Some Fruit, Good Fruit

John 15:1-8

In the part of the world where I live we are entering the summer season.  There is nothing better on a hot summer day than enjoying a piece of delicious fruit.  If you are fortunate enough, you may have a fruit tree, grape vines, or a berry bush in your yard, and can enjoy fresh fruit often.  In our Gospel passage today we read where Jesus speaks of Himself as the Vine and we are the branches, an image of a grapevine.  It is on the branches that the grapes are grown.  Christians are supposed to bear fruit fruit.  A grapevine that is well-tended will bear nice, delicious grapes.  Left to itself, it will run wild, and the fruit can be sour, rotted, or buggy.  A good gardener will tend to the vine - trimming, realigning, and repositioning the vine.  He will tear off the dead leaves and branches, pull the weeds, and get rid of the rocks around the plant.

What does a gardener or the tender of a fruit orchard look for?  He looks for fruit on the vines or fruit trees.  Some branches are strong and healthy, bearing much fruit.  Others are not as much so, only bearing some fruit.  And then there may be a branch off of the grapevine or on a fruit tree that isn’t bearing fruit at all.  Jesus called Himself the vine, the Gardener is God the Father, and we are the branches.  Which one of those types of branches are we?  A branch receives its nourishment, its very life, from the vine.  As long as we are attached to Jesus, abiding in Him, we can bear fruit (vs. 2).  And what type of fruit is God looking from us.  One is that we bear the fruits of the Spirit, which are found in Galatians 5:22-23.  The other is the fruit of bringing more souls into the Kingdom of God, bringing others to salvation in the Lord Jesus.

When we allow things into our lives that draw us away from God, and detract us from His purpose for us, He needs to prune or cut those things away.  There are two types of pruning a gardener can do.  One is for the branches that are bearing some fruit, but could do much better.  They are pruned or cut back a bit in order for them to do much better.  This may hurt, but the end result is more fruit.  The other type of pruning that the gardener does is to cut off the branches that are not bearing any fruit.  They are taken off of the vine and thrown away (vs. 2 and 6).

If we aren’t abiding or aren’t connected to the Vine (Jesus) we wither and die, just as a branch not connected to the vine or the tree will die.  The only way to continue to be a fruitful Christian is to stay close to Jesus, abiding in Him (vs. 4-5).   Remaining or abiding in Jesus Christ is believing that He is God’s Son (I John 4:15), receiving Him as Savior (John 1:12), and obeying God’s Word (I John 3:24).   A true believer is one who abides in Jesus, remaining attached to Him, the Vine.  Evidence of abiding is bearing fruit, even if it is only some.  God will prune His believers to bring more fruit.

The branches that are cut off are those who were never true believers.  They initially claimed to be Christians, but they were apostate, and theirs was only a superficial commitment.  God cuts them off since they do not bear any fruit (vs. 6).   The true believers are those who are bearing fruit, and though it may hurt some, He will prune us in order for us to bear more fruit.  God will cut away anything that detracts from the purpose of bearing good, healthy fruit.

The key is that we must remain in Jesus, abiding in Him, being fed and nourished from the Vine.  The only way we can do good things for God’s Kingdom is to allow Jesus to live His life through us.  To do that is to abide in Him, staying connected to Jesus.  God wants genuine spiritual fruit from us.  He is glorified when we bear much fruit for Him (vs. 8).  He is Lord of the Harvest (Matthew 9:38).  Let us be sure that we remain constantly abiding in Jesus, the True Vine, and bearing much fruit for Him!