Bearing Fruit

The Bible speaks often about the concept of “bearing fruit.” For example, John the Baptist told the people who came to him to “produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” Jesus said we will be able to “recognize people by their fruit.” The word “fruit” speaks of evidence of real life. It speaks of a way that we can recognize what a thing really is. If we saw a tree that had apples hanging from it, we could reasonably conclude the tree was an apple tree.  

Fruit is spoken of two primary ways in Scripture. First, fruit often is used to speak of a person’s moral character. This fruit is pointed to as something that reveals the true nature of a person’s heart. 

Second, fruit is used to speak of our effective work for the kingdom of God, particularly in evangelism. It is the idea of reproducing ourselves in the faith. Paul spoke of his goal of a life with fruitful labor,i of “bearing fruit for God.”ii He was clearly speaking of the fruit of his evangelistic efforts. What God commanded the first humans to do physically, he has called Christians to do spiritually. 

As Christians, we want to be fruit bearers, and we want the fruit of our character to be growing and evident. As we study the Scriptures, we uncover several principles related to fruit. 

Connection to Jesus 

The first clear principle is that our fruit bearing is directly linked to our connection to Jesus. In John 15, Jesus used the allegory of the vine and the branches. One of the things that is striking to me is that if Jesus is the vine, that means that we are not. Everyone, including those rough fishermen among the twelve who walked with Jesus, knew and understood that life flowed from the vine into the branches. The purpose of the vine is to bring nourishment to the branches in order that they might produce fruit. He wanted them to know He was the true vine and that He was the only true source of life. He wanted them to know any success they had in ministry would be because they were connected to Him. When we are connected to the true vine, all the sap and nourishment that comes from the vine flow into us, and we can really produce fruit. 

The operative word in John 15 is “abide” or “remain.” This word is used ten times in just ten verses. The word abide means “to remain, stay put, or to dwell.” It is remaining closely connected to Him. In this metaphor, we see the importance of staying connected to the vine. We understand eventually anything that is disconnected from the vine will die and will obviously fail to produce fruit. To live as God intended, we must stay connected to the vine. When we become disconnected from the vine, we begin to die. 

When a branch is connected to a vine, the sap and life that sustain the vine flows through to sustain the branches. The branch cannot live independent of the vine. Once it becomes disconnected there is no life flowing through the vine and into the branches. This is Jesus’s point. He is saying He is the vine which has roots and He alone provides life to the branches. 

We can live a good life, we can bear a lot of fruit, but we can’t do it on our own.  Jesus said, “Apart from me, you can do nothing.”iii We need the life and sustenance that comes from the true vine. The key to effective, biblical fruit bearing is simply to abide in Him. We do not just simply bear more fruit by willing ourselves to bear it. We do not merely work harder. The way to bear fruit is to do a better job abiding, and the fruit will come. We may desire to bear fruit, but the thing we should pursue first is a godly character, and the fruit will naturally follow. 

In 2 Peter 1, Peter provided of a list of virtues we should be constantly adding to our faith. He said if these qualities are increasing in your life, you will not be unfruitful (2 Peter 1:5-8). However, the thing that is added and pursued is not fruit, it is a holy character. We are called to cultivate holiness in our lives (Hebrews 12:14), and this process involves removing some things and adding some other things. As we pursue a connection to Jesus, fruit will always result. 

For example, in Galatians 5, Paul famously spoke of the fruit of the Spirit in a person’s life. He made it very clear there are certain moral qualities that ought to be increasingly recognizable in a Christian’s life. The very presence of those things tells us something about our connection to the True Vine. The Holy Spirit in our lives ought to produce some growth and change. 

Fruit bearing is a way to recognize the genuineness of a person. Jesus makes it absolutely clear the type and quality of fruit that a person may produce in their life reveals something about their true character and motives. Stated another way, He said that a good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. In fact, the fruit a person produces is the criteria in which we can judge a person to be genuine or not. 

Unfruitful Branches Removed 

The second clear principle is that unfruitful branches are removed. Jesus said the branches that do not bear fruit are thrown away and cast out. This is not merely a punishment for a branch not producing fruit. This is not teaching “work harder to bear fruit.” The problem is not merely fruitlessness, it is a lack of connection. The fruitlessness is a symptom of a bigger issue. 

Necessity of Pruning 

The third clear principle is that pruning increases fruit production. In John 15, we see not only does God as the gardener remove the unfruitful and unproductive branches, but He prunes the branches that are fruitful. The way God does things, pruning is a reward. 

Grapevines, if left untrimmed will use all their available energy to produce long woody branches. However, they won’t produce many grapes. If the goal of the vineyard is to produce fruit, then pruning was necessary. 

I had to learn what pruning is: “To cut off or remove dead or living parts or branches in order to improve shape or growth.” I began to think about how that relates to the idea of God pruning us, and the more I thought, the less pleasant it sounded, until I realized the end of the story. Pruning sounds painful and unpleasant. Pruning might be pain or suffering in our life, but it is pain for a purpose. 

The purpose of pruning is to prepare the branch to bear more fruit; it is not to punish, or to hurt, or to damage the branch. Rather, it is to change the result. The goal of pruning is that the life-giving sap be utilized for production of more fruit. 

When I hear this, I can’t help but to wonder why this works this way. Why does God prune the ones that already are producing fruit? Why doesn’t He leave some alone? The truth is some things in our life need to be cut back and other things need to be cut off. He prunes so we might bear even more fruit for Him. 

The joy of staying connected to the vine is that we can better bear fruit for Him. Our job is to abide, His job is to prune, and the natural result will be more fruit bearing. The presence of real fruit in our lives is evidence of a strong connection to the True Vine.