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II. "What is fruit?"
III. What is its function?
IV. How do I bear fruit? What do I do?
V. It's Who You Know
I. Have you ever heard it said that as Christians we must
bear fruit for Jesus?
Actually that phrase gets thrown around a lot in Evangelical Christian circles. Our personal ministries director in Okinawa got up before the whole congregation once and exclaimed, "You can’t get to heaven by yourself. You have to take someone else along with you." The clear implication was that unless you had personally led someone Christ, you weren’t worthy of salvation. There is just a smidgen of truth buried in this idea - just enough that it makes the whole idea difficult to refute. Unfortunately it is wrong and it can give you the wrong perspective of Jesus; it can give you the wrong perspective of His character; it can give you the wrong perspective of His relationship with you, and His expectations of you, and that can damage your spiritual life. It is reminiscent of the idea that because "...faith without works is dead," that it gives the legalist the right to focus on his works in order to build his faith. And that's not true.
Actually, the phrase "bear fruit for God" does indeed appear in the Bible in Romans 7:4. I’ll let you look that verse up for yourself and decide if, in context, it means what we have come to think it means. Let’s take a look at what the Bible has to say about bearing fruit. Perhaps we can discover the error behind the common misinterpretation of that phrase. More importantly, perhaps we can find, and revive, the buried truth that could add new vitality to our Christian growth.
So what does the Bible say that fruit is? Turn with me in your Bibles to Galatians 5:22-23. I am sure that most of you are very familiar with this passage. The Bible says…
Gal 5:22-23
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."
A pastor of mine suggested once that since this verse says fruit
and not fruits, then the real object here is Love – "The fruit of
the Spirit is Love" - and the words that follow - joy, peace, patience, kindness,
etc. - are merely descriptions of love. This immediately brings to mind another
description of love in the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter:
1 Cor 13:4-8
"Love is patient, love is kind, {and} is not jealous; love does not brag {and} is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong {suffered,} does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails."
That’s an interesting comparison isn’t it? Look back at the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. What are these? These are attitudes. They are emotions and feelings. They are elements of character. I’d like to suggest that they are elements of God’s character that can be revealed in us. The good news is that, unlike the Gifts of the Spirit which God divides severally among Christians as He wills, all of the Fruits of the Spirit are available to each and every one of us. You can have more love, joy, and peace in your lives. You can be more patient, more kind, and more faithful. You can have more self-control. This is the fruit that the Bible speaks of.
Matt 7:16-20
16 "You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they?
17 "Even so, every good tree bears good fruit; but the bad tree bears bad fruit.
18 "A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.
19 "Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20 "So then, you will know them by their fruits.
According to this scripture passage, the fruit helps us to identify the tree. In context, Jesus is warning us in the last days about false prophets. He says, "Be careful who you listen to and whose teachings you follow. Their words may sound good, but you need to judge their motives." But as we noted before, the fruits are attitudes or elements of character. Can you see an attitude?
Do you remember your grade school earth science class? I remember my grade school science teacher asked us once if we could see the wind. When we all enthusiastically said yes - because we were excited that he had asked a question we knew the answer to - he asked, "how?" We said, "You can see leaves being blown from trees and hats flying off people’s heads. You can see dust blowing along the road. You can see snow being blown back and forth." He said, "That’s very interesting. But the wind is just air in motion; and just as you can’t see the air, because air’s transparent, you can’t see the wind. What you can see - the examples you just gave me - are the effects of the wind."
So it is with attitudes. You cannot see an attitude, but you can see an attitude played out in action. You can see elements of our character in the way we live our lives. Ellen White said in a Signs of the Times article, in 1884, that "The character is revealed by the works,"…the character is revealed by the works…"not by occasional good deeds, not by occasional misdeeds, but by the tendency of the habitual words and acts" - Signs of the Times, 3/27/84, pp.11, 12. You see, our attitudes shape the way we act. It is never the other way around. An act always originates from an idea or a belief. God tells us in Proverbs 21:7 that "As {a man} thinketh in his heart, so he is." ...and so he does. Jesus, Himself, tells us in Luke 6:45 "The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart."
The Fruits of the Spirit are powerful attitudes that must reveal themselves in our actions. Love is an action word. Joy is an action word. Imagine a little boy and girl who have just gotten their very first puppy for Christmas. They stumble down the stairs in their little footie pajamas and are bawled over by a little five pound ball of amber fuzz with a red bow on its head that immediately begins licking all over their faces. In this picture in your mind are there frowns and bitter scowls on the kids' faces. No! They are filled with joy, and you can read it in everything they do. They are laughing and smiling and hugging their new best friend. They couldn't hold that joy in if they tried. Even the puppy cannot conceal its joy. It is bouncing around with its tail wagging, and ears flopping, as it wriggles over and under the hugs of its new best friends.
Or you guys out there who are married. How far do you think you would have gotten toward that trek down the aisle with your lovely bride if your love for her had been bottled up inside. You couldn't have held those feelings in if you had tried. I remember driving two hours one-way every day down to see Mischelle at her grandparents' home. The drive wasn't drudgery for two very important reasons. First, the drive itself was an act of love. I would have driven twice that far to spend time with the lady who meant so much to me. Secondly, the whole time I driving I was thinking of what I could do to let her know how much I loved her. Many times, I would stop the car along the roadside and walk out into a field in my military fatigue uniform to pick wildflowers for her. The point is, I loved her and that love could not sit still. It had to be expressed in action.
Consider for a moment the incredible love of God for us and how that love was expressed in action. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." - John 3:16
This makes you stop wonder about why so many Christians are so overcome with grief and foreboding. If our churches are filled with long drawn faces and heavy hearts - if all we can talk about is our misery and how Satan is attacking our lives - what visitor would ever want to come back. The Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience and kindness - not grief misery and despair. Our churches should be filled with joyous songs of praise; our hearts exploding in thanksgiving for the wondrous love of our Savior; with testimonies of His wonder working power on our lips.
The Fruit of the Spirit has another function as well. It is just like real fruit. Real fruit is colorful and it's sweet, and it attracts people to the tree and they are nourished by what they find there. As people see the elements of God's character of love acted out in your lives they are drawn to you. And through you, God can minister to their needs. As people see the joy and peace in your life, they will come to you, and you can share that joy and peace with them. You can minister to their needs through Patient acts of Christian kindness.
And now we come to the fragment of truth that led people to mistake bearing fruit for winning souls. What is hidden inside a real fruit? The seeds…that, as they are scattered and planted, grow into a new tree that can bear more fruit. The seeds that cause Christianity to grow are hidden within the Fruits of the Spirit.
When Mischelle and I lived in Okinawa, for the first year and a half we lived off base in a totally Japanese neighborhood. There wasn't another American in sight. After that first year and a half, when we were preparing to move into base housing, I just couldn't leave without telling our Japanese neighbors about Jesus in some way. I don't know if you are aware of it or not, but the spread of Christianity in Japan is extremely slow. Less than one percent of the population is even professed Christian. So I brought some Japanese New Testament Bibles home from our church. In my awkward and cumbersome way, I was prepared to simply pass these Bibles out to our neighbors in order to fulfill my Christian obligation. Fortunately, I am married to a wonderful lady who has the Spiritual gift of nurturing. She is sensitive to people's emotions and feelings. Also, while I had been off at wor for the past year and a half, Mischelle had been developing a relationship with these people. The kids would come over to the house and she would bake cookies with them and paint and draw with them. When the people would be out walking their dogs, she would go out and pet their animals and find some way of communicating with them. So Mischelle intervened in my plans. She prepared a bag for each family, filling each one with homemade cookies, banana bread, and fresh fruit. Inside the cover of each Bible she wrote, "This has brought peace to my life, and I would like to share it with you." She then placed the Bibles in the tops of the goodie bags and personally delivered them to our neighbors as a farewell gift. If I had just handed out those Bibles, every one of them would have probably gone unread. How much more meaningful was it when the seed of Christianity - when the Word of God - was hidden inside the fruit of Christian kindness?.
John 15:1-8
1 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
2 "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every {branch} that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit.
3 "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
4 "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither {can} you, unless you abide in Me.
5 "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.
6 "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch, and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.
8 "By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and {so} prove to be My disciples.
Here is the answer! Look in verses four and five. Jesus says, "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit." The word abide is translated from the Greek word meno. It means, very simply, to be with ; to remain; to stay. If you want the Fruits of the Spirit to be revealed in your life you must stay connected to Jesus. And how do we stay connected to Jesus? Through Bible study. Through Prayer. And, as we grow, through acts of Christian service. The devotional life is the key. Knowing Jesus is what it is all about.
Like I said, this is where we usually make our biggest mistake. We notice the absence of patience in our lives and say to ourselves, "I need to work on my patience." Or we see a kind and loving fellow church member, and we try to be like him or her by doing the things he does. Remember which happens first. The action does not cause the attitude; the attitude always precedes the action. We keep trying to treat the symptoms instead of curing the disease.
Look at verse four - "the branch cannot bear fruit of itself." And again in verse five - "for apart from Me you can do nothing." Only Jesus can change our attitudes. Only Jesus can give us a new heart; a heart of flesh rather than a heart of stone. The fruit is the result of a close personal relationship with Christ; it is never the cause of that relationship. We keep on trying to change our own actions instead of falling to our knees and striving to see Jesus more clearly.
When James admonishes the church that "faith without works is dead", it is not a call to works. It is a call for us to inspect our works to see if they are in keeping with the fruits of repentance. If our works are not in keeping with the fruits of the Spirit, then what we need to work on is our faith.
You see, if we concentrate on works, we will always be shooting for the minimum standard. We will ask questions like, "What is it permissible to do on the Sabbath?" Unfortunately, the minimum standard is not good enough. The scribes and Pharisees of Jesus' day were experts in the works of the law. They had defined the works of the law down to the most minute detail. Yet Jesus told his followers in His Sermon on the Mount that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Scribes and the Pharisees, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.
The next time you are tempted to justify your Christianity based on your works, ask yourself this question first. "How much time have I spent with Jesus lately?" Unless they are the result of Jesus living in us, our works are meaningless.Remember that our own righteousness is as filthy rags. Even our good deeds are worthless in God's sight if they spring from selfish motives. "Man looks upon the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart." - 1 Samuel 16:7.
But there is hope. Jesus assures us that "If any man comes to me, I shall in no wise cast him out." And again He promises us "Ask and it shall be given unto you; seek and ye shall find [Me]; knock and the door shall be opened unto you." Jesus is waiting with open arms. He always initiates; we must simply respond. "We love because He first loved us." "Behold," Jesus says, "I stand at the heart's door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me." Rev 3:20
Matt 7:21-23
21 "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.
22 "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?'
23 "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'
In the final judgement, men come to Jesus espousing their own righteous deeds. They had done the very same things that the true Christians had done. They had even done these things in the name of Jesus. But Jesus turns them away. Why? Because He says, "I never knew you." You see knowing Jesus is what it is all about.
You can go to church every Sabbath. You can quit smoking and drinking. You can become a vegetarian. You can not lie, not steal, not commit adultery, and not kill all day long, and it isn't worth a thing unless you know Jesus. It's not so much what you do that matters, as much as Who you know. Because unless the things you do are a result of your love for Jesus, then they just amount to selfishness in disguise.
So if you don't see the sin in your life, come into the light of Jesus' righteousness and discover again that though you may think you are "rich and have need of nothing," still you are "poor, miserable, blind, wretched and ." If you do see your sin, come into the light of Jesus love and receive forgiveness. If you have habits in your life that you can't overcome; if you want to become more kind, more patient, more loving; if you need peace or joy in your life, then quit fighting the bad fight of sin and start fighting the good fight of faith. Immerse yourself in the Word of God, and cling to your devotional life with all your might.
Remember - Jesus said that He is the vine and we are the branches. As long as we cling to Jesus, we will bear fruit. Jesus will change our hearts. He will give us a new attitude. He will fill our lives with His love, joy, and peace. And love cannot sit still. Love must express itself in action. Love is an action word. Joy is an action word. Peace is an action word. Love in action is called ministry. God has given us tools for this ministry called Gifts of the Spirit.
As people are attracted to the fruits of your relationship with Christ - as they taste the sweet savor of your joy and peace in Him - as they are nourished by His love through you - a miracle will happen. The Seed of Christianity will be planted in the fallow ground of another human heart, and a new life in Christ can begin to grow.