Introduction
Jesus continuously talked about fruit. He mentioned that a Christian would bear good fruit, yielding one hundred or sixty or thirty times more than what was originally sown (Matthew 13). Jesus explained that Christians would be recognized by their fruit, and He taught about the differences between good fruit and bad fruit. He even warned Christians about lacking fruit.
What is fruit? Why is fruit so important to Jesus? How can I produce fruit? What if I choose to be a fruitless Christian? After all, Salvation is by Grace, not by Works. We are going to look at New Testament Scripture to understand some basic principles of fruit.
What is fruit?
Galatians 5:19-23.19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Fruit of the Spirit is a collection of nine attributes. There are not nine fruits of the Spirit; rather, there is one fruit which requires nine parts to be complete. This concept is very important. It is not for the Christian to decide which of the nine to have and how many of each. "I already have love and goodness, but I will leave patience and self-control for someone else." These nine attributes are not the same as the gifts of the Spirit (that is another lesson!). God does not even pick and choose for you. You are required to have them all! This is God�s intention when He graciously gave Christians the Spirit of Christ. God is a patient God who will work with the individual Christian to develop this fruit so that it will become mature, ready to produce more fruit. Ah yes, this is only the beginning!
Look at the parallelism in the Scriptures. Paul says in verse 19, "The acts of the sinful nature..." then says in verse 22, "But the fruit of the Spirit...". Those acts of the sinful nature are awful things that people do, but the fruit of the spirit is peaceful action that Christians do. So you can see that the fruit of the Spirit is active, not passive! This fruit is simply the types of action God wants us to perform. This fruit requires work, action, and spiritual life. Look at the acts of the sinful nature. Has a toddler ever needed to be taught how to have fits of rage? Or is there a high school class for boys titled, "How to be a jealous boyfriend?" What about a professional training seminar on "How To Effectively Develop Selfish Ambition"? Of course not! These are acts of the sinful nature. Every human being is born with this sinful nature. But the fruit of the Spirit comes from God, and these attributes must be developed! Patience and faithfulness must be tested. Joy must be consistent over time. Love is a truly difficult discipline. If you don�t believe me, read I Corinthians 13 and apply it to your enemies, which we are commanded to do as Christians (Matthew 5:43-48). All of this is tough stuff. Only God can do the work in you--let Him do it.
Since we have made the conclusion that the fruit of the Spirit is action, then you may see a correlation with fruit as being works or deeds. I do not want to tackle this issue in this lesson, but John 6:28-29 and James 2:14-26 will provide a foundation for another lesson on works, deeds, and faith.
Now, this active fruit which has nine attributes also shows the rest of the world what is Christian is. Read the following passage noticing the repetition of phrases.
Matthew 7:15-20.[Jesus said,] 15"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep�s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them."
Fruit is the way other people can see you. Mainly, Christians can determine from a person�s fruit whether that person is a Christian or a false prophet. This is so important for all Christians to learn. You must know that your closest friends are Christians. Single people, you must know that the person you are dating is a Christian. There are clear instructions in Scripture, both New and Old Testaments, which command you to be equally yoked and have nothing to do with �fakers�.
But then you say, "But Jesus said not to judge for you will be judged (Matthew 7)." Well, judging whether or not someone is a Christian means if you judge whether or not your boyfriend is a Christian, then you had better be a Christian yourself! Is there any problem with that? And Paul explains that Christians must judge those who claim to belong in the family of believers. This is not the petty judgment of whether someone eats the right kind of food, but rather the judgment that determines if someone has truly made Jesus the Lord of his life. Paul makes this point clear in his first letter to the Corinthians.
1 Corinthians 5:12-13.12What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you."
Christians must know how to spot the fruit of a Christian so that they know that the Spirit dwells within a professed Christian. How else will we be able to determine if our best friends need the good news to be shared with them? How else will we know that a prophet is false? The Scriptures are clear--by their fruit you will recognize them.
Therefore, fruit is the token or the proof that a person truly has faith in Christ Jesus. By the way, what is the fruit for which we are looking? Love, peace, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
How do I have fruit?
Okay, we now know what fruit is: the nine attributes that make the whole, action that must be developed, and evidence that a person is a Christian. We see that fruit is good. We say, "I want to have fruit, but how do I produce this crop of one hundred times more than what was sown into me?"
Romans 7:4-6.4So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. 5For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. 6But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
There is, of course, one important start for just about everything. Build the foundation before building the house, write a contract before starting business with a new customer, and become a Christian before bearing fruit to God. See how verse four says that we died to the law in order that we might bear fruit to God. A Christian dies to that law of the sinful nature, those evil acts of the sinful life, through Christ to bear fruit. We must put that old nature behind us. It must be crucified with Christ on the cross. We can now serve in the way of the Holy Spirit.
"Great. Easy. I am a Christian ready to go and produce my crop." Let me say an important point first. Doing away with the sinful nature is as simple and as hard as you want it. When becoming a Christian, you are a new creature, but that sinful flesh is still surrounding you. You still have hormones, you still have memories, you still have habits, you still have consequences of past sins. The process of putting the sinful nature behind you is a constant struggle for the rest of your life. But God makes that struggle easy--if you let Him. Yes, this is why Lordship of Jesus Christ is so important because unless you allow Jesus to be the Lord of your life, you cannot resist the temptations of the sinful nature. That's right, with only the power of Jesus being allowed to work in your life is your sinful nature going to be conquered. Ever here the testimony of a Christian who lived a life of sin for many years. Sometimes the testimony is like, "I never had a problem again." But usually it is, "Only by the Grace of God was I able to get over that" or "It took my so long to break some recurring sins." These battles are the sinful flesh verses the Holy Spirit, and the battleground is you soul and mind. Check out 1 Peter.
1 Peter 2:11.11Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.
These wars are fought by those sinful desires against your soul. Who is protecting you? Money? Twenty years of good behavior? How about the Holy Spirit? I'll take the Holy Spirit every day of the week and twice on Sunday!
You might be thinking, "Producing a crop of 100 times more than what was sown? That is a lot--that will obviously take a while. What do I do?" Jesus answers this in the Gospel of John. Notice that God is the gardener, Jesus is the vine, and the branches are Christians.
John 15:1-5.1[Jesus said,] "I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."
Wow! What a great but conditional promise in verse five. If you remain in Jesus, then you will bear much fruit. This is conditional on two things: you remaining in Him, and Jesus remaining in you. That is the only way this promise is fulfilled. And looking in verse four, we see that Jesus promises that if you remain in Jesus, He will remain in you. So, the promise of bearing much fruit relies on one simple thing: remaining in Christ Jesus.
Some might argue that the branches are not necessarily Christians, but they must be Christians. Jesus is speaking to his disciples when He says, "...you are the branches." You might say, "Hey, Judas was a disciple but was not a Christian." Yes, but Judas was not with the disciples when Jesus taught them about the vine! Read John 13-18 to discover this fact.
There is another wonderful promise in this passage. Jesus explains that God prunes the fruitful branches so that they will be more fruitful. What does that mean? This is a great thing--it means that God will remove things in a Christian�s life which do not help produce fruit! He helps you produce fruit by allowing the fruitful part of your life to flourish and cuts off the parts of your life that leans towards the sinful nature. What are the parts of your life that lead you towards sin? Television, sexual desires, careless language, anger? Could be many things and differing things for each person. God will groom the fruitful Christian to free him to be more fruitful. Praise the Living God!
"Wait a minute! Where does this fruit come from?" All good things come from the Lord, especially fruit of the Spirit. And this fruit is not for us, but it is for the glory and praise of God. Paul explains this in his letter to the Philippians.
Philippians 1:9-11.9And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ--to the glory and praise of God.
What if I never produce that fruit?
"What if I stop producing fruit after I have done my fair share?" This sounds like a rebellious question, but it is a very real situation which occurs in many Christians. We shall look at some convincing text in the Gospels.
Matthew 21:18-19.18Early in the morning, as [Jesus] was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it. "May you never bear fruit again!" Immediately the tree withered.
No fruit? Then you will wither up. Well, what does that mean? There is some symbolism here that needs explaining. A fig tree is a biblical symbol of the nation of Israel, God's chosen people. Jesus approached a fig tree that had leaves and was healthy, but it had no fruit. Israel was a mature nation, just like the fig tree, but it had no fruit. Jesus was rightfully angry with Israel for having no fruit. They should have been overflowing with fruit! They were God's chosen people who had been blessed repeatedly. In the same way, the tree should have been full of figs, but it was barren. So Jesus cursed the tree so that it would never bear fruit again. �Never� sounds like a long time, does it not? Jesus was very serious about this. Jesus was hungry. The Jews did not provide him with any fruit. Are Christians feeding Christ? When Jesus returns, will you be able to offer him a banquet of fruit, one hundred or sixty or thirty times more than what you started with as a Christian? You might be saying, "You mean that if I have no fruit that I will wither up?" That is absolutely correct. And it is worse than just withering up. Let us go back to John 15.
John 15:6.6If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown in the fire and burned.
Do you remember the conditional promise in verse five? IF you remain in Jesus, then He will remain in you, and you will bear much fruit. Now, in verse six, we see the consequence of not remaining in Jesus. Those who do not remain are thrown away, and they wither and are burned! I must clarify something at this point. Remaining in Jesus means that you are already in Jesus. Verse six is not a person who never came to Christ; it is someone who was a Christian. If I asked you to remain in the living room, would it not be safe to say that you must at least be in the room first before you can remain there? And as I said before, a branch is a Christian in this passage.
This is very serious. Yes, we are saved by Grace through Faith, as documented twenty times in the New Testament. But that faith must be fruitful or it will cease. Fruit helps up strengthen our faith. This will be another lesson with James 2:14-26 as a reference point. I certainly do not want to leave you with a hopeless feeling. Hopelessness is not what conviction from the Holy Spirit is meant to do. It is to bring you to repentance. Jesus spoke of repentance in Luke 13. In this passage, He said that you must repent or you will perish. Then immediately following, we have another fig tree.
Luke 13:6-9.6Then [Jesus] told this parable: "A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. 7So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?' 8'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. 9If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.'"
The fig tree had no fruit for three years. It deserved to be cut down. But Mercy triumphed to allow one more year, one last chance, to bear fruit. There is still time. Jesus is hungry. Let us bear fruit to Him for He is worthy. He deserves the best fruit that is ripe and full of flavor. Jesus is hungry. Do you have any fruit for Jesus?