When we abide in Christ, the life of Christ flowing in us and through us produces fruit — fruit (John 15:2), more fruit (John 15:2), much fruit (John 15:5), fruit that will last (John 15:16).
Abiding in Christ is the secret to bearing fruit. “Just as a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing (John 15:4-5).
Jesus was clear. Fruit in our lives comes from abiding, allowing the life of the vine (Christ) flow in us and through us. He was also clear about the flip side of that thought. “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5b). We cannot, in our own strength or through self-effort or through willful resolve, produce fruit, more fruit, much fruit, fruit that will last. Fruit in the spiritual realm — spiritual fruit — requires a spiritual life enriched by intimate relationship with the Risen Christ and the Father.
What does that mean — spiritual fruit? A spiritual life enriched by an intimate relationship with the Risen Christ and the Father?
Jesus’s teaching in John 15 identifies what he meant by fruit.
One place that abiding produces fruit is in our relationship with God the Father, particularly in our experience of prayer. Abiding enriches our experience of prayer. Abiding produces an intimacy with God captured by the word Father. We know and trust God as Abba — the Aramaic name a small child used with their father. It corresponds to our English word daddy. Abiding creates a freedom in our relationship with God. A deep confidence in and unquestioning trust in God’s love frees us from fear and hesitancy (1 John 4:18). We turn to God with boldness (Hebrews 4:16) to receive the grace we need for whatever we are facing.
In addition to this deep intimacy and freedom, Jesus spoke of asking and receiving in prayer. “If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7). “I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name (John 15:16). Jesus did not say God would give us whatever we wanted and asked for — although his words can be read that way and are frequently interpreted that way (name it and claim it, prosperity gospel teaching). I hear him saying our asking arises out of our abiding and thus is shaped by our abiding. Our asking is shaped by his words — his teachings — which abide in us and guide us. Our asking grows out of our desire to bear fruit that will last and fruit that will point to the beauty of God’s love. The Father will give us whatever we need to bear fruit, to love as Jesus loved, to love who Jesus loved. We need only to ask. Our abiding in Christ guides how we pray and for what we pray. It releases the life-giving, transformative power of God, accessed through prayer, in our lives.
As we abide in Christ, our lives are transformed — another expression of the spiritual fruit that is produced as his life flows in us and through us. “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love” (John 15:10). Keeping Jesus’s commandments comes out of abiding in his love. Abiding is what makes it possible to keep his commandments, particularly the commandment to love one another (John 15:12, 17). To keep his commandments is to live the ways of God he taught. As we abide in Christ, we ask the Father to empower us to do what we cannot do in our own strength, i.e., keep his commandments, love. As the Father gives us what we ask, our lives are transformed. Our lives become patterned after and reflect the life of Christ.
Abiding produces the joy of Christ in our lives (John 15:11) — yet another expression of the fruit. “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11). The joy Jesus experienced grew out of his intimate relationship with God as Abba. It was tied to loving as God loves. As we abide in Christ, we experience that same joy — the joy of intimate relationship with God as Abba, the joy of loving others as Jesus loved. We experience a joy this world cannot duplicate or give.
Ultimately, the fruit that comes from abiding in Christ is the ability to love. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:12-13). “I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another” (John 15:17). As we abide in Christ, his teachings shape how we think and live. Our lives are transformed so that we love as Jesus loved. Abiding leads us to love as Jesus loved … to love one another with the self-giving, self-sacrificing love of God.
Abiding is the secret to bearing fruit, more fruit, much fruit, fruit that will last — an intimate relationship with God as Abba, asking in prayer shaped by our abiding, living the ways of God that Jesus taught so our lives are transformed, the joy of Christ, loving as Jesus loved.
Sadly, we too often make excuses for the lack of this kind of fruit in our lives. We substitute beliefs about God for intimate relationship with God as Abba. We substitute prayer lists for prayer that grows out of our intimate relationship with God and our desire to learn and live God’s ways. We substitute involvement in the activities of an institutional church for a life shaped by and transformed by the ways of God Jesus taught. We settle for social relationships in the institutional church in place of the joy Jesus promised. We substitute moral living, church involvement, and charity work for loving as Jesus loved. We settle for the mediocrity of doing the best I can in place of abiding in Christ.
Abiding in Christ is the key to bearing fruit, more fruit, much fruit, fruit that will last.
No comments:
Post a Comment