Abide (the how-to guide for fruit)

Jesus kicks John 15:1-17 off with what could seem like a heavy admonition to “bear fruit.” The fruit He is referring to is Kingdom work that is effective and produces results.

Jesus likens our lives to branches on a vine. In His analogy, if you are a branch that bears fruit, then He helps you bear more fruit. If you are a branch that doesn’t produce fruit, you get cut off. Ouch.

Reading that, we can get all guilt-trippy at ourselves. Our tendency is to try to bear fruit. Especially if we’re Americans, because we are “get ‘er done” kind of people. We honor hard work and resourcefulness. We value personal ambition. And we don’t like handouts.

So if Jesus says, “bear fruit,” we’re going to grit our teeth and bear fruit if it kills us. Funny thing is, that method will kill us.

The Kingdom of Heaven’s equation for bearing fruit isn’t trying harder.

After Jesus lays the expectation of fruit on His disciples, He then tell them how to do it in John 15:4-5. He says, Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.” Basically, Jesus is saying, “Just hang with Me. And fruit will come.”

We tend to be goal oriented people (again, the American culture). But Jesus flips it upside down and says, “Don’t pursue fruit and try to make it happen. Pursue Me. Keep your eyes on Me. Eat, sleep and breathe me. And you won’t be able to help doing the stuff I do.” That’s fruit.

It’s kind of like the way I talk. I grew up in Wisconsin. And there are just some things I say that prove it. I never tried to talk like a Wisconsite (I doubt ANYONE has ever tried to do that). It’s just the natural byproduct of living there for so many years. Where we dwell (abide) WILL shape us.

We need to quit worrying about how much we’re accomplishing and if we’ve checked off our spiritual to-do list today. Rather, we need to check where we’re abiding. Are we wrapped up in Jesus? Does He have all our love? That’s the real key to Kingdom success.