In last week’s lesson, I barely touched on the idea of bearing fruit as an outcome or reward for remaining in Christ. What does it mean to bear fruit? That’s what we want to find out this week. We’ll look at both what it means to bear fruit and why we need to bear fruit.
What does it mean to bear fruit?
If one of the outcomes of remaining in Christ is that we will bear fruit, how are we to recognize this fruit? How will we know that we are successful at bearing fruit? How will we recognize this fruit in others? How will others recognize this fruit in us?
To answer this question, I deviated a bit from the strict theme of “remaining in Christ” to look at the idea of bearing fruit. In Scripture, the vast majority of passages that talk about fruit in this context refer to personal characteristics. If we remain in Christ, we will develop personal characteristics that make us look and act more like Christ. I’ll list some of these characteristics, grouping them based on how verses group them. I’ll also bold the fruit that we can bear as we remain in Christ.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
This is a fairly well-known passage on fruit, so I wanted to start with it. Notice that the fruit of the Spirit starts with the key command Jesus gave us to follow: love. All of these characteristics help us act in ways that will be pleasing to God.
16 The Lord’s justice will dwell in the desert,
his righteousness live in the fertile field.
17 The fruit of that righteousness will be peace;
its effect will be quietness and confidence forever.
If we remain in Christ, if we dwell with him, we will bear out the fruit that comes from living in righteousness, which is peace, quietness, and confidence. This reminds me of 1 John 2:28, which we looked at last week, that said that if we remain in Christ, we will be able to stand confident and unashamed when Christ returns.
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord.
As we walk in the light that comes from remaining in Christ, we will bear the fruit of goodness, righteousness, and truth. Through these we will discover what pleases God.
9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.
This passage lists several different types of fruit that we will bear if we remain in Christ. We will be filled with knowledge, wisdom, and understanding from the Holy Spirit. This will help us live a life that pleases God. The Holy Spirit also gives us power to have endurance and patience (two of the hardest fruits to bear!!). Not only that, but we will develop a spirit of thankfulness as we remain in Christ.
15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. 16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
If we believe in Christ, which is one of the key components of remaining in Christ, then the natural fruit of that will be living a life that pleases God. How can we please God? Just as Jesus sacrificed his life for us, we can please God by praising him and treating those around us with kindness and generosity. This is our sacrifice.
9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
Many of the fruits listed in this passage we’ve seen before, but some new fruits listed in these verses are insight and discernment. As we remain in Christ, we will bear fruit that helps us make good decisions so that we will be pure, blameless, and righteous in Christ.
Did you notice a theme in all these verses? If we remain in Christ and bear good fruit, we will be people who please God. That is one end goal of the Christian life. I want to stand before God at the end of my life and hear God say, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23). I can do that by bearing fruit that will make me become more like Christ, which is pleasing to God.
3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— 5 the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel 6 that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace.
In addition to fruit related to characteristics we should develop to become more like Christ and please God, another fruit that we should bear as Christians is growing the gospel throughout the world. This goes back to the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20 that we’ve discussed in earlier lessons. We are to go and make disciples, and if we remain in Christ, our efforts will bear fruit to spread the gospel and bring others to Christ.
Why do we need to bear fruit?
Through the list of verses we read above, we found the first reason that we need to bear fruit: because it pleases God. Not only does bearing good fruit please God, it also helps us glorify God.
John 15:8: 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
We also see in this verse that bearing fruit helps others around us recognize that we are followers of Christ. The fruit that we bear differentiates those who follow Christ and those who don’t.
Luke 6:43-45: 43 “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. 44 Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. 45 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”
If we remain in Christ, we will bear good fruit, and people will recognize us by that fruit. If we display characteristics of love, righteousness, generosity, wisdom, discernment, and all the other characteristics we mentioned earlier, that will be a sign that we have remained in Christ.
Another reason that we need to bear fruit is so that we will receive our inheritance—the kingdom of God.
Matthew 21:43: “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you [those who reject Christ] and given to a people who will produce its fruit.”
If we reject Christ, we will not be a part of God’s kingdom, but if we remain in Christ and bear fruit that pleases him, then we will be invited into his kingdom.
Conclusion
The fruit that we bear is a direct reflection of whether we have remained in Christ. If we bear good fruit, we will be recognized as someone who remains in Christ, and we will please God and receive our rewards accordingly. If we do not bear fruit, or if we bear bad fruit, we will be recognized as someone who does not remain in Christ, and we will have to bear the consequences of our actions. We’ll talk more about the consequences of not remaining in Christ next week.
For now, think on these questions: Which fruits are obvious in my life? Which ones need a little more work?
Thank you for these... I was enlightened....
Thank you, Karen. That was a thorough study.