Of Abiding, Growth and Fruitfulness

God wants us to bear the lasting fruit he has placed within us. But this does not require our effort to bear fruit, it requires only that we remain in Jesus, pay attention to his words, and let him work through us. His only command is that we love one another as he has loved us, so letting his love reach others through us.

In John 15, in six verses or fragments of verses that are often quoted as isolated proof-texts, Jesus appears to say that his true disciples may be identified by looking for their “fruit” and also to warn that those who don’t produce the expected “fruit” will be discarded and “burned:”

I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer.  Every branch in me that doesn’t bear fruit, he takes away…

I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If a man doesn’t remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned…

In this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; and so you will be my disciples…

You didn’t choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit…

John 15:1-2a, 5-6, 8, 16a (WEB)

Preaching that I’ve heard many times throughout my long lifetime picks up one or more of these verses or verse fragments, simply assumes that “of course” the “fruit” Jesus is talking about in them is new converts–i.e., people who have believed enough about our message to start coming regularly to church programs so they can “hear the Gospel” weekly at church–and concludes that we laymen have to work harder to bear this “fruit.” We need to be out “inviting, inviting, inviting” people to church. We need to be more active in “witnessing”–not only being sensitive to true opportunities, but forcing our message on unwilling audiences. Not doing so constitutes being “ashamed of Jesus” before the people we are not assailing with our invitations, and we know that, if we are ashamed of Jesus here, he will be ashamed of us in Heaven. Mark 8:38. So, if we don’t work hard enough about the business of bearing “fruit”–winning converts–we will be in danger of being “burned” as unfruitful branches.

This interpretation of what the “fruit” of a church member is fits perfectly with the emphasis on “top-down” evangelism the organized Church adopted in the Third and Fourth Centuries CE, as described in a prior article. After the Church, and its local churches, became an affair of the masses, instead of most members coming to church assemblies initially as believers seeking true fellowship (partnership!) and training, people entered the church first and then received the religious instruction that would guarantee the seriousness of their faith. Entry into the church was followed by spiritual training and the acquiring of knowledge. The net had to be cast wide so as to bring in as many as possible. And, although state-compelled and state-sponsored church activity ended long ago, the thinking of most churches is still in the “top-down” evangelism mode established in the Fourth Century. The role of laypeople in this model is to attend often, give generously, and go “invite, invite, invite.” Those who are brought in will, if they stay around, be taught what to believe, how to give, and how to reproduce themselves. The question this raises–and one Jesus himself asked of the Pharisees–is what exactly these “converts” who have become active “members” will be reproducing!

See, Matthew 23:15.

The obvious corollary of this interpretation of the word “fruit” in these verses is that it is ridiculously easy for us, as humans, to judge the fruitfulness of another believer or of a church. In judging a church, after assuring oneself that the church teaches only “correct” doctrine, one need only look at the church statistics–is attendance growing? Is participation in church programs growing? And, perhaps most important to church business, how are the attendees “giving”–are the offerings up or down? For an individual church member, present-time judgment based on fruitfulness is perhaps a little less straightforward, because it is seldom possible or meaningful to ask church attendees whether they are present in church directly because of the words or actions of another named member. So, except in cases in which another attendee openly credits another person with their attendance, the measure has to be less direct. The types of questions that need to be asked are questions like how much time the person being judged commits to church activities in general and to “evangelistic” or “soul-winning” activities specifically, how many other people the subject has actually invited to church, and, again, very importantly, how much money the subject gives to the church.

And, once again, I have frequently heard preaching which called upon me to ask these questions of my own performance, and to feel guilty that I wasn’t doing enough to bear “fruit” in these areas of my own life.

But is this what Jesus is really talking about when he says he has chosen us to bear fruit?

I think not.

First, I observe that, in Matthew, Jesus speaks in an analogous way of the “fruit” of the false prophets, and makes clear that the “fruit” he has in view in that context is the false prophets’ sin, singular, their “iniquity” (anomian, literally, lawlessness), their rebellious denial of God’s right to reign in their lives, and all of the effects this denial produces:

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. By their fruits you will know them. Do you gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree produces good fruit, but the corrupt tree produces evil fruit. A good tree can’t produce evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree produce good fruit. Every tree that doesn’t grow good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will tell me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, in your name cast out demons, and in your name do many mighty works?’ Then I will tell them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity.’

Matthew 7:15-23 (WEB)

The inward nature of the false prophet comes out as a life that produces lawless iniquity, denial of God, visible to any who will look for this “fruit.” The “fruit” in view here is not their “converts,” the number of their followers, but the whole course of their lives.

Exactly the same thing is true, in a positive sense, of the “fruit” of a “learner” (mathētḗs, disciple) of Jesus, one who is learning to let Jesus live through them. The first 17 verses of John 15, taken as a whole, without excessive emphasis on fragments of particular verses, is precisely about this way of life and its “fruit,” using the metaphor of a grapevine and its fruit.

In approaching this passage, it is first necessary to notice the meanings Jesus expressly assigned to parts of the metaphor. Jesus said twice that he, personally, is the vine, the “true” vine (there are imitations!). vv. 1, 4. God the Father is the vinedresser or farmer caring for the vine, vv. 1-2 and glorified when it bears fruit. v. 8. We, his disciples, are the “branches” of the vine. v. 5. The vine is said, as is true in nature, to bear “fruit” on and through its branches, and the “fruit” on those branches is the fruit of the vine–grapes, not thistles. (See Matthew 5:16-17, quoted above). While Jesus doesn’t expressly identify what the “fruit” is, he does not in any way suggest that it is “converts.” If anything in this metaphor is a picture of our “converts”–assuming they have actually come to faith in Jesus–it would be the other “branches” of the vine, not the grapes on our own branch. Every believer is a “branch” of the vine. But Jesus does not identify the “fruit” or tell us exactly where our “converts” fit in the metaphor, if, indeed, they belong to it at all.

With that introduction, we will now go through John 15:1-17 in some detail, discussing how the “fruit” of a disciple’s life (branch) relates to the rest of Jesus’ message in this passage. Verses 1 through 3 discuss the Father’s role as vinedresser/farmer:

I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer. Every branch in me that doesn’t bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already pruned clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

John 15:1-3 (WEB)

The Father himself takes responsibility for the fruitfulness of the branches–us. The “you” throughout this passage is the Greek second person plural, a form not found in standard Modern American English but well represented by the Southern American English dialect form “y’all.” He is speaking to all of the disciples together, and individually, and also to John’s readers collectively. Jesus tells us that he removes from his vine branches that have broken themselves off from its life, in order that they may not become a source of disease or rot in the vine. And he prunes the fruitful branches to make them more fruitful. The words generally translated “clean” (in the WEB, “pruned clean”) in verse 3 and “prunes” or “cleans” in verse 2 are related, with the adjective in verse 3 being the root word: katharós, meaning “unmixed, clean, pure, unstained,” in the broadest sense, and also, in the Jewish practice of Jesus’ day, ritually “clean” in the Levitical sense, kosher. The verb in verse 2, kathaírō, means to make something katharós by purging or pruning, and is used in verse 2 in its present indicative active form–pruning us is an activity the Father is presently (and continuously) performing. As a result of the Father’s continuous pruning, we are presently (este) clean, and able to bear fruit. Our fruitfulness depends on our cleanness, the degree to which we have been pruned clear of all that is not God’s work, not on our effort to bear fruit. As others have pointed out, the branch of a grapevine doesn’t work hard to bear fruit. It simply bears fruit naturally. Our only part in bearing fruit is paying attention to the words God has spoken to us, which are the means by which God prunes us. The rest is his work. The fruit grows naturally.

Jesus reiterated this in the next verse, pointing out its most obvious application:

Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch can’t bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me.

John 15:4 (WEB)

Because the fruit that grows in and on me comes on naturally, as a result of being a part of the vine, I cannot bear fruit by myself, by my own effort. I must remain a part of the vine–Jesus–to bear fruit. The next verse amplifies this:

I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

John 15:5 (WEB)

If I remain in Jesus, who again calls himself the vine, I will not only bear fruit, I will bear “much” fruit. But I must remain in Jesus to bear any fruit at all. Apart from him, I can do nothing.

On the other hand:

If a man doesn’t remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

John 15:6 (WEB)

There are people who choose not to remain in the vine. They are dead–withered–and produce no good fruit. Ultimately, as stated in verse 2 and in this verse, these branches must be removed, although, as shown in the last article in this blog, God is patient, giving time for repentance.

But to those who remain in the vine, God gives not just fruit but also access to his ear:

 If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you will ask whatever you desire, and it will be done for you.

John 15:7 (WEB)

Unfortunately, this verse is often misinterpreted, following one of two polar opposite incorrect approaches. The first, and most traditional, is to limit it to the Apostles and the Early Church only, so that it provides no basis for a belief that God will answer our prayers. The second is to take it as an open-ended promise to grant any prayer we make, to give us whatever we want, regardless. But neither of these approaches is correct.

Instead, this verse is a natural extension of the discourse that preceded it. It is directed to us–as Jesus’ disciples, people who are learning from Jesus to let his life flow through us and produce his fruit. If–and exactly to the extent that–we “remain” (or, in other translations, “abide,” “dwell” or “live”) in him, his words will “remain” in us. Recall that it is Jesus’ words spoken to us and to which we are paying attention that the Father uses to prune us, to make us ritually clean, unmixed with anything that is not from him, and fruitful. So Jesus is here able also to promise that if–and exactly to the extent that–we remain in him and his words remain in us, all of the inward desires for which we pray will be done as we ask. The desires for which we will be praying will be Jesus’ own desires, flowing from his words within us, and, of course, the Father will grant them, in his own way and time, according to his own will (which we have accepted and made our own). The way to get what I want is to learn from Jesus to want what God wants, and then ask him for it.

The first purpose of all of this is that the Father will be glorified in the fruit we bear as Jesus’ disciples:

In this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; and so you will be my disciples.

John 15:8 (WEB)

So it isn’t primarily about me, my place in the world, or my reputation–it is about God’s glory, to be shown to the world through his fruit in my life. It’s not about my statistics, it’s about God being visible in my life.

Jesus then ties his life through us, and the fruit which develops from it, to the Father’s love of him, his love of us, and “keeping” his “commandments:”

Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and remain in his love.

John 15:9-10 (WEB)

These verses are, in fact, much simpler than we usually understand them to be. The words used are quite simple. “Even as” both times it is used is the comparative kathōs, “in the same way as, in the same manner as, to the same degree that.” All three words translated “remain” in the WEB, quoted above, are forms of the primitive verb menō, “I stay, I remain in the same place (and do not move).” The forms translated by the verb “love” are both forms of agapáō, the word the New Testament uses most frequently to refer to God’s love, and the two forms translated by the noun “love” are both the corresponding abstract noun, agápē. The words translated “commandments” are all the plural of entolḗ, “an injunction, order, or command”–i.e., in this context, God’s orders (semantically very much in the military sense). Finally, the two uses of “keep” in this passage are both forms of the verb tēréō, which is itself derived from the primitive noun téros–a “guard.” The focus of the verb tēréō is not so much to obey or to comply with an order as to keep guard over it, to keep it intact, with an undivided heart–in other words, not to divide it into pieces and split hairs over it, as the Pharisees did, trying to justify themselves. (See, Matthew 23).

The first sentence of the passage needs no explanation, but is the reason for the second sentence. Because Jesus has loved us the same way the Father has loved him, he commands us to remain in his love. The word “stay” here is a simple present imperative, and is the same word a First Century Greek-speaking dog trainer might use if he was trying to train two or three dogs (second person plural) at once: ” meinate!” “Stay, y’all, stay!” You are already in God’s love. Stay in it–don’t move. It’s a command so simple most dogs can be trained to obey it.

A branch of a grapevine sits still and grows naturally, without going anywhere or doing anything. It just stays, that’s all. It never picks itself up and walks away to do its own thing.

The next sentence tells us that, if we keep God’s orders–his word spoken to us–intact and undivided, we will remain in his love, in just the same manner as Jesus kept God’s words intact and undivided when he remained in his father’s love. This is not a command to keep the whole Mosaic Law in order to earn the right to remain in God’s love. The only command in the passage is in the previous sentence–“Stay!”–a command which requires only inaction–stay where you are, don’t go anywhere outside my love.

Rather, this is a test to determine whether we have remained in Jesus’ love. Recall from earlier verses that it is Jesus’ words spoken to us and to which we have paid attention that prune us and make us fruitful. The way to tell whether we have paid attention to those words is to determine whether we have kept them intact; if so, we have also remained in his love. The grammar of the sentence makes this quite clear: it states what Greek grammarians call either a “Third Class Condition” (of the future more probable variety) or a “vivid future open” condition: the conditional particle ean is followed by an aorist subjunctive verb (tērēsēte) in the conditional clause, followed by a future indicative verb (meneite) in the independent clause. The most likely translation of this construction is “if it happens that you kept my commandments intact [in the past, leading into the present], then you will continue [or will have continued] to stay in my love.” Keeping Jesus commands intact, paying attention to them so that the Father may use them to prune us, is the evidence that we are remaining in Jesus’ love, not moving away from it. It is not the cause of Jesus’ love.

We now come to Jesus’ second purpose of what he is doing in and through us, to enjoy our joy with us:

I have spoken these things to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be made full.

John 15:11 (WEB)

God does not want us to be miserable. He wants us to know his joy.

Jesus also leaves us in no doubt about what his “commandment” to us is. He has already commanded us to stay where we are–in the center of his love–and not move away from it. He next tells us that his command to us is to love each other in exactly the same way as he has loved us:

This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.  You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you.

John 15:12-14 (WEB)

The father loves the Son, and the Son stays in his Father’s love. In the exactly the same way, the Son loves us–transmitting he Father’s love to us, and we are commanded to stay in his love. This was not an easy thing for Jesus. He loves us so much that he freely gave his life for us, his friends. If we are remaining in Jesus’ love, we will keep intact and undivided his commandment to love each other in exactly this way. We will live in a way which does not make exceptions to his command to love each other–for instance, by identifying people or groups of people who are unworthy of it–see, for example, the warning in James 2:1-13 about showing partiality in our love based on wealth or social status. We will also live in a way which does not split hairs, looking for conditions or situations that excuse us from letting him show his love through us, even though it will cost us this present life (just as it cost him his life).

But if we do what Jesus has commanded, by letting his love flow through us, we are his “friends.” Every other theistic religion speaks in terms of humans only being “servants” of their deity or deities, servants who, to be sure, are potentially able to earn–in a commercial sense–favors from those deities as a result of their service (see the previous article IDOLS = Gods we can Manipulate), but only “servants” nonetheless. No human religion would ever go so far as to call any mere humans God’s children and heirs–as we who follow Jesus are called in Romans 8:14-17 and other places–or his “friends,” as Jesus does here:

No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn’t know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you.

John 15:15 (WEB)

In every other religion on earth, this would be considered either blasphemy or nonsense, or both, but for us it is a truth we can know and experience. We are Jesus’ friends, and know, at least in broad outline, everything his Father is doing. If we trust him to do what he has told us he is doing–which is ultimately very good and is for our best (Romans 8:16-30) we will sit still, stay in his love, and let him do his work through us. As his life flows through us, we bear fruit:

You didn’t choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you will ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

John 15:16 (WEB)

Here, note particularly that:

1. He chose us (past tense) to bear fruit, we only respond.
2. He also appointed us–literally placed it in us (ethēka, from tithēmi)–also in the past tense–to bear fruit.
3. Therefore, the fruit we are to bear has already been placed within us, and is not our work (see Ephesians 2:8-10).
4. When Jesus here says we are “should go,” the word is hypagēte, the present subjunctive of hypágō, to “go under” or to place oneself under someone else’s authority, another military term. It is in the subjunctive mood because it is a moral imperative, not an accomplished fact–we can choose not to go under his authority. But we should choose to submit to him, and so remain in his love.
5. Because the “going” we should be doing is “going under” his authority, not going somewhere, this imperative does not contradict the earlier command to “stay.”
6. The result of going under his authority is bearing the fruit that has already been placed inside us.
7. The fruit that God has placed inside us is permanent–it “should remain”–in contrast to the “fruit” of our efforts in the world, which all sooner or later (and usually sooner than later) disappears. (See, for instance, Psalm 90:9-10, 103:14-16; Ecclesiastes 2:12-17, 3:9-15, 9:4-6; previous article: Memorial Day: The Case for Mourning). I will return to the topic of the permanence of God’s fruit in and through us in a later post, God willing.
8. Because of all this, Jesus repeats the promise to give us whatever we ask for in prayer. This is the same promise as he stated in verse 7, just stated in a slightly different way.
9. In verse 7, it was a promise that, if we remain in Jesus, in his love, and his words that he has spoken to us remain in us, he will grant all the desires we request in prayer, because they will be his desires also.
10. Here, it is stated as a promise that, in the context of bearing the lasting fruit he has placed within us to bear, everything we request in his name will be granted.
11. When Jesus speaks of requests we make “in his name,” he is referencing a legal concept, called in modern law the law of agency. When an agent does something “in my name,” he does it under my legal authority, and is presumed to be doing it according to my directions–if he is being faithful to his obligation to me as his principal.
12. This concept of acting as Jesus’ agent thus contains within it the same idea of “going under” Jesus’ authority that is stated earlier in verse 16. If I am remaining in Jesus and his words are remaining in me, so that I know what he wants, anything I ask under his authority (“in my name”) will, of course, be granted. I am exercising his authority to obtain the result we both want.
13. And, again, the purpose for this is to bring out the lasting fruit he has placed within me.

Then, lest we forget what Jesus’ command–in fact, his only command for us–is, he restates it:

I command these things to you, that you may love one another.

John 15:17 (WEB)

But he had said several chapters earlier:

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

John 13:34-35 (WEB)

And this is the only way his work among us will become known!

Next: The Fruit of Righteousness and the Fruit of the Spirit.