Christians love to talk about bearing the fruit of the Spirit. Have you ever thought about how bearing fruit works? Have you ever tried to be patient? Have you ever done your best to love someone who seemed completely unlovable? Have you ever tried to be kind to someone when they were stepping on your last nerve? You were struggling to bear fruit.
However, trying to bear fruit doesn’t work. Our very trying reveals our misunderstanding of how fruit comes forth. A fruit isn’t focused on being a fruit. A fruit is born from its connection to the tree or the vine. The fruit of the Spirit — love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control — comes from abiding in the Vine, Jesus. 1 We’re just the branches. We behold Jesus in His word and feast on His love for us, and we will love without even being conscious of it. We’ll do random acts of kindness, and they may seem random even to us! Self-discipline will be replaced with self-control. New Year’s resolutions will be replaced with faithfulness that is supernaturally natural. Peace like a river will flow from God through us and splash onto others. And patience won’t be the impossible feat we have strived for, it will be a fruit borne effortlessly. We abide in the vine — abide in God’s love — and the fruit of the Spirit will be the result.
Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. (John 15:4-5) 2
What does it mean to abide? It’s the word “meno” 3 in the Greek and means “to remain as one, not to become another or different.”
He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. (1 Corinthians 6:17)
There is a joining to the Lord, a becoming one spirit with Him, that occurs when we are saved and the Spirit of God indwells us. We become the “temple of the Holy Spirit.” While this is true, our character will still need improvement and maturing. There is an outflow of the new inward reality that comes from knowing and believing a certain foundational truth: we have been made righteous through the blood of Jesus. That outflow of our identity in Christ and our union with Him is called fruit! But first, we must know we are loved by him.
As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. (John 15:9)
We have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him. (1 John 4:16)
(from pages 71-72 of Unveiling Jesus)
Want more from Tricia Gunn? Check out excerpts from the Unveiling Jesus 20-part series!
Unveiling Jesus, by Tricia Gunn, is a verse by verse study of the pure gospel of grace. It’s an amazing journey of love, identity, and freedom in Christ.
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1 Galatians 5:22-23
2 All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New King James Version. Scripture is taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.
3 G3306 (menō), Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, website: http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=G3306&t=KJV, accessed 5-18-14
