John 15:1-5 English Standard Version

I Am the True Vine

15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

In my past there have been some teachings that led to some confusion surrounding the fruit that is yielded. Many times it is because of the parable of the sower.

Matthew 13:23 As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

That parable is about the sowing the gospel and the fruit that the gospel yields. Jesus, as the true vine is speaking to us about His abiding presence and what He yields in us. That is very different and we must not be confused about the differences between what we do and who we are because of His abiding presence.

Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

This is the fruit of His abiding presence. What we should do is see this fruit production in terms of what Jesus said to His disciples. One fruit has to be pruned to produce a different fruit of the spirit. Pruning of the vine does not destroy the fruit, it increases the vines’ production. It is done in order because God is a God of order.

First comes love. It is the first fruit and the most important fruit of the spirit.

1 Corinthians 13:13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Faith and hope are not fruits of the spirit, but love is listed as a fruit. Faith and hope are internal, love is a pouring out, a fruit which is pruned, to be shared. Pruning must not be looked at as a loss but rather a sharing.

Romans 5:3-5 English Standard Version

3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Other translations replace endurance with patience. Little children can be impatient. Because we are born again into this Kingdom life, we come as babies, having our eyes opened for the first time. We are not born again with patience. That comes before character building.

Be patient as God has been patient with us and has waited many years for you to be born again.It was 8 Shevat 5785 by the Hebrew calendar when I began writing this post. Year one was 3761 BC. We reset the calendar and adjusted the dates trying to identify when Jesus was born. Jesus has changed the world and is changing us every day.

For those who have recently been born again they may not notice much of a change in their own character but others might. I was not aware of just how much I had changed until my son said that I should be fitted for a straitjacket, so radical was my mental facilities changed.

Changing one’s mind helps but is not character building, at least not in this new economy. Some of us address the shift from our old life to this new one as an economic endeavor. How we invest our time pays off in many different aspects of this new life. As with any investment the process may not have an immediate return on investment.

One of the first things that happens is re-evaluating relationships. Toxic people in our lives will be shunned either by choice or because our habits change. We will discover that a new family is a major part of new birth. It took my wife and children a year to join me in this new family. What convinced them that I was not crazy was forward progress and a better life that said I was on the right path.

The decisions we make mark our progress in moving forward toward the goal of discovering Christ in us. That does not come without a fair amount of grace and truth.

Colossians 1:6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth,

One of the lessons learned on the way is that a tree cannot pick and choose what fruit it produces nor can it produce it by effort but rather by its characteristics, its character. We are much the same. What fruit is being produced in you? Are you even aware of it?