We can lead fruitful lives
We want fruitfulness and progress in our national economy. On the personal level, we all want to make it or succeed in marriage and business.
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Every student who goes to the University looks forward to carry home a graduating certificate of fruitful work. High Schools Speech and Prize-giving Days are held to reward students who have achieved high performance in their academic work.
One of the texts in the Bible that stands out to both tease and challenge me regularly is the testimony about fruitful persons: “they are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season, and they succeed in all they do” (Psalm 1:3).
The Psalm is a celebration of amazing people who live fruitful productive lives; “whatever they do ends well!” (Psalm 1:3b GNB). They consistently bear excellent fruit!
How can we so live that we are guaranteed good success virtually in every department of life? (as a husband, as a wife, as a mother, as a father, as a teacher or lawyer, as a nurse or doctor, as a farmer or builder, as a researcher or Pastor; and in the different roles we play in the family, Church, school, business and in the community).
Jesus gives the answer to His closest friends, the disciples. The end for Him in life on earth was at hand.
In one of His final discipleship formation sessions with them, He shares gracious foundational lessons on quality, fruitful and productive living. Jesus makes His seventh and the last glorious “I am” claims.
“I am the True grape Vine and my Father is the Gardener.
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He cut off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit and He prunes the branches that do bear fruit they will produce even more.
Remain in me and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me”. (John 15:1-2, 4).
The first critical lesson in this agricultural imagery is that a branch must be connected to the vine to bear fruit. Jesus is that Vine. We are the branches.
We as branches can only bear fruit in our private life and public service when we are truly and properly connected to Christ, The True Vine. We draw power from Christ for victorious living.
And as if to drive this lesson home with more emphasis, Jesus declares, “apart from me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5. See Philippians 4:16).
John Calvin observes that “when Jesus calls Himself “the True Vine, He means, I am truly the Vine, and people who seek strength anywhere else are working in vain”. In ourselves, we have no power to live productive and God-honouring lives except what comes from Christ.
Bishop J. C. Ryle remarks, “The union between Christ and believers is close and real. In themselves, believers have no life, or strength, or spiritual power.
All that they have of vital Christianity comes from Christ. They are what they are, and feel what they do, because they draw out of Jesus a continual supply of grace, help and ability.
This thought is both comfortable and instructive. There are true Christians, as well as false ones. Some of the false Christain are joined to Christ by baptism and church-membership.
Some of them go even further than this, and are regular communicants and loud talkers about Church matters. But they lack the one thing needful.
They have no grace in their hearts, no faith, no inward generating work of the Holy Spirit. They are not really one with Christ, and Christ with them. Their union with Him is only nominal, and not real”.
We get connected to Christ personally when we recognise our need for Him, repent of sin and wrongdoing in our life and in prayer make a genuine commitment to Him to save us and seek to live under His Lordship.
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When a person is properly connected to Christ, the potentials are great! He or she bears “fruit” and can continue to bear “more fruit”; and goes on to bear “much fruit” and finally is able to bear “lasting fruit” (John 15).
It is an invitation to an effective, fruitful and victorious Christian life in union with our Lord Jesus Christ.
It is gaining the ability to live the fully functional life that Jesus promised in John 10:10b: “I have come that they might have life and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10b).
The great sweet mother, the diligent taxpaying business man, the respected father, the truly honourable lawmaker, the good citizen and high performance manager are most likely those truly connected to Christ and live by the standards of His Word.
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Are you one such desirable church member and citizen of Ghana?
But what exactly do we mean by “fruit”? Tony Horsefall explains, “We bear fruit when we allow our faith not only to work in us, but also to have an impact on the people around us in our homes and families, in our work settings and social relationships, in our local communities and in society at large.
Such fruit is the result of God working in us and through us”.
The main way we bear fruit is in the formation of the fruit of the Spirit, described for us in Galatians 5:22-23.
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If the life of Jesus is at work within us, it will create within us the same expressions that characterised His earthly life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.
Secondly, we bear fruit through acts of kindness and compassion – “good works”.
“We are God’s masterpiece. He created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do good things”. Ephesians 2:10 NLT.
Thirdly, evangelism in general and precisely soul winning is one of the fruits of abiding in Christ. “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he who wins souls is wise”. Proverbs 11:30.
Fourthly, we bear fruit through true worship. A natural outcome of the life of Christ within us is that we want to worship God.
“Therefore, by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name”. Hebrews 13:15 NKJV.
In addition, the true disciple experiences God’s blessings in other areas of life and service. Psalm 1:3.
The Lord Jesus Himself says: “every tree is known by their own fruit” (Lk 6:44). Indeed, the Bible guarantees that, a person who is truly connected to Christ leads a fruitful and productive life.
(The author is a Leadership Development and Cross-cultural Ministries Consultant, an International conference speaker and formerly General Director / CEO of Scripture Union Ghana.
Email: ghanajesuscrusade@gmail.com / sughanaho@gmail.com )