Tree and Fruit

Our local Scriptural Reasoning group had another fascinating and wide ranging discussion tonight as we used a text bundle on the theme of Tree and Fruit.

Here is what I said by way of introduction to the Christian text (John 15. 16):

The imagery of tree and fruit was regularly used by Jesus in his teaching. As stated here, his followers are chosen and appointed to bear fruit. Fruitfulness is the overall aim and lack of fruitfulness is to be challenged and is ultimately destructive. So he tells and enacts parables of fig trees which don’t bear fruit being given final opportunities to become fruitful before being destroyed if not (Luke 13):

6 "A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’

8 "‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’"

Fruitfulness is a consequence of being ‘in’ Christ (John 15):

5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

Branches can only bud and grow because they are part of the vine as a whole receiving the sustenance that flows up into the vine from the roots. A vine roots in the soil but has most of its leaves in the brighter, exposed area, getting the best of both worlds. So, being rooted in Jesus is the way in which Christians can open to the light and bear fruit. Rootedness could mean commitment to Christ or being embedded in Christ’s life and ministry or both.

What is fruitfulness? What is it that Jesus is aiming to see in his followers? One way of answering that question for Christians, because Christianity has been a missionary faith, has been to see fruit as souls saved but when Paul writes in Galatians 5 about the fruit of the Spirit he is writing about the character and actions of Christians as fruit, rather than the outcome of our actions:

22 the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.

The Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus and the fruit which is grown in Christian’s lives is Christlikeness. Being rooted in Jesus enables the Spirit of Jesus to flow in and through a Christian enabling them to begin to become Christlike.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13 that such actions as faith, hope and love remain. The word he used for remain hints that such actions continue beyond the grave into eternity i.e. that we can take something with us when we die, that the fruit or acts of faith, hope and love grown in this life continue into, and continue to bear fruit in, the next. This brings us back to where we began, with Jesus' statement that "I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit — fruit that will last."

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Gravy Train - Think Of Life.