Jesus said a lot about fruit - as did his earliest promoters.
You belong to him who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God (Romans 7:4b, CSB). So wrote Paul the Apostle to those in (ancient) Rome who had united with Jesus. Paul is expounding to the readers and hearers the life-changing nature of their oneness with the Christ, a change which results that he, and they, and all who come after, together will deliver in this world the harvest God wants. (Being together has become more complicated, but the principles remain.)
We can not be under any illusions about our experience. Jesus made it clear: “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions (Matthew 7:15-20, NLT). Actions that match - or the fire! (Being together has become more complicated, but the principles remain.)
Fruit from root; not the reverse. The fruit is the result of the work of the fruit-bearing plant. Of course a plant can not change its nature! However, in many productive applications today, a root-stock is changed by the addition of a grafted productive fruit-bearing stem. On its own the stem can not bear at all.
Even though the initial focus in Matthew 7 is the false religious spruiker, do you think those are severe words, and they could not have come from Jesus himself? I agree with the first part of that. Could Jesus really have said it? The evidence is clear. (The best way to check is to read the entire Gospel for yourself.)
Near his last day, Jesus gave a startling object lesson on this matter. On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see whether perhaps he would find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it (Mark 11:12-14, NRSV). Confronting, too? These days we would not want to see a tree condemned! It must have been surprising - so they seemed to be when they saw the tree next - withered. God expects. The difference for us is, every season is the season for what God wants of us.
Jesus is the light (of the world). Paul reminds his readers that once the light is taken in, what does, or ought to, follow: for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true (Ephesians 5:9, NRSV). Is that what Jesus said?
But the "natural" state does not truly support that fruit. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness.[a] So what fruit was produced[b] then from the things you are now ashamed of? The outcome of those things is death. But now, since you have been set free from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification—and the outcome is eternal life! For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6: 20-24, CSB). Note here that the people to whom Paul wrote had been either adherents of God's own religion (Old Testament - OT - Judaism), or of the common religious views and practices of their day. They are the people he says were in fact enslaved, whether or not they were free from human ownership. Death is a confronting option! Is Paul reflecting the words of Jesus about the "bad tree"?
Not long before his condemnation, Jesus told a story about terrible men who were determinedly rejecting any idea of handing over what was not theirs to keep. The story was about an absentee vineyard owner and his rejected delegate. Asked what comes next, his hearers could give only one response : “He will completely destroy those terrible men,” they told him, “and lease his vineyard to other farmers who will give him his fruit at the harvest.”
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.[a]
This is what the Lord has done
and it is wonderful in our eyes?[b]
Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruit (Matthew 21:34-43, NLT). So, sadly, they were right in unknowingly describing the results of their own rejection of Jesus. Perhaps they did not take him seriously, and were just "playing along" with the moment? Whatever, they spoke true. The kingdom was lost to them, though they could give their allegiance to the new agreement.
Earlier on Jesus had said something comparable: Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. 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?’
“‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilise it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down’” (Luke 13:6-9, NIV). Jesus leaves us to assume the gardener's advice was followed. Does not that three years reflect the time Jesus gave to his own people, that they could have the opportunity to accept him? God's patience - can it be exhausted?
It is very clear that Jesus was not talking about some kind of morality adopted for good reasons. He spoke to his friends of life lived in the closest connection to him. Life spent truly representing him. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 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. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 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. 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. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
“This is my commandment, that you love one another 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 what I command you. No longer do I call you servants,[a] for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you (John 15: 1-16, ESV). The key was their acceptance of his word and their unity with him. Their lord (Lord) had made them his friends. His friends are to be lovingly connected to each other.
It was a "steep and thorny" road Jesus trod. It is a demanding road for those who follow in his way. Those who live today in union with him will be bearing his fruit. The preceding makes clear that this is a matter of how life is actually lived. The burning of branches takes us back to what we saw in Matthew 7 (above).
We can not be under any illusions about our experience. Jesus made it clear: “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions (Matthew 7:15-20, NLT). Actions that match - or the fire! (Being together has become more complicated, but the principles remain.)
Fruit from root; not the reverse. The fruit is the result of the work of the fruit-bearing plant. Of course a plant can not change its nature! However, in many productive applications today, a root-stock is changed by the addition of a grafted productive fruit-bearing stem. On its own the stem can not bear at all.
Even though the initial focus in Matthew 7 is the false religious spruiker, do you think those are severe words, and they could not have come from Jesus himself? I agree with the first part of that. Could Jesus really have said it? The evidence is clear. (The best way to check is to read the entire Gospel for yourself.)
Near his last day, Jesus gave a startling object lesson on this matter. On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see whether perhaps he would find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it (Mark 11:12-14, NRSV). Confronting, too? These days we would not want to see a tree condemned! It must have been surprising - so they seemed to be when they saw the tree next - withered. God expects. The difference for us is, every season is the season for what God wants of us.
Jesus is the light (of the world). Paul reminds his readers that once the light is taken in, what does, or ought to, follow: for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true (Ephesians 5:9, NRSV). Is that what Jesus said?
But the "natural" state does not truly support that fruit. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness.[a] So what fruit was produced[b] then from the things you are now ashamed of? The outcome of those things is death. But now, since you have been set free from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification—and the outcome is eternal life! For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6: 20-24, CSB). Note here that the people to whom Paul wrote had been either adherents of God's own religion (Old Testament - OT - Judaism), or of the common religious views and practices of their day. They are the people he says were in fact enslaved, whether or not they were free from human ownership. Death is a confronting option! Is Paul reflecting the words of Jesus about the "bad tree"?
Not long before his condemnation, Jesus told a story about terrible men who were determinedly rejecting any idea of handing over what was not theirs to keep. The story was about an absentee vineyard owner and his rejected delegate. Asked what comes next, his hearers could give only one response : “He will completely destroy those terrible men,” they told him, “and lease his vineyard to other farmers who will give him his fruit at the harvest.”
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.[a]
This is what the Lord has done
and it is wonderful in our eyes?[b]
Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruit (Matthew 21:34-43, NLT). So, sadly, they were right in unknowingly describing the results of their own rejection of Jesus. Perhaps they did not take him seriously, and were just "playing along" with the moment? Whatever, they spoke true. The kingdom was lost to them, though they could give their allegiance to the new agreement.
Earlier on Jesus had said something comparable: Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. 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?’
“‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilise it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down’” (Luke 13:6-9, NIV). Jesus leaves us to assume the gardener's advice was followed. Does not that three years reflect the time Jesus gave to his own people, that they could have the opportunity to accept him? God's patience - can it be exhausted?
It is very clear that Jesus was not talking about some kind of morality adopted for good reasons. He spoke to his friends of life lived in the closest connection to him. Life spent truly representing him. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 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. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 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. 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. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
“This is my commandment, that you love one another 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 what I command you. No longer do I call you servants,[a] for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you (John 15: 1-16, ESV). The key was their acceptance of his word and their unity with him. Their lord (Lord) had made them his friends. His friends are to be lovingly connected to each other.
It was a "steep and thorny" road Jesus trod. It is a demanding road for those who follow in his way. Those who live today in union with him will be bearing his fruit. The preceding makes clear that this is a matter of how life is actually lived. The burning of branches takes us back to what we saw in Matthew 7 (above).
In that day religion flourished under many different labels, including Judaism. Some was heartfelt and truly seeking after God. You may find clear examples in Luke chapter 2 and John chapter 1. Paul demonstrated the sincerely wrong, as he said in Acts chapter 22, and wrote in 1 Corinthians 15. (Conflicting voices? Yes, indeed. Ask God.)
What about engaging others? Jesus intended that disciples be made in all nations. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28: 18-20, NIV). This is a costly and purposeful task which has not been withdrawn! The directive was issued by the one and only who can do so. Fruit that is produced from the vine and fruit that is shared.
For a closing word on "fruit", here is Paul to people he had heard of in an ancient town called Colossae: because of the hope reserved for you in heaven. You have already heard about this hope in the word of truth, the gospel that has come to you. It is bearing fruit and growing all over the world, just as it has among you since the day you heard it and came to truly appreciate God’s grace.[a] You learned this from Epaphras, our dearly loved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your[b] behalf, and he has told us about your love in the Spirit.
For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,[c] so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you[d] to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light. He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. In him we have redemption,[e] the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:5-14, CSB).
That town was devastated by earthquake in 60 CE and today is an uninhabited site. What became of the people who heard these resounding words, people who had been rescued to show forth Jesus in their community? The answer to that will have to wait!
What about engaging others? Jesus intended that disciples be made in all nations. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28: 18-20, NIV). This is a costly and purposeful task which has not been withdrawn! The directive was issued by the one and only who can do so. Fruit that is produced from the vine and fruit that is shared.
For a closing word on "fruit", here is Paul to people he had heard of in an ancient town called Colossae: because of the hope reserved for you in heaven. You have already heard about this hope in the word of truth, the gospel that has come to you. It is bearing fruit and growing all over the world, just as it has among you since the day you heard it and came to truly appreciate God’s grace.[a] You learned this from Epaphras, our dearly loved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your[b] behalf, and he has told us about your love in the Spirit.
For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,[c] so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you[d] to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light. He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. In him we have redemption,[e] the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:5-14, CSB).
That town was devastated by earthquake in 60 CE and today is an uninhabited site. What became of the people who heard these resounding words, people who had been rescued to show forth Jesus in their community? The answer to that will have to wait!
 |
| Site in Turkey of ancient Colossae |
Jesus' message is to all and for all. He is the true source of eternal life for all who will unite with him.
Scripture quotations marked (CEV) are from the Contemporary English Version Copyright © 1991, 1992, 1995 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.
Scripture quotations marked (CEV) are from the Contemporary English Version Copyright © 1991, 1992, 1995 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.
Scripture quotations marked (CSB) are from the Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission.
All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked (NRSV) are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Note: I retain in the publishers' text where they occur the references to footnotes, but usually not the notes. You can check footnotes out by viewing the text on-line. Often they are replicated in different translations.
Bible passages accessed via BibleGateway.com
Images: author; Holylandphotos.org
Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission.
All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked (NRSV) are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Note: I retain in the publishers' text where they occur the references to footnotes, but usually not the notes. You can check footnotes out by viewing the text on-line. Often they are replicated in different translations.
Bible passages accessed via BibleGateway.com
Images: author; Holylandphotos.org
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