When a couple gets married, it is natural they expect to have children if they copulate regularly. Someone sent a message to a group social media platform I belong. It was an African proverb that read, “As long as the bed shakes regularly, the home will always be at peace.”
(By the way, this is a holy thing. Solomon, what is the holy thing? The regular shaking of the bed in marriage! Some Christians believe that sex is an unholy thing. You cannot have that kind of mindset and have a happy home at peace. In God’s plan and purpose, sex in marriage is a holy thing. To be holy is to be set apart by God for something. God set sex apart for the marriage relationship).
However, I can assure you that no matter how often the “bed shakes” in “the other room,” if over time no fruit is produced, that peace could be upset and thrown into disquiet. It would be assumed that there is a problem somewhere.
Similarly, if you plant a fruit tree, then it grows and matures; you then begin to expect fruit from it. If it does not start to produce fruit, when it should, you get concerned because you know this is not normal. That is natural.
I have said earlier that the essence of life is growth; the essence of growth is maturity, and the essence of maturity is fruitfulness. When a living thing matures, it is naturally expected to be able to reproduce after its kind.
The Christian faith is unique in many ways, and one of the fundamental ways is, that when a person commits his life to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Spirit of Christ comes to dwell in him. That person becomes the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, and God becomes his Father. The true Christian has the life of God in Him. He has crossed over from death to life. Jesus said,
I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life -John 5:24-25, NIV.
He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life -1 John 5:12, NIV.
When last did you see a stone give birth to a stone? Have you ever seen a factory deliver a living thing from its production line? Fruit-bearing is the evidence of life. It is living things that produce fruit. Non-living things are not fruitful.
Nature delivers living fruit from the outflowing of life, not from the dint of hard work. It is the same for the Christian life. If you do not acknowledge this, attempting to be fruitful in your Christian walk by hard work and struggle would always lead to frustration. Dead-works are never fruitful.
Jesus said, I am the vine, and you are the branches. Branches are responsible for fruit delivery, but they only do so as they abide in the vine.
The (eternal) life of the vine which they draw from, grants the enablement for fruit-bearing. If branches are to be fruitful in any measure, they have to “abide in the vine.” In other words, fruitfulness for the Christian is a positional issue.
What did Jesus mean when He said we should abide in the vine? To ‘abide’ means to reside, to remain or to dwell. It is in Him we live and move and have our being.
The sap or lifeblood that runs in the vine is the same that runs in the branches. Our very existence is rooted in Christ. If you are a Christian, you cannot live a life separate from the Lord. As branches (believers), we remain connected to the vine (Jesus).
Disciples of Jesus do not struggle to be fruitful. You cannot produce fruit from yourself and by yourself. Jesus is the source of our life and of our fruitfulness. This is the reason why fruitfulness ought not to be a struggle, but the natural outcome and flow of life, even the eternal life of God.
The Christian life is not about religious activity or piousness that stems from a struggle to be good. The scope or capacity for fruitfulness lies in our relationship with the Lord or being joined with Him. He is our life and the source of our wellbeing.
Now, if you do not have Christ, you do not have the life of God in you. You do not have eternal life. You cannot produce the fruit that eternal life exhibits naturally. You need to begin a relationship with the Lord. For that to happen, you have to be born of God.
The Bible says that you shall be saved if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and receive Him, confessing Him as your Lord.
Friend, we continue our talk on Fruit Bearing in part three. Until then, do not forget to keep living, loving and learning. Thank you.
