God Produces The Fruit

Part of the reason I love ALPHA enough to pull myself out of the comfort of my routine in Southern California to come to VINTAGE is because I love to see lives being transformed by Christ. But even more than seeing lives transformed, I want to be part of the process of seeing these lives transformed. I want to produce “spiritual fruit,” as the Bible refers to it. But during our morning devotions today, I was reminded who really produces the fruit.

John 15 talks about God the Father being like the gardener and Jesus being like a vine and all believers are connected to the vine. John 15:4-5 says, “No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” 

So often I find myself striving and working hard to try and make “spiritual stuff” happen, both in my life and the lives of others around me. And when I don’t always see “fruit” happening, I can get discouraged or depressed. For all the people we see come to faith on a typical ALPHA course (documented to be around 50% of attendees – and praise God for that!), I can still sometimes get bummed by the 50% of attendees who don’t find God by the end of their time at ALPHA. I sometimes think that I somehow failed. But what God is saying through Scripture is that I’m not responsible for people coming to faith. God is responsible for producing the fruit.

“Produce” is an active verb. God alone produces the fruit. “Bear” is a passive verb. Our responsibility according to this Scripture is to bear fruit. We have a passive role in the process of people coming to faith. This is affirmed elsewhere in Scripture.  Colossians 2:19 tells us to stay connected to Jesus who is the Head of the Body of Christ and it is from Jesus that “the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.” This is saying that more believers will come into the Body of Christ only as “God causes it to grow.”

So if you are like me and constantly striving to produce fruit, please remember today that you can’t produce fruit!  You can, however, allow God to bear fruit through your life as long as you “remain in the vine” that is Jesus Christ.