In Luke’s 13th chapter we find the Lord speaking in parabolic form about how a certain man planted a fig tree in his vineyard and came to it looking for fruit. This parable closely follows our Lord’s teaching about repentance.
Genuine repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ produces fruit. God is working in our lives so that we may, by His grace, bring forth fruit, the evidence of our repentance. As we plant the seed of God’s Word into our lives we will, as in Genesis, produce fruit after its kind. However, many people, like Cain, try to obtain a right relationship with God by bringing the fruit of their own efforts, but this fruit is unacceptable to God.
God only receives us when we receive His Son Jesus as our Savior. Then we can begin the process of fruit-bearing. To bear fruit we need to abide in the Vine, who is Jesus. In John we see, as in the Lord’s parable in Luke, that the Father is glorified when we bear fruit. We see in Psalm :- the conditions necessary to produce fruit. Even in old age we can continue to be fruitful for the Lord!
How sad to neglect the things of the Lord and eat the fruit of our own way. The fruit that God gives us through Christ is beyond dollar value. Scripturally it’s likened to a tree of life. Once again, this fruit can only come from the Root within us. Then we find that even our mouth is affected by this holy Root.
A sure way to be fruitless, however, is to ignore obedience to God’s Word. Because Israel’s heart was divided they were considered to be an empty, fruitless vine. From Me, says the Lord, is your fruit found.
What does this fruit look like? Galatians paints this picture of it: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. This is what Jesus is looking for in our lives. May this fruit be increasingly evident in all that we do, individually and collectively.
