The first command that God gave to man after creating them was to BE FRUITFUL and multiply. We see that everything God created is meant to BEAR FRUIT.
Now we belong to the Kingdom of God. We are called to bear fruit in the Kingdom of God.
REASONS FOR NOT BEARING FRUIT:
There are reasons why man can become unfruitful which is mentioned in the Parable of the sower which is the third type of soil or the people who received the word of God. Mark 4:18,19 -they remained unfruitful because of:
- The worries of this life
- The deceitfulness of riches
- The attractions of this world
While the fourth type of soil or the people that received the Word of God produced a thirty, sixty, and a hundred-fold fruit – this is where all of us who follow Jesus like to be and where God wants us to be – BEAR MUCH FRUIT – by which the Father will be glorified. John 15:8
HOW WE CAN BEAR MUCH FRUIT?
First of all, it is important to note that those branches that are bearing fruit are pruned to bear even more fruit and those branches that bear no fruit are cut off and thrown into the fire! Also, it is important to know that it is NOT by striving that we bear fruit but by ABIDING.
John 15 talks ALL about HOW all of us who have received and follow Jesus can BEAR MUCH
FRUIT
- Abide in Him
- His Word abide in us
- Abide in His love
When we do this, Jesus said you will bear much fruit as without Him we can do nothing!
When we abide in Him, in His Word, and in His love we will bear much fruit by obeying His command which is to:
LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS HE LOVED US
Jesus said,
“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 bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.
You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also 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 so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.
Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things 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 would go and bear fruit and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.
This I command you, that you love one another.
John 15:1-17
