FRUIT

“…The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”  Galatians 5:22

"I'm not a very good Christian".  I recently heard someone utter those words, and it made me stop and consider what they were really saying.  In my last blog, Which Lens,  I talked about two different ways of viewing the world, Action/Consequence and Death/Resurrection. 

Briefly, Action/Consequence is our natural, default way of thinking. It is about me--what I do and what I expect to achieve or receive as a result. When Action/Consequence is my world view, my life is about seeking my own gratification, recognition, glory, honor and praise. As a result, I will always be comparing and competing which leads to judging and often condemning others or myself. This way of thinking applies to everything in our lives, including religion, and leads to a distorted view of God.

Death/Resurrection, on the other hand, is a completely unnatural, counterintuitive way of thinking. It is a point of view which only comes to us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit and without his help we quickly revert back to Action/Consequence thinking. It is all about God and what he has done for us through his son, Jesus Christ.  It recognizes that we were dead (Ephesians 2:1), but because of him we are now alive (Ephesians 2:5) and that we are all alike in our unworthiness and need.  Because of that, there is no basis for comparing or competing; judging or condemning.  In this world view, all recognition, glory, honor and praise goes to God alone.

With those two points of view in mind, I'd like to explore the concept of what it means to be a "good Christian", using John chapter 15 verses 1-4 as a framework: 
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.  You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.  Remain in me, and I will remain in you.  No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”

Let me begin by saying that, because Action/Consequence is our default way of thinking, it will also be the default lens we use when reading scripture.  Action/Consequence is natural, but Death/Resurrection is unnatural, and is revealed, or given to us, only by the Holy Spirit. When scripture is read through the lens of Action/Consequence, the reader comes away with a distorted Me-centered understanding of what was said.

In these verses, Action/Consequence will immediately focus on the words, “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit.”  Everything else in that passage will be secondary to those words and the understanding of the rest will be colored by how Action/Consequence interprets those words. 

I remember, as a young girl, sitting in a Bible class discussing what the word “fruit” represented in this passage.  Some thought it referred to the number of people you “saved”.  If you weren’t sharing your faith and no one was saved, God would cut you off.  Others argued that fruit represented obedience in general.  If you weren’t living a life of obedience, i.e. obeying all of God's commands, you would be cut off.

The sense of this passage, then, through the eyes of Action/Consequence is, “You better be good, or God will cut you off.  The only way you can be good is if I help you, so you better stay connected to me and produce fruit, or else.” When understood this way, these verses incite fear.  The fear is then used as motivation to devise plans for daily devotions, etc. in order to keep yourself connected to the vine, and to busy yourself trying to be the best you can be, so that God won’t chop you off. 

Now, let’s look at these verses again, through the lens of Death/Resurrection.  Jesus is the one speaking, and he begins by saying, “I am the true Vine”.  If there was no vine, there would be no branches, because the vine produces the branches. The vine is the source of life for the branches.  Jesus, and all that he represents, is the true Vine. 

Because we were dead in our transgressions and sins, without hope, God sent his Son to live a perfect life, which record he then applies to us; and to take our record of wrongs and pay the full penalty for them in our place. We stand, in Christ, on the other side of the grave, with our debt marked “Paid in full”.  Romans 8:1 says there is no more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  For those who are in Christ, all condemnation is gone.  Jesus took it all. To be “in Christ”, is the same thing as being “in the Vine.”

We are connected to the Vine when we live out of the comfort, relief and assurance of all that Jesus has done on our behalf.  As we allow the implications of the gift to permeate our beings something inside of us shifts.  We stop striving to prove ourselves; stop trying to earn or deserve. We are humbled at the understanding of our undeservedness. An immense gratitude fills our hearts, and from that humble gratitude flows love for the one who has given us everything.  As we begin to comprehend the fact that, despite our unworthiness, we are dearly loved and accepted by God, a peace, unlike anything we have ever known, comes over us.  With the realization that, in Jesus, our sins will never be counted against us, a joy which cannot be contained bubbles out of us.  Without the weight of expectations hanging over our heads, we find ourselves becoming more patient, with ourselves and with others. Because of the kindness God has shown to us, we are also kinder, to ourselves and others.  When we know that our standing with God isn’t dependent on our own goodness, we find ourselves wanting to be better people.  The doubts and fears which used to plague us fade away, and we are full of faith in the One who has done everything for us.  We begin to desire to live into the way God already sees us, and humbly ask for his help in controlling the things which have controlled us in the past.  

Did you notice that I just covered all of the fruits of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22?  The natural outgrowth of being “in the vine”, is fruit.  The branch does not worry and strive to produce the fruit.  The fruit will grow simply because the branch is attached to the vine. 

Let’s look at verse four again, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you.  No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”  To remain in Jesus means to rest in him; to rest in his completed work for you; to know that you have nothing to prove.  As you remain “in Christ” or “in the Vine”, he will remain in you; continually reminding you of his love for you and all that he has done for you and is going to do in the ages to come.

If a person says he is attached to the Vine, but is still worrying and striving to “produce fruit”, he is living from Action/Consequence, and is not attached to the Vine. He may be producing good works, but it is not fruit.  The gardener is looking for fruit.

When someone says they are not a very good Christian, they are, most likely, thinking in Action/Consequence terms.  In reality, Christians are simply people who have come to realize the utter impossibility of ever being good enough to escape God’s judgment and punishment and have humbly and gratefully accepted God’s amazing offer to give Jesus the punishment which we deserve, and to give us Jesus’ perfect record which we don’t deserve.  Squarely facing our true condition and then accepting our belovedness because of Christ is what frees us, albeit imperfectly, to live a fruitful life.