Jesus Shows Peter a Vine Branch With GrapesBible World
15:8John 15:8
Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
The Father is glorified when those who follow Christ bear much fruit, and by that abundant fruit they are shown to be His disciples. No one can bear this fruit apart from Him, for as branches draw all life from the vine, so believers receive all nourishment, strength and power to do good only through vital union with Him. The fruit is His own character reproduced in them, seen in holiness, purity, obedience and the graces of love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. It is kept alive by continuing in His love, keeping His commandments, loving one another in unity, and asking in His name with full joy. This fruit also appears in earnest, self-sacrificing labor for the salvation of others, and by it true discipleship is tested and proved, while profession without fruit has no right to the Christian name.
Verse Words and Setting
The Father is glorified when those who follow Christ bear much fruit, and such fruitfulness is what marks them as his disciples. At camp-meetings this call presses with special force, since conduct, words and spirit there exert an influence that reaches far beyond the meetings into eternity. Mere beautiful outward appearance or correct form without fruit is unprofitable, for fruit comes only through abiding in Christ and continuing in his love by keeping his commandments. As branches draw life from the vine, those united with Christ represent him in character. That fruit appears in kindly words and deeds testifying to a change wrought by grace and showing fellowship with Christ and mutual abiding, and without it there is no full assurance in coming to God because unfruitful works show separation from Christ. It is the fruit of the Spirit — love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance — in contrast to the works of the flesh such as adultery, hatred, wrath, strife, envy, drunkenness and the like, which bar from the kingdom.
The saying belongs to the lesson of the vine and the branches, where Christ is the true vine, believers are the branches, and the Father is the husbandman who takes away every branch bearing no fruit and purges every fruit-bearing branch to bring forth more. What is required is practical, individual union with Jesus Christ, not merely theoretical knowledge of him, with each one truly united as branch to parent stock knowing what Jesus is personally, drawing sap and nourishment from the living vine and yielding the same fruit as the parent stock. Branches that draw nourishment from him bear fruit and point to Christ by words and actions, while those remaining fruitless wither and are taken away, and fruitful disciples are pruned to bear more. Branches cannot bear fruit apart from the vine, and abiding includes keeping his commandments and loving one another as he has loved. This unity comes from drawing life from the same source yet preserves individuality, not making believers identical nor requiring uniformity, but calling them to fellowship and love for one another. The fruit is a Christlike character — love, tenderness, kindness, compassion and affection — made visible as a witness to the Saviour when the truth of Christ fills the heart and shapes every action, with the sanctification of the Holy Spirit revealed in disposition, speech and dealings with others, even in keeping one's word when it seems against one's interests, while fruit-bearing branches may be pruned by the Father so whatever hinders Christian growth is removed.
The saying stands within the will of God plainly set out in John 13-17, to be believed and lived out before fellow ministers. It belongs to Christ's words of hope and comfort near the close of his earthly ministry, part of his encouragement and hope in John 14-16. He spoke because he knew the trials that would come to his church through unconverted believers, imparting courage to stand fast in the most trying hour and bringing strength and assurance to the true believer as long as time shall last. Those chapters are understood with new enlightenment when the mind is reshaped by the Spirit of God. Glorifying the Father by bearing much fruit requires careful study and earnest practice of John 13-17, since honoring God and Jesus Christ whom he sent depends on doing the duties specified by Christ as Substitute and Surety, duties that carry divine credentials to the world that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son so that whoever believes should not perish but have everlasting life, so that giving time to unimportant matters while neglecting these things of eternal consequence fails to honor God.
Its words are plain and need not be misunderstood, to be practiced in the daily life of the heart with the blessing that always comes from obedience, holding confidence firm to the end bringing daily fulfillment of the promises of Christ as his words are heard, received and obeyed and enter the intents and purposes of the heart. It expresses God's will for his people and his good pleasure for them to bear much fruit, holding part of the divine antidote for the sin of the whole world by showing the great process by which believers are made one with Christ in this present life to be one with him throughout all eternity. As farmland must be cultivated to produce, a life left uncultivated cannot bear much fruit, so bearing much fruit requires taking the weeds of evil out of the life and letting the word of truth dwell richly within, so the life produces righteousness and holiness, with pulling up weeds and planting seeds of truth now leading to seeing the result in the kingdom of God. The words in John 15-17 give the conditions for receiving his grace which every Christian is called to heed, and refusing those conditions leaves a person unworthy to stand among Christ's people at his coming. This instruction identifies the true marks of those who love God and applies to those living in the last days, who are to proclaim the final message of mercy and keep God's commandments. Bearing fruit requires being united to the living vine, loving purity and holiness in the heart, having clean hands and a pure heart, distinguishing between the common and the sacred, and setting all powers and capabilities to work to live and walk in the light given, and without this fruitfulness a person is in a dangerous condition in which the Spirit of God cannot abide in the heart and he is not in harmony with God, so that if life closed in that state he would never be an inhabitant of heaven.
Christ's love was shown by his coming to seek and save the lost, and his followers are to continue in that love. His humiliation and suffering would glorify the Father's name. He glorified the Father by the fruit he bore, and his true followers glorify the Father in the same way by receiving from Christ what they need to bear fruit and giving bountifully as his workers. Receiving grace from God and imparting it to others, they produce much fruit as Christ's workers. True followers produce the same result by receiving abundantly the means of fruit-bearing and giving abundantly as God's co-workers, with receiving and imparting leading to much fruit.
Abiding in Christ
Bearing much fruit that glorifies the Father comes only from abiding in Christ, for branches draw all life, nourishment, strength and fruit-bearing qualities from the vine. Apart from that vital union no one can bear fruit by self or produce anything of value to God, since fruit comes not from human power but from daily drawing upon him. That union must be practical and individual, not merely theoretical knowledge about him, so that the branch yields the same fruit as the parent stock. The right kind of fruit requires remaining in him, and those united with him represent him in character and continue in his love by keeping his commandments.
Abiding must be continual and not casual or off-and-on, for a merely superficial connection does not make a true branch. Discouragement or lack of joyful, uplifted feeling does not prove disconnection from the Lord, and fruitfulness is to be sought by trusting and rejoicing in his promises. Part of bearing fruit to his glory is taking trials and perplexities directly to the Lord in prayer rather than running to human beings, finding relief by telling Jesus all troubles. In that constant work believers learn the lessons he desires to teach, look for someone to help and bless, and have a saving word for those not abiding in him.
Christ abides in his followers through his word received, believed and lived, and living by those words greatly increases fruitfulness in unselfish, self-sacrificing love. Receiving his words is receiving the life of the vine, for his words are spirit and life, and living by every word from God's mouth produces in the believer the same fruits as in him, after his similitude. That life is brought into the spiritual circulation by daily eating the Word, as the body must daily partake of food, so that Christ is formed within, the hope of glory, while neglect brings spiritual starvation and fruitlessness. His words must remain continually and work in the soul, producing a life giving evidence of having received him, governed by the Holy Spirit and patterned on his sinless human life with divine strength to overcome evil. Bearing fruit therefore requires having his words abide in the heart with vivifying, sanctifying power, keeping his commandments and continuing in his love as he kept his Father's commandments, loving one another as he loved.
Abiding brings the grace of the Holy Spirit, received as believers depend on Christ and live as doers of the Word rather than hearers only, and the nature and abundance of the fruit distinguishes true disciples from outward membership. God gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask, and by using the means he has provided fruitfulness in good works and Christian character is within reach. Through the Spirit's guidance into all truth believers receive new light in darkness, learn meekness and lowliness instead of self-love and love of the highest place, and express the joy of the Lord in countenance, life and character. Fruit-bearing requires daily emptying the heart of self and of hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong, putting away supposed wisdom, wearing his yoke, and cherishing patience, forbearance, controlled thoughts and words, and Christlike love, lest acts be tarnished with selfishness. The baptism of the Spirit is to be earnestly sought in faith by prayer, cutting away everything that hinders so that the Spirit flows in rich currents and brings all other blessings in its train.
Abiding is joined to answered prayer, peace, and fullness of joy flowing out in praise and thanksgiving, as believers daily meet the conditions of salvation and continue in his love. In faithful discharge of duty they become one with him and are admitted from servants to friends, speaking freely to him, asking what they will, and being promoted to positions of trust. Obedience is evidence of discipleship, and keeping the commandments belongs with his joy remaining and becoming full. Answered prayer is given only when he abides in the person and his words abide in the person, asking what is willed in that union and receiving it. To bring petitions claiming the promise while refusing the conditions insults him and shows lack of love and of doing what he requires, for the condition is continuing in his love by keeping his commandments as he kept his Father's, loving one another even to laying down life for friends, and doing whatever he commands.
Fruit is not a means of earning justification or paying for heaven but the natural result of connection with the living vine, since believers cannot produce these graces by themselves. As farmland must be cultivated to produce, a life left uncultivated cannot bear much fruit, and it is his good pleasure that disciples bear much. Bearing much requires taking the weeds of evil out of the life and letting the word of truth dwell richly within, so that the life produces righteousness and holiness unto the kingdom. The heart must be guarded and vanity cleared away like weeds from a seed plot, every circumstance ordered so heaven is not shut from view, while his lessons plant seeds of truth in the soil of the heart unto a hundredfold yield of rich fruit to eternal life. Diligent searching of the heart must remove what chokes the word, including worldly cares and the deceitfulness of riches, for God gives power to obey but each must do the entrusted work with faith active in works.
Fruit as Character
The much fruit that glorifies the Father is Christ's own character and God's character reproduced in believers, revealing His holiness, benevolence and compassion to the world. It manifests that Christ abides in the heart, that the life is in harmony with Him, and that His blessing rests upon them, while good works done in practical service help others see and glorify Him. As branches draw nourishment from the vine, believers draw life from Christ and reflect Him without hindering His light by word or action, and this reflection identifies them as His disciples. That fruit is especially unselfish love expressed in practical self-denial and sacrifice for others in home, church and daily life, and a life without such fruit shows no living connection with Him. It is not produced by straining to bear fruit but by abiding in Christ, receiving His words as the life of the Vine, living by every word from God's mouth, adhering to Him, supported and nourished by Him, until His life produces in the believer the same fruits as in Him, fruit after His similitude.
The fruit to be borne is the fruit of the Spirit — love, joy, peace, long-suffering, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. It appears in kindly words and deeds that testify to a change wrought by grace and show fellowship with Christ, Christ abiding in the believer and the believer in Christ. It shows itself in holy character and works that do good to souls, in self-denial and self-sacrifice, and in working as Christ did to save others. This stands in contrast to the works of the flesh such as adultery, hatred, wrath, strife, envy, drunkenness and the like, which bar from the kingdom of God. Divine grace changes the nature, and these fruits make the change visible, so that religious claims or outward form without them leave a person unprofitable and slothful.
Fruit is purity of character and holy living made visible as evidence of genuine union with the Living Vine. It is shown in unselfish deeds, Christlike words, tenderness, humility, self-denial, patience, integrity, kindness, compassion and affection, and in control of thoughts, speech, disposition and dealings with others, even to keeping one's word when it seems against one's interest. Such works rich in goodness identify followers before the world as God's sons and daughters, like living letters others can read. A life that does not reveal Christ's tenderness cannot represent God, and bearing this fruit requires a heart filled with His love and learning His meekness and lowliness until self-exaltation gives way and Christ is seen. Where these fruits are absent Christ is not abiding in the heart, works that bear no fruit show separation from Him, and without such fruit there is no full assurance in coming to God and no right to the Christian name.
Fruit is glad, willing obedience and good works, not transgression, borne by those who abide in Christ and in whom His words abide. Keeping Christ's commandments is abiding in His love, just as He kept His Father's commandments and abode in His love, and keeping God's commandments is the evidence that a person loves God and the Bible test for those who have received light. This means perfect obedience to God's law, continuing in His love, forsaking sins and departing from iniquity as evidence of genuine repentance and conversion. Such obedience joined with faith in the Saviour is the only way to gain eternal life, made possible by Christ's pity and sacrifice that the fallen might overcome and enter the city of God, calling for gratitude for God's Son and earnest conformity of life to God's will. Keeping the Sabbath rather than a human-made sabbath belongs to this obedience, and the love thus commanded is to be shown to one another.
Fruit grows through continual spiritual growth, for without continued growth experience becomes unhealthy and fruitless of good. It requires using the light, opportunities and privileges God gives, which are costly gifts secured through Christ's sacrifice, laying hold of His promises, meeting responsibilities and difficulties courageously, and seeking God's glory. The virtues that make a believer fruitful are faith, virtue, goodness, knowledge, self-control, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and love, yielding the fruits of righteousness through Christ to God's glory and praise in abundance corresponding to benefits received. Like a seed's growth it depends on the unseen work of the Holy Spirit, daily receiving divine help, putting away pride and worldliness, using the means the gospel provides, and humbly resting on Christ as author and finisher of faith, until the fruit leads to eternal life and makes Jesus precious to others.
God planted people as trees of righteousness in His own garden under His own care to bear much fruit for Him by cooperating with His culture. The much fruit expected is exerting an influence like the Redeemer's by following His example of perfect goodness, living in obedience to all His commandments, and thus becoming Christlike, for only in this way can much fruit be borne. Bearing it means drawing nourishment from the true Vine and expressing His character in words, kindness, benevolence, hopefulness, patience, faith and love, giving a true witness as believing disciples so the difference from worldlings is plainly seen. Christ took human nature to encircle fallen man with His human arm while reaching to God's throne with His divine arm to place man on vantage ground with God. Fallen nature lets its tendrils grasp earth's stubble and rubbish and twine around weeds, bushes and base things, leaving it fruitless, corrupt and without strength to rise, though tendrils were formed to clasp the Vine and climb heavenward, and merely professing Christians bring forth no fruit but that unto death like poisonous plants not of God's choosing.
Love Unity and Obedience
Fruit is continuing in Christ's love by keeping His commandments as He kept His Father's commandments and abode in His love. Keeping Christ's commandments and abiding in His love is expressed in loving one another as He loved, with self-denying love even to laying down life for friends, and doing whatever He commands is the substance of the covenant. Bearing much fruit in this obedience glorifies the Father and gives evidence that Christ's words abide and work in the soul, that believers are branches of the living vine, and that they are His disciples. This life replaces love of self and love of the highest place with learning His meekness and lowliness of heart, implicit trust in God, and receiving new light in darkness through the Holy Spirit's guidance into all truth. It is a wonderful promise to those who keep the commandments of God, for by bearing good fruit they show they continue in Christ's love.
Fruit is unity and mutual love by which all men understand they are Christians, laying pride and dignity aside and refusing pettiness, contention, envy, jealousy, evil surmising, strife, malice, hatred, harsh iron un-Christlike spirit, suspicious watching, criticism, enmity and bitterness toward brethren. Drawing nearer to God and to one another produces this fruitfulness, and preserving Christian fellowship and unity is part of bearing fruit that glorifies the Father and marks Christ's disciples. Fruitfulness includes harmony and oneness among people with different dispositions as Christ is one with the Father, a witness that God sent His Son to save sinners. This fruit grows as people submit to Christ, let their characters be shaped by His, surrender their wills to His, and receive the converting power of God on hearts and minds so that love replaces division.
Branches share one life from the vine while keeping individuality, for unity comes from drawing life, nourishment and sustenance from the same source and does not make believers identical or require uniformity. Though disciples have diverse characters, talents and gifts, they can bear good fruit in unity with Him, and distinct workers and distinct institutions can each bear fruit while drawing from Christ in harmony for greater usefulness and as a sign that God is present and His Spirit is leading. Each one is to do the distinct work God has given, all working together with God in perfect unity and love and producing the best quality of fruit. Fruit-bearing in this union requires daily emptying the heart of self and hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong, depending wholly on Christ, putting away supposed wisdom, wearing Christ's yoke, learning His meekness and lowliness, cherishing patience, forbearance and controlled thoughts and words, and receiving the Holy Spirit, lest words and acts be tarnished with selfishness and inappropriate self-confidence.
Fruit includes fullness of joy, peace, hopefulness and praise flowing from obedience, with Christ's joy remaining in followers and making their joy full, not a cause for sorrow. Continuing in His love and keeping His words brings peace as believers daily meet the conditions of salvation, and the life of discipleship is meant to flow out in praise and thanksgiving to God, expressing the Light of life in countenance, life and character. In faithful discharge of duty believers become one with Christ and are admitted from servants to friends, speaking to Him freely, asking what they will, holding the most exalted conception of His greatness, and being promoted by Him to positions of trust. This joy strengthens physical, mental and spiritual powers through personal piety shaped by Christ rather than by restless or confused attitudes, while murmuring, faultfinding, distrust and harm to others misrepresent God and hinder fruit.
Soul Winning Service
Herein the Father is glorified when much fruit is borne in actual service for the salvation of others, using the gifts, abilities and talents entrusted by God to advance His kingdom and show the saving power of the gospel in the life. All believers have this work to do in persevering, earnest labor for souls, and using the abilities already possessed brings greater grace and greater ability. Ministers especially must render this return from gifts and opportunities entrusted to them, producing spiritual fruit through faithful labor for souls by pointing sinners to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, rather than consuming resources without fruitful work. Tame, spiritless efforts that produce no fruit show lack of living connection with God, for fruitful labor testifies to the power of His word and requires love for God, a humble and contrite heart, the putting away of sin, and obedience to His word.
Bearing much fruit is the duty of every enlightened soul and of every branch in vital union with the living Vine, and it means missionary labor in new and neglected places. Those who truly love God will not sit still and do nothing nor leave all the work to ministers, but will step out from where there are large churches and search out the cause they know not, finding work close by and far off where truth has never been raised. This work includes giving the life to Jesus Christ and His service in daily conversion and cooperation with Christ as He draws people to Himself, approaching them in the simplicity of Christ, kindly helping and speaking with them, awakening an interest in souls, doing house-to-house labor, carrying papers to homes, reading to people and telling them the importance and simplicity of truth, as taught in outdoor meetings and neighborhood visiting. It includes receiving the precious unfolding lessons of Christ as rays of light that make the Word shine in greater loveliness, letting that light shine in the heart and then to others in clear, distinct rays, imparting every ray so souls come to the light, including consecrated Bible work in homes that arouses lethargic, pleasure-loving people to inquire with earnestness after truth, and Sabbath-school efforts to win scholars. It belongs to every follower, not only ministers but every connected soul including those newly come to faith, who must become workers in the vineyard, visiting and praying with families and showing to the world what Jesus has done for them, for Jesus by His own life has paid for this cooperation and expects it from everyone passed from death unto life, so that failure to work is unfaithfulness to trust and disappoints the Saviour.
Fruitfulness depends on abiding in Christ, with fruitful branches pruned to bear more, and grows from believing and living His words until fruitfulness is far greater. The fruit is unselfish, self-sacrificing love that blesses and strengthens others in Christ, continuing the love shown when Christ came to seek and save the lost. It is seen in a life that serves others with eternity and the nearness of judgment in view: praying with neighbors and friends, seeking God's blessing for them, caring about those who do not know the truth, carrying gospel and truth to those who need them, warning and inviting children and unbelievers to decide, praying with families, and helping the poor, distressed and suffering. That work is done through self-denial and sacrifice like Christ's and can be costly and demanding, for those who receive Christ's grace must give it to others, and when Christ abides in the heart, concern for people perishing without truth leads to action and willingness to make daily sacrifices.
Good fruit appears in wise words and earnest, untiring efforts to win others to Christ, showing connection with the true Vine while evil fruit shows separation from Him. Believers bear it as branches joined to Christ, the true Vine, whose redeeming grace works upon faulty character to bring it into greater harmony and abundant fruitfulness, by which they receive His virtues and share in the divine nature. At camp-meetings especially this fruit is to appear through conduct, words and spirit, including words, actions and efforts that help people see Christ more clearly and words that can be faced without shame before Christ, with an influence reaching far beyond the meetings and consequences extending into eternity. It is righteous living through Jesus Christ, seen in good works shaped by abiding in Christ and letting His words shape mind and character, which lead observers to glorify God.
Fruitful workers give their lives to Jesus Christ and His service, are daily converted and consecrated, and cooperate with Christ and walk and work humbly with God as laborers together with Him. Those truly converted become fruit-bearing branches by renouncing self and glorifying God rather than themselves, doing the work in His spirit rather than in self-importance and not following the world's methods, customs or plans. That fruit comes when Bible truth is lived and obeyed to sanctify the soul, requiring being corrected and converted, consecrating whole heart, mind and soul, praying much and talking little, and letting angels work through human agents in earnest missionary work, for working in self-importance spoils the representation, dishonors Christ and prevents fruit. Work that appears successful or benefits people physically is not fruit to God's glory unless done to fulfill His will and purpose, with God recognized as source and goal, and excitement and sensational meetings without lasting results do not bear such fruit.
Proof of Discipleship
Bearing much fruit is the test and proof before the world that a person is truly Christ's disciple in living union with Him, and the Father is glorified in that fruitfulness. Profession, church membership, beautiful outward appearance or correct form without fruit is unprofitable and no proof of discipleship, for only the quality of fruit borne shows whether one is a branch of the True Vine. The fruit is the visible evidence of character and of genuine union, works rich in goodness and kindly words and deeds that testify to a change wrought by grace and identify followers as God's sons and daughters like living letters others can read. Believers are in vital union as a branch growing out of the parent stock, sustained, nourished and fed by the Vine, one with Christ as He is one with the Father, deriving all fruit-bearing qualities from Him rather than sustaining Him, depending on Him and receiving His grace through the Holy Spirit as doers of the Word and not hearers only. That fruit is the fruit of the Spirit — love, joy, peace, long-suffering, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance — in contrast to the works of the flesh such as adultery, hatred, wrath, strife, envy and drunkenness which bar from the kingdom, and those who bear it have divine credentials and the witness that their ways please God.
Without such fruit there is no full assurance in coming to God, no right to the Christian name and no harmony with God, because works that bear no fruit show separation from Christ and that He is not abiding in the heart. Branches that draw nourishment from the living Vine bear fruit, while those that remain fruitless wither and are taken away, and if life should close fruitless heaven would be lost. Fruitful branches are pruned so they can bear more, and fruitfulness depends on abiding in Christ, keeping His commandments and loving one another as He loved. The fruit that gives right to the name is holy character and good influence reflecting Christ — self-denial, self-sacrifice, meekness, patience, love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness — including a life of sacrifice that blesses and strengthens others and works as Christ did to save souls.
Discipleship proved by fruit means denying self, taking up the cross and following Christ as pattern in thorough loyalty and obedience, bringing appetites and inclinations into harmony with His will. Those who follow Him refuse temptation and worldly reward rather than turn from truth and justice, and do not act as accusers passing judgment on others thought to have made mistakes. Love for God in discipleship is definite and positive in action, putting unselfish love for fellow beings in the heart and leading to a noble, Christlike example patterned after Christ. Christ's own enduring love came from God and enabled Him to endure sacrifice and privation so God would be glorified, and that same heavenly gift at work in followers glorifies the Father.
This self-denial is applied to giving up what controls mind and will and spending for self-gratification, such as tobacco, beer and cider, fashionable display, conformity to the world, and rich trimmings on clothing, putting the money saved and other gifts into God's cause to help needy work. Life joined to Christ produces a different kind of fruit, and denying self and bearing the cross includes keeping silent when provoked rather than answering with angry words, with patience, kindness and forbearance marking those worthy to be called God's children. True disciples let their light shine in good works so unbelievers seeing them glorify the heavenly Father, and when unbelief is put away and this self-denial is practiced the message goes with power and prayers for the conversion of souls are heard.
At camp-meetings believers are especially called to bear this fruit through conduct, words and spirit, with influence reaching far beyond the meetings into eternity, as His redeeming grace works on faulty character bringing it into greater harmony and abundant fruitfulness. In the home and family the fruit includes loving those in the church and one's own household, with husband and wife showing love before the children and not scolding or fretting, and parents raising children in the Lord's instruction rather than giving them over to the world. The example parents set is part of bearing fruit, for children learn from their parents, and seeking God for power, grace and wisdom is necessary for a full Christian experience. Distinct institutions can each bear fruit while drawing nourishment from the same source, the true Vine.
Fruit that proves discipleship is borne only by unreserved surrender in which Christ's will becomes the believer's will, placing oneself wholly under His control, trusting the saving value of His merits and sinless life and resting by faith in His sacrifice for sinners. Those who do so are molded and fashioned into the divine likeness, put the will on the side of God's will and work as laborers together with God with self swallowed up in God, showing increased love for Jesus and for what belongs to Christ so that souls become more precious than gold, ease or self-indulgence because redeemed by His blood. Glorifying the Father by much fruit means living in close fellowship so character bears witness that the Saviour has entered the life to direct all and pervade all, constantly asking Is this Thy will and way, consulting the divine Friend in all actions, looking to Jesus as Author and Finisher of faith, and lifting the heart to God in every perplexity. It is humanity grasping divinity and divinity lifting humanity into unity with Christ and partaking of the divine nature escaped from corruption through lust, by not resisting the Holy Spirit and claiming the privileges of oneness with God in Christ, seen in home life in spirit, words and actions shaped by His meekness, humility and perfect obedience, keeping His commandments, receiving His light and radiating it to others.
The Father is glorified when those who follow Christ bear much fruit, and by that abundant fruit they are shown to be His disciples. No one can bear this fruit apart from Him, for as branches draw all life from the vine, so believers receive all nourishment, strength and power to do good only through vital union with Him. The fruit is His own character reproduced in them, seen in holiness, purity, obedience and the graces of love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. It is kept alive by continuing in His love, keeping His commandments, loving one another in unity, and asking in His name with full joy. This fruit also appears in earnest, self-sacrificing labor for the salvation of others, and by it true discipleship is tested and proved, while profession without fruit has no right to the Christian name.
Verse Words and Setting
The Father is glorified when those who follow Christ bear much fruit, and such fruitfulness is what marks them as his disciples. At camp-meetings this call presses with special force, since conduct, words and spirit there exert an influence that reaches far beyond the meetings into eternity. Mere beautiful outward appearance or correct form without fruit is unprofitable, for fruit comes only through abiding in Christ and continuing in his love by keeping his commandments. As branches draw life from the vine, those united with Christ represent him in character. That fruit appears in kindly words and deeds testifying to a change wrought by grace and showing fellowship with Christ and mutual abiding, and without it there is no full assurance in coming to God because unfruitful works show separation from Christ. It is the fruit of the Spirit — love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance — in contrast to the works of the flesh such as adultery, hatred, wrath, strife, envy, drunkenness and the like, which bar from the kingdom.
The saying belongs to the lesson of the vine and the branches, where Christ is the true vine, believers are the branches, and the Father is the husbandman who takes away every branch bearing no fruit and purges every fruit-bearing branch to bring forth more. What is required is practical, individual union with Jesus Christ, not merely theoretical knowledge of him, with each one truly united as branch to parent stock knowing what Jesus is personally, drawing sap and nourishment from the living vine and yielding the same fruit as the parent stock. Branches that draw nourishment from him bear fruit and point to Christ by words and actions, while those remaining fruitless wither and are taken away, and fruitful disciples are pruned to bear more. Branches cannot bear fruit apart from the vine, and abiding includes keeping his commandments and loving one another as he has loved. This unity comes from drawing life from the same source yet preserves individuality, not making believers identical nor requiring uniformity, but calling them to fellowship and love for one another. The fruit is a Christlike character — love, tenderness, kindness, compassion and affection — made visible as a witness to the Saviour when the truth of Christ fills the heart and shapes every action, with the sanctification of the Holy Spirit revealed in disposition, speech and dealings with others, even in keeping one's word when it seems against one's interests, while fruit-bearing branches may be pruned by the Father so whatever hinders Christian growth is removed.
The saying stands within the will of God plainly set out in John 13-17, to be believed and lived out before fellow ministers. It belongs to Christ's words of hope and comfort near the close of his earthly ministry, part of his encouragement and hope in John 14-16. He spoke because he knew the trials that would come to his church through unconverted believers, imparting courage to stand fast in the most trying hour and bringing strength and assurance to the true believer as long as time shall last. Those chapters are understood with new enlightenment when the mind is reshaped by the Spirit of God. Glorifying the Father by bearing much fruit requires careful study and earnest practice of John 13-17, since honoring God and Jesus Christ whom he sent depends on doing the duties specified by Christ as Substitute and Surety, duties that carry divine credentials to the world that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son so that whoever believes should not perish but have everlasting life, so that giving time to unimportant matters while neglecting these things of eternal consequence fails to honor God.
Its words are plain and need not be misunderstood, to be practiced in the daily life of the heart with the blessing that always comes from obedience, holding confidence firm to the end bringing daily fulfillment of the promises of Christ as his words are heard, received and obeyed and enter the intents and purposes of the heart. It expresses God's will for his people and his good pleasure for them to bear much fruit, holding part of the divine antidote for the sin of the whole world by showing the great process by which believers are made one with Christ in this present life to be one with him throughout all eternity. As farmland must be cultivated to produce, a life left uncultivated cannot bear much fruit, so bearing much fruit requires taking the weeds of evil out of the life and letting the word of truth dwell richly within, so the life produces righteousness and holiness, with pulling up weeds and planting seeds of truth now leading to seeing the result in the kingdom of God. The words in John 15-17 give the conditions for receiving his grace which every Christian is called to heed, and refusing those conditions leaves a person unworthy to stand among Christ's people at his coming. This instruction identifies the true marks of those who love God and applies to those living in the last days, who are to proclaim the final message of mercy and keep God's commandments. Bearing fruit requires being united to the living vine, loving purity and holiness in the heart, having clean hands and a pure heart, distinguishing between the common and the sacred, and setting all powers and capabilities to work to live and walk in the light given, and without this fruitfulness a person is in a dangerous condition in which the Spirit of God cannot abide in the heart and he is not in harmony with God, so that if life closed in that state he would never be an inhabitant of heaven.
Christ's love was shown by his coming to seek and save the lost, and his followers are to continue in that love. His humiliation and suffering would glorify the Father's name. He glorified the Father by the fruit he bore, and his true followers glorify the Father in the same way by receiving from Christ what they need to bear fruit and giving bountifully as his workers. Receiving grace from God and imparting it to others, they produce much fruit as Christ's workers. True followers produce the same result by receiving abundantly the means of fruit-bearing and giving abundantly as God's co-workers, with receiving and imparting leading to much fruit.
Abiding in Christ
Bearing much fruit that glorifies the Father comes only from abiding in Christ, for branches draw all life, nourishment, strength and fruit-bearing qualities from the vine. Apart from that vital union no one can bear fruit by self or produce anything of value to God, since fruit comes not from human power but from daily drawing upon him. That union must be practical and individual, not merely theoretical knowledge about him, so that the branch yields the same fruit as the parent stock. The right kind of fruit requires remaining in him, and those united with him represent him in character and continue in his love by keeping his commandments.
Abiding must be continual and not casual or off-and-on, for a merely superficial connection does not make a true branch. Discouragement or lack of joyful, uplifted feeling does not prove disconnection from the Lord, and fruitfulness is to be sought by trusting and rejoicing in his promises. Part of bearing fruit to his glory is taking trials and perplexities directly to the Lord in prayer rather than running to human beings, finding relief by telling Jesus all troubles. In that constant work believers learn the lessons he desires to teach, look for someone to help and bless, and have a saving word for those not abiding in him.
Christ abides in his followers through his word received, believed and lived, and living by those words greatly increases fruitfulness in unselfish, self-sacrificing love. Receiving his words is receiving the life of the vine, for his words are spirit and life, and living by every word from God's mouth produces in the believer the same fruits as in him, after his similitude. That life is brought into the spiritual circulation by daily eating the Word, as the body must daily partake of food, so that Christ is formed within, the hope of glory, while neglect brings spiritual starvation and fruitlessness. His words must remain continually and work in the soul, producing a life giving evidence of having received him, governed by the Holy Spirit and patterned on his sinless human life with divine strength to overcome evil. Bearing fruit therefore requires having his words abide in the heart with vivifying, sanctifying power, keeping his commandments and continuing in his love as he kept his Father's commandments, loving one another as he loved.
Abiding brings the grace of the Holy Spirit, received as believers depend on Christ and live as doers of the Word rather than hearers only, and the nature and abundance of the fruit distinguishes true disciples from outward membership. God gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask, and by using the means he has provided fruitfulness in good works and Christian character is within reach. Through the Spirit's guidance into all truth believers receive new light in darkness, learn meekness and lowliness instead of self-love and love of the highest place, and express the joy of the Lord in countenance, life and character. Fruit-bearing requires daily emptying the heart of self and of hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong, putting away supposed wisdom, wearing his yoke, and cherishing patience, forbearance, controlled thoughts and words, and Christlike love, lest acts be tarnished with selfishness. The baptism of the Spirit is to be earnestly sought in faith by prayer, cutting away everything that hinders so that the Spirit flows in rich currents and brings all other blessings in its train.
Abiding is joined to answered prayer, peace, and fullness of joy flowing out in praise and thanksgiving, as believers daily meet the conditions of salvation and continue in his love. In faithful discharge of duty they become one with him and are admitted from servants to friends, speaking freely to him, asking what they will, and being promoted to positions of trust. Obedience is evidence of discipleship, and keeping the commandments belongs with his joy remaining and becoming full. Answered prayer is given only when he abides in the person and his words abide in the person, asking what is willed in that union and receiving it. To bring petitions claiming the promise while refusing the conditions insults him and shows lack of love and of doing what he requires, for the condition is continuing in his love by keeping his commandments as he kept his Father's, loving one another even to laying down life for friends, and doing whatever he commands.
Fruit is not a means of earning justification or paying for heaven but the natural result of connection with the living vine, since believers cannot produce these graces by themselves. As farmland must be cultivated to produce, a life left uncultivated cannot bear much fruit, and it is his good pleasure that disciples bear much. Bearing much requires taking the weeds of evil out of the life and letting the word of truth dwell richly within, so that the life produces righteousness and holiness unto the kingdom. The heart must be guarded and vanity cleared away like weeds from a seed plot, every circumstance ordered so heaven is not shut from view, while his lessons plant seeds of truth in the soil of the heart unto a hundredfold yield of rich fruit to eternal life. Diligent searching of the heart must remove what chokes the word, including worldly cares and the deceitfulness of riches, for God gives power to obey but each must do the entrusted work with faith active in works.
Fruit as Character
The much fruit that glorifies the Father is Christ's own character and God's character reproduced in believers, revealing His holiness, benevolence and compassion to the world. It manifests that Christ abides in the heart, that the life is in harmony with Him, and that His blessing rests upon them, while good works done in practical service help others see and glorify Him. As branches draw nourishment from the vine, believers draw life from Christ and reflect Him without hindering His light by word or action, and this reflection identifies them as His disciples. That fruit is especially unselfish love expressed in practical self-denial and sacrifice for others in home, church and daily life, and a life without such fruit shows no living connection with Him. It is not produced by straining to bear fruit but by abiding in Christ, receiving His words as the life of the Vine, living by every word from God's mouth, adhering to Him, supported and nourished by Him, until His life produces in the believer the same fruits as in Him, fruit after His similitude.
The fruit to be borne is the fruit of the Spirit — love, joy, peace, long-suffering, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. It appears in kindly words and deeds that testify to a change wrought by grace and show fellowship with Christ, Christ abiding in the believer and the believer in Christ. It shows itself in holy character and works that do good to souls, in self-denial and self-sacrifice, and in working as Christ did to save others. This stands in contrast to the works of the flesh such as adultery, hatred, wrath, strife, envy, drunkenness and the like, which bar from the kingdom of God. Divine grace changes the nature, and these fruits make the change visible, so that religious claims or outward form without them leave a person unprofitable and slothful.
Fruit is purity of character and holy living made visible as evidence of genuine union with the Living Vine. It is shown in unselfish deeds, Christlike words, tenderness, humility, self-denial, patience, integrity, kindness, compassion and affection, and in control of thoughts, speech, disposition and dealings with others, even to keeping one's word when it seems against one's interest. Such works rich in goodness identify followers before the world as God's sons and daughters, like living letters others can read. A life that does not reveal Christ's tenderness cannot represent God, and bearing this fruit requires a heart filled with His love and learning His meekness and lowliness until self-exaltation gives way and Christ is seen. Where these fruits are absent Christ is not abiding in the heart, works that bear no fruit show separation from Him, and without such fruit there is no full assurance in coming to God and no right to the Christian name.
Fruit is glad, willing obedience and good works, not transgression, borne by those who abide in Christ and in whom His words abide. Keeping Christ's commandments is abiding in His love, just as He kept His Father's commandments and abode in His love, and keeping God's commandments is the evidence that a person loves God and the Bible test for those who have received light. This means perfect obedience to God's law, continuing in His love, forsaking sins and departing from iniquity as evidence of genuine repentance and conversion. Such obedience joined with faith in the Saviour is the only way to gain eternal life, made possible by Christ's pity and sacrifice that the fallen might overcome and enter the city of God, calling for gratitude for God's Son and earnest conformity of life to God's will. Keeping the Sabbath rather than a human-made sabbath belongs to this obedience, and the love thus commanded is to be shown to one another.
Fruit grows through continual spiritual growth, for without continued growth experience becomes unhealthy and fruitless of good. It requires using the light, opportunities and privileges God gives, which are costly gifts secured through Christ's sacrifice, laying hold of His promises, meeting responsibilities and difficulties courageously, and seeking God's glory. The virtues that make a believer fruitful are faith, virtue, goodness, knowledge, self-control, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and love, yielding the fruits of righteousness through Christ to God's glory and praise in abundance corresponding to benefits received. Like a seed's growth it depends on the unseen work of the Holy Spirit, daily receiving divine help, putting away pride and worldliness, using the means the gospel provides, and humbly resting on Christ as author and finisher of faith, until the fruit leads to eternal life and makes Jesus precious to others.
God planted people as trees of righteousness in His own garden under His own care to bear much fruit for Him by cooperating with His culture. The much fruit expected is exerting an influence like the Redeemer's by following His example of perfect goodness, living in obedience to all His commandments, and thus becoming Christlike, for only in this way can much fruit be borne. Bearing it means drawing nourishment from the true Vine and expressing His character in words, kindness, benevolence, hopefulness, patience, faith and love, giving a true witness as believing disciples so the difference from worldlings is plainly seen. Christ took human nature to encircle fallen man with His human arm while reaching to God's throne with His divine arm to place man on vantage ground with God. Fallen nature lets its tendrils grasp earth's stubble and rubbish and twine around weeds, bushes and base things, leaving it fruitless, corrupt and without strength to rise, though tendrils were formed to clasp the Vine and climb heavenward, and merely professing Christians bring forth no fruit but that unto death like poisonous plants not of God's choosing.
Love Unity and Obedience
Fruit is continuing in Christ's love by keeping His commandments as He kept His Father's commandments and abode in His love. Keeping Christ's commandments and abiding in His love is expressed in loving one another as He loved, with self-denying love even to laying down life for friends, and doing whatever He commands is the substance of the covenant. Bearing much fruit in this obedience glorifies the Father and gives evidence that Christ's words abide and work in the soul, that believers are branches of the living vine, and that they are His disciples. This life replaces love of self and love of the highest place with learning His meekness and lowliness of heart, implicit trust in God, and receiving new light in darkness through the Holy Spirit's guidance into all truth. It is a wonderful promise to those who keep the commandments of God, for by bearing good fruit they show they continue in Christ's love.
Fruit is unity and mutual love by which all men understand they are Christians, laying pride and dignity aside and refusing pettiness, contention, envy, jealousy, evil surmising, strife, malice, hatred, harsh iron un-Christlike spirit, suspicious watching, criticism, enmity and bitterness toward brethren. Drawing nearer to God and to one another produces this fruitfulness, and preserving Christian fellowship and unity is part of bearing fruit that glorifies the Father and marks Christ's disciples. Fruitfulness includes harmony and oneness among people with different dispositions as Christ is one with the Father, a witness that God sent His Son to save sinners. This fruit grows as people submit to Christ, let their characters be shaped by His, surrender their wills to His, and receive the converting power of God on hearts and minds so that love replaces division.
Branches share one life from the vine while keeping individuality, for unity comes from drawing life, nourishment and sustenance from the same source and does not make believers identical or require uniformity. Though disciples have diverse characters, talents and gifts, they can bear good fruit in unity with Him, and distinct workers and distinct institutions can each bear fruit while drawing from Christ in harmony for greater usefulness and as a sign that God is present and His Spirit is leading. Each one is to do the distinct work God has given, all working together with God in perfect unity and love and producing the best quality of fruit. Fruit-bearing in this union requires daily emptying the heart of self and hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong, depending wholly on Christ, putting away supposed wisdom, wearing Christ's yoke, learning His meekness and lowliness, cherishing patience, forbearance and controlled thoughts and words, and receiving the Holy Spirit, lest words and acts be tarnished with selfishness and inappropriate self-confidence.
Fruit includes fullness of joy, peace, hopefulness and praise flowing from obedience, with Christ's joy remaining in followers and making their joy full, not a cause for sorrow. Continuing in His love and keeping His words brings peace as believers daily meet the conditions of salvation, and the life of discipleship is meant to flow out in praise and thanksgiving to God, expressing the Light of life in countenance, life and character. In faithful discharge of duty believers become one with Christ and are admitted from servants to friends, speaking to Him freely, asking what they will, holding the most exalted conception of His greatness, and being promoted by Him to positions of trust. This joy strengthens physical, mental and spiritual powers through personal piety shaped by Christ rather than by restless or confused attitudes, while murmuring, faultfinding, distrust and harm to others misrepresent God and hinder fruit.
Soul Winning Service
Herein the Father is glorified when much fruit is borne in actual service for the salvation of others, using the gifts, abilities and talents entrusted by God to advance His kingdom and show the saving power of the gospel in the life. All believers have this work to do in persevering, earnest labor for souls, and using the abilities already possessed brings greater grace and greater ability. Ministers especially must render this return from gifts and opportunities entrusted to them, producing spiritual fruit through faithful labor for souls by pointing sinners to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, rather than consuming resources without fruitful work. Tame, spiritless efforts that produce no fruit show lack of living connection with God, for fruitful labor testifies to the power of His word and requires love for God, a humble and contrite heart, the putting away of sin, and obedience to His word.
Bearing much fruit is the duty of every enlightened soul and of every branch in vital union with the living Vine, and it means missionary labor in new and neglected places. Those who truly love God will not sit still and do nothing nor leave all the work to ministers, but will step out from where there are large churches and search out the cause they know not, finding work close by and far off where truth has never been raised. This work includes giving the life to Jesus Christ and His service in daily conversion and cooperation with Christ as He draws people to Himself, approaching them in the simplicity of Christ, kindly helping and speaking with them, awakening an interest in souls, doing house-to-house labor, carrying papers to homes, reading to people and telling them the importance and simplicity of truth, as taught in outdoor meetings and neighborhood visiting. It includes receiving the precious unfolding lessons of Christ as rays of light that make the Word shine in greater loveliness, letting that light shine in the heart and then to others in clear, distinct rays, imparting every ray so souls come to the light, including consecrated Bible work in homes that arouses lethargic, pleasure-loving people to inquire with earnestness after truth, and Sabbath-school efforts to win scholars. It belongs to every follower, not only ministers but every connected soul including those newly come to faith, who must become workers in the vineyard, visiting and praying with families and showing to the world what Jesus has done for them, for Jesus by His own life has paid for this cooperation and expects it from everyone passed from death unto life, so that failure to work is unfaithfulness to trust and disappoints the Saviour.
Fruitfulness depends on abiding in Christ, with fruitful branches pruned to bear more, and grows from believing and living His words until fruitfulness is far greater. The fruit is unselfish, self-sacrificing love that blesses and strengthens others in Christ, continuing the love shown when Christ came to seek and save the lost. It is seen in a life that serves others with eternity and the nearness of judgment in view: praying with neighbors and friends, seeking God's blessing for them, caring about those who do not know the truth, carrying gospel and truth to those who need them, warning and inviting children and unbelievers to decide, praying with families, and helping the poor, distressed and suffering. That work is done through self-denial and sacrifice like Christ's and can be costly and demanding, for those who receive Christ's grace must give it to others, and when Christ abides in the heart, concern for people perishing without truth leads to action and willingness to make daily sacrifices.
Good fruit appears in wise words and earnest, untiring efforts to win others to Christ, showing connection with the true Vine while evil fruit shows separation from Him. Believers bear it as branches joined to Christ, the true Vine, whose redeeming grace works upon faulty character to bring it into greater harmony and abundant fruitfulness, by which they receive His virtues and share in the divine nature. At camp-meetings especially this fruit is to appear through conduct, words and spirit, including words, actions and efforts that help people see Christ more clearly and words that can be faced without shame before Christ, with an influence reaching far beyond the meetings and consequences extending into eternity. It is righteous living through Jesus Christ, seen in good works shaped by abiding in Christ and letting His words shape mind and character, which lead observers to glorify God.
Fruitful workers give their lives to Jesus Christ and His service, are daily converted and consecrated, and cooperate with Christ and walk and work humbly with God as laborers together with Him. Those truly converted become fruit-bearing branches by renouncing self and glorifying God rather than themselves, doing the work in His spirit rather than in self-importance and not following the world's methods, customs or plans. That fruit comes when Bible truth is lived and obeyed to sanctify the soul, requiring being corrected and converted, consecrating whole heart, mind and soul, praying much and talking little, and letting angels work through human agents in earnest missionary work, for working in self-importance spoils the representation, dishonors Christ and prevents fruit. Work that appears successful or benefits people physically is not fruit to God's glory unless done to fulfill His will and purpose, with God recognized as source and goal, and excitement and sensational meetings without lasting results do not bear such fruit.
Proof of Discipleship
Bearing much fruit is the test and proof before the world that a person is truly Christ's disciple in living union with Him, and the Father is glorified in that fruitfulness. Profession, church membership, beautiful outward appearance or correct form without fruit is unprofitable and no proof of discipleship, for only the quality of fruit borne shows whether one is a branch of the True Vine. The fruit is the visible evidence of character and of genuine union, works rich in goodness and kindly words and deeds that testify to a change wrought by grace and identify followers as God's sons and daughters like living letters others can read. Believers are in vital union as a branch growing out of the parent stock, sustained, nourished and fed by the Vine, one with Christ as He is one with the Father, deriving all fruit-bearing qualities from Him rather than sustaining Him, depending on Him and receiving His grace through the Holy Spirit as doers of the Word and not hearers only. That fruit is the fruit of the Spirit — love, joy, peace, long-suffering, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance — in contrast to the works of the flesh such as adultery, hatred, wrath, strife, envy and drunkenness which bar from the kingdom, and those who bear it have divine credentials and the witness that their ways please God.
Without such fruit there is no full assurance in coming to God, no right to the Christian name and no harmony with God, because works that bear no fruit show separation from Christ and that He is not abiding in the heart. Branches that draw nourishment from the living Vine bear fruit, while those that remain fruitless wither and are taken away, and if life should close fruitless heaven would be lost. Fruitful branches are pruned so they can bear more, and fruitfulness depends on abiding in Christ, keeping His commandments and loving one another as He loved. The fruit that gives right to the name is holy character and good influence reflecting Christ — self-denial, self-sacrifice, meekness, patience, love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness — including a life of sacrifice that blesses and strengthens others and works as Christ did to save souls.
Discipleship proved by fruit means denying self, taking up the cross and following Christ as pattern in thorough loyalty and obedience, bringing appetites and inclinations into harmony with His will. Those who follow Him refuse temptation and worldly reward rather than turn from truth and justice, and do not act as accusers passing judgment on others thought to have made mistakes. Love for God in discipleship is definite and positive in action, putting unselfish love for fellow beings in the heart and leading to a noble, Christlike example patterned after Christ. Christ's own enduring love came from God and enabled Him to endure sacrifice and privation so God would be glorified, and that same heavenly gift at work in followers glorifies the Father.
This self-denial is applied to giving up what controls mind and will and spending for self-gratification, such as tobacco, beer and cider, fashionable display, conformity to the world, and rich trimmings on clothing, putting the money saved and other gifts into God's cause to help needy work. Life joined to Christ produces a different kind of fruit, and denying self and bearing the cross includes keeping silent when provoked rather than answering with angry words, with patience, kindness and forbearance marking those worthy to be called God's children. True disciples let their light shine in good works so unbelievers seeing them glorify the heavenly Father, and when unbelief is put away and this self-denial is practiced the message goes with power and prayers for the conversion of souls are heard.
At camp-meetings believers are especially called to bear this fruit through conduct, words and spirit, with influence reaching far beyond the meetings into eternity, as His redeeming grace works on faulty character bringing it into greater harmony and abundant fruitfulness. In the home and family the fruit includes loving those in the church and one's own household, with husband and wife showing love before the children and not scolding or fretting, and parents raising children in the Lord's instruction rather than giving them over to the world. The example parents set is part of bearing fruit, for children learn from their parents, and seeking God for power, grace and wisdom is necessary for a full Christian experience. Distinct institutions can each bear fruit while drawing nourishment from the same source, the true Vine.
Fruit that proves discipleship is borne only by unreserved surrender in which Christ's will becomes the believer's will, placing oneself wholly under His control, trusting the saving value of His merits and sinless life and resting by faith in His sacrifice for sinners. Those who do so are molded and fashioned into the divine likeness, put the will on the side of God's will and work as laborers together with God with self swallowed up in God, showing increased love for Jesus and for what belongs to Christ so that souls become more precious than gold, ease or self-indulgence because redeemed by His blood. Glorifying the Father by much fruit means living in close fellowship so character bears witness that the Saviour has entered the life to direct all and pervade all, constantly asking Is this Thy will and way, consulting the divine Friend in all actions, looking to Jesus as Author and Finisher of faith, and lifting the heart to God in every perplexity. It is humanity grasping divinity and divinity lifting humanity into unity with Christ and partaking of the divine nature escaped from corruption through lust, by not resisting the Holy Spirit and claiming the privileges of oneness with God in Christ, seen in home life in spirit, words and actions shaped by His meekness, humility and perfect obedience, keeping His commandments, receiving His light and radiating it to others.