Bearing much fruit
Anyone boating on the canals in the past month or so cannot have failed to notice the super-abundance of fruit on the trees and bushes along the way. From acorns to sloes and apples to hawthorn, the trees and branches have been laden to the limit.
Jesus said “I am the vine, you are the branches. If a person remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5
What, then, is fruit?
Fruit is the excess, the overflow of the life that a plant has taken into itself. The more life that a plant takes into itself the more life it produces. It also carries the seed of the future.
When there is an abundance of sunshine to fuel photosynthesis, and when there is adequate water and nutrient in the soil to be passed up the trunk and into the branches those branches thrive, and grow, and produce, and grow again.
The plant and its branches don’t have to force themselves to grow, they do not have to make a resolution to bring forth sweeter and more succulent fruit, nor do they need to remind themselves to be more abundant in their production.
They simply need to be in the right place, the place that the gardener has prepared for them, the place where the conditions for growth and fruit bearing are to be found. For us the right place to be is in the vine that has been planted by God and which is tended by God – the vine which we call Christ.
Each one of us, as people who profess that Jesus is our Lord and believe in our hearts that He rose from the dead, are part of the vine of Christ. We are able to produce tremendous quantities of fruit, conditions are perfect for our growth – because God himself tends us and ensures that those conditions are perfect. All we need to do to be fruitful is remain a part of the vine, and perform the simple tasks that every branch performs as a means of maintaining a fruitful life in the vine.
The particulars of this will vary for each one of us because God knows what is best for each, but the basics are the same, apart from Him we can do nothing.