What is the key to bearing fruit as a Christian?

Summing up, we thus learn that the divine requirements for fruit-bearing are abiding in Christ in living communion, a spirit of complete dependence upon Him, His Word abiding in us as a cleansing and formative power begetting confidence to ask in prayer, and walking in obedience to His commandments which results in abiding in His love and having His joy remaining in us.

Here we learn that our abiding in Christ and He in us is the prime necessity for fruit-bearing. Every true believer is united with Christ and is in Him positionally as a branch is with a vine, and the very life that flows through the Vine - Christ - flows through the branch the believer, thus the power to produce fruit for God is in Christ, the Vine, and in us also as branches in Him. But we are responsible to abide in Christ practically and this what is stressed in John 15 as necessary for fruit-bearing.

We cannot bring forth fruit for God of ourselves; it is not by our efforts that fruit for Him is borne, it is by simply abiding in Christ in practical and living communion with Him the life-giving Vine that fruit to His glory is produced in the Christian. If a soul dwells in Christ, Christ dwells in that soul and that which is in Him is communicated to that one just as the sap flows from the vine into the branches. In abiding in Christ we draw strength continually from Him and fruit-bearing follows as a result of abiding.

In this the Father is glorified, for it involves the bearing of much fruit. Not only is the fruit itself for the Father's glory, but He is glorified by the fact of His laboring with us as the Husbandman, to produce this fruit (v. 8). In this too we shall be Christ's disciples, not only in name, but in practice. Dependence and fruit-bearing will prove the reality of faith. Notice that we are not told to bear fruit, but to abide in Him, for it is this abiding that produces fruit spontaneously.

The Father's dealings are represented by the methods of the husbandman. First there is the sad possibility that some branches, though having a living link with the vine, may bring forth no fruit. Such the Father takes away. Very different are such branches to the withered branches of verse 6, which are cast forth and burned. Here it is the Father that takes away, there it is men that cast them forth. Was it not thus with some of the Corinthian saints whose walk was such that the Father would not leave them here to bring reproach upon the name of Christ, so took them home, as we read, "many sleep" (1 Cor. 11:30). Then there is the gracious action of the Father with those who bear fruit, in order that they may bring forth more fruit. Such He purges. The chastening and discipline of the Father is to remove all that hinders the expression of the character of Christ. It may indeed be painful, for, "no chastening at the time seems to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them which are exercised thereby" (Heb. 12:11). If exercised before the Father as to His dealings with us, we shall not be soured and embittered by adversity, but rather softened and mellowed so that in result the character of Christ is seen in us and we become fruitful.

(V. 3.) Secondly there is the Lord's own gracious dealing with us in order that we may bear fruit. He can say, "Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken to you." This is the practical separation from everything contrary to Christ produced by His word. At that moment the disciples were clean, for had not their feet been in the hands of the Lord? The water applied by His hands had effectually done its cleansing work. Would we know something of the practical cleansing of the word then indeed we shall do well to sit at His feet like Mary of old, and hear His word. We all know what it is to go to Him with our confessions, our difficulties, and our exercises, and well it is that He should hear our halting words but it may be that we seldom get alone with Him, for the sake of being in His company and hearing His word. And yet what can be more cleansing, and more productive of fruit, than sitting at His feet and hearing His word? Mary who chose this good part brought forth fruit so precious to Christ that He can say, "Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman has done, be told for a memorial of her" (Matt. 26:13).

(Vv. 4, 5). The third means by which the life of the disciple may be rendered fruitful is found in his own hands. It is summed up by the twice repeated word, "Abide in Me." Abiding in Christ presents our privilege, as well as our responsibility, to constantly walk in dependence upon Christ. As one has said, abiding in Christ is "practical habitual nearness of heart to Him." If we have learnt that fruit is the reproduction of the character of Christ, expressed by "love, joy, self-control," we shall realise that such an ideal cannot be reached in our own strength. The realisation of the moral excellence of the fruit on the one hand, and our own exceeding weakness on the other will convince us of the truth of the Lord's words, "Without Me ye can do nothing." His fruit may indeed be sweet to our taste, but it is only as we abide under His shadow that we shall partake of His fruit. Without the light and warmth of the sun, the natural vine could not bear fruit, and unless we abide in the light and love of the presence of Christ we too shall be fruitless. If we abide in Christ then indeed Christ will be in us, and if Christ is in us we shall exhibit the lovely character of Christ.

Thus it becomes clear that fruit is not produced by making fruit an object, or by thinking of fruit; it is the outcome of having Christ as an object, of thinking of Him. Christ precedes fruit.

Having settled the question as to your vital oneness with Christ, and that it is no mere matter of profession with you, though the subject of the Lord's words is really our responsibility as having professed identification with Him, you must next inquire as to what it is you are thinking about first and most. Is it your fruit-bearing or Christ? If it is your fruit-bearing it is self-occupation, and as a consequence the fruit will be both poor in quantity and quality. But if you have learnt what He means when He says, "Without ME ye can do nothing," and so have turned wholly to Him — the Source of your life, strength and energy — fruit will not be lacking. You abide in Him when you realize that you can't do without Him, and when you know that all you need is in Him. Two words cover it. He is INDISPENSABLE to you, and He is ALL-SUFFICIENT. To abide in Him is to cleave to Him with purpose of heart, as Acts 11:23 says, but it is more than that, for there it is a question of grace from Him, here it is life in Him and the grace which is the strength of that life. In abiding in Him you stay where grace has put you. When you came to Him at first in all your need as a sinner, you turned away from every other hope and helper and from all your own efforts to secure blessing. Then salvation and life for you were in Christ alone; now, "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him" (Col. 2:6-7). Go on as you began; as you found all you needed in Him for salvation, now find all you need in Him for fruit-bearing. Derive from Him, draw upon Him, cleave to Him, so that His life may find expression in you in fruit-bearing.

The Lord told His disciples the secret of fruit-bearing, when He said, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me" (John 15:4). Only by dependence upon and communion with the Lord can we manifest the traits that are His, and thus live for God's glory in this world.

What then is the secret of fruit-bearing? It flows from the branch abiding in the vine, from the believer abiding in Christ.

These are wholesome words for all of us. It is an unspeakable mercy for every dear servant of Christ to be kept in the abiding sense of his own utter nothingness — to be taught to realise, in some measure, the depth, fulness, and power of that one brief but most comprehensive statement, "Apart from me ye can do nothing." There is not a single branch in all the vine, however imposing or wide-spreading it may seem to be, which, if separated from the parent stem by the thickness of a gold leaf, can produce the very smallest atom of fruit. There must be the abiding realisation of our vital union with Christ the practical, living, abiding in Him, by faith, day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment, in order to bring forth any fruit that God can accept. It is as we abide in Christ that the living sap circulates freely through us, and gives forth the healthy bud, the green leaf, and the seasonable fruit.

But here the Lord insists on more — the necessity and the importance of dependence on Him, of intimacy with Himself. This is to abide in Christ; and His word is, "Abide in Me, and I in you." It is not sovereign grace to the sinner, but His call to the disciple; and hence His abiding in us, as a matter of daily communion, depends on our abiding in Him. "As the branch cannot bear fruit from itself unless it abide in the vine, so neither (can) ye, unless ye abide in Me." Nothing simpler than the fact outwardly, nothing surer in our experience than that so it is inwardly. He, and He only, is the dwelling-place for the soul in this world of snare and danger, in this desert where no water is. Make Him the resource, make Him the object; and the sap, as it were, flows without hindrance, and fruit is borne. Without Him no teaching avails, and all religious excitement fails; bring Him in, confide in Him, and, no matter what the difficulty or the pain or the shame, no matter what the opposition or the detraction, He sustains the heart, and fruit-bearing follows.286 Apart from Him we can do nothing; with Him, all things. So said one who had learnt it well, "I have strength for all things in Him that giveth me power" (Phil. 4:13).

It seems scarcely needful to remark that the relation of head and body serves quite another purpose in Scripture, and must be kept wholly distinct. Heavenly grace forms that one body by the one Spirit united to the glorified Head; and therein we do not hear of rending, maiming, or cutting off. It is the church viewed as the object of Christ's unfailing love, till He present it to Himself in glory. Responsibility on earth under Divine government is another thing; and this, not the unfailing heavenly relationship of the Church, is taught by the Vine and its branches. Hence Calvinistic devices are as uncalled for as the Arminian assaults they are meant to avert. No one doubts that profession may fail. Life is eternal for all that; and in Christ there is nothing short of eternal life; but this is not the teaching of the Vine, any more than the unity of the body. It is a pity that learned commentators do not read with faith and care the Scriptures they essay to comment on.

In a word then, we learn from the figure of the vine and its branches that the true secret of fruit-bearing is to abide in Christ, and the way to abide in Christ is to keep His precious commandments. "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love." This makes it all so simple. The way to bear fruit in season is to abide in the love of Christ, and this abiding is proved by our treasuring up His commandments in our hearts and a loving obedience to every one of them. It is not running hither and thither in the mere energy of nature; it is not the excitement of mere fleshly zeal displaying itself in spasmodic efforts after devotedness. No; it is something quite different from all this; it is the calm and holy obedience of the heart — a loving obedience to our own beloved Lord which refreshes His heart and glorifies His Name.