DAY 504: CHOSEN TO BEAR FRUIT

Jesus said, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you” (John 15:16, NKJV). Many sincere Christians think bearing fruit means simply to bring souls to Christ. Bearing fruit, though, means something much larger even than soulwinning.

The fruit Jesus is talking about is Christ-likeness. Simply put, bearing fruit means reflecting the likeness of Jesus. The phrase “much fruit” means “the ever-increasing likeness of Christ.” Growing more and more into Jesus’ likeness is our core purpose in life. It has to be central to all our activities, our lifestyle, our relationships. Indeed, all our gifts, callings, work, ministry and witness must flow out of this core purpose.

If I am not Christlike at heart, if I’m not becoming noticeably more like him, I have missed God’s purpose in my life.

God’s purpose for me can’t be fulfilled by what I do for Christ. It can’t be measured by anything I achieve, even if I heal the sick or cast out demons. No, God’s purpose is fulfilled in me only by what I am becoming in him. Christlikeness isn’t about what I do for the Lord but rather how I’m being transformed into his likeness.

Go into a Christian bookstore and read the titles on the shelves. Most are self-help books on how to overcome loneliness, survive depression, find fulfillment. Why is this? It’s because we have it all wrong. We aren’t called to be successes and be free of all trouble. No, we are missing the one calling that’s meant to be central to our lives, to become fruitful in the likeness of Christ.

Jesus was totally given to the Father. He stated, “I don’t do or say anything except what my Father tells me.”

Does your desire to bear “much fruit” spring forth from wanting to become more like Christ? We fulfill our life’s purpose only as we begin to love others like Christ has loved us. “As the Father loved me, I also have loved you; abide in my love” (John 15:9). His command is clear and simple: “Give to others the unconditional love I have shown you.” We grow more Christlike as our love for others increases. Bearing fruit comes down to how we treat people.

This article is an interesting opinion that invites examination and discussion in a framework other than the one bounded by the forum rules of Devotional and Worship use.

To worship our Heavenly Father and His Incarnated Son at any time is to obey His imperatives spiritually and truthfully, separated from hypocrisy. So with this in mind and spirit, let it be said:

Jesus' last orders to His Disciple/Apostles, the core of His emphatic directions to His Earthly Church that they are to institute, were to successively individually (Mt. 28:18-20):

(1) recruit disciples for His Company of The Committed Followers;
(2) induct the recruit into full membership of a local regularly assembling Company by the rite of water immersion on the basis of a public profession of total, unreserved trust in the Living Jesus as Savior Who frees from Sin as well as allegiance to Him Alone as Lord and Master of the recruit's Life decisions; and
(3) congregate the disciples regularly for training in Keeping watchfully secure without changing whatsoever Jesus commanded them, and to apply these commands to one's daily life as guided by the Holy Spirit.

T sum this up, one may divide this process up as yielding two kinds of fruit by stating:

-- The fruit of a disciple is more disciple(s) that he/she has recruited, as a seed-sower and cultivator, gaining the recruit's full allegiance to the Company.

-- The fruit of the Spirit is manifested by the maturing concurrently of nine inseparable concurrent qualities of Jesus in a person--love, Joy, peacefulness, patience, moral purity, goodness, confidence, self-control--from which one's interactions with other humans and God benefit.

When God Saves you, He also imparts to you a new willingness and strength for one to permanently modify one's own behavior. He also supplies the written manual of the standards to be achieved in both the home, the public, and in the conduct of the assembly, that leaves no excuse for evading them.

For the newly-born spiritual babe in Christ, God The Father has set the person aside for His use, and put that person on a behavioral modification individually-tailored program to make that person useful in the management of His Earthly estate that the person is charged to administer. The plan is ongoing, it is for everybody, continues until physical death, and is called progressive sanctification. And Jesus initiated the system of its administration, which is called discipleship, training of the less mature by those that are more measurably mature, and commissioned to be engaged in it.

Most denominations and non-denominational assemblies have neglected this matter IMHO, and in replacing it with an unsupplemented pulpit ministry have been failing in their role for decades and even centuries to utilize God's Plan for Evangelical salvific purposes.

Please remember theses two inseparable aspects of a God-pleasing truly regenerate Spirit-guided follower of His Only Begotten Son and Captain of everyone's redeemed development:

The fruit of a successful disciple is more disciples.

The fruit of the Spirit is the ongoing ripening of all of a disciple's Christ-like qualities.

Metmom, this is being written in a worshipful attitude,and intended to add greater Scriptural and spiritual nuggets of truth to the meditation that you have graciously labored to supply for devotional meditation to your readers.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.