The fruit of the Spirit

May 1, 2021

14:1 – 15:17 Being in Jesus, just as Jesus is in the Father

Read John 15:1-2

In the Old Testament, Israel is described as God’s vine (Psalm 80:8-16; Isaiah 5:1-7; Jer.2:21). All these passages speak of Israel as a faithless vine that had failed to bear the expected fruit, and that’s the background for this final “I am” saying of Jesus. Just as Jesus is “the true bread from heaven” (6:32), he is also “the true vine” (1), the one who fulfils all God’s purposes for Israel. Those who are in him are part of this new “Israel of God” (Gal.6:16), just as branches are in a vine. But Jesus himself is not just the trunk, he is the whole vine. (Compare the metaphor of Jesus as the whole body in which every member is a part 1 Cor.12:12-20.)

As always, the Father and the Son work together (1; 5:17; 14:10) and that work is to produce fruit in the branches (2). The Spirit is not here mentioned by name but the whole of this passage (15:1-17) is an illustration of what Jesus had been saying to them about his Spirit being in them – it’s his life in us which produces fruit. The fruit itself is not defined but it must refer to both of the themes which Jesus had been teaching them i.e. the future ministry of evangelism in his name (14:12; Rom.1:13; Col.1:6), and the qualities of Christian living which spring from love and obedience (13:35; 14:23; Gal.5:22; Eph.5:9).

So, though Jesus warned of the seriousness of not bearing fruit (2), the point of the metaphor is to encourage his disciples that we can and will be fruitful because the basis of that fruit-bearing is not our own human effort but our being in Jesus. The Father himself works to increase that fruitfulness in us, pruning our lives of dead wood so that we will be “even more fruitful”.