Young Adults' Group

The Fruitfulness Of Our Faith

by Pastor Mark
July 28, 2016

The challenge of being fruitful

One of the results of the chastening of the Lord is that it will yield fruits of righteousness. (Heb 12:11) The training process, though at times it may be painful, will make us more fruitful. Fruitfulness is an important aspect of our faith. If we have a true and genuine faith, then we would manifest fruitfulness in our life. The Lord Jesus taught about fruitfulness to His disciples. He taught of Himself as the True Vine and His Father as the Vinedresser. (John 15:1) Only those who are connected to the True Vine will be fruitful.

The problem of unfruitfulness

“Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away;” (John 15:2)

The Lord Jesus raised the problem of being unfruitful. We may think that we are in Christ. But if we do not bear fruits in our life, then we may not be a true believer. It is likely that we are not connected to the True Vine. We may come to church and appreciate the things experienced in worship but have no fruits to show for, our faith may not be genuine and the Lord would take us away.

Different levels of fruitfulness

1. Bearing fruit

“and every branch that bears fruit…” (John 15:2)

If we are true believers, we would be able to produce at least some fruits. In being connected to the true vine, we would be able to receive all the spiritual nutrients for us to bear fruit. Our life will display fruits of our faith. Let us ensure that we are bearing fruits through our faith.

2. Bearing more fruit

“And every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” (John 15:2)

The vinedresser is God. One of the works of a vinedresser is pruning. The word “prune” in Greek is “kathairo” which means “to cleanse”. This is the same word used in the next verse,

“You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.” (John 15:3) The cleansing work is done by the word of God. The disciples already had been cleansed by the Lord’s words. They already had true faith in Christ and been forgiven of their sins. But the Lord sought to cleanse and sanctify them further that they may produce more fruits. The pruning work may be challenging and painful at times, but it is through such sanctification work that we can become more fruitful. When we do not allow sin to distract us and affect our lives, we will have more fruits. Let us look to the Lord to prune our lives.

3. Bearing much fruit

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

The challenge is for us to bear much fruit. This is not easily achieved. But in order to do so, we must truly abide in the Lord Jesus. It is to have a deep relationship with the Lord Jesus and to walk with Him closely each day. Then the Lord will abide with us…to reveal Himself to us and to bless our lives richly. Through this close relationship, we would be able to bear much fruit. The Lord will bless our lives with much fruits.

Ultimately, our challenge is to focus on Christ. He should be everything to us. Without Him, we would not be able to do anything…we would not able to be fruitful at all. Let us be challenged to focus on the Lord Jesus always so that our life may be fruitful.

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