Joshua Hawk

“Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so.” Genesis 1:11 NKJV

In the creation narrative found in Genesis, God established this simple yet universal law of plants – a seed can only produce after its own kind. An apple seed can never grow into an orange tree nor can a watermelon seed develop into a pumpkin. Apples seeds can only grow into apple trees and watermelons seeds can only grow into watermelons. Seeds will ALWAYS produce according to their kind.

In Matthew 7, Jesus taught this very principle when warning His disciples about false prophets and wolves in sheep’s clothing.

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.” Matthew 7:15-20 NKJV

Jesus taught it is impossible to be one of His and bear the unfruitful works of darkness and it is impossible to be of the devil and bear the fruit of the Spirit. Those who are truly of Christ will bear fruit that is of Christ and those who are of the devil will only bear fruit that is of the devil. Because a seed can only produce according to its kind, the fruit we bear will always be evidence of our true nature and whether or not we are of Jesus or are children of Satan. Wolves will always procreate wolves, goats will always procreate goats and sheep will always procreate sheep. A wolf can no more claim it is a sheep than a child of the devil can claim he or she is saved by grace no matter how much they cling to John 10:28-30 and Ephesians 2:8-9. We will know them by their fruit!

This begs the question, what kind of fruit are we to bear? Before I delve into this, allow me to first identify the fruit we as Christians should NOT bear. Paul provided a list of bad fruit in his letter to the Ephesians,

“But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.” Ephesians 5:3-11 NKJV

This is the kind of fruit we should not be bearing if we are of Christ. If we are truly children of God the fruit we will bear will include the qualities that Paul listed in his letter to the Galatians,

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23 NKJV

The presence of THIS fruit is evidence that we are of the Spirit. In fact, Jesus demands we are to bear MUCH of this fruit in His teaching about the True Vine.

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. “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. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.” John 15:1-8 NKJV

In this passage of Scripture, Jesus makes a rather unusual statement that is easy to overlook but noticeably stands out when attention is brought to it.

“You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.” John 15:3 NKJV

The reason this verse stands out is because this is the only verse that doesn’t mention the vine, branches, fruit or abiding in Jesus. It seems like it doesn’t belong; however, this one verse is VERY significant. To understand its significance we have to examine the context of the Scriptures. It is extraordinarily easy to take a single verse out of context so we have to read the surrounding verses to gather context clues. Sometimes surrounding verses aren’t enough to give us the full picture so we have to widen our search to surrounding chapters and even the entire book itself if necessary. In this case, we only have to back up a few chapters to understand what Jesus meant by the statement found in John 15:3.

“Jesus said to him, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.”” John 13:10 NKJV

In this verse, Jesus tells His disciples they are not all clean but in John 15:3, Jesus tells them that they ARE clean. So what changed between these two verses? The answer is found in John 13:11,

“For He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, “You are not all clean.” John 13:11 NKJV

Between these two verses, Satan possesses Judas and he leaves Jesus and the remaining eleven disciples (John 13:27-30). The teachings about the True Vine are still part of the same scene except Judas is no longer in their company. What Jesus was saying to the eleven disciples in John 15:3 is that Judas was snipped off from the Vine! Followed by that statement Jesus went on to say no branch that is cut off from the Vine can bear fruit on its own. How true this was in the case of Judas! As many of us all know, Judas goes on to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver and commits suicide out of guilt.

The most noteworthy thing about Jesus’ teaching on the True Vine is the Father’s role as the Vinedresser. Like a gardener who prunes the branches of a vine, so it can bear more fruit, God prunes His people so we are transformed into the image of His Son. This transformation isn’t an instantaneous one but a process that takes time and development. Unfortunately, some branches never develop fruit or they cease to develop fruit and are ultimately snipped off from its source of life. Even if the unfruitful branch was given all the time in the world to bud, leaving that branch attached to the vine would only jeopardize the health of the other branches so the only option is to cut it off. These kind of branches are only good for firewood (Ezekiel 15:1-8).

Like an unfruitful branch that is cut off from its source, Judas was cut off from Jesus because of his unfruitfulness. Most people tend to view Judas as never being one of God’s children whose only reason for existence was to fulfill Bible prophesy. Let me remind you that at one point Judas chose to leave behind the life he once knew to follow Jesus just like the other eleven disciples. Judas was a disciple of Christ but his problem was he never gleaned from the teachings of Jesus nor learned to deny himself. Simply put, he was an unfruitful Christian! Like Judas, Christians can also be cut off from Christ by the Father for unfruitfulness. Those who are cut off are ultimately thrown into the fire which is hell (Matthew 25:30). What a terrifying reality! To avoid such an awful destination, we MUST bear fruit that resembles Jesus. There is no other alternative!

As I close out this blog post I want to leave you with one final thought. Do you consider yourself a Christian? If you answered “yes”, are you bearing fruit according to its kind?