We go to school for a purpose, which is to study. We signed up for a job for a purpose, which is to work. Almost everything we do as rational human beings is based on a purpose. In the same way, God has a purpose for you in Christ that is why you were called. You were called to become a Christian or a disciple of Jesus Christ for a purpose, which is fruit-bearing. Jesus Himself revealed this purpose of our calling in John 15:16.
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you (John 15:16).
Bearing fruit is so important to God and it is so required of us to do to such an extent that failure to do it results in apostasy and obedience to it results in a lot of blessings or benefits among which is answers to prayer, which is even stated in John 15:16 – that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
Bearing fruit means doing good works by obeying God’s word. The term bearing fruit or to bear fruit has been properly explained in previous lessons. However, there is something else that we would like to point to your attention in discussing John 15:16; that is, Jesus did not only say Christians should bear fruit, He also added, “… your fruit should remain.” What does it mean to say your fruits should remain?
The meaning of your fruit should remain.
If your child does well in exams, and you are pleased, and you would like him to continue doing well, you often congratulate him and add, “Keep up the good work.” By saying keep up the good work you mean that he should continue doing well in exams. If the child performs better or maintains his previous performance in the next exams, he has kept up the good work, but if he drops significantly, he has not kept up the good work.
Your fruit should remain is just like keep up the good work, the only difference is that your fruit should remain is a command and keep up the good work is for congratulation.
Your fruit should remain means keep up the fruit you are bearing, or continue with the fruit you are bearing and never stop, or keep on bearing the fruit you have started bearing.
Your fruit should remain expresses habit. A habit is something we do so often and regularly that it is very hard to stop. The command ‘bear fruit + your fruit should remain’ is telling Christians that we should make a habit of bearing fruit. We should make it our habit to do good works such as truthfulness, kindness, goodness, love, honesty, etc. in our Christian life. Therefore, fruit-bearing is something we do for life; that once we start bearing fruit, we should continue with it throughout our lifetime.
Examples of your fruit should remain
The Bible teaches in Galatians 6:9 that we should keep on doing good; and doing good comprises a lot of things. Kurtis is a Christian. He has read Galatians 6:9 and was determined to keep it. One day, he was walking in the street and he realized that the person who was right in front of him unknowingly dropped his wallet. Kurtis picked it up and gave it to him. Kurtis has born the fruit of goodness.
For Kurtis’ fruit to remain, he has to keep repeating this good deed he did. Any time someone misplaces his money, wallet, etc. and he happens to find it, he has to give it back to the owner to fulfil the Scripture ‘your fruit should remain‘.
However, if Kurtis is on and off in keeping Galatians 6:9, then though he bears fruit, his fruit does not remain. And if his fruit does not remain, he has failed the command ‘… ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain …’, which is the purpose of his calling.
For those Christians whose fruit do not remain, their situation is like this: today they speak the truth, tomorrow they tell lies; today they are kind, tomorrow they are rude; etc.; they do not keep producing good fruits for long.
What if a Christian’s fruit does not remain
The whole business of bearing fruit and retaining it is the result of obedience to God’s word. Therefore, if a Christian’s fruit does not remain, it simply means that he is not living by God’s word continuously but intermittently, or he keeps God’s word occasionally, or he obeys God’s word at his convenience.
Such a Christian has, first of all, failed the purpose of his calling. According to Jesus, the purpose of our calling is ‘bear fruit + your fruit should remain’. Therefore if the fruit you are bearing does not remain, you have only done a fraction of the command, not the whole; hence you have failed.
Even unbelievers occasionally do good works. They are not always doing wrong; sometimes, they give, show hospitality, speak the truth, etc. – normally, at their own convenience. So a Christian only makes a difference and exceeds the unbeliever if he makes a habit of bearing fruit by continuing to do the good deeds he does without giving up nor stopping. In a situation in which a Christian does good works occasionally and at his own convenience, his life would not be any different from that of the unbeliever.
Though the unbeliever has done a few good works, eventually, God will not give him an eternal reward and eternal life. In the same way, God will deny a professing Christian eternal life and reward if he bore fruit occasionally just like the unbeliever.
The opposite of not bearing fruit is practicing ungodliness: if you are not bearing the fruit of loving, then you are rather bearing hatred and fear. If you are not bearing honesty, then you are bearing dishonesty. Etc. And how do you expect a righteous God to reward a person, a Christian or an unbeliever, who is practicing ungodliness? God has no reward but punishment for any ungodly person, whether he calls himself a Christian or not.
A Christian does not have two or more options to choose from: he has only one option; that is, his life ought to be a fruit-bearing life. We should always bear in mind that –
11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Titus 2:11–12
Conclusion
John 15:16 matters a lot in our Christian life. It tells the very purpose for which Jesus Christ has called some people to Himself to become Christians. We should always see to it that the life we are leading is fulfilling this purpose that is captured in John 15:16, for as we fulfill our purpose, we prove to be children of God indeed.