Bible Study with the Cincotti's – Five Fruits – 04/14/2024

Today’s Bible Study, Authored by Arthur
Cincotti. 04/14/2024

Five Fruits

“By this My Father is
glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.” Jn. 15:8

“My Father is honored by
this, that you bear much fruit and  show
that you are my disciples.”  NET

As much as I love this
Scripture, it’s a little vague. What does Jesus mean by, “bear fruit”?
Earlier in this portion of Scripture He speaks of abiding, and pruning, and
branches. These agricultural metaphors can be a little confusing, especially to
those of us who get our fruit at the supermarket.

I see five possible answers
to this question. There may be more, and I don’t intend to endorse one over the
other but believe it to be wisdom to consider and embrace all five.

Rev. 22:2 speaks of “twelve
fruits” but I could only come up with five. It’s always a good idea to leave
room for growth in God and mystery as well.

1) One probability, popular
with evangelicals, is souls. Fruit equals souls. We gather this from Gen. 1:28,
“and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply.”’ Obviously the literal
meaning of this verse is to procreate, but a deeper meaning that we also glean
from Genesis is to reproduce after your own kind. Gen 1:11. This would compel
believers to reproduce other believers. In Rm. 10:1 we glimpse Paul’s zeal for
evangelism, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is
that they may be saved.” Fruit, therefore translates into sharing the
gospel and seeing people get saved.

2) Another is the fruit of
good works. Jesus said, in the Sermon on the Mount. “Let your light so shine
before men, that they may see you good works and glorify your Father in
heaven.” The statement, “glorify your Father” is similar to the
usage in our opening verse. Good works are an important component of a
believers new life in Christ. Eph. 2:10 says that we are actually, “created
in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should
walk in them.” Good works would certainly include sharing the gospel, but
also have a much broader scope. In the broadest scope, Jesus said, “This is
the work God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” Jn. 6:29

3) Not to be neglected is the
fruit of the Spirit as told of in

Gal. 5:22,23 “But the
fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” Two
aspects of this fruit are noteworthy to mention, First is that it must, like
natural fruit, be cultivated and matured. Second is that it is difficult to
identify. Most people would say that you’ll know it when you see it in someone.
Speaking in the negative, about “false prophets” Jesus said, “By
their fruit you will recognize them.” Mt. 7:16

Skip Trombly taught in a
“Christian Life” seminar, many years ago that the life of an apple tree is
similar in span, to the life of a person. He also drew many more comparisons to
the life of a believer. A tree must be staked, for instance, to bear much fruit,
just as we must be staked to God’s word. Fruit trees, he said, left alone,
prefer to produce leaves, branches and bark. Pruning is therefore necessary, as
we have already seen in Jn. 15.

4) Some might suggest that
walking in the miraculous is an expression of fruit-bearing. This could be more
clearly stated as walking in the authority that God gave us in the original
design, and which was restored to us by Christ at the cross. Part of the “be
fruitful and multiply” mandate of Gen. 1 was to “subdue it (the earth);
have dominion over the fish of the sea…”

We could fold in Rev. 22:2
again, which says, “In the middle of its street, and on either side of the
river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its
fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the
nations.” Healing is a gift of the Spirit, and the gifts of the Spirit
bereft of the fruit of the Spirit usually gives way to abuses.

The miraculous could be
considered, also, a subcategory of works since the “works” that Jesus did and
later the apostles, were miraculous. When we walk in the miraculous we are
bearing Christ’s likeness as we are intended to.

5) The fruit of
righteousness. Ps. 72:3 “May the mountains bring prosperity to the people,
the hills the fruit of righteousness.” Righteousness is living in alignment
with the will and design of God. It may well be thought of as a combination of
all of the above. In Mt. 3:8, John the Baptist says, “Therefore bear fruit
worthy of repentance.” That is moving from unrighteousness to
righteousness. He goes on to say, in verse 10, “The ax is already at the
root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut
down and thrown into the fire.” Notice, not just fruit is called for but “good
fruit.” The Beatitude of Mt. 5:10 says, “Blessed are those who are
persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Every believer is called to
share the gospel, do good works, cultivate the fruit of the Spirit, know their
Spiritual gifts and aim to walk in righteousness. Our righteousness is in
Christ, but that doesn’t exempt us from demonstrating and growing in righteousness
with the help of the Holy Spirit. Eph. 4:1 says, “I, therefore, the prisoner
of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were
called.” Demonstrating this Christ likeness, is the fruit of our union
with Him.

In Greek, the word for fruit
is “karpos” St. G 2590, from the base word, G 726 “harpazo”: fruit (as plucked)
which also means “caught up” as in rapture. Mt. 11:12, “the violent take it
by force.”