Fruit That Will Last
Lately, I have been reflecting on the kind of fruit that I want to see in my life and ministry. There are times when it looks like you are succeeding on the surface in church life or personally, but real success depends on how you define it. There is a deeper question we have to wrestle with beyond surface-level results… “What does real success look like?”
John 15 is an anchor text in my life. I find myself returning there over and over again. When I was reading it again recently the part that caught my attention was in verse 16. “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last…” Fruit that will last. That’s an important distinction. By qualifying the kind of fruit he is talking about Jesus is insinuating that there is also fruit that will not last.
The more I reflect on this passage the more I am convicted about how often in my life I have pursued short-term fruit at the expense of fruit that will last. I want to see results now. I want to feel good about what I am doing instantly. And that kind of impulse often short circuits the real fruit that we should desire.
I think this is a major temptation in the American church. So often it seems we sacrifice lasting fruit in order to see short-term results that will make us feel better about ourselves. For example, think about our tendency to focus on drawing crowds. American church culture has been obsessed with crowd numbers for as long as I’ve been around. Our methods so often are tailored to trying and have the “biggest impact” now. But by biggest impact what we usually mean is how most people can show up at worship or an event, etc. We say, “Look at the fruit! We had X number of people in worship this weekend!” Or, “We had the most people we’ve ever had at this program!”
There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to reach more people, but sometimes it feels like we are after the wrong thing. Jesus didn’t leave his disciples with a commission to “Go and draw crowds in all nations.” His imperative is to make disciples. And our obsession with immediate attendance numbers may make us feel better about what we are doing, but it’s not automatically indicative of lasting fruit. In some cases, we may even be sabotaging our attempts at the Great Commission by the very methods we deploy which undermine real discipleship.
I do this in my own life too. Desperate for the quick fix of immediate results, I so easily get distracted from the disciplines that will lead to lasting fruit in order to make myself feel better in the short term.
Fruit that will last. That’s the stuff we are really after, and looking back at John 15 remember how that comes. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)
In our recent conversation with Dr. Steve Seamands on the Spirit & Truth Podcast I was reminded of this truth again. There is no lasting fruit apart from abiding in Christ. And if I do not abide in him, any fruit that seems to appear is fake fruit that will not last. Why? Because learning to live life in relationship to God is in fact God’s purpose for us to begin with. He is not fundamentally interested in what we can produce for him. He’s the gardener. He doesn’t need our help manufacturing anything. He’s handling the vineyard just fine. What he is really after is the same thing he was after in the Garden in the very beginning…an intimate relationship with his creation. The kind of abiding relationship where he can walk and talk with us, and us with him. After all, we exist only by an overflow of his love.
In 2023 I am reorienting some of the boundaries and practices of my life and really it comes down to this one question. How can I live in such a way that I live for fruit that will last? And if that only comes from abiding in Christ, how can I orient my life entirely around that pursuit?
What about you? Are you chasing short-term fruit or something more eternal than that? How will you abide in Christ this week? No matter what pressures you may feel, there is literally no more important question in your life.