Bearing Fruit For a Long Time

A Chinese proverb asks "What's the best time to plant a tree?" The answer is "Twenty years ago!" Trees are symbols of stability and strength (Psa. 92:12), long life and contributing to one's surroundings (Psalm 1). Jesus uses a grapevine in John 15 to
describe himself -- the Vine -- and his disciples as the branches, and vines can produce grapes for 100 years! Since a lot of people I know have been Christians for forty years or more, the question is, should we still bear fruit? What kind of fruit?

Hebrews 12 confirms the continuing life of growth lived by people who follow Jesus: "run with endurance the race God has set before us" (Heb. 12:2) and "take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees" (Heb. 12:12). Peter the apostle (2 Peter 3), talking about enduring to the return of Christ, writes "you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." So we're not meant to achieve a certain momentum, then coast the rest of our lives. Instead, we have a continuing life of being Jesus' disciples, constantly learning to follow him in new ways and in deeper ways than ever.

The process of "growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" -- another way of describing discipleship -- never stops. The longer we are in Christ, the more of our own sins we see and the more we know we need to be formed into his image. We may have overcome the more obvious sins of our past, but we come face to face with the more hidden, sly and sneaky sins of personal twistedness that still rebel against the goodness of God. Now, lest we forget, God still loves and accepts us, and we are still his holy children, and our place with him does not depend on our obedience, as I wrote here. We are still connected to Jesus the Vine through the Spirit. But let's make no mistake, God hates those subtle and devious sins that are still part of our thinking. Part of being disciples of Jesus who bear spiritual fruit involves facing and surrendering those sins too. That facing and surrendering will most likely take new skills and practices. 

Will the fruit we bear as more mature Christians be different from the initial fruit of enthusiasm and energy? Probably so, at least some of it. But it will be produced by a growing connection with the Vine, and from our own growing responsiveness to the Spirit, who draws us to measure our lives against Jesus' teachings (Mat. 28:20) and to surrender to him the parts of us that don't measure up to him. 

We're still breathing, so there's more fruit of the Spirit to bear. Let's get with it!