Rooted to Be Fruited

We moderns think fruit comes out of a can or from a grocery store, so the illustration Jesus used of a vine in John 15 to describe bearing spiritual fruit is less clear than when people had more knowledge of agriculture. We might think it's about us (the branches) making fruit
happen so we have something to show God. But fruit isn't produced that way on the vine or a tree. Fruit--let's start with the physical -- starts unseen, underground (unless your tree is just a cardboard Hollywood fake!).

A large, healthy tree has a root system that is usually as large or larger than the visible part we think of as "the tree."  Why?  Nourishment, for one thing. Without those roots, no fruit would ever appear on the branches.

That's another thing: the branches don't create the fruit, they just hold it. The branches and twigs are pipelines for what the roots are sending, and what the leaves create using the sunlight. Fruit appears on the branches, but it's produced by the rest of the tree. Or as Jesus described it, the vine, and he himself is the Vine, we are just the branches. The fruit is his, and we are privileged to hold out that fruit to people who are hungry for true meaning, real relationships and life as it was mean to be. That fruit is spiritual, coming from within us, but not from us -- it's a result of Jesus changing us into his image, the image of true humanity the way it was meant to be.

In his epistles, Paul describes the concept of being deeply connected to our Source in order to grow. In Col. 2:7, he writes of being "rooted in Christ," and of being "rooted in love" in Eph. 3:17. For us to have spiritual fruit, a spiritual source is required, and that is Christ himself.

Most of us could stand to have more spiritual fruit in our lives. The only way to have "much fruit" as Jesus described, is to get more and more "rooted" in him. That's a long discussion but it means being immersed in the life of the Triune God, to the point that our thoughts and reactions are theirs, not our old self. To paraphrase the beer commercial, "Stay rooted, my friends."