John 15:5 “I am the vine; you are branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” — Jesus
Fruit is something that naturally grows on a vine. The vine doesn’t force the fruit and the fruit doesn’t force it’s growth. These are normal outcomes.
When we try to produce fruit without being connected to the Vine (Jesus) we come away with fake stinky fruit. When our fruit is “bad” this is an indication of a connection issue. Many try to correct their fruit— their behavior— apart from Jesus. We see our bad behavior and vow to change it because we really don’t like it. However, Jesus said that apart from Him we could do nothing. This is why self control will carry us for a season but we find we revert back to the same bad fruit. When we ask and allow Jesus to change our heart then the good fruit just flows naturally.
We can’t just pick our bad fruit, throw it away and replace it with good fruit. Good fruit has to grow. If good fruit (the fruit of the Spirit Galatians 5) is not what we are producing we need to check our connection. A bad fruit indicates a bad root. The root is the part we can’t see while the fruit is what we can see. The fruit we can see indicates the health of what we and others can’t see. This is why trying to have good fruit without doing anything with our root system is a futile effort.
Many times we may be unaware of exactly what the root is that is causing our bad fruit. That’s normal because we can’t see our roots. However, we do have a Helper, He is Holy Spirit. We can ask Him to help us find the root causing our bad fruit. When He reveals to us the root, our response is to forgive anyone that we need to and repent for our wrong response to situations in our lives, then ask God to fill that place with His love, mercy and grace.
Most people really want good fruit but there is a process many times to getting there. But God has made a way, through Jesus, for us to produce good fruit and that is the good news of the gospel— Jesus made a way for us to be free! (Luke 4:16-20)
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