The Bible says a lot of things about a lot of things…like fruit, for example, but… I don’t plan to do an exhaustive study on fruit. Let me rather tell you a story. 

Many years ago, during the days of my tempestuous marriage, I was on a roller coaster ride between anger and resentment and misery and repentance for my bad attitude when life got rough at home. One morning, in my utter despair, I fell on my knees before the Lord and cried out to Him for deliverance. 

He showed me a picture. 

I was walking in a beautiful walled  garden, full of flowers and fruit but…there was a wild beast in the garden, trampling the flowers and knocking the fruit off the trees as he raged through the flowers beds and orchards. I cried out to the Lord “Who will save my garden from this beast?”

“Turn around,” the Lord said. The scene changed. I was in a tomb. I turned around…the beast was lying dead on the floor of the tomb. The old beast of myself, my sin nature with all its wicked responses, was dead. I did need to destroy the flowers and fruit in my “garden” any more. 

Then the scene changed again. I was back in the garden but, this time, the garden was flourishing…no beast to destroy its beauty. As I walked along the paths, smelling the flowers and enjoying the scenes, the Lord said to me, “You may enjoy the garden but you may not eat its fruit. The fruit belongs to me.”

I’ve often thought about that vision You and are to bear fruit…the fruit of union with Jesus…abiding in the vine. Jesus spoke of this union with His disciples before He left them…fruit that grew from His life in us…the life of the vine flowing into the branches. That life, the “sap” of the vine, is His life-giving word abiding in us. 

Paul spoke of the “fruit of the Spirit”…the character of Jesus being formed in us as we walk in and live by the Holy Spirit who lives in us. However, we must ask…”To whom does this fruit belong, and who gets to enjoy the fruit?” Is it our fruit? 

It cannot be our fruit because the best fruit we can produce is the fruit of the old sinful life at work in us. The fruit that the Holy Spirit forms in us belongs to Jesus and it is His to enjoy as He watches how we live, how we think and act as His children and the citizens of His kingdom. 

What is this fruit that grows on the branches of the vine?  His fruit grows from our three-way relationships…

First…our relationship with God…Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You see, everything we are, do, and become must have its source in God. We must have roots that grow deep into the soil of God’s love. (When I speak of God, I speak of the Godhead who is the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). 

“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”

‭‭Colossians‬ ‭2‬:‭6‬-‭7‬ ‭NIV‬‬

In fellowship with God, we flourish in the fragrant air of His presence…love…joy…and peace and…slowly…we become like the whose air we breathe. 

Second…we begin to carry the atmosphere of heaven as we relate to the people around us. Patience, kindness, goodness are the fruit of the love, joy, and peace that we breathe in the presence of God. The fruit is slowly growing on the branches. 

Third…the patience, kindness, and goodness we show to others seeps into our own souls…forming the fruit of our inner life…faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control…

…a beautiful nine-flavoured fruit that delights the heart of God. 

“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”

‭‭Galatians‬ ‭5‬:‭22‬-‭23‬ ‭NLT‬‬

If we try to enjoy this fruit, it will spoil in us but…through pride and self-effort but… to Jesus, our fruit is delicious and full of flavour because it is the evidence of the nature of the tree from which it grows…the Lord Himself. 

So, don’t eat your own fruit. It belongs to Jesus. Let Him delight in who and whose you are. Our fruit is for His honour and the Father’s glory. 

“This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”

‭‭John‬ ‭15‬:‭8‬ ‭NIV‬‬