For God's Glory

The Word is first...

John 15:8 (NIV)

⁸ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984

The chief aim of Jesus is to glorify the name of his Father. This was accomplished by selfless obedience through which Jesus reconciled mankind to God. While He walked the Earth it pleased him to call others to himself that they too may take up his objective to glorify God and hand it down generation by generation that it would be an enduring legacy.

Today, as we don the mantle of Christ's righteousness we too shoulder the responsibility to faithfully represent He by whose name we are called; Christians. It is our time, our opportunity to bring honor and glory to the name of God.

We do this by turning from the ways of the world and towards the ways of God. By our decisions and actions we bear witness to His name. By our words we praise His name and spread the Good News to others as is an appropriate answer to the charge which has been given us.

Today's study passage reveals to us, in the words of Jesus, how we best accomplish our objective and bring glory to the Father. According to Jesus it is the witness of the fruit we bear that demonstrates that we are true disciples of Jesus Christ and it is by our abundant fruit that we bring glory to The Father.

I have fruit trees on my property and over the course of the past few years I've come to learn a bit about them. When first I moved here, the trees had no fruit and consequently I could not tell exactly what type of trees they were. But over time, the maturing fruit revealed to me the truth of those trees. I discovered that I have an apple tree, a fig, plums, persimmons, wild cherry and pecan. By it's "fruit" I also discovered that I had a couple of "sweet gum" trees, two magnolias, a dogwood, pine trees and oaks. Though there are other trees their absence of fruit relegates them to the status of 'scenic background' and as such they receive little attention.

On the other hand, the trees bearing fruit require much more attention in the form of intentionalized care and maintenance. Failure to perform the maintenance guarantees there will be no fruit. They require constant watering or the fruit will be shriveled and unfit. They require pruning, the removal of dead growth and the purposeful "topping" which results in an even more abundant crop.

In some seasons, the fruit is sparse and I must research and rectify the cause. In other seasons, there is so much fruit that the limbs bow and break under the pressure. But year after year, one thing is certain; the tree is identified by the fruit it bears and there is rejoicing over the abundant tree.

This of course is metaphor and simile for us! We are those trees requiring care and maintenance in the forms of prayer and study. Our growth is dependent upon an abundant supply of water, not H2O but the living water of Jesus Christ. The dead growth of our past lives must be stripped away, the new growth must be stressed and new shoots must be 'topped' so that the crop of fruit in our lives may be multiplied. We too go through seasons of diminished production and seasons of abundant production. And it is clear to everyone around us what type of tree we are based on the type of fruit that we bear.

If we bear a bumper crop of fruits of the Spirit; loving our fellow man, finding joy in every circumstance, living in peace with one another, bearing patiently with everyone, expressing kindness in thought, word and deed, living virtuous lives, holding tightly to what we believe and fulfilling every commitment we make, treating others with dignity, respect and gentleness, and exercising self-control over our flesh in thought word and deed, then we are known to be Christians. Then we have shown ourselves to be true disciples of Christ. Then we bring glory and owner to the name of God.

In His Grip,
Carl