Abiding: A Life Producing Fruit

What actually identifies a disciple of Jesus?

I will be honest and say that right around 2020, (remember that year, yikes!), I really started asking this question of others and more importantly of myself. There were so many things at that time that were set up to be indicators of Jesus followers. Political stances. Cultural stances. Even medical stances.

It was a seemingly never ending swirl of words. In my frustration, I found myself referring back to something I learned a long time ago. 2002, I think. Maybe 2003.

I was sitting in a little storefront church in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, about twenty five minutes outside of Pittsburgh. Storefront is generous. It was half of a building that used to be a doctor’s office in a questionable part of town. The other half was an apartment that over the years housed everything from prostitutes to self proclaimed witches.

This particular Wednesday night Bible study was different only because someone other than my uncle, who was also my pastor, was preaching. It was a woman preacher with a certain eccentricity. Let’s call her Sister Jan. Imagine if John the Baptist were a woman and stopped at the East End Beauty Supply and Wig Shop for new earrings before preaching. In place of a camel belt was a multicolored muumuu like tunic.

With all her oddities, Sister Jan was one of my favorite preachers. First, because she was a woman and there were not many of those. Second, because in everyday life, and I say this with affection, she had no personality to speak of. She was not charismatic or enigmatic. If you passed her in the local grocery store, she would not stand out at all. But when she preached, it was magnetic. Not a gift she offered to God, but something He offered to her and seemed to snatch back the moment she stepped away from the microphone.

That night she had us turn to John 15.

“God showed me something,” she said, flipping through her well worn Bible at the small wooden podium. About thirty chairs faced it. To the left sat a Korg keyboard. To the right, a red five piece drum set. We are Pentecostal. There must be a beat.

She read, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. Every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”

She stopped.

“What do y’all think fruit is?”

We shouted answers. Souls. Lives. Prosperity. Whatever came to our charismatic minds.

“Hmmm,” she said, letting the silence stretch.

Then she told us to turn to Galatians 5:22-23. “Let’s see what the Word says,” she replied.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Against such things there is no law.”

Sister Jan then began to build the case that the fruit Jesus promises in John 15 is the fruit listed in Galatians 5. Everything in Galatians 5 explains the nature of Christ documented during His earthly ministry. That nature alive in me is the key identifier that I belong to Him.

As she continued, the takeaways were as simple as they were profound:

• • • • Fruit is evidence of what a tree contains inside.
      • Fruit does not require effort to produce. It is a byproduct of connection.
      • Fruit is not for the tree. It feeds others.
      • God is inviting me to abide in Him through praise, scripture, and prayer. Over time, His nature in me is the result.
        
        

As I reflected on that teaching, I made a decision. Right there, in the year of our Lord 2020, I would stop trying to figure out the political and cultural landscape and my place in it.

I decided to resist the urge to know the latest story or breaking news. It was hard. I was bad at it. Scrolling commentary is everywhere, and the algorithm is designed to deliver just the right story to make me feel morally superior.

But I had to stop. Because I realized knowing all the news items and forming deeply held opinions about them was not producing the fruit of Galatians 5 in me. That was unacceptable.

This hungry and thirsty culture desperately needs fruit from my life. Even if they don’t know it, they are crying out for the nature of my Savior to be lived out in front of them in real time.

• • • • Can I love the unlovable? Yes, I am looking right at you, Facebook followers.
      • Can I be patient with agitators?
      • Can I have joy regardless of circumstance?
      • Can I have peace in an anxious world?
        
        

This is how others will know that I belong to Him.

Over the next few months, I want to explore these identifiers (a.k.a fruit) and what they may look like in real world scenarios. I will use some of my own stories, and I am sure you have many of your own. We are all on this discipleship journey together.

One thing I remind myself often, and I will remind you too, is that none of this comes from our own effort. Even if I could produce these qualities in myself, I could not sustain them for any significant length of time.

But Sister Jan taught me that if John 15 is true, the more I abide in Jesus and make room for His words in me, the more I become what Galatians 5 describes. And as I become more fruitful, everyone around me is better for it.

A quick disclaimer: When people “talk Bible,” there is often a pull toward being authoritative. While I hope you glean something here, I am not trying to teach as much as I am trying to learn right alongside you. Let’s approach this as friends, studying what the nature of God looks like and how it shows up in our lives.

Let’s transform together, shall we?

Next month, we will start with love. Because, well, February and all.