“Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you…that ye should go and bring forth FRUIT.” John 15:16
By Fredi Trammell
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“Patience must be exercised with the progress of fruit bearing just as the husbandman waits for the fruit from his trees in the orchard.”
We planted some peach trees and apple trees in our back yard. I anxiously watched the small plants slowly grow. From season to season, I would check for fruit on them. The wait seemed much too long to me. In fact, I began to wonder if the trees were ever going to resemble apple trees or peach trees much less produce apples and peaches. Through several sea¬sons I watched with anticipation and wonder. Finally, they began to fill with branches and leaves and buds, and eventu¬ally there were blooms in the spring. What a happy day when I found peaches and apples on the branches. I learned fruit trees have a rather long process of development before they become productive and yield their fruit. A beautiful parallel exists with bearing fruit of the Spirit and the fruit-bearing tree. I have read about fruit farmers and some of their disap¬pointments. In the care of each tree they must take special precautions against insects that would severely damage the tree and prevent its bearing fruit. In the Northeast some trees tend to grow too fast. The trees seem to concentrate on be¬coming more woody, instead of its main purpose of bearing abundant fruit. When this happens, the husbandman of the orchard takes his axe and wounds the tree. He cuts a deep gash into the trunk of the tree. This, they say, causes the tree to use its energies more for accumulating quality of fruit instead of quantity in size or stature.
Jesus said: “I am the True Vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser. Any branch in Me that does not bear fruit — that stops bearing — He cuts away (trims off, takes away). And He cleanses and repeatedly prunes every branch that continues to bear fruit, to make it bear more and richer and more excel¬lent fruit….Dwell in Me and I will dwell in you. — Live in Me and I will live in you. Just as no branch can bear fruit of itself without abiding in (vitally united to) the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in Me. I am the Vine, and you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me — cut off from vital union with Me — you can do nothing. If a person does not dwell in Me, he is thrown out as a [broken-off] branch and withers. Such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire and they are burned” (John 15:1,2,4-6, Amp.).
Many volumes could be written on the Fruit of the Spirit alone; however, let us examine briefly each fruit listed in the Scripture. As the believer produces the fruit it does the work that will flow from the believer and do the work of the Holy Spirit upon all who come in contact with it.
The fruit of the Spirit are enumerated in the Scriptures.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22-25).
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