Producing Fruit of the Spirit

John 15:4 (NIV)

Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

Every spring, I plant flowers, fruits, and vegetables. When I cut off a branch from a tomato plant, those branches don’t produce tomatoes or anything, they just wither away and die.

Jesus says that when we are spiritually connected to Him, it is like being attached to a vine. And if we are connected to the vine, we will produce spiritual fruits. What kind of fruit do you produce when you are connected to the body of Christ?

Galatians 5:22 (NIV) The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

These fruits of the Spirit are evidence that you are spiritually connected. If you are not seeing yourself grow in all these things, guess what? It means you’re not spiritually connected and you’re out there on your own. You are living independent from Christ and doing your own thing. You are not surrendered to Him.

I don’t know about you, but I would like to be more loving, more joyful, more at peace with my circumstances. I like to be more patient, more kind to people, even those that I don’t like. I like to be a good person. I want to be more faithful, gentler with people who are not very nice to me. And I would like to have more self-control.

～Rev. Jireh Lin林以勒牧師～