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Bearing Fruit - Luke 13:6-9
Bearing Fruit - Luke 13:6-9
After the demand and threat of repent or perish, Jesus told the parable of the unfruitful fig tree (Luke 13:6-9).
It is really comfortable to make this refer to the nation of Israel. It is always more comfortable to apply things to ‘them’ and not ‘me’ (whoever ‘them’ is at the moment!). Jesus would use such illustration again in the cursing of the fruitless fig tree in Matt. 21:19, 20 and Mark 11:12-14.
But Israel, true Israel, was NOT cast off (study again Rom. 10-11). Unbelievers (and hence unrepenters) within Israel were rejected and condemned, but those like Peter, Andrew, John, Paul, etc. DID receive the great promises of the Old Covenant.
So, in a distributive way, the parable brings us back to individual responsibility! Unless YOU repent. But, as John the Baptist demanded, there needs to be ‘fruits of repentance’. Read again John’s demand in Luke 3:8-9 coupled with Luke 7:28-30.
So it is with Jesus, He demands the bearing of fruit. In the Sermon on the Mount He taught: "Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matthew 7:19). Jesus followed this by saying: 21 "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' 23 "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.' (Matthew 7:21-23)
Then, at the end of His life, he taught: "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me” (John 15:1-4).
This fruit is primarily the fruit of CHARACTER: purity, holiness. Paul listed such as the ‘fruit of the Spirit’ in Gal. 5:22-23: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Examine yourself, what kind of tree are you – fruit bearing or fruitless?
Hugh DeLong
