“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing” -John 15:5.
As followers of Jesus, there are wonderful, transformative traits that we can access in our new natures and make a growing part of our souls. We do this by abiding (i.e. resting) in Christ and appropriating the fruit of the Spirit.
Galatians reads, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control” (5:22-23.) Notice how neither charisma, power, popularity, IQ, accomplishment, money, titles, romantic prowess, nor any other commonly lauded traits are anywhere to be found among this fruit. This is, no doubt, because it’s not chiefly the venerated in our society—the movers and shakers, the personality forces, the ones we notice all the time—who stand out as fruit bearers. Rather, when you think about it, it’s usually the mild-mannered and humble Christians we know who routinely display the fruit of the Spirit.
I think of my friend, Jimmy, who lost his battle with cancer, and I realize that he’s my ideal conception of a man’s man (meaning, by my definition, he was a man after God’s own heart, a man who displayed, so often, the fruit of the Spirit). A man’s man, yet he wasn’t macho at all; not the biggest, baddest bear in the woods (or the gym); not tough by popular standards. And he would tell me this: “I’m not tough. I couldn’t fight my way out of a wet paper sack.” But I didn’t believe him. He was as tough as nails—you should’ve seen him battling cancer. And he was so much more. He was loving, joyful, peaceful, kind, faithful, good, and quite funny. He routinely demonstrated the traits of the fruit of the Spirit; and that must be because we get all our best traits from Jesus, and because Jimmy stayed close to Him. Jimmy was, and is, the King’s son, my brother in Christ, and I love him.
I see I’ve gotten all sentimental here. Let me try to bring this back: It seems to me that Jimmy must’ve spent extraordinary time abiding in the vine. How else to take hold and personify the fruit of the Spirit like he did? After all, that’s what happens when any of us abide in the vine—we look like Jesus.
Jimmy was a special guy, but he didn’t have anything we can’t all have. To abide in the vine is the default position of every Christian. Abiding is our natural state. It actually takes fleshly effort not to abide. I once told a friend, “I’m struggling to do this whole abiding thing.” “Well, that’s the problem right there,” he said. “It isn’t supposed to be a struggle. It’s actually work to pull away. It’s rest when you no longer resist.” Good friend.
I hope this encourages you to abide in the vine today.
Kevin Murray
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