“BY THEIR FRUIT…”

Lesson 1 for the 2nd of January, 2010

 The gifts of the Holy Spirit (healing, speaking in tongues,
evangelizing ...). Those gifts are given to the Church “to
prepare God's people for works of service, so that the
body of Christ may be built up” (Ephesians, 4: 12)

Is not

The fruits (external acts in one’s life)

THE
FRUIT OF
THE
SPIRIT
The result of the Holy Spirit works in us,
which makes us Christians.

Is

He makes us good trees that bear good

fruits.
The fruit of the Spirit is given to the son of
God, so his life can be changed.

Gifts and fruits can be

shown without the fruit of
the Holy Spirit
(Matthew, 7: 21-23)
As sinners we can bear bad
fruits occasionally.
“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. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man
remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me
you can do nothing” John, 15: 4-5

Jesus is the TRUE VINE.

We –the branches– cannot bear
fruit if we don’t remain in the vine.
INNER MOTIVATION TO BEAR FRUITS

RIGHT WRONG

• Glorifying God. • Glorifying ourselves.

The result of abiding in Him will be

that we bear fruit, not to glorify
ourselves but to glorify God.

“In the same way, let your

light shine before men, that
they may see your good deeds
and praise your Father in
heaven”. (Matthew 5:16)
 THE
PROCESS
OF
PRUNING

By the end of January, a first prune

is done. The branches are pruned
and are burned.
After that, the weeds are cut off
and some earth is piled up in a
cone around the vine to protect it
from the ice.
Another prune is done in spring,
when some shoots are cut off to
allow the rest of them having
more sap.
“Every branch that does bear
fruit he prunes so that it will
be even more fruitful” (John, 15: 2)

Only an expert farmer cans prune

without damaging the vine and the
branches.
God, who knows us profoundly, is
going to “prune” everything that can
be an obstacle to develop our
character in our lives.
This action can be painful, but it is
necessary to bear more and better
fruits.
God is patient with us
and He delays the
moment of rejecting us.
He waits us to join Him,
the True Vine.

“So he said to the man who

took care of the vineyard,
`For three years now I've
been coming to look for
fruit on this fig-tree and
haven't found any. Cut it
down! Why should it use up
the soil?' "`Sir,' the man
replied, `leave it alone for
one more year, and I'll dig
round it and fertilise it. If
it bears fruit next year,
fine! If not, then cut it
down.'"”. Luke 13:7-9
 SALVATION IS NOT ACHIEVED BY
BEARING FRUITS

Bearing fruit is an expression of

salvation; it is not a means to
attaining it.
We’re not saved by bearing fruit;
our fruit reveals the reality of the
salvation we already have in Jesus,
through faith in Him.
“We are to be found day by day abiding in the Vine,
and bringing forth fruit, with patience, at our home, in
our business; and in every relation in life manifesting
the Spirit of Christ. There are many who act as
though they thought an occasional connection with
Christ was all that was necessary, and that they can
be accounted living branches because at times they
make confession of Christ. But this is a fallacy. The
branch is to be grafted into the Vine, and to abide
there, uniting itself to the Vine fiber by fiber, drawing
its daily supply of sap and nourishment from the root
and fatness of the Vine, until it becomes one with the
parent stock. The sap that nourishes the Vine must
nourish the branch and this will be evident in the life
of him who is abiding in Christ; for the joy of Christ
will be fulfilled in him who walks not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit”.
E.G.W. (S.D.A. Bible Commentary, vol. 5, pg. 1144, on John 15: 8)