John 15:9-12

9 Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. 12 This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.

 

Some people have argued that the fruit Jesus wants his disciples to bear is the fruit of answered prayer. I do not believe so. Answered prayer, rather, seems to be for the purpose of helping disciples to bear fruit. But what is that fruit? I believe that Jesus begins to answer that question here.

 

Jesus begins by saying that He loved the disciples as the Father loved Him. How did the Father love Jesus? Jesus does not say explicitly. But He almost certainly teaches that the Father loved him by commanding Him what to say and do. This is clear because the way the disciples are supposed to remain in Jesus’ love is by keeping His commandments, and Jesus says that He remained in His Father’s love by keeping the Father’s commandments – so the Father must have loved Him by commanding Him. Jesus has testified to this earlier: “For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me commandment, what to say, and what to speak. And I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me” (John 12:49-50).

 

So after telling the disciples to remain in His love by keeping His commandments, Jesus says that He has told the disciples these things so that they might have His joy and so that their joy will be complete. Obeying Jesus’ commands brings joy. How so? When we live the way God tells us to live, we demonstrate our relationship with God. The better we live, the better we are listening to Him and the more we are depending on Him for direction and guidance. It brings great joy to know that we are fellowshipping with Jesus!

 

Jesus obviously has commanded many things. But in this passage, He gives one specific command: Love one another. The disciples were to love one another just as Christ had loved them. In the immediate context, this means that the disciples are to teach and remind each other of Jesus’ words just as Jesus taught them the words of God. God’s words – Jesus’ words – are the basis for our relationship with Him. It is great love for one disciple to remind another of Jesus’ words, because it spurs fellow-disciples toward a deeper relationship with Jesus and, through Him, with God. Of course, we know that to love one another as Christ loved them means, in the greater context, that disciples are to lay down their lives for each other. But this is the command Christ gives to His disciples: to love one another.

 

So what is the fruit of a relationship with Christ, of answered prayers: at least one such fruit is love. Love is the fruit the disciples are to produce as a result of their relationship with Christ, and that love will continue to spur people toward a relationship with Him. A fuller list of the fruit can be found in Gal. 5:22-24. This fruit springs from our relationship with God – from listening always to His words and responding with prayer, which He answers. This is the fruit that glorifies God and shows that we are Christ’s disciples (John 13:35).

 

Father, first of all, help me to obey whatever commands Christ gives. Help me to receive even Christ’s commands as His love toward me, guiding me into a closer relationship with Him and shaping my heart to conform to His. Help me to remain in Christ’s love, keeping His commandments. I depend on them, on Him, on You. And as I live this way, complete my joy by reminding me that this kind of living comes from a relationship with You! What a blessing! Help me especially to bear the fruit of love toward other disciples. Help me to encourage others with Your words and to lay down my life to meet their deepest needs. Joyfully. I ask all these things in Jesus’ name. Please give me what I ask so that others may know that I am your disciple and so that You will be glorified through my life. Amen.