Bear fruit: love

"This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples" John 15:8


As Christians, we're called to live like Christ, to love others, to bear fruit... but we don't... at least not always. A girl in one of my classes today very boldy proclaimed she is not a Christian (I'm not sure why she's paying so much money to come to a Christian school), and criticized the students for not trying to convert her. She said many students know she's not a Christian, but hardly anyone has shared the Gospel with her! To her, Christians are apathetic "do-gooders" who focus too much on personally growing closer to Christ and not enough about reaching out to others. This was a bit offensive at first, and class' first response (along with mine) was to defend ourselves, giving examples of how we do participate in social justice and local outreach. However, I had to stop and ask myself if I really do care about seeing other meet Jesus. If so, why am I afraid to "rock the boat" and share my faith???


Yes, I'm afraid of sounding foolish, looking silly, losing friends... but I'm mostly afraid of leaving a bad taste of Christianity in someone's mouth or falsely representing the Gospel. Um, excuse me, Kristina, but can't God work past that? Do you really think he can only use perfectly articulate and spiritually mature people? Think again!


So, we're clearly called to "bear fruit," but what does that exactly look like? It doesn't necessarily mean "convert X number of people" (think of Jesus' words in John 4:37, "one sows and another reaps"), but perhaps it simply means that we should love others. Okay, well, I'm pretty sure he means this considering he says, "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you" in verse 12 of chapter 15 =). I'm not exactly sure how this love translates into visible fruit, but then again, we don't always get to see the fruits of our labor....


I'm encouraged, though, that love is part of the Fruit of the SPIRIT! So.... it can't be up to us to force love out of us! Let's just cling to Christ, claim the power of His Spirit, and humbly move forward in Him. God puts us in situations (i.e. going to school with people who don't know Him!) where we need only to open our eyes and see people as God sees them. With the Holy Spirit living in us, we can't help but bear fruit: love.