Ps. 101
Ps 101:7, “No one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house; no one who utters lies shall continue before my eyes.” Ummm…transgender movement, anyone?
Ps. 103
But for those who love the Lord, “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us” (Ps 103:10-12). Praise God!!
Ps. 108
Ps 108:12-13, “Oh grant us help against the foe, for vain is the salvation of man! With God we shall do valiantly; it is He who will tread down our foes.” A reminder that we, as God’s people, need to seek Him in prayer continually because without Him, we are doomed.
John 15
I have never been quite certain what the fruit is that we are supposed to bear. Is it the fruit of the Spirit, which seems to me to be the character of Jesus? Or is it bringing others to Christ or even simply bearing testimony of Christ to others? Or is it something else? To find a possible answer, I think we need to look at the whole conversation.
This “I am the vine” statement is still part of the speech Jesus gave to His apostles to prepare them for His departure. And what had He told them? He told them to love one another. And He basically told them that God would continue His good work through them by the Holy Spirit, which would indwell them. All of this after washing their feet and making them clean. He brings all of that up again here in this passage.
So I think perhaps the fruit is all of the things I mentioned and maybe more. I think bearing fruit means living life as Christ lived it; living for God and God’s purposes rather than for our own selfish desires. Bottom line, if we are living in Christ – if He is our source of life and nourishment, as the vine is to the branches – then we will be doing the work of God. That will look different for everybody, as we are all different parts of God’s body, and so God has different purposes for each of us, but it means that we will love one another and that we bear witness to Him because we have been made clean by Him.