Applied Faith
Immediately
we return to a familiar concept that we talked about in John 14. “Every branch that does not bear fruit is
pruned away.” (John15:2) “Those who abide in me and I in them bear
much fruit.” (John 15:5) “My Father is glorified by this: that you
bear much fruit and become my disciples.” (John 15:8) “If you keep my commandments, you will abide
in my love.” (John 15:10) “You are my
friends if you do what I command you.”
(John 15:14) “You did not choose
me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit and
your fruit should abide.” (John
15:16) Can you hear the emphasis that
Jesus is putting on “applied faith?”
Again, we
are never saved by what we do. We are
always only saved by what Jesus Christ did on the cross. But the reality is that those who are saved
and filled with the Holy Spirit will do.
We will bear fruit. We will have
spiritual change in our life that we can share with others.
What is
also interesting is that Jesus speaks quite frequently in this passage about
the negative side of this conversation as well.
Those who don’t bear fruit will be cut away. Look really closely at verse 2. It is those who bear fruit that are pruned so
that they can bear more fruit. Those who
bear no fruit are cut away completely!
Or look at verse 6. If we bear no
fruit we are tossed away so as to wither.
That’s a really sad thought today!
Is anything in this life worth the withering of my faith?
So what
does it mean to bear fruit? Jesus tells
us this answer in the final verses of the opening section of John 15. We bear fruit by loving one another. We love one another by laying down our
life. In other words, when we recognize
and fight off the self-monger we are demonstrating love.
What does
it mean to lay down my life? Is it a
one-time commitment when I physically die for someone else? I certainly think that it can be – after all,
is that not how Jesus demonstrated it the most effectively in His life? However, I think it can be more than just
that one time big act. When we set aside
our personal agenda – lay down our life – we then pick up the agenda of
God. When we pick up the agenda of God
and focus less on our desires, we are ready to show God’s love to one
another. In these verses Jesus is
absolutely speaking about the inner struggle with the self-monger within us.
I love the
connection between what Jesus says in these verses and what Paul says at the
end of Galatians 2. In Galatians 2:20
Paul tells us that “I have been crucified with Christ. Therefore it is no longer I who live but
Christ who lives in me.” That is what it
means to lay down one’s life. When I
look at my life and say, “I’m putting aside what I want so that I can live the
life God desires,” it is at that moment that I lay down my life for the sake of
God and for the sake of the people around me.
The World’s Hatred
This
naturally ties into the second section of text in John 15. Jesus tells us that the world may just hate
us. The world may hate us because it
hated Jesus Christ. Jesus did not live
according to the agenda of the world and the world hated Him for it. If we lay down our self-centered lifestyle
and embrace the lifestyle of God that Jesus lived, of course the world will
hate us as well.
Think
about something in this world that you really enjoy but it has absolutely
nothing to do with God. How would you
feel if I come up to you and say to you, “Should you really devote so much time
and energy into something that has absolutely nothing to do with God?” While you might think that there might be
truth in it … are you also not going to have an innate resentment to the idea
of giving up that thing (or activity) that you love so dearly?
This is
why the world hated Jesus. Jesus told
the Jewish leaders that they can’t continue to live in their isolationist
legalism. Jesus told the crowds that
they couldn’t continue to come and “watch the spectacle” and “receive bread for
free” without actually making some kind of meaningful response. Jesus tells the money-makers in the temple
that they will no longer be allowed to use God for their personal gain. Jesus tells the rich young ruler to sell
everything that He has. They all hated
Him for it.
Jesus
tells the alcoholic to stop drinking. He
tells the liar to quit lying. He tells
the egoist to forget about themselves.
He tells the rich to give all that they have and follow Him. He tells the sexually immoral either to stop
being sexually immoral or to make arrangements for it to no longer be
immoral. He tells the violent to focus
on love and let God repay. He tells the
proud to be humble. He tells the leaders
to serve.
It’s
pretty easy to see why the world hates Jesus.
Giving up these things – and many things that I didn’t mention – is
difficult. We don’t want to give them
up. We want to hold onto them. We want to tell Jesus that He’s wrong. It’s easy to hate Him because of the
truth. I’m just as guilty as the next
person. It’s really easy to see why the
world continues to hate Jesus. It is
difficult to abandon the desires of our hearts.
So then it
should also make sense that the world will hate us, too. When we start living like Jesus, the world
will hate us because we will have become traitors against the world. When we start living a life of abandonment of the
desires of our flesh the world will see us as strange, different, and
stupid. The world will hate us because
of what we represent. To become Jesus’
disciple, we must embrace the possibility of being hated by the world. We must embrace the fact that they will
persecute us. We must embrace the
possibility that they will do to us all that they did to Jesus and more.
Thank God
that He does not leave us alone! Praise
God that He sends to Holy Spirit to us.
Who among us could stand against the hatred of the world if we did not
have the Holy Spirit within? Certainly not
me, that’s for sure!
So we have
a choice. To paraphrase a beloved scene
from the Matrix:
In one
hand you have the “blue pill” of the world.
Take it and you ignore the truth.
Take it, and you go back to the world.
Take it, and you can go back to living according to the passions of your
life. Take it, and the world will stop
hating you. Take it, and you embrace the
world and reject God. You will have the
support of the whole world – but you will be apart from God.
In the other
hand you have the “red pill” of Christianity.
Take it – make it a part of you – and you will see truth. You will see the world as you have never seen
it before. But the world will chase you
and persecute you on account of the truth.
The world will hate you, but you will have the presence of God within
you.
What is
your answer? Do you have it within you
to desire to forsake the ways of your flesh, have the world hate you, but know
God?
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