BIBLE LESSON

“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit — fruit that will last — and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.”

— John 15:16

After following Jesus for three years on Earth, Jesus said His disciples knew enough about Him and His teachings for Him to call them friends. This is one reason the fruit they bore has lasted and borne even more fruit through others to this very day. When Jesus chooses us to be one of His disciples, He appoints us to go and do good to others that will make a lasting difference. As His disciples learn more about Jesus, His teachings, and His work in their lives, they eventually understand what it means for Jesus to be their Friend. As a friend of Jesus, we are attached to Jesus as a branch to a vine. His life, love, truth, and joy flows through us and gives us resources to bless and help others as Jesus intends. Jesus also said God the Father is like a Gardener. If we have attachments and habits that are making us less effective in doing God’s work, the Father will prune away what hinders us—sometimes this pruning can be briefly painful. If we turn away from Christ, His life-giving nourishment will not flow through us. We can wither spiritually and become useless in the truest sense to others; Jesus declared, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). The best way we can show others that we are Jesus’ disciples is by bearing fruit as His life and love flows into us and enables us to live in the loving ways of Jesus toward others.

— L.G. Parkhurst Jr.