How can a fruit last? The answer that will come first to our minds is: a fruit will last if you refrigerate it. Is this what Jesus meant when he said to his disciples as recorded in John 15:16 “… I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last…”? Should our faith be kept in a refrigerator or store it somewhere cool to keep it fresh? This is not what Jesus meant.
When Jesus said that we must go and bear fruit, a fruit that will last, he was using the agricultural context of Israel. And this agricultural procedure is even the same up to now. Jesus found symbolical meanings to the agricultural procedure of planting a seed, taking care of the seed until it grows into a fruit-bearing tree, wait for the fruit to ripen, get the seeds again from the fruit, and then repeat the process.
What then is this process in our Christian life?
How can a fruit last? The answer that will come first to our minds is: a fruit will last if you refrigerate it. Is this what Jesus meant when he said to his disciples as recorded in John 15:16 “… I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last…”? Should our faith be kept in a refrigerator or store it somewhere cool to keep it fresh? This is not what Jesus meant.
When Jesus said that we must go and bear fruit, a fruit that will last, he was using the agricultural context of Israel. And this agricultural procedure is even the same up to now. Jesus found symbolical meanings to the agricultural procedure of planting a seed, taking care of the seed until it grows into a fruit-bearing tree, wait for the fruit to ripen, get the seeds again from the fruit, and then repeat the process.
What then is this process in our Christian life?
First, we have to plant the seeds of faith in the lives of other people. This presupposes that our Christian life is ripe so that seeds can come out of our lives.We can spread the Gospel in many ways. This is what evangelization is all about.
Second, we have to take care of these newly planted seeds of faith so that it will grow to be fruit-bearing. This is labor intensive. A lot of nurturing and protection are needed. This is where discipleship comes in.
Third, when the fruit ripens, we help each other in spreading and planting the next generation of the seeds of faith. In this way, one seed has multiplied into a lot of fruit-bearing lives.
This is the way to bear a fruit that will last as Jesus commanded us to do so.
Rev. Francis Neil G. Jalando-on
#SeedsOfFaith
#BinhiSangPagtuo
January 14, 2019
First, we have to plant the seeds of faith in the lives of other people. This presupposes that our Christian life is ripe so that seeds can come out of our lives.We can spread the Gospel in many ways. This is what evangelization is all about.
Second, we have to take care of these newly planted seeds of faith so that it will grow to be fruit-bearing. This is labor intensive. A lot of nurturing and protection are needed. This is where discipleship comes in.
Third, when the fruit ripens, we help each other in spreading and planting the next generation of the seeds of faith. In this way, one seed has multiplied into a lot of fruit-bearing lives.
This is the way to bear a fruit that will last as Jesus commanded us to do so.
Rev. Francis Neil G. Jalando-on
#SeedsOfFaith
#BinhiSangPagtuo
January 14, 2019