Overall Questions: What fruits does God expect of us? Why?

Memory Text: Matthew 7:20 New King James Version “"Therefore by their fruits you will know them.”

Sunday – Every Tree Is Known by Its Own Fruit
2 Timothy 3:5 Contemporary English Version “Even though they will make a show of being religious, their religion won’t be real. Don’t have anything to do with such people.”
2 Timothy 3:5 COMMENTARY BY ALBERT BARNES But denying the power thereof. Opposing the real power of religion; not allowing it to exert any influence in their lives. It imposes no restraint on their passions and carnal propensities; but in all respects, except in the form of religion, they live as if they had none. This has been common in the world. The most regular and bigoted adherence to the forms of religion, furnishes no evidence in itself that there is any true piety at heart, or that true religion has any actual control over the soul. It is much easier for men to observe the forms of religion than it is to bring the heart under its controlling influence.

Monday – With Me You Can Do Nothing
John 15:1-5 God’s Word to the Nations “1 ¶ Then Jesus said, "I am the true vine, and my Father takes care of the vineyard. 2 He removes every one of my branches that doesn’t produce fruit. He also prunes every branch that does produce fruit to make it produce more fruit. 3 "You are already clean because of what I have told you. 4 Live in me, and I will live in you. A branch cannot produce any fruit by itself. It has to stay attached to the vine. In the same way, you cannot produce fruit unless you live in me. 5 "I am the vine. You are the branches. Those who live in me while I live in them will produce a lot of fruit. But you can’t produce anything without me.”
John 15:1 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY A golden vine decorated the entrance to Herod’s Temple, and figures of the leaves of the vine or of clusters of grapes were displayed on coins and architecture. The Jews depended upon their connection with the vine of Israel for their salvation. But Israel had proved unfaithful to its spiritual advantages and had rejected its true king, Jesus. Now Jesus presented Himself as the genuine vine. Only through vital connection with Him could men be saved.
John 15:3 COMMENTARY BY BARNES Now ye are clean. Still keeping up the figure. It does not mean that they were perfect, but that they had been under a process of purifying by his instructions all the time he had been with them. He had removed their erroneous notions of the Messiah; he had gradually reclaimed them from their fond and foolish views respecting earthly honours; he had taught them to be willing to forsake all things; and he had so trained and disciplined them that immediately after his death they would be ready to go and bear fruit among all nations to the honour of his name. In addition to this, Judas had been removed from their number, and they were now all true followers of the Saviour.
John 15:4 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY A continuous abiding in a living connection with Christ is essential for growth and fruitfulness. Occasional attention to matters of religion is not sufficient. Riding high on a wave of religious fervor one day, only to fall low into a period of neglect the next, does not promote spiritual strength. To abide in Christ means that the soul must be in daily, constant communion with Jesus Christ and must live His life. It is not possible for one branch to depend upon another for its vitality; each must maintain its own personal relationship to the vine. Each member must bear its own fruits.
Matthew 24:24 New Revised Standard Version “For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce great signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.”

Tuesday – By This My Father Is Glorified
John 15:8 New King James Version “"By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.”
John 15:8 COMMENTARY THE FOURFOLD GOSPEL The spirit of Christ leads to those deeds which cause men to glorify God, and whoso does those deeds causes such glorification. Moreover, the spirit of Christ leads to abundant fruitfulness, and he who has it, not only performs charitable deeds, but converts the sinner and begets a spirit of goodness in those about him; and this fruitfulness becomes an evidence or demonstration of true discipleship.
John 11:4 King James 21st Century “When Jesus heard that, He said, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby."”
John 12:28 KJ21 “Father, glorify Thy name." Then there came a voice from Heaven, saying, "I HAVE BOTH GLORIFIED IT, AND WILL GLORIFY IT AGAIN."”
John 12:28 COMMENTARY BY BARNES Glorify thy name. The meaning of this expression in this connection is this: "I am willing to bear any trials; I will not shrink from any sufferings. Let thy name be honoured. Let thy character, wisdom, goodness, and plans of mercy be manifested and promoted, whatever sufferings it may cost me." Thus Jesus showed us that God's glory is to be the great end of our conduct, and that we are to seek that, whatever sufferings it may cost us.

Wednesday – That I May Bear More Fruit
John 15:2 New International Version “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”
John 15:2 COMMENTARY BY ADAM CLARKE As the vine-dresser will remove every unfruitful branch from the vine, so will my Father remove every unfruitful member from my mystical body-such as Judas, the unbelieving Jews, the apostatizing disciples, and all false and merely nominal Christians, who are attached to the vine by faith in the word and Divine mission of Christ, while they live not in his life and Spirit, and bring forth no fruit to the glory of God; and also every branch which has been in him by true faith-such as have given way to iniquity, and made shipwreck of their faith and of their good conscience: all these he taketh away.

Thursday – But If Not
John 15:1-10 New Living Translation “1 ¶ "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. 3 You have already been pruned for greater fruitfulness by the message I have given you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful apart from me. 5 "Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. 6 Anyone who parts from me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. 7 But if you stay joined to me and my words remain in you, you may ask any request you like, and it will be granted! 8 My true disciples produce much fruit. This brings great glory to my Father. 9 ¶ "I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. 10 When you obey me, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father and remain in his love.”
John 15:5 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY As the severed branches are eventually gathered and burned, so the unfruitful Christian, along with the nonprofessor, will suffer ultimate extinction.
John 15:6 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY The delusion, “once in grace always in grace,” is denied by this condition. It is possible for those who have been in Christ to sever their connection with Him and be lost Salvation is conditional upon abiding in Christ until the end.
John 15:7 COMMENTARY BY WILLIAM BURKETT Not that we are hereby warranted to ask what we please at God's hand, but our will must be limited by the word and will of God; we must pray in faith, and in the name and mediation of Jesus Christ, and with a single eye at the glory of God.
John 15:8 COMMENTARY BY BARNES The design and tendency of his religion is to excite men to do much good, and to call forth all their strength, and time, and talents in the work for which the Saviour laid down his life.
John 15:8 SDA BIBLE COMMENTARY It is glory to a vinedresser when his plants bear well. Thus glory comes to God when His image is reflected in the lives of His followers.
John 15:9 COMMENTARY BY MATTHEW HENRY All that love the Saviour should continue in their love to him, and take all occasions to show it. The joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment, but the joy of those who abide in Christ's love is a continual feast. They are to show their love to him by keeping his commandments. If the same power that first shed abroad the love of Christ in our hearts, did not keep us in that love, we should not long abide in it. Christ's love to us should direct us to love each other.
John 15:10 COMMENTARY THE FOURFOLD GOSPEL Love is, as it were, the sap which passes back and forth between the Vine and branch, and that love is kept active and vital by the most practical of means--obedience to commandments, a means which the Lord himself does not hesitate to describe as efficient between himself and the Father, only claiming for himself the love of the Father because of a like obedience to that which he prescribed. Luke 13:7-9 Holman Standard Christian Bible “7 He told the vineyard worker, ‘Listen, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it even waste the soil?’ 8 “But he replied to him, ‘Sir, leave it this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. 9 Perhaps it will bear fruit next year, but if not, you can cut it down.’””

Friday – Further Study
Ellen White, Desire of Ages, p. 675 – “"I am the Vine, ye are the branches," Christ said to His disciples. Though He was about to be removed from them, their spiritual union with Him was to be unchanged. The connection of the branch with the vine, He said, represents the relation you are to sustain to Me. The scion is engrafted into the living vine, and fiber by fiber, vein by vein, it grows into the vine stock. The life of the vine becomes the life of the branch. So the soul dead in trespasses and sins receives life through connection with Christ. By faith in Him as a personal Saviour the union is formed. The sinner unites his weakness to Christ’s strength, his emptiness to Christ’s fullness, his frailty to Christ’s enduring might. Then he has the mind of Christ. The humanity of Christ has touched our humanity, and our humanity has touched divinity. Thus through the agency of the Holy Spirit man becomes a partaker of the divine nature. He is accepted in the Beloved.”
Ellen White, Desire of Ages, p. 668 – “The Lord is disappointed when His people place a low estimate upon themselves. He desires His chosen heritage to value themselves according to the price He has placed upon them. God wanted them, else He would not have sent His Son on such an expensive errand to redeem them. He has a use for them, and He is well pleased when they make the very highest demands upon Him, that they may glorify His name. They may expect large things if they have faith in His promises.”

Being fruitful for God means that the path you are walking is in step with our Big Brother.
If making Him happy is our goal then we give our all to doing that very thing. He doesn't want any to lose out on the kingdom to come, therefore to rescue the ones who are living their live so carelessly will become our greatest pleasure becomes our greatest pleasure. That is not to say that we should give ourselves up as robots but as His representives.

Good post COC, to add to that, we do that out of love and not because we have to.

pk

I look forward to this quarter. I purchased EG White's notes. We need to learn that the fruits of our spirit say so much and that we need to forever be attached to Christ who enables us.

Tis true.

2Ti 3:5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. (KJV)


“Even though they will make a show of being religious, their religion won’t be real. Don’t have anything to do with such people.

"their religion won't be real" is not the same thing as "denying the power"

The power of God's word as a life-changing force for eternity is awesome!

This modern liberal version took the "power" right out of it!

I love this lesson for this week. I get to teach my first adult sabbath school and it is this week's lesson. I was curious what everyone thinks. Which is worse? Producing bad fruit or producing no fruit at all?

wow!! thats a doozey!!

is there a difference in the long run?

If the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace..etc...

Then no fruit would be no love, no joy, no peace...

Then bad fruit would be hate, sorrow, war...

It would appear that the distinction between the two is kind of artificial. Can we really have no fruit and not have bad fruit?

Thanks for the question...made me think...

Perhaps there is a wrinkle in the metaphor that I am missing though...would be interested in what others are saying...