My son has been struggling for a few weeks - fighting, grabbing and shouting at his younger sister. During a lesson I had with my kids, I asked him if he believed in Jesus. His response was yes. My reply to him was, if you say that you believe in Jesus, then you need to behave like Him. If you are a follower of His then your ways or actions need to reflect the One you are following; just like in the game “follow the leader”, where everything the leader does must be imitated.
It spoke to me when questioning him about imitating Jesus. Do I follow Jesus? Do I imitate Jesus? Can those around me see that I am a follower of Him? Do I have fruit that shows I am a follower of His?
Here are a few questions as we dig deeper into this topic:
How do you follow someone?
Well, here is an illustration. If you are following behind someone in order to get to a particular place, you will go exactly where they go. If they turn, you will turn, if they go straight, so will you. As a believer, Christ has left us an example, so that we might follow in His steps.
We see throughout the gospels in Jesus’ ministry that people are told, encouraged and even warned how to live, how to have everlasting life and what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.
There were those who claimed to be disciples or wanted to be followers of Christ but eventually, in some instances even instantly, we see them fall away. They did not have that desire to follow Christ till the end. Judas is an example. He betrayed Jesus for money, “…what are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?” Matt 26: 14.
Being a follower is often not easy. It means that we sacrifice our own desires. Many disciples stopped following Jesus because their desire to follow after things that satisfied them was too great.
Following-after someone demonstrates true faith, as you do not know where you are heading, yet you go. You do not always enjoy the path you are being taken on yet, you carry on. You might not know all the details, yet you know that you trust the person leading you and there is a destination you are heading towards that is worth it.
How are we to follow?
Being a follower means that we are to bear fruit:
Scripture says you know you are a follower if you bear fruit. If one does not bear fruit then they are not a true follower of His. We are branches and Christ is the vine. To show that we are in Him we need to bear fruit that shows we belong to the vine otherwise we are not of the true vine.
John 15: 5
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit”
Matthew 7: 16-20
“You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from
thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit”.
v.20 “…Therefore by their fruits you will know them”.
James 2: 26
“For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also”.
We cannot say we belong to Jesus or walk in the Spirit yet have no fruit or walk in the flesh.
If we find ourselves bearing no fruit, then we are not His. Gal 5: 19
*The fruit of the Spirit:
Gal 5:22-23 “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”
Practicing these characteristics helps us to bear good fruit. These characteristics are the hardest for me. It is something we need to be practicing daily, also growing into becoming stronger in these characteristics. It’s not easy but it’s possible to be growing stronger daily with the help of the Word of God correcting us and the Holy Spirit convicting us and changing us.
Following the order of the verse, ask yourself if you possess each fruit - “do I demonstrate love?” “Do I demonstrate joy? Peace?” etc. To some of these we might find we bear fruit. To others, as in my case, we might discover that we lack in these areas. We need to be consciously practicing these fruits on a daily basis.
A topic I would love to discuss in detail at a later stage…
*Praising and Thanking God:
Hebrews 13: 15 “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.”
When we praise God, we are bearing fruit.
In everything give thanks (1 Thess. 5:18). Gratitude always keeps your mind and heart set on God and takes your eyes off of self and what’s going around you.
*Keeping the commandments or obeying the Word:
John 15: 5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit”. Drop down to verse 10 “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”
1 John 2: 3-4 “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He
who says, “I know Him”, and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not
in him.”
Christ kept and fulfilled the law. We are instructed to keep His commandments to demonstrate that we belong to him. Remember if you commit sin in your heart or mind it is the same as committing the actual deed. Matt 5: 28.
So, we now have a good method to check if we are on track with following Christ truly. If we are not bearing fruit - we need to ask ourselves if we are His. If we are bearing bad fruit – again, we need to ask ourselves if we are His. It’s always good to go back and check the fruit of the Spirit to keep reminding ourselves of the fruit we need to be bearing.
As we follow Christ daily, ask yourself, “what fruit am I bearing?”
Continue to grow sister, may you yield good fruit no matter the season you find yourself in.
Ruth.
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