Bearing the Fruit of Love
Scripture: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13.35)
Main Point: Abiding in Christ’s Word produces the fruit of genuine love, which becomes our witness to the world.
When branches abide in the vine, fruit happens. Not through straining or trying harder, but through the natural flow of life from the vine. Jesus makes this connection explicit in John 15: “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples” (John 15.8). What is this fruit? Love for one another.
This is where faith and works meet. Not works that earn salvation—Luther fought that battle decisively. But works that flow from salvation. As the Augsburg Confession states: “Faith must bring forth good fruits, and it is necessary to do good works commanded by God because it is God’s will, but we should not rely on those works to merit justification before God.”
The Reformation was sometimes caricatured as antinomian—against good works. But Luther and the reformers never said faith doesn’t produce works. They said faith produces works naturally, joyfully, freely. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2.8-10).
When we abide in Christ, when we dwell in His Word of grace and forgiveness, we can’t help but extend that same grace and forgiveness to others. Love isn’t manufactured; it flows from being loved. When the world sees Christians truly loving one another—forgiving, sacrificing, serving—they see evidence that we follow Jesus.
Reflection: Is your faith producing the fruit of love for other believers? What would change if you viewed good works not as obligations to fulfill but as natural fruit of abiding in Christ?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You for loving me first. Let Your love flow through me to others. Help me to love my brothers and sisters in Christ genuinely, sacrificially, and visibly, so that the world may see and know that I am Your disciple. In Your Name. Amen.
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