Class is in session

Last week I mentioned about much fruit and discipleship as mentioned in John 15:8. I thought I’d look up the word “disciple”. It is the Greek word mathētēs which means a learner, pupil or disciple. So, to be a disciple we are to be a student. To bear much fruit, we have to be a student. A student of who? None other than Jesus.

In John 15, Jesus talks to us about abiding in Him. I thought for fun I’d also look up the dictionary meaning of the word abide and it means to obey, observe, follow, keep to, respect, heed, acknowledge or hold to. That’s the Google definition derived from Oxford Languages.

We are to abide in Jesus, so we can bear fruit. The more we learn to abide in Jesus, the more fruitful our lives become. So to bear much fruit and to be disciples we are to be followers of Jesus, students of Jesus, who observe, respect, heed, hold onto, keep to and acknowledge Jesus. There is no room to turn to the left or the right or go seeing for ourselves. We need to be following Jesus and learning from Him and observing what He did or does and studying His heart towards us and people and aiming to not only retain information but to grow in our character so we can become more like Him.

Jesus may not be here personally but we have the Holy Spirit as our Teacher. We have to commit ourselves to learning from the Holy Spirit. John 14:26 says, “But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.” We have a Teacher! How awesome is that. The Holy Spirit is our Teacher and He will help us grow and mature and learn to be more like Christ. That is when we bear the most fruit, when our lives are aligned with Christ and we live our lives as though we have those cute bracelets with the letters WWJD, reminding us to always respond in the way that Jesus would respond to the situations we face.

To bear much fruit and to be a disciple is not easy. It takes courage. It takes guts. It takes a made up mind. You may have to walk away from a lot of things, rearrange some things in your life so Jesus comes first in everything. Can’t have divided attention if you are going to be a good student, you need to be attentive to the Teacher so you can not only listen and learn but also watch and learn.

God’s way is always to put is in community. So whatever area is not bearing fruit in your life, surround yourself with people who have “much fruit” in that area so you can grow. Surround yourself with people who challenge you to be better and not settle where you are. There is always more to be discovered and released in us as we keep following Jesus.  

Love and blessings

Melissa Tsingano.