The fruit of the Spirit and bearing God's image

What happens if we let John's gospel inform our understanding of the fruit of the Spirit?

“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

¹Usually, any mention of the fruit of the Spirit brings to mind a specific passage:

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit [karpos] of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.²

It’s certainly a good place to start. But is it the only place? What about John 15, where Jesus says:

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit [karpos] he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.³

Does this passage have anything to do with the fruit of the Holy Spirit? Before we can answer that, we need to work our way through the gospel of John and see what else Jesus says that might be relevant. Along the way, we’ll highlight certain themes as we come across them.

A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”⁴

Jesus promises something to those who seek it. This something is placed within the one who receives it and it flows out of them as eternal life. Additionally, we see that this promised “something” can be metaphorically described as something we drink.

Not long after, Jesus speaks about something similar with His disciples:

Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit [karpos] for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”⁵

Not only is this promised gift something we can figuratively drink, it’s something we can eat. The agricultural language is explicit, and it isn’t going away. Getting this food costs something, since eating it involves obedience to the Lord, but at the same time we don’t earn it—we reap the fruit of something we didn’t sow. Once again, this fruit is connected to everlasting life.

In explaining where His authority comes from, Jesus says:

If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from people. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”⁶

Here we get a clear reference to the Holy Spirit, for He is the greater witness than John who testifies (cf. John 15:26, 1 John 5:6-9). Another theme pops up here, the theme of God's glory, although it isn't yet clear exactly how that fits in. Lastly, something again needs to be placed within us for us to recognize the words of the witness, the Holy Spirit: God's Word. We know Jesus is the manifested Word (John 1:1-14)—but is this the same as the food and drink Jesus spoke of in John 4?

Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me—not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”⁷

There’s a lot to take in here. Jesus is the bread of life. Back in John 4:34, Jesus said, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me” and here He says, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me…I am the bread that came down from heaven.” Apparently, carrying out that will involves raising something up—a raising that all who eat the bread-that-is-Jesus participate in, just as they participate in everlasting life. What does the believer need to be raised from?

According to Jesus here, He will give the bread to us in the form of His life; in other words, He will die for those who will eat His flesh and drink His blood. But that isn’t the only intended meaning, since in addition to dying for us He says He will abide in us and us in Him. That’s another connection to the living water in chapter 4, which will be placed within us and well up to eternal life. By the way, is the blood connected to that water? John seems to draw a connection of some sort (1 John 5:6-9). Jesus’ blood, the spring of living water, and the Holy Spirit are all given some sort of connection in these passages. I think it’s safe to say here one aspect of the fruit of the Spirit is the everlasting life that pours out of the believer.

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.⁸

We’re starting to come full circle! Is it Jesus who will abide in the believer, or the Spirit? As in the rest of the New Testament, the line is blurred and probably beyond our understanding. And once again, there’s another mention of God’s glory. It seems to be relevant somehow.

One more passage and we’ll be back where we started in John 15 to see what it teaches us about the fruit of the Spirit:

And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit [karpos]. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also.⁹

There’s that agricultural language again.¹⁰ Now we see the impetus that will bring glory to Jesus the Son of Man: death. Why does death bring glory? Because as a seed is buried and transforms, so Jesus would be buried and conquer death, transforming into the very same glorious form He gave up for a short time to become a Son of Man. Clearly, the believer is expected to die as well. After all, to eat the bread is to do the will of Him who sent Jesus to die and wants us to follow in His footsteps. This is the necessary step in being where Christ is, or abiding in Him. Of course, like Jesus’ death, this death isn’t permanent. It’s the gateway to eternal life.

Now, let’s return to John 15:

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit [karpos] he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.¹¹

Through another agricultural metaphor, we get a glimpse of what it looks like to abide in Christ, which is necessary for us to bear fruit—and we’ve already established it is also the Spirit who abides in us and bears fruit that pours out, like in Galatians 5:22-23. Additionally, here more than ever we see that to do God’s will—to eat the bread of life—is to lay down our own lives. In calling us a “friend,” Jesus is asking us to die.

We also get a glimpse here of how bearing this fruit involves bearing God’s image. We reflect His character traits and so prove to be Jesus’ disciples. With that, let’s take our new perspective back into Galatians:

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.¹²

The fruit of the Spirit includes the characteristics that prove us to be Jesus’ disciples, but it’s more than that. To be His disciple, to belong to Him, to abide in the Vine, we have to crucify the flesh. We have to die.

Paul recognized this clearly on two levels. We have to die in an ontological sense (a certain part of our self has to die a mystical but equally real and tangible death), crucifying our sinful spiritual selves in unison with Christ, for “do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:1-11). At the same time, we have to die in a practical sense, choosing to live every day for someone other than ourselves, to lay down our life and our own fleshly desires and passions. Paul grasped this fully when he proclaimed, “I die every day!” (1 Cor 15:31).

And what about Jesus’ raising up of us who believe, who die for Him? Our new self is one who bears His image in a practical way in the here-and-now, bearing fruit in the form of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And at the same time, we bear His image in an ontological way, as we are remade into a form reflecting a heavenly glory, that of Jesus the “firstfruits” (aparchē), and bears “the image of the man of heaven” (1 Cor 15:20-49).

Through it all, Paul retains a tension between what has already been fulfilled and is somehow not yet fulfilled at the same time:

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits [aparchē] of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.¹³

Patience is difficult, at least for me. In the meantime, does my life bear fruit that proves me to be a disciple of Jesus? Do I truly die for God every day?

I think the gospel of John is useful in adding nuance to our understanding of the fruit of the Spirit. There are several passages in particular that seem to have greater depth when we let these themes from John influence our reading (e.g. Gal 3:26-27, 6:7-10, 1 Cor 15:20-55, 2 Cor 3:7-18, Eph 4:22-24). What do you think?

1. Opening quotation from The Cost of Discipleship, 1937.

2. Gal 5:16-25. Quotations will be from the ESV unless otherwise noted.

3. John 15:1-2.

4. John 4:7-14, emphasis added.

5. John 4:31-38, emphasis added.

6. John 5:31-47, emphasis added.

7. John 6:32-58, emphasis added.

8. John 7:37-39, emphasis added.

9. John 12:23-26, emphasis added.

10. I think Jesus has in mind the Festival of Weeks (cf. Exod 34:22). It was during the Festival of Weeks (Acts 2) that Jesus, the firstfruits of the harvest (cf. 1 Cor 15:23), was poured into believers and transforms them (cf. Rom 8:23).

11. John 15:1-16, emphasis added.

12. Gal 5:16-25, emphasis added.

13. Rom 8:18-25, emphasis added.