Q: How would a Christian be a blessing to others? I have read in the Bible that a branch that doesn`t bear fruit is cast out in the tree.. How could that be? If we have many fruits, [does] that mean that we are blessings to others?
A: A Christian is a blessing to others by sharing with them that which they have freely received from God. We have all dreamed about winning millions of dollars in the lottery and what we would do with our share of the winnings. Besides fleshly indulgences like purchasing big homes, fancy clothes and exotic cars, we balance that out with a promise to be charitable with our new found fortune. We say that we will help get friends and family out of debt, give to missions and charitable foundations that help the less fortunate, purchase things for those we love and so on. In other words we are sharing our blessing by being a blessing to others. The book of Ephesians tells us that God "has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Ephesians 1:3)." Therefore, since the love of God has blessed us with everything we share that love with those we encounter in our lives. How do we bless others with what we have been blessed with? By loving them the way in which God has loved us. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 tells us that love is patient, kind, doesn't envy, doesn't boast, isn't proud, isn't rude, isn't self-seeking, isn't easily angered, keeps no records of wrongs, doesn't delight in evil, rejoices with the truth, always protects, trusts, hopes, perseveres and never fails. This is how God deals with us and we respond to His love by sharing it with others.
When Jesus was giving the illustration of the Vine and the Branches in John 15, He was giving a picture of how the Christian life is lived. The key to understanding what Jesus was teaching is in recognizing what is meant when He says "apart from me you can do nothing (John 15:5)." In the previous chapter (John 14) Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will be sent to be with us forever. This is salvation in a nutshell. The "spirit of truth (John 14:17)" is the very life of God that indwells every believer who has been born again of the spirit through faith in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit has been given to us to lead and guide us through our lives. A believers responsibility is to allow Him to live in and through us. The only way we can allow that to happen is by believing that in Christ we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing. When we understand that God has made us complete we no longer look to the world in order to get that which can only be found in Christ. Thus, we can offer our "bodies as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1)" to the indwelling Holy Spirit which allows Him to produce His fruit through us. Remember that the fruit of the Spirit, "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23)" is not our fruit. We only bear the fruit God produces through us. If someone is not bearing fruit they are most likely not believers in the first place, are apart from Christ, and are thrown away.
We should not be preoccupied with how many fruits we have. Trees in a vineyard do not sit around judging one another by how much fruit they have on their branches. The trees just bear the fruit. Besides, the fruit a Christian bears is not their fruit, but the fruit of the Holy Spirit produced through them. The fruit that a tree produces is for others to be blessed by. The apple tree doesn't enjoy its fruit, those that eat the fruit enjoy it. And by doing so they spread the seed of the tree all around. Similarly, Christians are a blessing to others because the love of God being produced through us blesses others who, in turn, bless those around them. "Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God (Hebrews 6:7)." Christians are like the land in this passage from Hebrews. The "rain" we drink in is the blessings of God we have freely received through faith in Jesus Christ. The "crop" are the fruits of the Spirit God produces through us for those "whom it is farmed," the unbelievers. After all, the blessing we have received is Christ and those who need it most are the unbelievers of this world who need Him.
"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness (2 Peter 1:3)." Like the individual who wins the lottery, they will feel as though they have been given everything, or at least the chance to obtain everything. A Christian has been blessed with so much more than earthly riches. If God has given us everything we need for life and godliness in His Son what else is there for us to do than share that blessing with the world? Like the lottery winner, with their new found riches, a Christian must resist the opportunity to run away and hide from the world. There is the temptation to want to keep all we have been blessed with to ourselves so as not to lose it. However, our life is not our own. Our bodies are vessels of the Holy Spirit and temples of God. "For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died (2 Corinthians 5:14)." It is the love of God that compels us in our daily lives. The response to the love God has for us is revealed by the level in which we allow Him to live through us so that He can bless others with the blessings He has given to us.
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