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That Your Fruit Should Remain

Keraza Magazine issue 5-6 February 12, 2016

There is no doubt that spiritual fruit in a person's spiritual life or service are very joyful, realized after much toil and struggle. Yet, what is more important than the fruits is the continuity of the fruits. The state of struggle to bear fruits differs from the state of struggle to keep the fruits. This is similar to the difference between water reaching boiling point and maintaining the boil. The Lord Christ, in his conversation with His disciples before crucifixion said, "I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain" (John 15:16). Perhaps St. Paul understood the importance of maintaining the fruit when he said, "If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire" (1 Corinthians 3:14-15). This means that building one's work is one thing, while maintaining it during the trials is another. Therefore, the maturity of fruits on the trees or the rising of a building above ground level is not the finale in the spiritual struggle, but rather the ability to withstand when the rain descends, the floods come, and the winds blow.

The law of jump does not apply to the spiritual life. If there are what are called visits of grace, where a person's spirituality is revived through an uncommon grace, the spiritual effect of the visits of grace is considered a deposit, not growth, since the person needs to, at that time, struggle to "lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called" (1 Timothy 6:12).

Instability in the spiritual life is the complaint of many. They swing between periods of spiritual fervor and reaping forth fruits and other periods of spiritual drought where the heavens above seem like brass and the earth below as iron (Deuteronomy 28:23). Naturally, this seesawing is not considered growth. We never heard of a child who grew some centimeters, and then shrank again after some months and lost the height gained. Also, a car is not gaining ground if it drives forward one mile and reverses for two. Thus the struggle is not considered lawful if the fruit is not converted from an incident to a persistent condition of bearing fruits that distinguishes the inner man. The only surety for the continuity of the fruit is continuing on the spiritual path and continual growth. The branch cannot continue to grow if it does not abide in the vine through the unity of the mind and heart with God in continual meditation in His word, and through alert ears to the voice of the Holy Spirit and His guidance at all times. Here the words of the Lord are fulfilled: "I, the Lord, keep it, I water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I keep it night and day" (Isaiah 27:3). Only then will the responsibility for maintaining the fruit fall upon the Holy Spirit.

Bishop Youssef
Bishop, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States