How do you know a disciple of Christ?
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John 15:8 “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.
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Here’s the scriptural test for proof of discipleship–do you bear much fruit?
That of course begs the question, what does it mean by fruit?
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Somehow we got on to the idea that fruit meant numbers of people saved, or maybe I should say, brought into the church (the building kind). But the New Testament talks about the fruit of the Spirit and the fruit of righteousness.
In the beginning we were created in the image of God and that image was tarnished by sin. Jesus came to restore us into the perfect image we were created to be in. We are to be transformed from glory to glory into the image of Christ. (I’m practically quoting Scripture here, but I’m not labeling the references. I’m assuming my readers recognize the verses.)
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If we have in us the fruit of righteousness and the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control and have them in increasing measure, then we have proven ourselves disciples of Christ.
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How does one bear much fruit?
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John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
This verse tells us that the one who “bears much fruit” is the one who abides in Jesus.
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So what does it mean to abide in Christ?
John 15:10 “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.”
To keep the commandments is to abide in God’s love.
I feel like a broken record, saying obey! obey! but it’s repeated constantly in Scripture! I remember when the Lord first showed me that obedience is required for salvation. I went through the Bible making notes of everywhere it talked about it. One day I said to my husband, “Every other verse in the Bible says this!”
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Speaking of which, the Lord revealed this to me in a book. One I wrote. He led me to sit at the computer and spoke chapter titles to me. Then I just started writing on the topics. The book came to the logical conclusion that obedience is required for salvation. I wrote it in a week (pretty good for a homeschool mom with a toddler). I then spent the next month adding the Scriptures. I added a link to the book in the sidebar. I haven’t read it recently, but there it is. It’s called, Sin Is Bad.
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I’ve also added a blurb about my latest book, The King Will Make a Way. It’s a very different type of book, a novel. It’s an end-times tale. It’s main themes are living by faith, dying to self and living wholly for the King.
The Tribulation 