Be Fruitful; Multiply

Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth”. – Genesis 8:1

No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. – John 15:4

This verse of scripture is always interpreted to mean having children and I agree that it does allude to that at some level but there is more to it than having kids. If we look at the world today, there is no population shortage. But there is a huge shortage of true believers. I have to believe that this scripture is also referring to the fruitfulness of our lives as believers and how we are to replicate ourselves by spreading the gospel – similar to the “Each one reach one” phrase. When we come to Jesus Christ in faith and we are lifted out of the darkness into the light, we are to reach out and bring others into the light of God.

The concept of multiplying and increasing in number in number is nullified when we accept Christ and keep him to ourselves. No-one around us knows that we are Christians; we are simply enjoying the blessings of living in the faith and keeping all the benefits to ourselves. We get all we can, can all we get and seat on the lid. God does not want any of us to be closet believers. We are to touch people around us each day and lovingly bring them into the family of God. We are to exhibit the wonderful fruits of the spirit. Not only are we to bear good fruit but we are to help others do the same thing.

If you want to be fruitful, you must give your life to Jesus Christ. He is the true vine and it is only when we are connected to the vine that we can bear good fruit and multiply as the Lord prunes us regularly. If we try to bear fruit apart from the vine, not only would we ourselves be unproductive but we will be unable to help anyone else achieve productivity.

Do a quick self-evaluation. Are you increasing and multiplying?