In this article we move forward in rethinking our relationship with God as a covanant and not a contract, exploring love, joy and friendship. In part 1 of John 15, looking from the disciples’ perspective, we learned what Jesus meant when he declared Himself as the “True Vine” and what it means to be connected to Him. In part 2, we drilled down a bit as to what it meant for the disciples to abide, to remain in a covenantal relationship with Jesus.
In John 15, Jesus strongly emphasizes the idea to “remain in me” throughout verses 4 to 7 and how choosing to remain connected with Him, allows God to give life to the relationship that results in fruit production. In part 2, I focused on what the disciples may have understood Jesus to mean regarding staying in relationship with Him. But before moving into love, joy and friendship, lets look at fruit.
What About This Fruit Talk?
In my previous article I said we have the benefit of hindsight. When we hear fruit talk we tend to think about Paul’s words, inner qualities like, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control – Galatians 5:22-23. But for the disciples gathered around the dinner table in this dimly lit upper room, the Apostle Paul wouldn’t be in the frame for several years yet. Only his later language would deepen the metaphors Jesus uses with his friends here. Instead, I want to focus our attention on what the disciples would understand Jesus to mean as he spoke with them.
From verses 2 to 8, Jesus talks about staying in relationship with him and fruit. Keep in mind, the Old Testament Scriptures were written centuries before Jesus. Most of the knowledge the disciples had was from stories told down through the generations and what they heard read in synagogue. Many boys in Galilee would have memorized large portions of the Torah and Psalms. So when Jesus talks fruit, what do the disciples hear? Here are some thoughts.
Retrieving Memories
These images would be in the disciples’ minds when Jesus spoke.
Trees planted by God’s waters, flourishing even in times of drought – Psalm 1/Jeremiah 17
Inspite of doing all he could for Israel, God’s vineyard failed because it bore bad fruit instead of justice and righteousness – Isaiah 5
Through countless stories teaching about God’s faithfulness, He has told His people what is good, their appropriate response is to do what is right, love mercy and walk humbly with your God – Micah 6
God’s pact with Abraham, fruitfulness – life that multiplies and extends blessings to others – Genesis 1
For Jesus’ friends, “fruit” meant something visible, a covenant-shaped life of loyalty, devotion, justice, mercy and extending God’s blessing.
Continuity With a Twist
God has always wanted faithfulness from his followers, but now there’s a twist. Rather than just Torah-keeping, the life source has shifted to Jesus as the True Vine. For believers today, our thinking often defaults to a Spirit-shaped life but for the disciples, theirs was a story-shaped life. So in this table talk, Jesus is shifting from the stories and highlighting Himself as the ultimate object and fulfilment of those stories. It’s here where Jesus talks about mutual love, joy and friendship.
From Different Worlds
When we read Jesus’ words in John 15—“love one another as I have loved you… so that you may be filled with my joy”—we often hear them through modern ears. For us, love is wrapped in sentiment, joy is a personal feeling of happiness, and friendship is often reduced to shared interests. But for the disciples sitting around that table with Jesus, these words carried a far deeper sense of belonging and wellbeing.
Love As Loyalty
Love as loyalty. Not one of us would disagree with that but in their world, love wasn’t primarily a feeling – it was a commitment to act with loyalty and devotion. To say “love one another” was to call them into a binding way of life together, marked by mutual responsibility and faithfulness, the kind of love God had shown Israel in covenant.
Joy As Shared Wellbeing
Hearing the word “joy” wasn’t about individual happiness but about shalom—the sense of wholeness, safety, and flourishing that comes from being in right relationship with God and one another. When Jesus spoke of His joy being in them, it meant they could share in the same deep security He had in the Father’s love. That sense of joy (not a happy feeling) as shared wellbeing. Wholeness is the lived experience we can have when a church community gathers in worship, word and service, united in agreement with the words of Christ rather than focused on what we disagree on.
Point of interest – when Jesus spoke these words, the religious culture of the day was marked by deep divisions, competing interpretations and contested life applications of Hebrew scriptures. And here’s Jesus pushing back against the Jewish explanatory framework of His day.
Friendship As Safety And Trust
And what about friendship? What did the disciples think when Jesus call them His friends? In their culture, a friend was someone you could entrust with your life – literally. It meant protection, trust, and shared honour. Imagine the disciples – accustomed to instability and unpredictability, under Roman occupation – hearing Jesus say, “I call you friends.” It wasn’t casual. It was a declaration of intimacy and solidarity. Soon their world would become anything but safe and they would experience persecution. Yet their security was in knowing that they were known and loved by Jesus, not even death could separate them from His love.
But what would His friends’ lives look like once Jesus’ physical presence was no longer with them? I want to circle back to what I touched on earlier.
Again With The Fruit
What exactly did Jesus mean when he spoke about bearing fruit?
For many Christians today, fruit gets measured in outcomes: decisions made, pews filled, funds raised, programs launched. That thinking runs deep in Western culture. Yet in Jesus’ world, fruit meant something very different.
Taste Before See
Taste and see that the LORD is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in Him! (Psalm 34:8)
More often than not, we think about this verse in the context of our personal experience of God but for Jesus and God’s people, it was the visible evidence of covenant life. It wasn’t about supply management and production quotas; it was about the taste of God’s goodness embodied in a people.
The disciples would have heard echoes of their Scriptures: the call to live justly and bring life to others (Proverbs 11:30), the invitation to taste and see the Lord’s goodness (Psalm 34:8), the charge to do what is right, love mercy, and walk humbly (Micah 6:8), and the promise to Abraham that all nations would be blessed through him (Genesis 12:3).
Bitter, Bland, Bad or Good
Whether a ruby red apple, a ripe melon or any other fruit, it’s only when we taste can we see the quality of the fruit. When it comes to fruit from a grocery store, much of what I taste isn’t that great – bitter, bland or bad. That’s not the kind of taste followers of Jesus ought to leave with others when they ecounter us in electronic communication, social media or in daily, in-person life.
Whatever we think being a Christian is or isn’t, it must reflect God’s image. In tangible terms, remaining in a mutual relationship with God means living a covenant-shaped life:
Be a faithful person and bring blessing to others
Loyalty, devotion, doing what’s right
Practicing mercy and walking humbly with our God
These are some of what it means to be fruit bearers. This is the fruit others can “taste and see that the Lord is good” and experience the “joys of taking refuge in Him.”
Whatever situation you find yourself in on a given day, consider your output to the triggers you face, will others “taste and see that the Lord is good?” As I close, reflecting on that upper room…
The Advantage They Had
…I often wish I could have the disciples’ physical closeness to Jesus.
And in this moment, they really did have an advantage: they could see His face, hear His tone, feel His touch and see the compassion in His eyes. That embodied friendship gave them a tangible sense of wellbeing that words alone can’t capture.
Yet even as Jesus prepared them for His departure, He assured them that His love, joy, and friendship wouldn’t end with His absence – Jesus would send the Comforter, Counselor. What they experienced physically with Him, we are invited to experience through His abiding presence. Next time we’ll explore this invitation further.