I am studying the occurances of the word (0r form of the word) “leaf” in the Bible. God is stirring up something of a message in it.
As I read several passages about leaves tonight, God kept bringing up the words of Christ saying “I am the vine. You are the branches.” found in John 15:5 (for further reading check out a writing I did November 2006 called “Remaining In (John 15:1-17)“) That verse is:
John 15:5 (ESV) 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
Because it’s become obvious in my studies that I cannot study the leaf, without also studying the branches and the fruit. According to this verse, I am a branch plugged into the true vine (or think trunk, for a tree). So my question is becoming this:
What is the “leaf” vs. what is the “fruit”?
Several places in the Scriptures, the word “fruit” is often associated with the words “in season,” which would imply there are times that we do not produce fruit. (See: Num 13:20; Ps 1:3; Hos 9:10; Matt 21:34; Matt 21:41; Acts 14:17 as a few examples of fruit associated with season).
This opens up a whole line of questioning about what I’ve always defined as “fruit” – think the Gal 5:22-23 “fruits of the Spirit”. If there are seasons of no fruit by definition, then “fruit in season” can’t mean what I’ve thought it meant, because I should be producing the fruits of the Spirit, year round, regardless of the season.
Thoughts?