Multiplication

No, I’m not about to embark on a math lesson. I used to love math until I ran into this ugly term – calculus. That ended my math career.

Multiplication is understood to be a foundational mandate to our existence. It says in Genesis 1:28, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it . . .” and in Matthew 28:19, “go therefore and make disciples of all nations . . .” or in Acts 2:47, “and day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.”

Multiplication is part of our experience with Christ. We are called to allow God to multiply through us. As Acts indicates, it is God who is in charge of the fruit. If He does not call someone to Him, they do not come.

How do we evaluate our Christian witness when there is no fruit? How do we look at the thousands of churches around the United States and see the majority bearing little if any fruit? I acknowledge we need to be careful in asking this question. It is not our place to be judge. But we also have to evaluate ourselves and our church in the way Jesus indicates in John 15:5-6,
I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them
bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does
not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches
are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

I know our knee jerk response is to get a little defensive. “Who are you to judge my fruit bearing? Isn’t that God’s job?” Of course, it is God’s job. But how are we to feel and how are we to respond when we look at our own lives and our own church and see little in the way of multiplication? Maybe our response should be a little less defensive and a little more humble.

Here is the kicker for me. I do not have a track record of leading many to Christ. I do not have a track record of having and seizing many opportunities to share the good news of Jesus in a personal way. I think that needs to change. I think God has offered me opportunities and I have turned them down. Instead of being overly concerned with how others view my fruit, I need to confess my selfishness and pray for fruit-bearing opportunities to come.

Let us pray that God would bear fruit in and through us and our churches. Let us celebrate in the ways we have seen that happen already, but we cannot be content with what has happened in the past. For today, God will put before you and He will put before me opportunities to live in obedience to the call to go and bear fruit.

If my life and the way I’m living it is not bearing fruit, it needs to change. If the church and the way we are doing church is not bearing fruit, it needs to change as well. What is the most important way we can do this? We can pray. Will you pray for fruit-bearing opportunities to come in your life? Will you pray for fruit-bearing opportunities to come at your church? If we pray, they will come.