Producing the fruit of the kingdom: Matthew 21:43

One day, Jesus told a parable about a landowner who planted a vineyard and leased it out to vine-growers who would tend the vineyard for him. Part of the price of the lease was that, when the harvest time had come, the landowner would receive a share of the harvest of the vineyard. However, when he sent servants to collect his fee, those who had leased the vineyard refused to pay. Finally, the landowner sent his son, saying, “They will respect my son” (Matthew 21:37 NASB 2020). However, vine-growers “took him and threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him” (Matthew 21:39 NASB 2020). Jesus then reveals that he spoke this parable against the religious people of his day, warning them, saying, “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruit” (Matthew 21:43 NASB 2020).

The Greek word translated here as “producing” is a very common word in the New Testament. It is often translated as to make or to do. Bearing the fruit of the kingdom is not something that naturally or automatically happens. It takes our involvement. We must engage in the process. We must participate in the making, or producing, of the fruit. Yes, fruit is the natural result of the life of any plant, but producing a crop takes effort.

So how does one bear and produce fruit for the Kingdom of God? The secret is to remain in Jesus. Jesus said, “Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself but must remain in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; the one who remains in Me, and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:4-5 NASB 2020). If we are to produce the fruit of the kingdom, we must abide in Christ. John goes on to tell us what it means to remain in Christ. He wrote, “the one who says that he remains in Him ought, himself also, walk just as He walked … No one who remains in Him sins continually; no one who sins continually has seen Him or knows Him … The one who keeps His commandments remains in Him, and He in him” (1 John 2:5, 3:6, 3:24 NASB 2020).

To remain in Christ, and therefore produce fruit for God, requires us to walk like Jesus walked, to turn from sin, and keep his commandments. To remain in Christ is to live like Christ. While we are saved by grace alone, we are all called to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to desire and to work for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13 NASB 2020). Furthermore, this life of Christ that we are to live can be summed up in one statement, “and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him” (1 John 4:15-16 NASB 2020). To remain in Christ is to remain in love, to live a life of love towards God and towards one another, for everyone who remains in love will naturally bear fruit for God and for the world.

David Robison