Be Fruitful and Multiply!

Whenever I read Genesis 1:28 where it says, “God blessed them, and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number…’” I have a picture of Adam and Eve having babies and filling the earth with people. A few chapters later, we read that Eve became pregnant and give birth to Cain. And later she gave birth to his brother Abel.

That’s it! Adam and Eve were fruitful. They started bearing fruit. And then their children gave birth to babies. And then those babies gave birth to babies. It just kept going—they were all fruitful. (At the end of Luke 3, you can read about Adam and Eve’s fruitfulness.)

Yet somehow in my journey of faith, I came to think that spiritual fruit only meant godly character – love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, and self-control. To me, spiritual fruit had nothing to do with spiritual babies. I never even considered that being fruitful as a Christian would mean spiritual sons and daughters.

How did this happen? I wonder if I just missed it. Or maybe, the church I grew up in missed it. I don’t know. Maybe it’s a bit of both.

Let’s focus on being fruitful and multiplying. Spiritual fruit = spiritual babies. I’m not saying that fruitful character doesn’t matter. But I wonder if — when Jesus said to his disciples, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit” — could he have been envisioning generations of spiritual sons and daughters?

• The fruit of disciples is disciples.
• The fruit of leaders is leaders.
• The fruit of churches is churches.

Be fruitful and multiply!

Let’s focus on making spiritual sons and daughters – making disciples who make disciples.

Together,

Dave DeVries
Vinia Executive Director
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This blog post is from the May 9, 2023 Vinia Newsletter. 

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