Fruitful in Community: Growing Beyond Ourselves

My word for the year is fruitful, and for months I’ve been watching and waiting for signs of personal growth. I expected this word to unfold in ways I could measure: goals accomplished, spiritual insight deepened, clarity gained. But over time, I’ve noticed something I wasn’t looking for—something that doesn’t begin or end with me at all.

Fruitfulness, I’m beginning to see, isn’t always personal. Sometimes it’s communal. Sometimes it looks like the quiet ripple effect of love, the kind that grows beyond us and bears fruit in someone else’s life.

What Does It Mean to Be Fruitful in Community?

Jesus said, “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples” (John 15:8). And then, just a few verses later: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you” (John 15:12).

These two statements belong together. Fruitfulness and love are inseparable. The fruit Jesus speaks of isn’t measured in personal achievement or private spiritual success. It’s most often seen in how we live alongside one another.

Community is where our fruit shows up. Not just in what we do, but in who we become in the presence of others: more patient, more gracious, more real.

Paul makes this connection clear when he writes about the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Every one of these fruits has relational implications. You don’t need patience until someone tests it. You don’t need gentleness until there’s vulnerability involved. These are not theoretical virtues. They are cultivated in the context of relationships—especially the hard, messy, inconvenient ones.

When Fruitfulness Looks Like Showing Up

This year, fruitfulness has looked less like new projects and more like sitting with a friend who’s grieving. It’s looked like responding to a late-night text. Like making a meal when no one asked. Like speaking truth in love, even when it would be easier to stay silent.

In short, fruitfulness in community has looked like presence.

A couple of months ago, our housekeeper passed away. The tradition here is to have a time where anyone can come and sit in a tent together and just be there. Knowing that the person who passed away was special to everyone who is there. Just being there for the family and friends of my friend was all I could do. Presence was all that was required to comfort and share in grief.

There are seasons when we think of bearing fruit as doing something impressive. But love is rarely flashy. And presence is rarely praised. Still, this is where the fruit grows—in small, intentional acts of connection, care, and vulnerability.

Mutual Growth: When Others Help Us Bear Fruit

Community doesn’t just provide a place to show fruit. It’s often the very thing that helps it grow.

Have you ever noticed that the most spiritually mature people aren’t the ones who read the most books or prayed the longest hours in solitude? They’re the ones who have spent years loving people well. Forgiving. Asking for forgiveness. Sticking around. Practicing humility.

God uses people to shape us. Sometimes, painfully so. And yet, again and again, these relationships bear fruit we couldn’t have cultivated on our own.

As a person who often sits by herself at church, I noticed when one lady began sitting with me, bringing her daughter and son as well. Her new seat with me was across the church where she used to sit. But I noticed her presence and from that a friendship formed. A simple step to say, “I see you” helped me, helped both of us grow.

Jesus’ life reflects this perfectly. He lived in community. He let people in. He poured out, but He also received. His ministry was never isolated. Even in moments of solitude, He returned to relationship—to teach, to heal, to serve, to love.

Pruning in Community

John 15:2 tells us that every branch that bears fruit will be pruned to become even more fruitful. I’ve always thought of that as an individual process, but I wonder now if some of that pruning happens through community too.

I don’t really need to wonder. I know for myself that pruning has often been in connection with others. When I interact with others, that is when I realize that I assume instead of asking. I realize that I am offended by certain tones that may have been unintentional. I need Jesus more when I am challenged. And I am rarely challenged in character by myself (in work and production sure, but not character).

Relationships confront us with ourselves. We see our impatience, our defensiveness, our need for control. Community reveals where we still need growth—and offers us the chance to change.

It’s not always easy. In fact, it rarely is. But if we’re willing, God uses these challenges to shape us into people who reflect Him more.

Fruit That Goes Beyond Us

Perhaps the most beautiful part of being fruitful in community is this: the fruit doesn’t stop with us. A word of encouragement might blossom into someone else’s courage. An act of forgiveness might soften a heart enough to heal. Your kindness might make space for someone to hope again.

We may never see the full result of the fruit we bear in someone else’s life. But that doesn’t mean it’s not growing.

I’ve always had a strong dislike for hanging out after church. I’m uncomfortable and feel awkward approaching others. But I’m doing it – I’m walking up to people and greeting them. They know that I see them, week after week, or from time to time. But they are seen. And I am growing again, doing something I’m not keen to do, but serving all the same.

In John 15:16, Jesus says, “I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.” Community is one of the ways that fruit lasts. Because love rarely ends with the one who receives it.

A Few Questions to Reflect On:

• Where has fruitfulness shown up in my relationships, even if I didn’t recognize it at the time?

• Who has helped shape fruit in me? Have I thanked them?

• Is there someone I can love intentionally this week—not to produce results, but simply to abide and reflect Jesus?

A Prayer:

Lord, I want to bear fruit that matters. Not fruit that draws attention to me, but fruit that brings life to others. Teach me to love like You do—sacrificially, intentionally, and with grace. Help me stay rooted in You so that Your life flows through me, into my family, my friends, my community. Let the love You plant in me grow beyond me. Amen.