what is
Fruitfulness
Fruitful
(adjective)
To be fruitful means to:
Produce good, beneficial, or profitable results
Abound in fruit like trees or other plants
Bear fruit abundantly
Grow in abundance
Hebrew, Old testament
Strong’s Number H6509, פָּרָה (pārâ), means “to bear fruit”
GREEK, new testament
Strong's Number G2592, καρποφορέω (karpophoreō), means “to bring forth fruit”
Did you catch that?
in the word
What God Has to Say
JEREMIAH 23:3
“I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number.”
Genesis 1:28
“God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’”
EXODUS 1:7
“but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers, and became so numerous that the land was filled with them.”
PSALM 128:3
“Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table.”
JOHN 15:2
“He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”
EZEKIEL 36:11
“I will increase the number of people and animals living on you, and they will be fruitful and become numerous. I will settle people on you as in the past and will make you prosper more than before. Then you will know that I am the Lord.”
What Does It Mean to be Fruitful?
There are five translations of “fruitful” in Hebrew and three in Greek. Generally, it means to produce something—whether that is plants, animals, or people. Genesis, the first chapter of the Bible, mentions it the most out of all the other books.
BE FRUITFUL AND MULTIPLY
God tells Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28). God tells the same thing to Noah after the Flood (9:1). God makes a covenant with Abraham that he will be “exceedingly fruitful” and a father of many nations (17: 5-7). God commands Jacob to “be fruitful and multiply” after He blesses him and gives him a new name (35:11).
God wants us to be multipliers.
WHAT ARE YOU MULTIPLYING?
If it is in our innate nature to multiply, to be fruitful—the question then becomes, what are you growing? It is our nature to grow things. We are either producing good fruit or bad fruit. Galatians 5 talks about the kind of fruit the Holy Spirit produces in us: “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Just before that, it talks about the bad kinds of fruit our sinful nature produces: “sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.”
If we are creatures created to increase and multiply, we should be mindful of what we are growing in every season. Anger or patience? Jealousy or contentment? Immorality or self-control?
A GOOD TREE BEARS GOOD FRUIT
Jesus warns his disciples about people who pretend to be good but are not. He explains in Matthew 7: “A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.”
As creative beings, what we create, grow, and sow into matters. Our dreams matter. Our plans matter. Our goals matter. What you consume now (whether music, movies, books, food, conversations), will determine who you are going to be tomorrow. Pay attention to what you are sowing into your garden so that you can bear good fruit and carry out God’s plan for you: a life lived abundantly (John 10:10).
