Why does the Lord repeat himself? Because it is so important. It needs to be repeated, because we are all prone to confidence, and we all seem to think that the length of life we have spent living for Christ automatically strengthens us and immunises us from troubles, and it does not. We need him, and we cannot advance and bear fruit without him.
Notice that the increase in fruit runs through the passage. In verse two, the passage speaks to bearing fruit. Then it immediately mentions more fruit, and by the time you get to verse five it is much fruit. Do our lives reflect that? The year we were saved, there was fruit. Soon afterwards there was more fruit. And by now, after two years, five years, ten years, twenty years, there should be much fruit. The increase runs through the word of the Lord.
I remember, when I was a very young Christian, reading a presentation of this kind of truth, and I was very puzzled. Are you saying, I thought to myself, that a non-Christian cannot do anything good or anything useful in life, cannot bear any kind of fruit which would please God? Yes, that was the teaching. And at first I recoiled from that as a young Christian. Surely that is not right. But it is right. If we are not converted we cannot do anything that really pleases God. We can do good works, but they are not spiritually and eternally useful. We should do good works – the Bible says so – but if you and I feed thousands of hungry mouths and sponsor medicines for thousands of sick people, and they get better, and they enjoy great wellbeing, and their lives are happier and contented, ultimately what have we accomplished? If anything, we have satisfied them so that they will be even less likely to see themselves as needy sinners in the sight of God who desperately need his help and who are perishing. Even the good things we do may actually distract society and deflect society from seeking spiritual and eternal good.