It's About The Fruit!!!
On a hot summer’s day a nice juicy piece of fruit is wonderfully satisfying and refreshing. Fruit in a home baked pie or some sort of dessert dish is stupefyingly delicious. And the juices of many fruits are sweet and invigorating. It is hard to imagine life without some sort of fruit, or fruit product as part of our diet, or lifestyle.
It is no wonder that fruit are used within the biblical texts to convey meaning and theological truths in a manner that we can understand and internalise.
Because of humanities fall at Eden and the ever present corruption of sin, our normal state is that our roots are tainted by sin, and they soak up sin and pass it on to the rest of our being. Then the whole plant (our being) is corrupted.
In horticulture and gardening you can graft a small branch of one type of tree to the root stock and stem of a totally different kind of tree. This type of agriculture has been around for thousands of years and is even mentioned in the Bible (we’ll get to that in a bit). The horticulturalist and gardener is trying to grow the new branch as the form of plant that they want to see established and become the main feature of that plant - you want the fruit or the flowers that come from that grafted branch (which becomes the tree/bush). Typically, any shoots that grow from the root stock are trimmed and discarded as they are unwanted, and they do not bear good fruit (or flowers).
If we graft ourselves into something that we think is godly, but in reality is not - then the root stock will grow instead of ourselves. Those roots have lush, quick growth and produce fruit that at times looks good, but is often smaller and more bitter in taste - it is counterfeit fruit. Fruit from root stock cannot reproduce, nor are they able to be used for anything - they are inedible. Such growth and fruit seems like we are being productive for the Kingdom of God, but in fact we are just producing fruit that is unusable.
What we should be doing is grafting ourselves into God and God’s family. The apostle Paul talks about this very thing in Romans 11:17-18 which says, “ But some of these branches from Abraham’s tree—some of the people of Israel—have been broken off. And you Gentiles, who were branches from a wild olive tree, have been grafted in. So now you also receive the blessing God has promised Abraham and his children, sharing in the rich nourishment from the root of God’s special olive tree. But you must not brag about being grafted in to replace the branches that were broken off. You are just a branch, not the root.”
As Christians, we are grafted into the covenants and promises that God gave the Jewish people (note that we do not replace them, we stand and grow with them). The promise of a Messiah, was to the Jews and to the nations - that grafting together is the start of the restoration of the break that happened in Eden.
What about when to pick fruit. Well that is a little harder and takes time to learn and do. I spent several months before I went off to university, working in an orchard. I learn pretty quick which fruits to pick and which to leave on the tree to ripen. In reality, if you pick a fruit early and try to eat it, it will be bitter - 100% of the time. Once an unripened fruit is picked, it is no longer viable, it is no longer useable, and it becomes useless to all. In spiritual terms, if you try to access a promise of God too early, or you allow people (or you are allowed) to go into their gifting and callings too early - then they final product cannot be used, because it is not fit for use. If people (or ourselves) are not ready then more damage gets done to the body of believers, and the person (or us) gets disillusioned with repeated failures or knock backs.
You’ve seen them, I’ve seen them…we see a tall fruit tree, the leaves on it are vibrantly green and lush, and there is plenty of fruit growing on its branches - and we think ‘wow that’s one healthy looking tree’. But for all intents and purposes it is flourishing - for that moment. However, sometimes the trees that look the best are not the trees that will produce the best fruit. Sure they many produce fruit prolifically, but their fruit isn’t juicy, sweet and refreshing - rather it is bland and stale - because the tree mass produces them and runs out of resources to have them ripen properly. Yet, there are older, gnarly looking trees with not as many fruits growing on it - but the fruit is refreshing and sweet. All of that trees resources are going into producing good fruit.
Both Paul and Matthew talk about fruit. Paul does so in the context of the ‘Fruits of the Spirit’, and Matthew is recollecting the words of Jesus who talked about recognising whether or not a person is producing good fruit or not based on the condition of their heart.
Galatians 5:22-23 “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”
Matthew 7:15-20 ““Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. 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.”
Both of these scriptures are important gauges for how we live. Are we living like Holy Spirit is within us? Or are we living with a heart that echoes the world around us? Are we producing good fruit, lasting fruit, useful fruit? Or are we producing bitter, useless fruit?
They are questions that we all (me included) need to ask ourselves on a regular basis. We need to ask the Holy Spirit to show us where we need to repent, where we need to let go, and where we need to grow. may the days to come see your life filled with growth in the days and months ahead.