The other day I was transplanting a dwarf fruit tree from its current pot to a larger one. The tree itself was quite healthy, it was just getting too big for the pot that it was in. But what was a pleasant surprise was that a fruit from the young tree had fallen into the soil in the pot, and after nearly a year had started to germinate and grow into a tree itself. Now I have a smaller fruit tree happily growing out of the fruit from the parent plant.
Sometimes in life we are going about our normal life, fulfilling our role in society, in our families and walking our our faith and we expeerience fruit for our labours and endaevours. Most of that fruit is common and expected. Sometimes, just sometimes…out of the blue comes some unexpected influence that we have in the world around us, where what we have done has impacted on someones life in ways that we neither intended nor were looking for.
These pleasant little experiences only come about when someone informs us of the impact of something that we did for them or said to them - usually something that we did not consider to be important at the time.
I’ve been in education for over fifteen years now, and most educators put in a great deal of effort to teach and support their students - much of which either goes unnoticed, or unaffirmed. Students arrive and move through the grades then after years of input they graduate and you hope that you have done your best to equip them for life. But sometimes things that you do without thinking, or without the intention of having a depth of meaning.
There is a story that stick out to me.
There were two boys at a school I once worked at. Neither was academically inclined, and many other teachers wrote them off as being slack and disengaged from school, and didn’t have high hopes for their success after school. However, whenever I was on yard duty, or at other times I would talk to them about all manner of random things. Then when they graduated they both thanked me for the effort that I had put into their lives - yet it wasn’t something that I went out of my way to do. It meant a lot to them, so much so that several years after they graduated they asked to catch up with me and tell me about their lives up to that point. They told me of how some of the things we spoke of, things about life, they have valued as they moved into adulthood. One has joined the military, after being told by other staff he lacked discipline and the drive to achieve much. The other, who struggled with being on the spectrum, is now invovled with teh management of a business.
However, me being the flawed individual I am, have also produced tainted fruit that has grown from my own mistakes which have unintentionally hurt others.
The point is that sometimes you unintentionally impact peoples lives. Sometimes you produce fruit and growth where it was unintended. Some of it postiive, and some of it negative.
The Bible has much to say about fruit, and being fruitful. Some valueable scriptures are explored below.
Matthew 7:15-20 says… “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.”
It is interesting that Jesus leads off with a distinct and not so subtle note not to get drawn into false doctrines and the following of false teachers. This is even moreso in these days with the proliferation of people utilising God’s word for their own financial gain and notoriety across social media and the internet.
Those who seek to do these things are not in it to build the body of Christ, or to bring the unbeliever to a restored relationship with God - rather they are there to consume people - spiritually, financially, emotionally, and sometimes physically. They are nothing but wolves playing in a sheep pen with unwary believers looking for quick fix theology that only leads to a shallow understanding of God’s word and a limited relationship with HIM.
Jesus then links the wolves to bad fruit. This bad fruit is the actions (dictated by the darkened internal environment of the person) of those people.
Notice that Jesus wasn’t talking about how many people a believer has brought to salvation, nor the numbers of people they have delivered from the grip of demonic oppression, nor the amount of worship services they have led, nor the sermons they have delivered. But rather how they live out their life in a righteous and godly manner.
The other interesting thing that Jesus is implying is that this measurement is being used on those who beleive in God and are stating that they speak on HIS behalf - not unbelievers.
So this is a mirror by which we should look at ourselves with. Are we producing fruit that benefits and blesses others or are we producing bad fruit that is not fit for anything?
In these verses Jesus pre-empts Paul’s discussion of the ‘Fruits of the Spirit’ found in Galatians 5:22-23, which says… “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!”
In the post-resurection world in which we (and the early church) live - believers are blessed with the Holy Spirit within us.
The Holy Spirit is part of the triune godhead, and as such, can exhibit and share the very nature of God to us.
The Holy Spirit is the counsellor and guide that Jesus promised to us. The Holy Spirit works in us. This is an ongoing process because we are sinful beings.
Too often within the church it is taught that if a person isn’t exhibiting all the Fruits of the Spirit all the time then they are lesser of a Christian and their faith is weak.
This cannot be the furthest from the truth.
Firstly, dependent on the situation we find ourselves in - some of the Fruits of the Spirit will need to be exhibited more than others. There are times that we may experience something on our own which may not need a lot of love or gentleness to be exhibited, but may need a great deal of self-control and patience. The Holy Spirit - if we are in a real relationship with HIM - should guide us in how they get exhibited in our lives.
Secondly, we are indeed fallen, sinful people - and we need to grow and mature in our faith. We will experience events and circumstances in our lives that illuminate where our weaknesses lay. It is during these times that God, using our circumstances, works on us through the Holy Spirit to mature and to become more righteous.
If we focus on working on these areas in our lives then we are sure to bear fruit that is meaningful and impactful on other people’s lives.
To focus on these things is good - and there is no law against it (not yet anyway!).
We are works in progress. Sometimes God uses the little things in our lives to bring about fruitfulness and blessings to others. Sometimes God uses our weaknesses to grow and mature. When we mature (like a fruit tree) we produce better, healthier fruit that is good. I hope and pray that even in the oddest times of your life that you produce fruit for the kingdom. I hope and pray that you allow the Holy Spirit to work in you to bring about the righteousness of God within you.