A few years ago, a tree sprang up in my front landscaping bed. It looked like a weed tree, so I cut it out. It shot right back up, and I cut it down again. This cycle repeated a few more times before I decided that the tree must really want to grow in that spot. I left it to do its thing and it grew bigger each successive year. From the looks of the bark and the leaves, I guessed it was some sort of native fruit tree or volunteer ornamental tree, but I wasn’t sure.
A good tree doesn’t produce bad fruit; on the other hand, a bad tree doesn’t produce good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs aren’t gathered from thornbushes, or grapes picked from a bramble bush. A good man produces good out of the good storeroom of his heart. An evil man produces evil out of the evil storeroom, for his mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart. Luke 6:43-45
Yesterday I was outside raking mulch in the front landscape bed and noticed a couple of what looked like purple grapes. I picked them up and inspected them, wondering what they were exactly and where they came from. I looked up at the tree and saw growing on each branch green fruit...plums to be exact! So, this wild, determined, volunteer tree was a Prunus Americana, or native American Wild Plum fruit tree. I was pleasantly surprised and decided that it was a good addition to the landscape.
By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. Matthew 7:16-21
God places us in life where we need to be. Sometimes, like Jonah, we run from God and His plans for us when our own plans for our life don’t exactly match His. But, like Jonah, God has a way of getting us back on track (hopefully it doesn’t need to involve being swallowed and spit out by a giant fish though!). This little tree knew exactly where it wanted to be. Once firmly established in its proper place, it did what it was intended by God to do...produce fruit. And just as I was able to tell that this tree was a Wild Plum from the fruit it produced, so too people should be able to determine what kind of person we are by the fruit we produce. Are you producing grapes and figs? Or are you producing thorns and thistles? A word of warning: trees that produce bad fruit are cut down and thrown into the fire to be destroyed.
Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy,outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy,drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I tell you about these things in advance—as I told you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, we must also follow the Spirit. We must not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Galatians 5:19-26
Just as this Wild Plum tree produced the kind of fruit it was supposed to, “good fruit,” we as Christ Followers are to also produce “good fruit.” In answer to the question “what exactly is good fruit?”, the verse above provides a list of those attributes a Christian should exhibit. If this tree would have produced apples, I would have known it was an apple tree. Oranges, an orange tree. Watermelons, I would have called Ripley’s Believe It or Not! The fruit you produce determines what you are. Are you producing works of the flesh, or Fruit of the Spirit? Take a second to step back and examine the fruit your life is producing. Look at yourself as others see you. Ask yourself, "Am I producing good fruit?"
