Believers, What Kind of Fruit Do You Produce?
When I was a child, I heard messages about the fruit that people
produced. Christians would be known by their fruits, and those
who weren't believers would be known by theirs. I couldn't
understand how people could grow fruit. Confused, I studied the
problem in the way children do until I found a solution I could
understand. My parents usually had a garden every summer and
grew vegetables, and I knew that some people planted fruit
trees. Therefore, Christians must be the people whose trees had
fruit or whose gardens didn't dry up in the hot sun.
In a way, my childish deduction wasn't far from wrong.
Christians must be able to produce fruit, a life, that indicates
they are believers and followers of Christ.
Second Peter, chapter one gives some Christian qualities that
believers must cultivate in order to experience spiritual
growth: goodness, self-control, and Godliness among them. But,
how do we recognize the fruit of believers and non-believers?
In Matthew, chapter seven, we find that some claim to be
believers, but they are wolves in sheep's clothing. Jesus asks,
"Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?"
He continues by saying that good trees bear good fruit, and bad
trees bear bad fruit. "Thus, by their fruit you will recognize
them. Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the
kingdom of heaven. . ."
Later in chapter twelve, He states, "For out of the overflow of
the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out
of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil
things out of the evil stored up in him."
Luke, chapter six, also records these thoughts and words. In
John, chapter fifteen, Jesus adds to the message of the fruit
produced by all, "This is to my Father's glory, that you bear
much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples."
Now, how does that apply to our lives in this modern world?
Let's look at a few examples that may help us, including me,
recognize the fruit we produce, whether good or bad.
First of all, we need to realize that other people need to be
able to tell that we are Christians without us standing on a
soapbox and announcing, "Hey, look at me. I'm a Christian!"
Others should be able to watch us, listen to us, and read what
we write and know that we produce good fruit.
Goodness is a fruit that believers are to produce: goodness in
word and deed. Deliberately hurting others is not good. Lying,
cheating, stealing, or destroying another person's reputation
out of meanness is not good. We need to examine our lives to
find goodness and not evilness.
Self-control is another fruit we should cultivate. Lashing out
in anger, frustration, or desire to hurt isn't practicing
self-control. Returning hate and spite with kindness is.
Refusing to hurt someone in return for being hurt means we have
self-control.
Godliness means we pattern ourselves after God. We dress and act
modestly. Women who are believers are not mistaken for street
walkers because of dress (rather undress) or manners. Men aren't
mistaken for criminals or gang members. Language wouldn't be
vile or vulgar. Ideas and thoughts wouldn't be gutter fruit.
Actions would reflect our trees, our lives, are God driven with
good fruit, not evil. Vile language or vulgar behavior hardly
meets the claim that "the good man brings good things out the
good stored up in him . . ."
We need to be aware of the fruit we produce because the world
around us notices. We can argue that we are good and are
Christians, but unless the world can tell that we are, we have
failed. Indeed, by our fruit we are known. The saying that we
are often the only Bible that some people will ever read is
true. What are people seeing from you, good fruit produced or
bad?