Lesson Six: A Tree and Its Fruit
Devotion #2: A Tree and its Fruit
Kaden Kar
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.” Matthew 7:15-20
Have you ever bitten into an apple expecting a sweet, satisfying crunch only to be disappointed by a mouthful of mushy brown applesauce? Or maybe you grabbed a banana with one too many brown spots and thought, “This should be fine,” but when you peeled back the peel, it uncovered some overripe banana pudding.
When you realize that fruit has gone bad, what do you do? Do you plug your nose and eat it anyway, or put it back and hope the next person does not notice? Do you consider cutting out the bad part and trying to salvage the good? Hopefully, you do the normal thing and just throw it out.
Nobody likes bad fruit!
Much in the same way, Jesus uses the metaphor of “bad fruit” to teach us how to identify false prophets, teachers, and Christians. They will be identified by their fruit and then dealt with accordingly. Now, what does Jesus mean by “fruit” here? I believe there are two main ways we can understand the meaning of fruit as it is used here.
First, do we see the Fruit of the Spirit embodied in their lives? Galatians 5:22-23 describes it, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”
Second, when it comes to leaders in the church, do we see the fruit of the ministry (and, of course, that can mean a lot of different things)? Mainly meaning, do we see the life-changing work of the Gospel going out into the world?
Jesus tells us the secret to bearing good fruit in the Gospel of John, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:4-5).
Now, if you are not sure what Jesus means by “abide in me,” or how to do that practically, Jesus continues, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love” (John 15:9-10).
You might be wondering, “What are those commandments?” Jesus tells us directly, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John15:12-13).