Forcing Our Fruit is Fruitless
“We can’t force fruit to grow, either by force or farce.”
My tomato plants are finally producing a lot of their fruit and it got me thinking about Matthew 7:20. I love how the New Living Translation puts it: “Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.” This is encouraging and sobering since it means we can actually look at our lives and self-assess.
Based off of the 10th day from the little devo book I’m working on called “Approaching God with Freedom and Confidence
Side note: maybe someone reading this has thought, “And we can also use that to see if someone else is producing-” Before you and I continue in that thought, let me encourage us to stop a minute. We must evaluate our own relationships with the Lord first and foremost. Remember Jesus’s words in Matthew 7:1-5. By judging others, we set ourselves up for judgement. I didn’t make that up, it’s in the scripture. Of course there are times we come alongside people and guide them out of troubles. We also do not close our eyes to sin and let people hurt others. Evil can’t have reign. But judgement that looks to repay or avenge, or set ourselves up as righteous above another, that belongs to God, see Romans 12:19.
So, getting back to allowing God to teach us.
What kind of fruit do we produce each day? Is it self-focused or other focused? Does it give life to others or tear them down? Are we acting out of stress-based, worry-based or fear-based thinking and feeling? Some of you might be like me and be hard on yourself thinking “I’m not producing enough good fruit, I have to be better. God has given me so much, I have to give back and grow more!” This kind of shame-based thinking needs to be uprooted from our hearts if we are to live in God’s freedom. As my former pastor Emy Vazquez says “Shame off you!”
On the flip side, acting that we are growing fruit when we are not is lying. James says that someone who knows what scripture says, and then goes and does the opposite is like someone who looks in the mirror and forgets what he looks like! He also has stern words for people who call themselves Christians, but don’t watch what they say. “Worthless” is the word he uses. That’s pretty brutal.
So then what can we do? We can remind ourselves that it is only in in Christ we can produce good work, and cultivating that comes from a heart focused on Christ. As John 15:5 says, “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.”
What a huge relief. Yes, we are known by our fruit, but that good fruit comes by staying connected to God, not forcing good fruit to grow by our own strength, either by force or by farce. Let’s be people who grow fruit of the Spirit of God out of the love of Christ within us. It is from that connection to God we are able live in His glorious abundant life.
Questions I’m working through and invite you to join me: Is there an area of your life you are trying to grow your own good fruit? How can you apply John 15:5 to that situation?