“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn-bushes, or grapes from briers.” (Luke 6:43-44 NIV)
My wife and I are in the process of purchasing a new house. The opportunity presented itself to buy a house just being built in a new housing scheme in a village on the edge of the countryside. To us this was our dream come true.
In purchasing a new house, we will be planning what the ground at the back of the house will be like. We want grass for our grandchildren to play on, but we also want to plant some fruit trees. There isn’t anything much better than being able to eat an apple picked off your own tree.
When we plant trees, how will we know they are apple trees? Some who are more knowledgeable than I am could probably look at the bark or the leaves and tell you what kind of tree it is. I need to look at the fruit. As Jesus put it: “each tree is recognized by its own fruit”. If we plant apple trees we expect to get apples and not figs, pears or grapes.
We also want the trees to be healthy. A good, healthy tree will produce good fruit. If the tree is not healthy it won’t produce good fruit.
When Jesus talked about fruit trees he really wasn’t talking about trees. He was using fruit trees to illustrate our lives.
“A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” (Luke 6:45)
If we are good people – and the idea here is someone who is faithfully following God – then we will be storing up good in our heart, in our lives, and our lives will show the good that we have stored there. But if we are not good people and are storing evil in our heart then what is it that our lives will produce? They will produce evil.
Have you listened to the conversations that most people have? Sadly, not only are the words they use offensive, but what they talk about is often offensive and crude. Why do they use the language they do and talk about things that would make a sailor blush? Jesus explains it: this is what their hearts of filled with. When a person fills his life with foul language and crude stories, that is what comes out.
Have you noticed that even young children now use the same foul language? Why do they do this? Where do they learn such words? Obviously, from those around them.
What is the lesson for us from this? The question for us is: with what are we filling our lives? If we expect to have a faith-filled life, then we need to be filling it with God’s word. If we want to be able to encourage others in their walk with Jesus, we need to be filling our lives with God’s word. If we are surprised at what comes out of our mouths we need to look at what we are allowing into our lives.
Photo by Jon Galloway, October 2019.