Lost Fruit

left on the ground without anyone noticing

One of the most common things you’ll hear across churches today is to focus on your fruit for your reassurance. By fruit of course I am referring to one’s actions, or the spirit leading those actions—or lack thereof.

Yet the more I pondered this idea and have seen how it has played out amongst the people I know and love, the more I have come to think that being reassured on behalf of one’s fruit is the opposite of a light burden. Maybe it’s just me, but a lot of times my fruit isn’t that great. It depends on the day, sometimes the hour, but oftentimes my fruit isn’t exactly sweet. Sometimes my fruit is sour. Sometimes it is bitter. Sometimes it is so rotten that you couldn’t even try to pick it up in one piece. Sometimes, though, my fruit is as close to good as I think it can be.

When my fruit is good, it is solely made good because of Christ’s work in me. Without Him and His work convicting me of certain things, without His opening of my eyes, my fruit would never stand a chance. And truthfully, my fruit with Him sometimes seems like it looks good on the outside but if you took a bite you’d be disappointed to see that it’s rotting from the inside out.

And I think that’s the point of the gospel. My own fruit made by myself is never good enough. Even if I try to use God’s word to make good fruit, it is still rotten at its core. My fruit is only made good because of Jesus and His dying for me. Because of Jesus my often rotten fruit that is full of works is made righteous before God. Because of Jesus, even the worst tree bearing the worst fruit can be cut and grafted into His tree of life.

It is my prayer that even if you often find yourself feeling burdened by your inability to live a life full of nothing but good fruit, there is still hope for you and your fruit because of Jesus. His fruit is the fruit that nourishes the soul. And for what it’s worth, since the dawn of time we haven’t been good at discerning good fruit from bad.

May the hope of Jesus’ dying and resurrection grant you hope and strength today.