“For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”
Luke 6:43-45
You wouldn’t go to an apple orchard to pick oranges. You wouldn’t expect to find peaches on a banana tree. The type of tree decides the type of fruit, and no one would expect to find something other than that fruit that the tree is known to produce. In the same way, no one would see a dying fruit tree and expect that it would produce good fruit. If the roots are rotting away, there will be no good fruit.
Jesus says that the same can be said of us. Think of how a tree grows. It starts with a seed. An apple seed will never produce a lemon tree. It grows into an apple tree that bears apple fruit. As we apply that idea to our lives, we must think about what the seed is for the life that we’ve grown. What’s the best way to find out what kind of “tree” you’ve grown in your life? Look at the fruit. What does your life look like? Do your actions look more like Jesus’ own life or more like the way the rest of the world behaves?
We have to realize that no matter how hard we try to follow rules or simply to “not sin,” the root is much deeper than just what we wish we could do better. It’s a matter of the seed that is growing the tree. For some us, the tree needs to be uprooted altogether and a new seed planted. For others, we just need to nourish the tree better so that it can produce fruit.
We cannot produce good fruit if we don’t have good roots. Our behavior and actions will, in the end, always reflect our deepest desire. If our desire is for our sin more than it is for our God, our actions will reflect that, no matter how hard we may try to change it. An apple tree will not produce oranges.
We have to change from the very roots, the seed from which our tree began. If Christ isn’t the seed of the tree that is our life, then Christ won’t be seen in the fruit. After all, where do apple seeds come from? Other apples. If our calling as Christians is to make disciples and share the gospel, we have to be producing the fruit from which the seeds are taken. Otherwise, bad fruit will give way to more bad fruit.
We have to get down to the roots and grow a new tree from the seed and roots of Jesus Christ. From that, good fruit will abound and sin will no longer be the treasure of our heart, but instead it will be the holiness of God.
Prayer:
Father,
I know that deep down, my sin struggles have a root in the fact that I seek and crave the momentary pleasures that sin brings. I pray that you would uproot that tree in my life and help me to crave you above all. I pray that you would be the seed of all the fruit in my life.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.
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