“Good Fruit”

March 27, 2011 hrlau42

¹⁷ Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.” Matthew 7:17-18

Our family loves all kinds of fruit. My kids especially love mango’s, but I am not very good at picking out a really good mango. I try to pick them from their fruity smell, their brilliant colors of red, yellow, and orange. They seem like they should be perfectly yummy inside just by looking at them. But I cannot count how many times that “good” mango turned out to be rotten inside when I cut into it. I think some of the best mangos we have gotten actually looked a bit less appealing on the outside, even a bit tattered, but were perfectly delicious on the inside.

Fruit is mentioned time and again through out God’s Word. It speaks of “good” fruit and “bad” fruit. Jesus said, it is by the fruit that people produce that we will really know them. Some people may look like they have it all together. They may talk a good talk and act the part of a Christian, but when stresses come or their status is threatened this is when their true character is revealed. If their core is not secured in Christ, it is like that bad mango, mostly rotten inside.

It is only when we are rooted in Christ, fed by His Spirit and watered by His life-giving water, that we can produce “good” fruit.

⁴ “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” John 15:4