Fruit's Truth

Christian circles frequently talk about fruit. What kind of fruit are those choices producing in your life? What’s the fruit you’re seeing? 

Many questions can be asked, but the point is, we place a high value on fruit. In fact, I think we can place too much value on the fruit itself and not enough on what it represents. 

Our church is reading Romans 1-7 for You in our small groups (or as we call them, Gospel Communities). One line I read recently related to this concept and sparked this line of thinking:

“...the apples on an apple tree prove life, but they don’t provide it.”

In other words, if something is producing fruit, the fruit it produces is not life-sustaining. 

There needs to be another source.

What is being poured into that tree, or person, that is causing such fruit to be produced? 

Fruit is an indicator, a manifestation of something deeper going on, but it’s not the main thing. 

So all this to say, fruit gives us data on the qualify of life a plant, or person has. If something has died, it certainly will not be producing more fruit so the presence of fruit is proof life still exists. 

We just need to give appropriate weight to the fruit and not have it be valued more than the life source. For believers, much like Galatians 5 discusses, we know when the fruit in their lives shows proof of a life connected to the ultimate source, Jesus.

Fruit provides proof of life but does not actually give life to its source. Fruit gives life to others so let’s be sure the fruit we’re producing is life-giving by focusing on our connection to our Heavenly Father. 

That’s the fruit’s truth.