Considerations

You will recognize them by their fruits. 
Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 
(Matthew 7:16)

This week I had a conversation with an individual who was shocked to see a Christian engaged in opening a business that seemed contrary to his Christian faith. She could not understand how the person could be part of such a venture. Talk shifted to the prevalence today of many who profess to be Christians but their lives lack the evidence that they are Jesus followers. To be clear we were not talking about minor slip-ups that occur as we go about our daily lives. These are conscious decisions to partner with the ways of the world and to live in a manner that does not align with the word of God. Her overall question in this conversation was: How can people do such things and call themselves Christians?

This is not a new scenario. Jesus himself spoke of how there will be people who profess to be prophets and his followers and He provided a way how we can determine the truth of who they say they are. 

 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 
(Matthew 7:15-16)

The fruit of a tree indicates what type of tree it is. If you see avocado pears hanging from a tree, you know that it is an avocado tree. Now these avocados don’t just spring up overnight. It takes time for them to form on a tree. One could give you a plant and say that it is an avocado tree but until that tree actually bears fruit, that plant could actually be a peach tree! So after time, we can see the truth of what the tree is.

The same can be said of our lives. We can profess to be Christians; otherwise known as followers of Jesus. We could be professing this for years but the true indication of who we really are, can be determined as Jesus stated in verse 16: You will recognize them by their fruits. The fruit is undeniably the evidence of the type of tree. Jesus went even further to state the condition of the tree is also evident through the condition of the fruit produced by the tree:

So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 
(Matthew 7:17-18)

So not only does the fruit of our lives tell us what type of people we are (whether we are followers of Jesus or not), it can also tell us the condition we are in. That is, whether we are followers of Jesus, who are producing good fruit that reflects a life led by the Spirit:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
 (Galatians 5:22-23)

Or are we producing fruit that reflects a life that is still under the control of the flesh?

The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. 
(Galatians 5:19-21)

… a life that reflects the ways of the world that have been grafted in instead of the life of Jesus through the Spirit…

For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. 
(2 Timothy 3:2-5)

So thank you my friend for causing me (and hopefully those reading this post) to pause and ask, What does my fruit say about me? What does it truthfully say about who I am? And how might I need to make changes in my life so that my fruit is aligned correctly with who I claim to be?