Fruit

Jesus took his three closest friends and went up on a mountain. There he changed appearance before their eyes. His face, body, and clothing became dazzlingly bright. He was “transfigured.” It’s pretty clear that this is what Jesus was really like. On the inside, he was a figure of immense power and purity that was only temporarily covered up with dingy robes and ordinary Galilean appearance. In the words of Michael Card, his hard life of suffering was “a distressing disguise.” Of course, Christians believe that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine. He wasn’t acting either part. But it must have been a shock even to those who thought they knew him best when a voice from the heavens declared who Jesus really was – “This is my Son, my Beloved. . .listen to Him!”

Who are we Christians, really? What is the disguise and what is the reality? The Apostle Paul would say we are Free People. We have been set free from sin and from religious legalism.

“Life did not mean a constant endeavor to acquire merit before God. Rather, becoming a Christian meant entering a life of freedom, a life in which sin had been dealt with by Christ’s death, a life in which the believer now experienced the indwelling of the Holy Spirit,” writes Leon Morris.

Two things grieved Paul: believers lapsing into religious legalism; and believers falling back into sin. We are free from both traps, Paul declares to the Galatians, by the sacrifice of Christ’s death and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Our freedom to live should be shown in love, not in selfishness.

“You were called to freedom. . .(but not) as an opportunity for self-indulgence.”

Too often we Christians don’t give the impression of being free from either of the aforementioned traps. People look at us and don’t think “free”; “tight” maybe, or “limited” or even “unpleasant” but not “free.” People tend to categorize us for the things we do not do rather than for the loving deeds we accomplish. We are not seen to be free at all or particularly loving. This requires a change in teaching for sure, but much more a change in living.

Nothing can really define itself simply by what it is not. If you had never seen a whale before and I tried to describe one to you, it wouldn’t help you a whole lot for me to begin by saying, “a whale is not a dog.”
Likewise, it’s probably an unhelpful waste of time to say, “a Christian doesn’t drink, smoke, or vote for candidate x,y, or z.”

What is a Christian really like?
What, by God’s grace, have we been set free for?

“Live by the Spirit and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. . .the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

Notice the word “fruit” is singular. It is not “fruits” that might be scattered throughout a group of people – e.g. here is the “loving person”, here is the “generous person”, here is the “patient one.” No, fruit is a cluster and so these qualities should show up in the life of every believer. Love, joy, peace, patience, generosity – these should show up in each one of us on a regular basis. This is the reliable measure that we belong to Jesus.

“You will know them by their fruit.” Matthew 7.16

Sometimes I get asked the question – “How do I know what my calling is? How do I know how God wants to use me.”

Your mission begins where you are, not where you think you should be.

Blossom where you’re planted. Let the fruit fall where it may.

One day a husband came home from work. The house was a disaster. The baby was crying, dirty dishes were all over the counters, dirty laundry was hanging from doorknobs, the TV was blaring, beds were unmade, carpets were unvacuumed, dust was undisturbed, and dinner was uncooked. When he wanted to know what happened, his wife told him, “You know how you always ask me what I’ve been doing all day? Well, today I didn’t do it.”

Our mission from God, our call to freedom, always starts right where we are or it doesn’t start at all. But once we start following the call, we bear fruit and that fruit becomes a blessing to everybody. Jesus idea was that when someone began to follow him, that person would become good news to everybody in the neighborhood, at the office, at school. His idea is that the gospel is good news for everybody – even people who don’t believe it. Rob Bell says, “If the gospel isn’t good news for everybody, then it isn’t good news for anybody.”

I am a Christian today because of a couple people who were literally good news to me. They didn’t just talk about loving God, they showed me what it was like. They didn’t just talk about being bananas for Jesus, they were bananas for Jesus.

A cynic might say, yeah, well maybe they were pretty convincing to a young kid on Sunday morning but you didn’t see their faults. Oh, yes I did. The people who brought me fruit and good news were people that I grew to know fairly well. I’ve talked about a few of those people with you. I saw them in moments that they were less than their best. But here’s the thing: I remember those times because they were so few and far between. They were not times where I said, “Aha, so this is what they’re really like!” What I thought was, this is so unlike them. This is out of character. It simply highlighted how good they usually were.

The Apostle Paul says, “Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

That stuff that I used to indulge in, it’s been crucified. I don’t expect to see it in my life much anymore. A believer expects good things, good fruit. It’s the sin, not the good character or deed, that’s the aberration.

This is because of the living Spirit of God that lives in every believer.

“If we live by the Spirit, let us then walk by the Spirit.”

Things produce the fruit they are meant to produce. I don’t coax my tomato plants to produce cucumbers. I do what I can to encourage better tomatoes.

I don’t have to preach to an apple tree to produce apples. And I don’t have to preach to someone living by the Spirit of Jesus to bear good fruit. It’s who you are. It’s what you do.

So, who are you really? What does the fruit of your life tell you?