The other day Tisha told me that a certain passage was really bothering her. Specifically, it was Matthew 7:20, “Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.” Most of us know it well. It’s a statement that makes all the sense in the world, but it doesn’t necessarily sit well with a person when thought about introspectively. That was Tisha’s point. Her concern was about what, to her was a lack of fruit, might say about herself. Of course, I had been thinking the same thing about myself. What was my lack of fruit saying about me?
What kind of fruit was Jesus getting at? Was it about bringing souls to Christ or could it be about something else? Could this be a foreshadowing reference to how the fruit of the Spirit is the defining element to a person’s Christian character?
I sense that both can be in view. Seeds of evangelism do not always grow. This we learn from the parable of the sower, as well as from the very ministry of Jesus. His message didn’t affect change in everyone with whom he spoke, but he touched the lives of many nevertheless. He made a difference. He wasn’t fruitless, but why was that?
One of my concerns is that we so rest on the fact that we are merely seed planters and waterers, trusting that God will give the growth(1 Cor. 3:6), but when that growth doesn’t necessarily develop, we simply say, “Well it wasn’t meant to be!” That’s convenient, but what if we’ve been the problem all along? What if it was the way we went about it that produced the end result? Or even worse, what if on the outside everything seemed proper, but that it was nothing more than a facade that God saw through, and because of our disingenuousness our efforts fell on infertile soil?
Could it be that evangelism without the fruit of the Spirit in us is futile?
