Sweet Summer Fruit

 Each season of the year has its benefits. Not only are we enjoying a relatively mild summer, but peaches are especially sweet and juicy. Take a piece of pound cake or homemade biscuit, pile on some sliced peaches and top with a generous amount of whipped topping. Umm!

Have you ever wondered how in the world a tree can make fruit? After all, it is only a piece of wood that lives in dirt and water. How can a tree turn dirt and water into something that is so good to eat? The only answer is that God made peach trees to make peaches. You see, they are just doing what they were made to do.

Let me show you how wonderful things can be produced in our lives, too. The Bible says that God made Christians so they can produce good fruit. Paul calls that fruit good works: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8-10).

Think about it this way. Just as a fruit tree doesn’t need to work extraordinarily hard in order to produce fruit, neither does a Christian have to work extraordinarily hard in order to do good works.

Let me explain. A peach tree doesn’t have to grunt and groan before it can make peaches; it only needs to have the right kind of food and water and then the peaches just grow. That is how it is for a Christian. A follower of Christ doesn’t have to work hard to produce good works. He (or she) only has to make sure to get the correct spiritual nutrition. If a Christian is getting the right kind of Bible study, prayer, and fellowship, the good works will naturally come.

Now, what will those good works look like? There is a lot of confusion about this. For example, many people seem to think that God is just looking for Christians who don’t take drugs, who participate in religious ceremonies, give money to the church, and help the poor and elderly. This will shock some of you, but the Bible doesn’t list any of those things when it describes a Christian’s fruit. Notice what the Scripture says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).

We all produce “fruit,” the only question is what kind. Jesus warned us that “every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matthew 7:17–19).

What kind of fruit is growing in your life? The fruit of the Spirit (that is underlined in the verses above) will be growing in your life if you have really surrendered your heart to Christ. When people embrace what Jesus did to wash away their sins, they begin longing to know Christ better.

How do Christians grow that good “fruit?” They need to get closer to Christ through Bible study (reading Christ’s love letter to us), through personal prayer, and through spending time with others who love Jesus. If a person is the right kind of “fruit tree” (i.e. has been born again, see John Chapter 3), then all he or she needs is a regular diet of the right kind of spiritual “food.”

What are you feeding yourself spiritually? Are you seeing more “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,