Bad Fruit and Good Fruit

On our property we have quite a few trees and they are of several different kinds. One variety is black walnut trees. A couple of them line our driveway which will make work for us in the fall when the nuts begin to fall. But one of them is in our pasture just outside the horses’ run-in. (See the picture) That is, it was there until yesterday when we had the tree cut down and removed.  When we moved in, we thought it might be a great shade tree outside the run-in for our horses. But we investigated it and found out that, “these trees and nuts contain a chemical called juglone, which is toxic to horses and other animals, causing serious health issues that can be fatal if left untreated.” Although the tree was very healthy and looked like a great tree, as a toxic tree, it was in the wrong place.  And so, we knew that we needed to remove this tree because for the horses it was a bad tree with bad fruit, bark, leaves and roots.  By the way, these trees are also toxic to other plants.  We now have our garden and newly planted orchard nearby. So, the tree had to go.

In Matthew 7, Jesus used the imagery of good and bad trees and the fruit from them to illustrate the difference between true and false prophets. By extension, his teaching can generally apply to everyone. ¹⁵“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. ¹⁶By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? ¹⁷Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. ¹⁹Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

People who are true followers of Christ and those who are true preachers of the Gospel are like good trees that produce good fruit. Their fruit can be encouraging and spiritually nutritious. Their fruit gives life. Those people who are not true followers of Christ and who are false preachers, are like bad trees who produce bad fruit. Their fruit is toxic and leads only to death.  Like our tree, these latter trees are cut down and eventually thrown into the fire. How do we know which is which?  Matthew 7.20, “Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.”  All we have to do is observe their behavior and words against the standard found in the Bible and we will know the good fruit from the bad fruit.

And so, let us be fruit inspectors, starting with inspecting our own fruit.  Are we producing good fruit? If we are not, we need to radically change. When we find someone else who is not producing good fruit, let us encourage them to change through the radical transformation of their mind to have the mind of Christ.

                                                                        In Christ Alone