Through scripture, we have been attuned to use discernment. We have been taught to recognize good fruit vs. bad fruit. Yet we know that Jesus sat at the table with the rejected of society — the ‘bad fruit', Luke 5. Similarly, the apostle Paul advised the Corinthians not to dissociate from all ‘bad fruit’, (as they would need to associate with those people especially to perpetuate the word of God), 1 Corinthians 5.
A Tree Is Known By Its Fruit
We learn about ‘fruit’ in Luke 6:43-45. Jesus explained that no good tree can produce bad fruit; no bad tree can produce good fruit. Figs cannot be gathered from a thorn-bush; grapes cannot be gathered from a bramble bush.
A good person, out of a good heart, produces good; an evil person, out of an evil heart, produces evil… for out of the abundance, the content, of the heart is the quality of the character. Out of the heart, the mouth speaks. Out of the heart, the mind decides and the body acts.
Our relationship with God, our journey through scripture, takes place in the heart. Heart, as in the figurative center of our spirit. The relationship and the journey occur in our spirit rather than our body because the quality of our character in spirit determines the type of tree that our body will be… a good fruit-producer like the grape vine, the fig tree, or an evil fruit-producer like the thorn or bramble bush.
Our relationship and classroom with God in all of its manifestations is meant maintain our status as a good tree or convert our status from an evil tree. Surely, as children and students of God, we are given by Him the provision we need to heal and help ourselves. From places of wilderness and desolation, and in many and miraculous ways, He helps us to feel better, to feel good. But ultimately, the purpose is the be good.
In a way, we become a disciple when we read scripture as a conscientious student, keeping all that God cultivated within us, we walk the world as an apostle. We preach not with word, necessarily, but with action. We have step into purpose, into service of the Kingdom of God. Finally, we begin our emulation of Jesus as servants of God. Suddenly, two things matter even more than before: who we associate with and how associate with them.
The purpose of our relationship with God and journey through scripture it not to develop self-righteousness. 1 Corinthians 10 explains that the things in scripture happened as examples, they were written for our admonition — to counsel us, to warn us. With that in mind, remember that the people God chose were chosen not because they were great but because they were small. It is with humility and effort that we follow Jesus’ noble and effortless example.
The good fruit we produce — our generosity, mercy, compassion, etc. is not meant to be withheld from anyone. And plainly, it is not good fruit if it is paraded or presented in any self-righteous, ostentatious, or self-important way.
Jesus sat with the ‘sick’ — the sick fruit, if you will. Sick fruit is bad fruit, it is not to be consumed. But according to Jesus’ example, it is to be associated with. The goodness of spirit you bring to whoever you associate with through the day might be the medicine, the impetus a sick-fruited heart needs to begin to change, to mend.
Undoubtedly, Jesus sat and talked with them as He sat and talked with everyone else — with compassion and the word of God. The way we live our life and associate (with friends, family, acquaintances, cohorts, coworkers and even strangers) quotes scripture without reciting verses. Those around us are thus exposed if not to the word of God specifically, certainly to the way of Him.
It is important that we continue to be good-fruit producing trees, that we present good ‘fruit’. In practice, it requires effort. We do not readily produce patience at the door of frustration. And it is rarely pleasant to meet resistance. If we are to associate with thorn and bramble bushes, we are likely to be pricked. A good-fruit tree remains persistent in patience with compassion and the word of God as Jesus did when He associated with thorns and brambles.
The Road to Righteousness
Be the good-fruit tree, unabashedly. Nearly all of Jesus’ exhortations taught us that the humble of earth are the exalted of heaven; the least, the greatest. To be renowned in the place, the eyes that truly matter, decline the so-called honorable seats at the table and choose to sit with the ‘sick’ instead. Value service to the Kingdom rather than status within it. In practice this means that nobody is beyond the reach of God’s arm, His many-membered ‘body’. The doors of the Kingdom of Heaven are flung open to anyway willing to walk the road of righteous that leads to them. Be the good-fruited tree; plant yourself in their path, offer your compassion, your patience — whatever the moment or situation or person needs, whatever they may not have gotten without the grace Jesus built in you, and they might notice the path they almost walked right by. The road to righteousness. They will benefit from your good fruit —from that which Jesus taught and exemplified, and it may help them walk the path or stay the course.
You may have inspired a new disciple, a potential apostle, because something about being recipients of God’s grace makes us want to be perpetuators of it. And sometimes we just need someone, some tree, to stop us in our tracks and redirect us toward the Kingdom.
Shake the Dust Off
It would be remiss not to mention Matthew 10:14. If somebody rejects the good-fruit you bring, the word and way of God, ‘shake the dust off of your feet’ and ‘leave that house’. It is not your responsibility to doggedly attempt to change their mind. Your responsibility is to be good — actively, humbly, without discrimination.
The whole Bible has shaken the dust of Satan off of its feet; nowhere in scripture will you find anyone pleading with Satan in a dogged attempt to convince him to change. Satan has rejected God — it makes him a destructive nuisance, but an irrelevant one. The Kingdom of God is a forward-movement and the dust is left behind. Satan and his followers are in the periphery, have already failed and been sentenced and thus can likewise be rejected and ignored! That is our responsibility: to reject him, to resist the devil and thus cause him to flee from us, James 4:7. Further management of Satan + company is under our, the sovereign God’s unrelenting jurisdiction in which evil has been sentenced to perdition.
Someone to Sit With Us
Jesus sat at the table with the sick for a purpose; Jesus determined there was potential — a chance at growth and redemption for the prodigal. Jesus was perfect; we are not. We sit at the table humbly aware that there is potential for growth and redemption for us as well. We all have something to offer the other; others sprint in places we stumble; we sprint where others stumble. Sometimes, one of those thorns pricks us and irritates a place in our own selves we had not given enough attention.
The irony is that while Jesus encourages us to sit and persevere with (grin and faithfully bear) others, He simultaneously, encourages others to sit with, to grin and bear us! For our growth and spiritual development is under construction, too; we always have more to learn in the effort to emulate Jesus better every day.