Active Theology

“You will recognize them by their fruits…” (Matthew 7:16, ESV)

I remember as a child learning about the fruit of Spirit. I couldn’t help but envision each item being comically attached to me like I had fruit stapled across my body. Love was probably an apple. Joy was a bunch of grapes. Peace was an orange. And so on and so forth. Patience was probably a grapefruit. (Nobody really likes it until they are older, but they know it’s what’s good for them so they figure out a way to like it.) The whole gang was there courtesy of the Holy Spirit.

As a child I believed that the better you got at this “faith thing” the more fruit you could hand out. Parts of that are accurate, even though they are incomplete. A close walk with Jesus does naturally produce an abundance of available fruit in your life. However, I was mistaken about the mode in which we get to engage with those tasty little morsels.

Yes. Sometimes we are presented opportunities in our lives to engage in situations and relationships that allow us to offer up our “fruit” for others to “taste”. In fact, Jesus is so aware of this exchange that he uses the analogy of fruit when instructing us on how to tell the difference between false and true teachers. He doesn’t lay out a 15 point doctrinal thesis to act as our litmus test. Jesus used what people understood: agriculture.

Good tree = good fruit.

Bad tree = bad fruit.

Simple, but wildly profound as people are so prone to lean on people who sound really really correct while their life does not reflect what they are teaching in the critical moments. And this is the interesting part to me that broke off from my childhood understanding. We do have those fruits present in our lives that we can choose to offer, but the majority of the time I find that it is not me extending the “fruit” in my hand, but it is rather them “taking a bite outta me and seeing what they taste”. 

Often, it is others’ experience of us in the worst of times where we are unprepared to respond well that reveals what fruit we are truly growing. Those times when they would most likely be met with ungraciousness, a dismissive comment, or a side eye, that by the world’s standards we are “within our right” to make, reveals the fruit. Yet when they “bite” into us, they encounter a sweetness that can only be present naturally.

Growing up, my family used to make a sticky sponge cake that we would top with strawberries and copious amounts of half and half to make this odd, sweet cake porridge-esque treat. We made it year-round for events. However, strawberries are not fantastic all year round. They are typically always passable, but they are fantastic in a few windows. A multitude of strawberry sins can be covered up with putting sugar on them… but nothing beats a perfectly sweet fresh strawberry that you bite into during your prep time! People want to encounter the real deal at all times with us.

They encounter peace when everyone else is covered in chaos. They taste gentleness when the world coaches an unforgiving brashness. And they see genuine self-control in a society obsessed with gluttony of all kinds.

My favorite believers and teachers that I love learning from and being in the presence of have this kind of fruit evident throughout their lives. And I know like any agricultural thing worth pursuing, it takes careful cultivation, good soil, and the correct environment. That is found nestled securely in the Word and time spent with the Holy Spirit.

Prayer: Lord, may the fruit of my life taste like You. May people encounter love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in every interaction they have with me.

Song: “I Will Follow” by Jon Guerra

Jake Reeves is the Worship Director at Restoration Church in Gardner, KS. He loves experiencing new food with his wife, playing communal video games, and distance running. He gets pretty amped over fantastic coffee, a fresh cut lawn, and human beings that want to be like Jesus.