What kind of fruit are you producing?

My life is a endlessly frustrating mix of moral successes and failures, of sin and right living. Or at least it seems to be that way. I imagine your experience is similar. I know that most of the people I talk to would agree, though they may speak of it in different terms. Most would say something like "When I stand before God, I just hope my good deeds outweigh my bad deeds".

However, I was considering some of the words of Jesus, and was surprised by what I found. When Jesus talked about our lives and the things that "grow" out of them, He didn't speak in such vague terms and with such blurred lines. In fact, every time He talked about our fruit, He spoke in very black and white terms. He said, "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. So then, you will know them by their fruits."

So if my experience doesn't line up with what Jesus always taught about the fruit of our lives, perhaps I have looked at my experience wrongly. If He is right, then the good things that I did when I was a "bad tree" thinking they were earning me "brownie points" were really not that good. And, in fact, Isaiah confirms that this is true of humanity: "all our righteous acts are like filthy rags". And if Jesus is right, then the things that I do now as a "good tree" that are wrong and sinful perhaps do not grow out of the deepest part of me, but rather grow out of something sick that still clings to me. And Paul confirms this in saying "It is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it".

So this is my point. We must pray for new eyes. We are living in the middle of this human experience that wants to gray the things that God sees clearly in black and white. We must pray for the discernment and humility to evaluate the fruit that is growing out of the deepest part of us. Is it good or bad fruit that my heart, mind, and hands are producing? As John the Baptist spoke of, we should strive to "bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance". If there has been no repentance, there can be no good tree or fruit in keeping with repentance. The nature of the fruit follows the nature of the tree and only Jesus, the cross, and repentance can change our nature.