I read something the other day that stated, "You can't fake fruit" And immediately, I thought, Well, there's a blog post. Because isn't that the truth? You can fake a lot of things. You can fake being in a good mood when you're absolutely not. You can smile and say, "I'm fine!" while mentally composing a strongly worded speech you will probably never give. You can fake having your life together. Clean off the kitchen counter, shove everything questionable into a closet, light a candle, and suddenly it looks like nobody actually lives there.
And if we're being completely truthful, you can even fake looking pretty spiritual. You can know when to say, "Amen." You can carry the Bible. You can post the verse. you can know all the church words and show up every Sunday looking like you have never once been irritated by another human being.
But eventually? The fruit tells on us.
Galatians 5:22-23 says:
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance..." (KJV)
That list sounds beautiful until somebody gets on your last nerve.
Love? Absolutely.
Joy? Of Course.
Peace? Yes, Lord.
Longsuffering? Well. How long are we talking?
Because apparently the fruit of the Spirit isn't just for Sunday morning when the music is playing and everybody is behaving themselves. It's for Monday morning when you're running late. It's for the family member who knows exactly which button to push. It's for the person who says something sideways to you, and then acts like you're the problem.
That's when fruit shows up.
Fruit grows from what's inside. An apple tree doesn't have to stand in the orchard yelling, "EVERYBODY LOOK! I'M AN APPLE TREE!"
Eventually, apples show up. The fruit is evidence of what the tree already is.
The same should be true of us. Following Jesus isn't supposed to be something we simply announce. Over time, there should be evidence of His work in us.
More patience than we used to have.
A little more grace.
A softer answer.
The ability to walk away from something we once would have jumped right into.
Peace in situations that previously would have sent us spiraling.
Not perfection. Growth.
And sometimes that growth is so gradual that we don't even recognize it until we find ourselves handling something differently than the old version of us would have.
You know the version.
She had a response typed, proofread, and ready to send. Immediately.
You can't staple fruit to a tree. Here's the thing about spiritual fruit: we can't manufacture it.
We can imitate it for a while. We can bite our tongue while internally giving someone a complete TED Talk.
We can smile.
We can behave.
But real spiritual fruit isn't about becoming really good at appearing nice. It's the result of the Holy Spirit working within us.
Jesus said:
"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit itself..." John 15:4 (KJV)
A branch doesn't produce fruit by trying harder to look fruitful. It produces fruit because it's connected to the vine. And maybe that's where we sometimes get it backward. We spend so much time trying to act more loving, joyful peaceful, patient, gentle, good, faithful, meek and self-controlled that we forget the source of all of it.
Jesus.
The closer we walk with Him, the more He changes what's coming out of us.
Sometimes the fruit check is uncomfortable. Every now and then, I think it's good to take a little inventory. Not of everybody else's fruit. Because we are excellent fruit inspectors when it comes to other people.
Well, she certainly isn't showing much kindness.
He could use a little patience.
Somebody needs to work on that self-control.
Meanwhile, the Lord is probably saying, "Ma'am. We are talking about YOUR tree."
Ouch.
So maybe the better questions are:
Am I loving people who aren't particularly easy to love?
Do I have joy that isn't completely dependent on my circumstances?
Do I bring peace into situations, or do I stir things up?
Am I patient when things aren't happening on my timetable?
Am I gentle with people when I could easily be harsh?
Do I choose what is good even when nobody would know the difference?
Am I faithful?
Am I teachable and humble?
Do I have enough self-control to keep every thought from becoming a spoken word?
(That last one will preach all by itself.)
Good fruit takes time. Thankfully, fruit doesn't appear overnight. Nobody plants an apple tree on Tuesday and gets irritated on Wednesday because there isn't a pie yet.
Growth takes time.
And spiritual growth does too.
There will be days when we get it wrong. Days when our patience disappears before breakfast. Days when the words come out before the self-control kicks in. Days when we have to apologize and try again. But that is different from being content to stay exactly as we are.
When we are walking with Christ, He keeps working.
Little by little. Season by season. And eventually, there should be fruit.
Not because we're trying to convince everyone we're Christians. But because we've spent enough time with Jesus that His presence is changing us.
You can fake the appearance for a while.
You can fake the words.
You can fake the smile.
You can even fake religion.
But you can't fake fruit.
Eventually, what's growing on the inside is going to show up on the outside.
So instead of worrying quite so much about whether we look like we've got it all together, maybe our prayer should be for us to stay close to the Lord and let the fruit speak for itself.
Much Love,
Beth
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