Fruit Pie or Fruit Tree?

Many of us love a good homemade cake. Whether it’s with apples, fruit or peaches, homemade cake is the result of a specific process in the kitchen. The baker arranges and prepares her ingredients, presses the dough, creates a suitable filling and adds a lattice crust, and—voila! – the finished product pleases both the eyes and the palate.

The fruit of the Spirit is not like a homemade cake. But how many of us think of things this way? start with some Loveadd some joy And peacefill it with: patience And goodnessand add some on top self controland – voila! – we hope we understood the recipe correctly. We believe that all our efforts are sufficient. We pray that the final product will be an enjoyable (and fruitful) Christian life.

But God’s word tells us that the fruit of the Spirit is exactly this: your soul. This is not “ours”. So, instead of imagining the fruit of the Spirit as a homemade pie, depending on the ingredients, we should imagine it as a tree:

(The holy man) is like a tree
erected by water currents
Giving its fruit in its season,
and its leaves do not fade.
He is successful in everything he does. (Ps. 1:3)

The survival and development of a productive tree depends on external factors. It bears fruit because it is well moistened, supplied and nourished by its roots. Everything a tree needs, it gets from outside. Even a very active process like photosynthesis involves air, sunlight and water. God’s word tells us that believers are like trees: they are completely dependent on Him to grow and bear fruit. A holy life in Christ produces holy and good fruit.

Fruit of the Spirit. . .

Consider your current thinking about the fruit of the Spirit. Do you tend to think of it as a homemade cake that depends on your own efforts and the right combination of ingredients? Or are you thinking of a fruit-bearing tree that depends on its own food sources to thrive? The differences are huge: worship instead of law-abiding, enrichment instead of exhaustion, joy instead of disappointment. When it comes to this important spiritual reality, we will want to have a heart deeply rooted in the thought of Christ and his words. We will want to be like a tree.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; There are no laws against such things. (Gal. 5:22–23)

The apostle Paul wrote these familiar words to a church family struggling to continue believing the good news about Jesus (Gal. 1:6–7). The church was being persuaded by false teachers to obey certain rules (especially circumcision) in order to be accepted by God (Gal. 6:15). But Paul, in his great passion for the truth, reminds them: “In Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any importance, but only faith working through love” (Gal. 5:6).

What is important in the Christian life? “Faith works through love.” In other words, true faith produces good fruit. Paul reminds us that only through faith in Christ can we be accepted by God (Gal. 2:16) and adopted as His children (Gal. 4:6-7). And therefore it is only through faith in Christ that we receive the promised Spirit, who bears in us his good and pleasing fruit (Gal. 4:6, 5:18).

The fruit of the Spirit is exactly this: your soul. It looks like a tree, not a cake.

Question Search

As we ground ourselves in God’s nourishing word, we find an invitation to examine our hearts as we strive to be fruitful believers. Paul asks the Galatian church at least two probing questions that remain relevant today.

Did I Turn to a Different Bible? (Gal. 1:6)

Any changes to the gospel message will distort our understanding of how to be fruitful people. This was the Galatians’ problem. Do we firmly believe that “we are justified by faith in Christ, not by works of the law” (Gal. 2:16)? Or do we hope that our good works will save us? In other words, our eternal hope must be rooted in who Jesus is and what he has done, not in what we have done.

The gospel (or “good news”) tells us that Jesus, the Lord of all creation, makes right all that has to do with sin, and when we trust in him, he will save us from sin and all its effects. The gospel does not tell us to “bear some fruit to gain your salvation” (pie); it says: “Enjoy your salvation in Christ and then bear the fruit of it” (tree). Turning to a different gospel results in discouragement (Gal. 2:11–14) and possibly even spiritual death (3:10). But holding fast to the true gospel of Christ is life (Gal. 2:20), freedom (Gal. 2:4–5), and blessing (Gal. 6:8–9).

I began by the Spirit, am I now perfected by the flesh? (Gal. 3:3)

Maybe you could say that you believe the true gospel but tend to drift into self-sufficiency (Gal. 4:9), works-based righteousness (Gal. 5:2), and thus a sluggish form of Christianity (Gal. 5:). 7). Paul reminds the Galatians (and us) that nothing can add to our salvation (Gal. 3:5). We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus (Gal. 1:1–5). This is everything!

But this does not mean that we do nothing (Gal. 5:16). Like the active photosynthesis of a tree, we are called to “keep in step with the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25), which proves that our faith in Jesus is real (John 15:8). But we must be careful; It is always possible to slip into legalism, thinking that we can somehow gain God’s grace. However, just as the moment we believe we receive “the promised Spirit through faith” (Gal. 3:14), so too “we must remain faithful.” . . by the Spirit by faith all the time until Jesus returns” (Gal. 5:1–6). We continue as we first began: in the love and power of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 3:3).

A Productive People

The fruit of the Spirit reflects the heart of God; Because his Spirit He is the one who produces all his blessings within us. We see this most clearly in Jesus, whose entire earthly life was empowered and fruitful by God’s Holy Spirit (Luke 4:18), making him our perfect substitute, compassionate brother, and faithful high priest. When we are redeemed by Christ from the curse of the law, we are adopted as sons and God sends the Spirit of Jesus into our hearts (Gal. 4:3–7). What more could we want?

So what happens when a child of God is rooted in Christ and filled with His Spirit? It bears its fruit. It is efficient. Such a person is not like a fruit pie, but like “a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and whose leaves do not fade.” He prospers in everything he does” (Ps. 1:3).

This article is adapted from: ESV Devotional Journal, Fruit of the Spirit By Kristen Wetherell

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