Fruit-Bearing

Jilian Brown
Sep 30, 2021
6 min read

Updated: Oct 1, 2021

“John said to Him, ‘Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to prevent him because he was not following us.’ But Jesus said, ‘Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me. For the one who is not against us is for us. For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.’”

‭‭Mark‬ ‭9:38-41‬ ‭NASB

When I was a child, we would occasionally stop on our way up to the mountains of New Mexico and pick cherries. I am fairly certain that I ate more than I picked and placed in the baskets because, well, they were delicious. As I think back on this, what strikes me is that in my regular everyday life I did not particularly care for cherries. The whole hassle of removing the pit to eat them was never worth it to my young mind. I felt the same way about oranges. Just too much work, if you asked me. But something about climbing a ladder up to a tree to pick something right off its branches and eat it was quite magical.

It seems to me that those of us in the Christian faith spend far too much time disagreeing about our fruit preferences when we are going about our everyday walks. There is so much division between and within denominations, between our interpretations of scripture, between the complementarians and egalitarians, between the hymn-singers and the worship bands, that we have decided it is not worth the effort to acknowledge that it is fruit at all. I contend that we are missing out.

We as humans have such a strong need to be right and affirmed in our rightness that sometimes we can not see that just because it is right for me to be a cherry tree, perhaps my friend over there was planted as an apple tree. My son told me yesterday that a student in his class is allergic to cherries. Perhaps, as hard as it is to imagine, the fruit we are meant to bear is not the one every single person needs and perhaps someone else, in fact, bears that fruit.

Here is what is plain in the scripture: those casting out demons were obviously true believers. They were accomplishing the work which only ten verses earlier, the disciples themselves had been unable to carry out (Mark 9:28-29). Which also begs the question, were the disciples envious of these outsiders performing miracles in the name of Jesus? When does our jealousy of others’ gifts prevent us from doing our own work?

I find it fascinating that after listing the fruit of the Spirit, jealousy is a topic which comes up:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also behave in accordance with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, being jealous of one another.”

‭‭Galatians‬ ‭5:22-26‬ ‭NET‬‬

I am reflecting on my own weaknesses here. When it comes to judgmental attitudes, historically I have been chief among sinners. We all grow, though, and through five years of seminary and a crushing amount of self-reflection over the past three years, I have learned a few things. I have learned that rather than toss someone else’s gift, or way of doing ministry, or interpretation of scripture aside because it is either different from mine or maybe harder to understand, if instead I take the time to experience what it is they are growing, my compassion grows also. That also does not mean I have to end up agreeing with them. However, if people are leading other people to the light of Christ by exhibiting love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, then perhaps we can lay our dogma down and rejoice in that fact. We waste an inordinate amount of precious time majoring on the minors in our faith rather than just doing the good work Christ has for us individually and as churches.

This does NOT mean we allow or turn a blind eye to wrong-doing or sinfulness. We do not refrain from holding one another accountable. On the contrary, “let’s consider how to encourage one another in love and good deeds.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭10:24‬ ‭NASB

I wonder how much sin could be avoided by our regular acts of edification and affirmation toward one another. The Holy Spirit lives inside us, which is an amazing gift of power to have bestowed on our lives. As we encounter judgment towards others in the faith, what if we asked the spirit for greater love? As we encounter bitterness, what if we asked for increasing joy? As we encounter the need to control, what if we asked for waves of peace? As we encounter frustration at the pace of others and their journey, what if we asked for enduring patience? As we encounter the need to be right, what if we asked for kindness? As we encounter that which we do not understand, what if we asked for goodness toward our neighbor? As we encounter doubt that someone‘s fruit is valid, what if we asked for a measure of faithfulness which trusts in the God of the universe who created that person and their purpose? As we encounter the temptation to cause division via our keyboards at the altar of social media, what if we begged for self-control?

Bob Goff is an absolute expert in this area. Here is an excerpt from his book, Everybody Always: Becoming Love in a World Full of Setbacks and Difficult People:

"As a lawyer, I win arguments for a living, but something has changed within me. I want to be Jesus. I've concluded we can be correct and not right. Know what I mean? I do this most often when I have the right words and the wrong heart. Sadly, whenever I make my opinions more important that the difficult people God made, I turn the wine back into water. I'm trying to resist the bait that darkness offers me every day to trade kindness for rightness. These are not mutually exclusive ideas, of course, but there's a big difference between being kind and being right. Pick the most controversial social issue of the day, and you'll find passionate voices on all sides. The sad fact is, many of us have lost our way trying to help people find theirs. Arguments won't change people. Simply giving away kindness won't either. Only Jesus has the power to change people, and it will be harder for them to see Jesus if their view of Him is blocked by our big opinions."*

The church is vast, beautiful, and uniquely and strategically diverse on purpose to reach all the people she is meant to reach. She is the very bride of Christ and I can only imagine how it grieves Him to see the in-fighting that seems to be ever-increasing. As Jesus said, “for the one who is not against us is for us.” We are on the same team!

“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that a person will lay down his life for his friends...You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. This I command you, that you love one another.”

‭‭John‬ ‭15:12-3, 16-17‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

Let us pray alongside St. Francis of Assisi:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen.

—St. Francis of Assisi

Citations and Resources:

* Bob Goff, Everybody Always: Becoming Love in a World Full of Setbacks and Difficult People, (Nashville, TN: Nelson Books, 2018), 17, Scribd.

Fruit-Bearing

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