AVOIDING PLASTIC GRAPES
Kendra Intihar
Today's Scripture: “So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.” Matthew 7:17, ESV
Theme: The spiritual good or bad “fruit” we bear indicates our spiritual health or sickness. They are directly correlated.
FAUX FRUIT
When I was little, I went with my mother to a friend’s house where I encountered a big, beautiful bowl of fruit. I reached my hand in to pluck a bright green grape, only to realize something was off. The fruit looked perfect at a glance, but the moment I touched it, I knew it was fake. If I’d popped one of those grapes in my mouth, I’d have been chewing on rubbery plastic.
We should be able to tell real fruit from fake fruit the moment we see or touch it, but if you’ve ever wandered through the “faux fruit” section of a craft store, you’ve likely seen a fake apple with toddler teeth marks in it. Adults have developed discernment to know the difference between real apples and synthetic ones, but little kids don’t yet have that ability…especially since manufacturers are so good at making fake fruit look real.
SPIRITUAL ROT
The only thing worse than fake fruit is bad fruit. We were designed to sense it by sight, by smell, by touch, and by taste. God gave us all those built-in alarm bells for a reason: to keep our bodies healthy. In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warns us to watch out for false prophets—people who seem godly but aren’t. In Matthew 7:16a (NIV), He says, “By their fruit you will recognize them.” Just as He wants our bodies to avoid rotten food, God wants our hearts and minds to avoid spiritual rot. That’s why Jesus tells the crowd to be wary of people who appear moral but produce harmful, toxic, self-serving fruit. The hard part, then and now, is that bad fruit often looks good. You may not know it's rotten until you've had a taste.
Some of the most moral-looking people are, in fact, producing bad fruit. Jesus saw this in the Pharisees who were rigid in their rule-following but inwardly angry, greedy, prideful, bitter, and unkind. They wore a veneer of holiness, but their “fruit” revealed the truth. Just as Jesus warned us back then, we must develop discernment to differentiate good fruit from bad fruit. What can bad fruit look like today?
- Behaving vengefully or seeking revenge;
- Putting ourselves first instead of last;
- Idolizing money, power, or influence;
- Wielding our tongues like weapons;
- Fear, anger, right-fighting, and taking easy offense.
These were the bad fruit of the Pharisees in Jesus’ time, and they’re the bad fruit you and I are still tempted to produce today because our world is arranged in a way that elevates those rotten fruits. In fact, if we’re not careful, we can become downright self-righteous about our “bad fruit.” Like plastic fruit in a bowl, we can fake it for a while, but eventually, our fruit will bear witness to the truth of our lives.
RADICAL
Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can cultivate good fruits, allowing them to take root in our hearts and grow. Galatians 5:22-23 gives us an inexhaustive list of the kinds of good fruit the Spirit produces in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Of course, there are others, and we can easily recognize them because they are characteristics that glorify God and edify others.
The Kingdom of God has always been radically different from the empires of this world. Following Jesus is supposed to make us radically loving, radically gentle, radically kind, radically joyful. These are Gospel fruits. These are the signs of a life rooted in Christ.
Make it Personal: Just as Jesus said, it’s important to analyze the fruit coming out of the lives of the people we associate ourselves with, but it’s also important to turn that lens inward and analyze the fruit of our own lives. Let’s take inventory of our “fruit.”
- Do I behave lovingly toward my enemies?
- Do I show care for “the least of these?”
- Do I speak with humility and grace?
- Am I quick to forgive?
- Do I reflect the gentleness and compassion of Jesus?
Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to help us bear good fruit in our friendships, family relationships, the content we consume, the social media content we produce, and even the conversations we have with strangers.
Pray: Father, I pray that You would be the author of the overflow of my heart. Develop in me the “good fruits” that come with following You and show me any areas of my life where my words and actions are not bringing glory to Your Name. Purify my heart, wash me clean from worldliness, and make me an ambassador for Your radical Kingdom. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Read: John 15:1-8; Ephesians 5:8-11; James 3:17-18
Weekly Memory Verse: “Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.” (Matthew 7:20, NLT)