The Fruit Of...Goodness

Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. -- Matthew 12:33-35

I look at these verses as the classic battle between good and evil, but it gets fought each day inside of us. Surely there are those who get almost completely consumed by either good or evil, but I would argue that none of us are capable of either pure good or pure evil. That is left to Jesus and Satan. At the same time, we are given the choice, each day of our lives, as to how that balance will play out. Think of it as a challenge to wake up each day and see just how much good and how little evil, or sin, you can produce. If you sin, are you going to let that sin hang around and feed on itself where it leads to more sin or are you going to pray and acknowledge it and ask for help in getting back on the right track?

The question got asked up there..."how can you who are evil say anything good?" One or the other is in control of us at any given point in time. We cannot simultaneously do evil and serve God. A life spent serving God, loving Jesus, and listening to the Holy Spirit leads to good fruit while continuously serving ourselves leads to bad fruit.

In those verses, we are the tree and Jesus flat out tells us that He will recognize us by the fruit we produce. Now, I'm not much of one to drive home the thought that you should fear the Lord, but that thought would scare the devil out of me (literally!) if I hadn't accepted Jesus' sacrifice and become a child of God.

Each day I have choices to make. When I choose to produce good fruit, I will celebrate and give thanks to God. When I choose evil, I will seek God's grace and resolve myself to do better next time.