Several times lately, I’ve observed conversations where the idea of evaluating spiritual Fruit has caused distress for those who worry that their struggles with sin, or their children’s immaturity, are indicators that regeneration is absent.  This is certainly not a matter to take lightly, but I think a proper understanding of “fruit inspection” will enable us to evaluate our lives without finding ourselves entangled in a perfectionist trap.

Quality vs. Quantity

Although Jesus does say that if we abide in Him, we’ll bear much fruit (John 15:5), when Scripture talks about evaluating fruit, it’s always a question of the quality or nature of the fruit, not its quantity.  That is, we’re not urged to ask whether someone bears much fruit; we’re tasked with considering what kind of fruit he displays.  “You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?” (Matthew 7:16)  We know what kind of plant something is by what kind of fruit it produces — and the same is true of men.

In other words, an Apple Tree may bear a lot of fruit or a little fruit, but the fruit it bears is apples, not oranges.  By carrying this metaphor even further, we can gain additional insight into what spiritual fruit might be like in different circumstances and seasons of life.

Young Trees

When you first plant an apple tree, several years usually pass before it produces.  The first few years its energy is invested in becoming solidly rooted and established. In fact, you might be encouraged to prune it heavily and not allow it to put too much energy into fruit production, as that would result in short-term yield at the expense of the long-term life and health of the tree.

New believers might be like this — especially when those new believers are little children, and have emotional and physical immaturity to go with their spiritual immaturity.  We want to be seeing growth, but it might not look like lots of juicy fruit.  They might be busy adapting to their new “environment” and putting down roots, growing healthy and strong so they can produce much fruit over the long term.

Don’t fall into the trap of assuming the tree is dead because you can’t see apples yet.  It’s still an apple tree, and it’s still living and growing.

Good Seasons and Bad Seasons

From year to year the weather varies.  Sometimes we get an extra-rainy season.  Sometimes there’s a drought.  Sometimes storms pass through and batter the tree; they might even cause damage.  There are some seasons when the apples are abundant on the tree.  Other years the yield is moderate.  Still other years there might be very little fruit (especially if recent circumstances have been very hard on the tree).

The tree is no less an apple tree the year it barely produces a handful of apples than the year you can hardly harvest them all for their abundance.

Moreover, it isn’t necessarily any less healthy in the lower-yield year.  It might be.  Or the environmental stressors might have been so great that in order to maintain its health, the tree needed to divert its resources “inward,” toward keeping the life flowing through the tree, in order to avoid drying out and shriveling up. These temporary diversions are not a fault in the tree; they’re a necessary wisdom in order to preserve the long-term health of the tree. Forgoing a little bit of visible fruit now helps ensure a long life of fruit-bearing.

Struggling Trees

Sometimes, though, your tree really is struggling.  Maybe it didn’t get rooted as deeply, so it has a hard time drawing enough sustenance when environmental factors aren’t perfect.  Maybe it’s not getting pollinated properly.  This tree might produce flowers, but then drop them before the fruit has opportunity to form.  Or maybe it starts to produce fruit, but the fruit is small and misshapen and drops off early.

This tree needs help…but it’s still a living apple tree.  These truncated efforts to produce fruit, imperfect though they are, are evidence that the tree is living and growing.  We know it’s an apple tree because it’s attempting to bear apples — not oranges or grapefruits or figs.  It may be weak, and we want to find and fix the problem so it can bear mature fruit, but we have evidence the tree is a living, growing apple tree.

This might be a picture of the Christian who’s battling with a besetting sin.  He just keeps battling it — but he keeps battling it. It seems the fruit always falls a little short, and that can be discouraging.  But the faltering efforts should be seen as evidence of growth, not deadness.

Orchards, Not Isolation

Apple trees, like all plants, need certain “ingredients” in order to thrive.  The things the tree needs to live and grow may be found even if the apple tree is all alone: good soil, sunshine, rain… But most apple trees don’t bear fruit in isolation.  They need to grow near other apple trees for cross-pollination.  Ideally, these other apple trees are different from themselves.  Still apple trees, but different varieties.

Christians, too, are better at producing fruit when surrounded by other Christians.  We, too, can usually survive alone, but that isn’t ideal, and we might just be biding our time.  Even one other “apple tree” makes a big difference, and a whole orchard provides the greatest opportunity for “cross-pollination.” We have to surround ourselves with other Christians — those of like faith — but not necessarily those who are just like us.  Different members, one Body.

Ultimately, we know that those who abide in Him bear fruit — but faithful Christians don’t all produce equal quantities of fruit.  “[H]e who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” (Matthew 13:23)  The one who only bears thirty-fold is no less a believer.  But his yield is of the same kind as the one who bears a hundredfold.