Fruits, The Final Determiner
Matthew 7
KJV
20+ Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
One thing I miss most in life is my inability to undertake farming in whatever form! Yes! I have openly and unashamedly confessed this several times on many platforms during my active days as a preacher.
And what is it, I guess you'd like to know? It has to do with my orientation; I am a results-oriented person who wants to see results from whatever I do! Yes.
This explains why I don’t plant coconuts, oranges, etc anything that takes a long time to yield. My interest lies in short term yielding items such as maize, cassava etc.
You may not share in my thoughts and philosophy but that’s who I am , each has his likes and dislikes. We are all not wired the same , my wiring is different from yours. Interestingly we are both useful and needed to complete life’s cycle.
So what is this about? Well, I went out on my usual walk this morning and today stopped by the backyard farm of a neighbour to look at the plants.
Two trees were of interest to me they looked alike but bore different fruits! What tree do you think? Guess, it’s the plantain tree. I saw bananas hanging on one and plantains on the other!
As I stated earlier I am not a farmer so I couldn’t tell which is which. All this time that I’ve walked by it was today that I saw that both trees though the same, can only be identified by their fruits.
Here was where the passage quoted above came to mind; the fruit showed which is which. The same applies to us humans , outwardly we look alike but the contents of our minds which manifest themselves through our character, differentiate us.
So it is not our outward look, our pronouncements, etc but our deeds, character, attitudes, behaviours ! I stood there for a few seconds to absorb the lesson I was seeing from the two trees. One plantain the other banana!
To profess is one thing to be a practitioner is another. Many profess but their characters show otherwise. I guess this was exactly what Jesus meant when he said
21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
A verse which followed that which I cited above! This I call the “case of the professors versus the practitioners”. A case that will be heard at the Supreme Court of heaven where the Chief Justice is God. Other members of the panel are the Holy Spirit and the Son.
A few thoughts to share , a practical lesson I learnt by watching the plantain/banana tree. Whichever.