known by their fruit (2021)

Humans are plants. At least, that’s the image the Bible offers. We aren’t built; we grow. We enter the world as beautifully raw materials, and nature and nurture inspire our flourishing. Every human being bears fruit of some kind, depending on the kind of plant we are raised to be. Some fruit is good, and some is not so good. And Jesus says, incredibly, that the people of his kingdom will be recognized by the kind of fruit their bear.

See what I mean? Plants.

Now, here’s the kicker: the Bible also describes how—when God’s Spirit dwells within us, animating us and giving us life—we bear his fruit in our lives. As Christians, the fruit we bear isn’t ours at all—it’s the Spirit’s! This fruit is strange; it’s not self-centered, but others-centered. It weathers storms, it is life-giving as it is shared, and it multiplies powerfully.

To live a life in the Spirit means to bear the fruit of the Spirit. And the world will know who you follow by the life you live.