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Yeshua HaMoshiach taught important spiritual lessons regarding the "fruit" of our lives. What are those lessons, and how well are we applying them? Our eternal life depends on this understanding!
At the mention of fruit, what are your first thoughts? A snack? A dessert? Your favorite fruits? The Bible refers to literal fruitsuch as olives, grapes and figsmany times. More frequently the biblical Hebrew and Greek words translated "fruit" have a symbolic sense. All crops are considered "fruit of the earth." Children are called the "fruit of the womb." A man's words are "the fruit of his mouth." In ancient and modern times, people have used "fruit" to mean results, products, outcomes, accomplishments and achievements. An employee must be productive to be worthy of his wage. He must work hard, work fast and work smart to get jobs done and done right. In Scripture, "fruit" has similar meanings.
We are to be fruitful
Closely following God's desire for good fruit is His desire for us to produce a lot of itto be highly productive. Yeshua said, "This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples" (John: 15:8, NIV). Notice, bearing abundant fruit glorifies God and identifies Yeshuas disciples! Later, Yeshua states the purpose of our calling: "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruitfruit that will last" (John: 15:16, NIV). Hence we must be oriented toward eternal goals and work with all our hearts to bring them to fruition! The following parable is quite instructive: "A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, 'Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?' But he answered and said to him, 'Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down'" (Luke: 13:6-9). The keeper of the vineyard asked for another year, during which time he would fertilize the soil to encourage growth. This illustrates God's patience with ushow He is "not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter: 3:9). A fruitless fruit tree, however, will eventually be "cut down." Professing without producing is no good.
We are to grow
The similar parables in Matthew: 25:14-30 and Luke: 19:11-27 illustrate God's emphasis on spiritual growth and accomplishment. In each story, two servants obediently invested the master's money to earn a profit for him. But the third servant merely hid the money for safekeeping. Fear of failure was his excuse for not even trying. The parable shows that we must obey God with faith and courage even when it may be humanly frightening. The fearful servant is called "unprofitable" and "wicked and lazy" (Matthew: 25:30, 26). To each of the profitable (fruitful) servants, the master said, "Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord" (Matthew: 25:21, 23). May this be what we hear when Yeshua returns to reward His servants!