Daily Devotional
"Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."
Matthew 7:19
This is a hard verse, and it should not be softened. Jesus is quoting John the Baptist word for word. John had said the axe is already laid to the root of the trees, and every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire (Matthew 3:10). John preached it to religious people who assumed they were fine. Now Jesus repeats the exact sentence at the close of the greatest sermon ever preached. The message has not changed.
Look carefully at the charge. Jesus does not describe a tree that bears poisonous fruit. He describes a tree that bears no good fruit at all. The condemnation is not for some dramatic scandal or shocking heresy. It is for barrenness, a tree simply taking up ground and giving nothing back. No competent orchard keeper tolerates a tree that only occupies space and spreads disease to the healthy trees around it.
This means discipleship is far more than religious activity. A person can preach and be a barren tree. He can lead a small group, serve as a deacon, give generously, and know all the songs, and still be barren. Barren trees leaf out beautifully in February. It is in July, when fruit is expected, that the truth finally comes out. The question is not whether your branches look full today. The question is whether there is any real fruit on them.
Today's Challenge
Is it possible that you have mistaken religious activity for spiritual life? Strip away the busyness and the routines for a moment: what fruit remains that only God could have grown?
Prayer
Father, this warning frightens me, and I think it is meant to. Keep me from settling for a full calendar and an empty heart. I do not want to merely look alive; I want to be alive in you. Search my branches, and where there is only leaf and no fruit, do the work only you can do. Amen.
