““No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.” Luke 6:43 NIV
The beauty of God’s creation is the level of diversity in each and every thing from that object, person, animal, etc. One creation that stands out to me is the various types of trees. Just listen to some of them: Oak, Maple, Spruce, Red Cedar, Fig, Magnolia, Ash, Larch, Hemlock, Pine, Spruce, and the list goes on. As I learned of this extensive list of trees, I began to think about what each of the trees produce, no tree is created just to stand idle but they each have a reproductive purpose. Trees have furnished us with two of life’s essentials, food and oxygen. Beyond that they provide additional necessities such as shelter, medicine, and tools. Some of the very things that we eat are produced from trees, like apples, cherries, grapes, etc.
In the above verse we are helped to understand that you can determine the type of tree based upon what it produces. Good trees don’t produce bad fruit, and bad trees don’t produce good fruit. Verse 44 says, “Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers.” Ultimately this passage in verses 43-45 is tailored to teach us that it’s not about what you say rather about what you do. What a person is, is what one does, and what one says is an inseparable union, similar to a tree and its fruit. When individuals look at us what do they see? Does our action align with our speech? Are we apple trees trying to produce grapes? The right tree produces the right by product! When you realize that what you’re supposed to be producing is not manifesting then it should make us question the seeds that are being sown. Unproductive trees don’t survive.