Beware of Rotten Fruit!

This week, I’ve been at camp; it’s been difficult to write, or to do the things I normally do throughout the week, but it’s been worth it. We’ve been talking about the fruit that one’s life produces, and it falls only in to two categories: the fruit produced by death (the flesh), or the fruit produced by life (Christ through the Spirit). They are both completely and utterly incompatible; you’re life is either producing one or the other. The Fruit of the Flesh is rotten, and if you’ve ever heard the expression “one bad apple spoils the whole bunch,” you might know where I’m going with this. A rotten piece of fruit can corrupt the fruit around it. The mold, the rot, the decay can get in to the flesh of the healthy fruit around it, causing whole bushels to go wrong. In the same way, someone who is “bearing rotten fruit” in their lives can bleed that rot in to our lives!

Conversely, the fruit of the Spirit is given, granted, and cultivated through the Holy Spirit. He produces in us love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. He (The Holy Spirit) provides us with protection against the rot. The fruit He produces is unshakable, because it is not OUR fruit to produce, it’s HIS!

So, what is growing in your life? Are you cultivating rotten fruit, and seeing it spread like a disease, or are you so full of joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control that nothing can shake you? Examine yourself, and seek God’s growth the Holy Spirit!

John 15:1-11

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

Galatians 5:13-26

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.