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Useless Invites Disaster
Brian Mashburn
March 23, 2014
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Fruitlessness Invites Disaster
One of Christ's smallest stories contains one of his biggest ideas. It is the story of a fig tree that even after three years had born no fruit. The owner demanded that it be cut down because it was wasting perfectly good soil. The land-keeper suggested that the owner wait one more year, with the promise that he would labor to cultivate the ground around it to encourage it to do what it is designed to do... bear fruit.
God expects fruitfulness from you. He expects you to have a life that blesses and feeds others. He expects you to be spiritually productive, not just enough to keep yourself alive, like this fig tree was doing, but enough to bless others. Charles Lamb speaks of a man whose life had 3 stages.
When he was young people said of him, "He will do something."
When he was older they said, "He could do something if he tried."
Towards the end they said, "He might have done something if he had liked."
God is the "owner" in this story Who demands that you actively love others in the name of Christ.
But fear not, God is also the "land-keeper," who for some reason loves the tree so much that He would preserve its ineffective life, and slave away to keep creating opportunities for it to produce.
Are you producing spiritual fruit?