A Tree and Its Fruit

Luke 6:43-45

Key Verse 6:44a, 

Each tree is recognized by its own fruit.

In the passage we would like to think about how we can live a fruitful life that renders glory to God. Concerning a fruitful life, Genesis 1:28 reads, "God blessed them", and said to them, "Be fruitful." The two words, "blessed" and "fruitful" indicate that living a fruitful life constitutes the blessed purpose of life. And the word "blessed" (which means "happy") already suggests that if we live a life that is fruitful, then it is not just God who is happy but each of us who is truly happy. How then can we live a blessed life that is truly fruitful and therefore truly blessed? Let us think about the answer to this question based on what Jesus says in this passage.

First, no good tree bears bad fruit

The first point we need to secure for a fruitful life, is for us to be rooted in Jesus Christ. 

Look at verse 43. "No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit." This passage says two important things: (1) the quality of a tree determines the quality of its fruit; and (2) in order to improve the quality of fruit, we must first improve the trees’ quality. Matthew 12:33 is direct on this point saying, "Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit." 

Here, by a tree Jesus means each person. By fruit, Jesus refers to the outcome of one's life here on earth, like good things you do or bad things you said to your neighbors. So verse 43 can be paraphrased to read, "No good person can do bad things, nor does a bad person do what is good." 

It follows then that in order for us to be able to do what is good, we must first be a good person for what we do is merely a reflection of who we are. The question then is how can we be a good person that naturally does what is good? 

When we study the Bible, we quickly discover that one cannot be a good person on his own. Because you cannot be a good person on your own, it is impossible for you to bear good fruit on your own. John 15:5 is direct on this point, for there Jesus says to his disciples: "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." Here "nothing" means "nothing good." 

Jesus' words here coincide with a life story which a pastor of a church shared with me. This man grew up under believing parents. His father pioneered four churches. Through his father's help he studied the Bible from his childhood. Then he earned an advanced degree from one of the famous divinity schools. In his early twenties, he started ministering in a church. But throughout his career as a pastor, he had to struggle really hard to overcome one chronic problem: the habit of lying. He tried hard not to tell a lie. But no matter how hard he tried, he ended up telling lies all the time. And he lied in his sermons. He lied in talking to the members of his church during counseling sessions - not 100 percent lies, but the lies which he inserted here and there in telling stories, making them sound like true life-stories, when in fact they were all made up by him in his brilliant ability to make things up. Of course, quoting from Revelation 21:8, he preached that all liars will be thrown into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. But still he could not stop lying. To him, the habit of telling a lie was attached to him as inseparably as his skin was to his body. Just as it was impossible for him to peel off his skin, and put new skin on, so also it was impossible for him to stop lying, for even without himself having to think, each time he spoke, very naturally, lies came out of his mouth.

In Romans 7:7-24, the Apostle Paul also shares an experience like this. In Romans 7:18 he directly says, "I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out." 

Through God's grace, the Apostle Paul found God's solution: becoming a new creation in Jesus Christ. In 2 Corinthians 5:17 he says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" Then, in Colossians 2:6-15, he says that we need to be rooted and built in Jesus Christ, for when we are rooted and built up in Jesus Christ Jesus helps us overcome our sinful nature altogether. Just as Jesus changes wash water into choice wine, Jesus can transform us from a bad person to a good person. Then, very naturally, we can bear good fruit that pleases God. So the first point for us to remember for a fruitful life is to make a tree good by confessing that we are helpless sinners, receive Jesus as the Lord and Savior, and be rooted and built up in Jesus Christ!

Second, each tree is recognized by its own fruit

Look at verse 44a. "Each tree is recognized by its own fruit."

The meaning of this passage is quite clear. If you bear good fruit, people will recognize you as a good person, and will come around you. If you bear bad fruit, people will recognize you as a bad person and will run away from you. I put out a list of good character traits and the list of bad character traits. See how many good traits you have, and then how many bad ones you have. These character traits are one of the ways to tell whether you are recognized either as a good person or a bad person. 

"Each tree is recognized by its own fruit." Each time Jesus says something, he always has specific need(s) to address. So let us stop for a moment and think about what Jesus might have had in mind in further details. First of all, let us think about what the passage says. I think this passage says two things.

No 1. Each tree has its own fruit which is unique in shape, color, taste, etc. Personally I do not like bananas. But apparently some people love bananas. Shepherd Jay Irwin! Do you like bananas? If you don’t like them, you are in trouble, for in Ecuador, one of the biggest export items are bananas. So, the banana tree has its own kind of fruit called the banana. I like pears, especially Korean pears. A pear tree bears pears. Some people like apples. And apples grow on an apple trees. Apples never grow on a banana trees. So, each tree has its own fruit. 

No. 2. It is the fruit by which each tree can be recognized. One person I know had high blood pressure. Then a lady tipped me saying, "Oh, the leaves of persimmon tree are good for high blood pressure. Just take lots of leaves from persimmon trees while the leaves are green. Let the leaves dry out, then make tea out of them and drink it." So, I bought a persimmon tree. I planted it in my backyard. But, still it did not produce any persimmons. It did not produce many leaves either. So, I am not sure whether or not the tree I planted is really a persimmon tree. If it produces persimmons, then I’ll be able to recognize it as a persimmon tree. 

Let us remember that by each tree Jesus means each person. And by it’s own fruit Jesus refers to the physical or spiritual fruit each person is going to bear at the end of his life's journey. With this in mind, let us read the passage again. "Each tree is recognized by its own fruit." Let us read this passage again, but this time paying attention to the word "own". We can paraphrase this passage to read, "Each person is recognized by his own fruit he bears at the end of his life's journey here on earth." 

In my opinion, one of the meanings is this: God created each person differently, so that while each person must respect others as better than himself, each one must settle for, and learn to be content with the way God made him or her, and strive to please God using every resource (talent, time, energy, money, etc.) the Lord God blessed him or her with.

Dr. Paul Hong is here with us to have a worship service together with us. Thus far, since Dr. Paul Hong took his root in Jesus, the Lord God enabled him to bear a lot of good fruit, physically and spiritually. For example, he is a director in charge of Toledo UBF, holds a black belt (second dan) in Aiki-do, earned a Ph.D in business management, works as a full time tenure professor at the Toledo University under whose leadership six Ph.D students are growing, (his son in law who is a lawyer is the manager in charge of the human resources department at the Toledo University, so that Dr. Paul Hong's job is more secure than the job of Mr. Green Span), he is an internationally renowned scholar within the society of professors majoring in business management, and in May he is going to visit Korea to give a lecture at one of the famous colleges in Korea, then he has to fly over to Shanghai, to speak in front of important business men in mainland China, and then he is going to visit Japan to speak to speak to Japanese businessmen. Humanly, he is a lot younger than I. But he has achieved so much, so that while he has already earned "global recognition", and therefore is busy traveling all around the world at many speaking engagements. But what am I doing here in Downey? I am stuck here in Downey doing nothing but moving back and forth between De Palma street and the center. And here in Downey it appears that there is not that much exciting going on except maybe the swap meet every other Saturday. Does this mean that I should quit what I am doing, go to Harvard, and start working on an MBA program? No. Each person is recognized by his own fruit. By what? Yes. His "own" fruit. The example I took might be confusing, but what I mean is this: God created each person differently, so that while each person must respect others as better than himself, each one must settle for, and learn to be content with the way God made him or her, and strive to please God, using every resource (talent, time, energy, money, etc.) the Lord God blessed him or her with. Then as each person is thankful to the Lord for what he is endowed with, remain faithful with what the Lord has blessed him with, and work steadily to please the Lord, the Lord God will eventually enable him to bear good fruit that lasts forever, to God's glory, and to his full satisfaction. And this is the way for you to gain real recognition not only from men but from God. 

Third, figs and grapes

The third thing we need to remember and go by is that daily we must learn to live by faith in the Lord, not by our own abilities. Look at verse 44b. "People do not pick figs out of thornbushes, or grapes out of briers." We know that Jesus is talking to his disciples who were Jews. As Jews, they were familiar with what the figs or grapes or thornbushes or briers stand for. Overall this statement talks about the unfruitfulness (caused by unfaithfulness to the Lord) of the Israelites as a Jewish nation. In order to revert this unfruitful condition, Jesus started out a new ministry, working on a fresh new batch of disciples. 

Now, with this in mind, let us focus a little more on what Jesus says. Here Jesus mentions two kinds of fruit: figs and grapes. As used in the Bible, figs and grapes are symbolic of safety and prosperity coupled with the joy of life. For example 1 Kings 4:25 reads, "During Solomon's lifetime Judah and Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, lived in safety, each man under his own vine and fig tree." Similarly, Zechariah 3:10 says, "'In that day each of you will invite his neighbor to sit under his vine and fig tree,' declares the LORD Almighty." (Read also Isaiah 36:16.) Thus "people" picking "figs and grapes" refer to those who by faith come and live under the wings of God's blessings.

Conversely, "thornbushes" and "briers" are symbolic of God's curses, the acid rain so to speak that falls on those who reject God and live on their own, just like the prodigal son leaving his father's house and going to a remote country only to end up in a pig farm, starving. In the Bible, the first place the word "thorn" appears is in Genesis 3:18, for in Genesis 3:17-18, the Lord God said to Adam, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field." 

So the expression, "people do not pick figs out of thornbushes, or grapes out of briers" alludes to the truth that one cannot expect to receive God's blessings if one rejects God, and chooses to run his life as his own man. This is a cursed way of life. It is the way of Cain, not Abel. A blessed person lives a blessed life, and receives Gods' blessings. A cursed man with a cursed desire lives a cursed life, and his life will be like walking through the desert filled with thornbushes and briers. He or she may live in a nice mansion with lots of good gadgets and amenities. But still spiritually it will be like walking through the fields filled with thornbushes and briers. 

What then makes the difference? What precipitates man to live either with or without God's blessings? We already know the answer: when we live by faith in God, then God blesses our faith, and orchestrates things in such a way that his blessings come our way. So by saying to his disciples, "people do not pick figs from thornbushes or grapes from briers", Jesus prompted his disciples to live by faith in the Lord, not by one's own wits and wisdom. 

Fourth, good things stored up in his heart

Next, we need to grow fully to the fullness of Jesus' greatness, by daily learning from him, and feeding ourselves with the living word of God, and thereby storing up inside all the good things Jesus came to offer. Look at verse 45. "The good man brings good things out of the good things stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings out the evil stored up in his heart." This passage says that our heart works as a huge storage space where we can store up tons of stuff, whether good or bad. Jesus then tells us the simple truth that we bring out of our heart the things that we’ve stored up. In secular terminology we would say, "Input controls output." 

This simple truth tells us that what is stored up inside determines whether or not one is a good person or a bad person, either bearing good fruit or bad fruit. And what is stored up inside tells us that if he is a good person how good he is, if he is bad how bad. The more good things stored up, the more good things he can bring out, so we say, "Oh, he is really a good person." By the same token, the more bad things we store up, the more bad things we can bring out, so we say, "Wow, he is really a bad person." 

So in order for one to be a good person, and therefore bring out what is good, one needs to ensure that only what is good stored up inside. What if he already stored up what is bad? The answer is simple: toss it out. 

In order to fill our heart with good things, we need to discern what is good and what is bad, and make it sure that we let what is good inside and get stored up. In this world where deceptions are many, it is not easy to tell what is good from what is bad. But thank God. The Lord God gave us the Bible. As we read the Bible, we can learn what is good and what is bad, for the Bible tells us exactly what is good what is bad. In addition the Bible has all the good things we need for life. Of course, there are many good books such as John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. But the amount of the good things one can get out of the books such as the Pilgrim's Progress is only partial and limited, for the good things these books offer are nothing but a reflection of what the Bible offers. But the good things the Bible offers are complete and full. So it is critical for us to read the Bible and internalize all the treasures made available in the Bible. 

Fifth, out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks

When we fill our hearts with what is good, what will happen? Look at verse 45b. "For out of the overflow of his heart, his mouth speaks." When God’s words fill our heart, then out of the overflow of our heart, our mouth speaks God’s words. In this way, we can say words of God as if God himself is speaking. Then just as God created a beautiful world with His word, so also we can create a blessed world with His word. In Genesis 1, we see that through the word of his mouth, God created the beautiful universe and everything in it. Likewise, with the living word written in the Bible we too can change our world from what is bad to what is good. We can turn it from what is formless, empty, and dark into what is stylish, full, and bright. For example, Dr. Paul Hong is from Toledo. Unlike Los Angeles, Toledo is a relatively small city. So, many people used to say, "Can anything good come out of Toledo?" But one day he studied the Bible and realized that people of Jesus' day said the same thing to the people of Nazareth saying, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Then he learned how Jesus changed this wrong perception. How did Jesus do it? The answer is simple – establishing a global network! Out of Galilean hill-billies Jesus established twelve disciples. Then Jesus commanded them to make disciples of all nations. In this way Jesus established a global network. So using the internet Dr. Paul Hong overcame his narrow-mind. With a broad mind, through the internet, he checked how European professors, working in his specialty area, are doing. Then he found that they established a network among themselves. In this network, professors from 25 European nations were having good fellowship, sharing information and supporting one another. Again with Jesus’ world mission spirit, he applied for a membership. They accepted Dr. Paul Hong. They even appointed him as the U.S. coordinator. So he got into the European network; in this way he established a global network first in Europe, then in Hong Kong, and then in Shanghai. Now, he is an internationally renowned scholar specializing in business management. Now, people started to “recognize” him. They no longer say, “Can anything good come out of Toledo?” Certainly filling one’s heart with God’s word and going by the Living Word of the Living God is the key to shaping a beautiful world where one can fulfill all the beautiful dreams God is going to bless him with. 

In conclusion, let us read the key verse again. “Each tree is recognized by its own fruit.” A lot of people have a “recognition problem.” Husbands seek recognition from their wives, wives from husbands, parents want to be recognized by their children, children by parents, teachers by students, students by teachers, shepherds seek recognition from sheep, sheep from shepherds, girls want to be recognized by boys, boys by girls, employers demand employees to recognize them, employees are dying for recognition from their bosses, and the list goes on and on. And we all seek recognition by God as well. But how can we resolve this problem? Jesus knows that we do have this problem. And the passage for today, especially the key verse offers a complete solution to this recognition problem. And in Jesus we have all the good wisdom to get recognized not only by visible men but also by God. 

One word: Each tree is recognized by its own fruit

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