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PRACTICE TOV CHARACTER

GOOD TREES PRODUCE GOOD FRUIT

Think of your church, your ministry—your very life as a Christian—as a peach tree. Peach trees have leaves and fruit, of course, and they have trunks and branches and roots, and everything about the tree is shaped by the soil.

The above-the-ground elements of the peach tree are what people see and experience in your church or when they interact with you on an average day. Maybe they come to hear a good preacher and programs for youth, and they experience friendly faces at the church doors. Or make it personal: Colleagues and supervisors may see you at work, dressed professionally, deadlines met, meetings attended, and emails answered.

An arborist will tell you that the health of any tree—including this representative peach tree that maybe you’re visualizing right now—is determined by its soil. The soil compares with what’s beneath the surface, with a person’s and a church’s character. And just as every tree’s growth and health depend significantly on the condition of the soil, so too the growth and health of the church depend on the condition of its soil. So too does your character.

What’s in the soil determines the health of the fruit. Personal soil or a church’s soil contaminated by the sinful flesh produces fleshly fruit that is inedible and poisonous. Paul names fleshly acts in Galatians 5: impurity, jealousy, dissension, selfish ambition. In contrast, soil empowered by and renewed by the Spirit produces Spirit-prompted practices and Spirit-infused churches. Soil infused with the Spirit produces cultures and people of character. Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

So let’s dig into the soil of your ministry, your church, your own character. What will we find there? The soil for any church or any individual life can be tainted by the flesh or led by the Spirit. Sometimes the flesh takes control and makes the soil toxic. Pause now and take an honest look. What do you find? Do you dig up toxic elements like ambition, competition, abusive power, greed, desire for fame, lack of empathy? Toxicity of character is not what God desires for a church or for an individual’s life.

Instead, God wants the Holy Spirit to transform us as we surrender to the Spirit’s anointing power. And when the Spirit transforms, we will observe good fruit from a good character. Character is not what is visible, but it makes itself visible in behavior over time.

A word on character: Character is what matters most in the transformation of a culture or in the transformation of a human being. Christian integrity measures how consistently a person’s words and actions align with his or her character, as compared with the life of Jesus.

Jesus taught that a good tree produces good behavior. It produces the fruit of the Spirit. Bad character eventually reveals itself as bad behavior, while good character over time will manifest itself in loving, holy, just, and peaceful living.

Jesus taught that a good tree (good character) produces good fruit. Bad character eventually reveals itself as rotten fruit, while good character over time will manifest itself as a sweet, juicy peach. In closing, hear the words of Jesus:

By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

MATTHEW 7:16-20