2018 Weekly Devotional - Week 20

Week 20

“In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. 19 And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

    A good friend of mine has a fig tree in his back yard that he rarely gets figs from because the squirrels and the birds beat him to it. A few years ago the tree was beginning to produce figs but they were not yet ready to be picked. He heard his dogs barking one night and went out to investigate. The dogs had discovered an opossum that was raiding his fig tree. My friend decided it was best to rid his property of this interloper so he took his .22 caliber pistol and shot that opossum right out of the tree. It would be several days before the trash would be picked up and my friend did not want a stinking carcass laying around so he put the opossum in a trash bag and put the bag in the chest freezer for good keeping until garbage pick-up day. A few days later my friend’s wife went to the freezer to get some meat and upon opening the lid found that the “dead” opossum had escaped the trash bag and had frozen to death. That opossum wasn’t dead when my friend had put him in the freezer; he was doing what opossum’s do which is play dead!

    Jesus went to the fig tree expecting figs and when he found none cursed the tree. Fig trees ought to produce figs and when they do not they are of little value. When Paul enumerates the fruit of the Spirit he is instructing Christ-followers that what is to be expected in their lives is spiritual fruit. The Christ-follower ought to manifest the Holy Spirit’s endowments. When we do not produce spiritual fruit we can come to one of two conclusions. Either we are “Opossum Christians” that act like Christians but really aren’t or we are true Christians living in disobedience. The disciple of Jesus Christ should act like what he or she really is and produce the fruit of the Spirit. Be courageous and ask someone you can trust to examine your life and see if there is any spiritual fruit. 

In Christ,

John