When I was a kid, we had a climbing rose bush at end our porch. It was the nicest looking part of the old mill-house house. One Mother’s Day, my Dad bought Mom a cake with an artificial carnation blossom on it. After the cake was gone, she wired it to the rose bush and it became a yearly tradition. Year around, even in the coldest winter months, we were the only house with big red flowers blooming. One wintry day, a total stranger stopped, came to our door, and asked if he could get a small cutting so he could root this amazing rose. With a laugh my mom stepped out and showed him the roses were just artificial carnations. Word got out about this and it became a joke in our small rural community about our ‘roses’ that bloomed in the winter.
These fake flowers looked real, but lacked any of the true qualities of actual roses. Other than look good, they were worthless. As I wrote last week about dwarf fruit, I was reminded that we also have to beware of fake fruit in our lives. You might be asking, what is fake fruit? It’s putting up an appearance of having spiritual fruit without having any inward change.
As a new believer, I thought I must appear like others Christians so I tried playing the part. It did nothing but fabricate a product that looked real to others, but had none of the qualities of the genuine fruit of the Holy Spirit. Jesus chastised the scribes and Pharisees for this. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! . . . on the outside you seem righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness (Matthew 23: 27, 28). The original word for hypocrite meant an actor under an assumed character. It also referred to the masks actors wore in first century dramas. One was a smiley face and the other a sad face. You still see these emblems today. Under the mask the actor might be sad, but he wore a mask that made him appear happy.
Sadly, we all tend to have our mask. I find this especially true in churches. We want to fit it so we hide our defects by creating a façade of fake fruit. We can put on a fake fruit of love, but inside be full of hate or a fake fruit of peace but inside we are like a raging storm. This applies to any of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22, 23). In contrast, the fruit of the Holy Spirit is just that—it is a product of the Holy Spirit. Only He can produce genuine spiritual fruit.
One thing I’ve learned as a gardener is that it takes time to get fruit or vegetables from a seed. All we can do is plant, water, weed, cultivate, and patiently wait. There are no magic formulas for real fruit and spiritual fruit. I also learned that plants produce fruit at different rates—a squash will have fruit in six to eight weeks. Others take three months. A pecan farmer must wait eight years before eating a pecan pie. One mistake I’ve seen older Christians do is to criticize new believers because they aren’t producing fruit quick enough. This typically results in the young believer putting forth fake fruit in order to appear spiritually mature.
We all must remember that producing spiritual fruit is a lifelong process. Don’t rush it! Believers must allow the Spirit to do His work according to His time schedule. Fake fruit has no nutritional value or taste. My granddaddy once picked up a wax peach from a bowl of artificial fruit my mother had as a decoration. He took out his pocket knife, cut of a piece, and popped into his mouth. His immediate words were classic. In his long southern drawl he said, “This peach taste like wax.” Mom and I exploded with laughter.
We should also ask ourselves, is my fruit fake, or is it a genuine product of the Holy Spirit? I’m I wearing a mask and playing a part? If either of these is true, allow the Holy Spirit to take over as your gardener and produce His fruit.
Sustaining Word for the Week:
The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me . . . My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit (John 15:5).