From Remaining to 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 7:18-20 

When was the last time you examined your own fruit? Not your activity, your intentions, or your reputation — your fruit. 

Jesus makes it clear in both John 15 and Matthew 7 that fruit tells the story. Fruit reveals the root and exposes the source. A healthy tree produces healthy fruit. A diseased tree cannot fake it forever. Eventually, what is inside shows up on the outside. 

There are only a few possibilities for a branch. 

If a branch is connected to the true vine, it produces good fruit. The life of the vine flows into it, and what grows is healthy, life-giving, and lasting. 

If a branch is disconnected, it produces nothing. It may still look like a branch for a time, but without the life of the vine flowing through it, fruitlessness is inevitable. 

But there is a more subtle danger: attaching to the wrong source. 

A branch connected to something other than the true vine may still produce fruit — but it will not be the right kind. It may look impressive for a season. It may even appear healthy from a distance. But if the source is pride, performance, control, self-protection, cultural influence, or spiritual imitation rather than Christ Himself, the fruit will eventually reveal it. It looks appealing, but it cannot pass the taste test. 

The Danger of Beautiful Poison 

There is a tree known as the manchineel tree, sometimes called the “beach apple.” Its fruit looks sweet — small, green, almost inviting, even resembling an apple. Yet it is considered one of the most dangerous trees in the world. Its fruit is toxic. Its sap can burn the skin. Even standing beneath it during rainfall can cause harm. 

It is a powerful reminder that appearance and substance are not the same thing. 

The question for us is sobering: are we growing from the true vine, or are we producing something that looks good on the outside but carries poison within? 

It is possible to produce fruit fed by the wrong vine — the vine of striving. 

Fruit that looks like joy but is performative masking. 
Fruit that looks like peace but is avoidance of the uncomfortable. 
Fruit that looks like self-control but is hidden anger or resentment. 
Fruit that looks like love but is a fear of abandonment and/or a craving for acceptance. 

Striving can mimic fruitfulness for a season. But it cannot produce the life of Christ. 

The Only Source of Real Fruit 

Jesus does not command us to manufacture fruit; He commands us to remain. 

When He says, “Remain in me,” He is not offering a productivity strategy but inviting us into relationship. A branch does not produce fruit by exerting more effort. It produces fruit because it is connected. The life of the vine flows into the branch, and fruit becomes the natural outcome of that shared life. 

If we remain in the true vine, we will bear good fruit because the source itself is good. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are not traits we construct through discipline alone; they are the life of Christ formed within us as we abide in Him. 

If we disconnect, fruitlessness follows. If we attach ourselves to performance, approval, image, or self-reliance, something may grow — but it will be shaped by that source. 

The question, then, is not how much are we producing. The question is who or what we are connected to. 

This Lent, as we fast and devote ourselves to prayer and reflection, the invitation is not simply to do less or try harder. It is to remain. To allow the Gardener to examine the branches. To let Him prune what is healthy and cast away what is unhealthy. To ask honestly what kind of fruit our lives are bearing. 

In the end, being connected to the true vine is the only thing that will bear good, life-giving fruit. 

Remain in Him.