If you owned a business, would you keep an employee who doesn’t get any work done? No. If you were a gardener, would you keep a plant that didn’t produce a harvest? No. If you were an investor, would you keep an account that wasn’t growing and producing? No.

I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve known some people in church for 20 years, and they’re still the same since the day I met them. They’re at the same place today that they were at two decades ago. No growth. No fruit. Spinning tires. No traction.

They’re literally going nowhere on their walk with God.

How is it that the church seems to be the one place on Earth where it’s acceptable to not bear fruit? To not grow? Wasn’t it Jesus who cursed the fig tree for being a living thing and not producing? He talked a lot about bearing fruit for the glory of God.

I’m not a scientist or biologist, but I’m fairly certain that if something is living, it is growing and reproducing. When something isn’t growing or reproducing, it’s dying or dead.

The sticker weeds in my backyard seem to be more regenerate than a lot of my “brothers in Christ”.

Galatians 5:22-23 (New Living Translation)
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

The fruit of the Spirit are the by-products of a Christ centered life. You don’t get them, and then get Christ. It’s the other way around.

When people call themselves Christians, but don’t have this fruit, I get really nervous – for them. Scripture would teach us that they don’t actually have Christ! Here and here. They may like the idea of Christ, but that’s different from giving your life to Him.

Some people would call this post legalism, but they would be incorrect. Legalism is actually trying to get the fruit, without Christ, by your own merit.