Known by Their Fruit

How do people know that you are a Christian? They can’t see your heart. They can’t see your faith—but they can see the results of it. Jesus said, “By their fruits you will know them” (Matthew 7:20). The only way someone can determine whether you are a follower of Jesus is not merely by your profession of Him, but by the evidence they see in your life. And that evidence should be spiritual fruit.

Fruit doesn’t grow overnight. And sometimes the best judge of the growth in your life might be someone else. You can be very introspective and say, “Have I become more like Jesus in the last 24 hours?” But that would be like trying to watch your kids grow. The growth is subtle, yet someone who hasn’t seen your children for several months will notice it. In the same way, you don’t necessarily see spiritual growth in your own life. But someone else might say, “You have really changed. I see you are becoming more like Jesus.”

Spiritual fruit is important, because Jesus said, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain” (John 15:16). He is saying, “I want there to be fruit in your life.”

But what is this fruit? Galatians 5:22–23 gives us the answer: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” We bear fruit by walking in communion with Jesus, by staying close to Him. And spiritual fruit is a result of that relationship.

What we really need today is to bear spiritual fruit in our lives so that others can say, “Now there is a follower of Jesus Christ.”