nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit.
So what do we do when we see rotten fruit in our own lives and the lives of those around us? Do we write ourselves off as beyond hope? Do we begin to identify ourselves as just those sorts of people?
We shouldn't. Though we are "a wild olive shoot" Jesus grafts us onto the root of the olive tree (cf. Rom. 11:17). He himself is the vine of which we become branches (cf. Joh. 15:5). On our own the fruit we bear is questionable at best. We are often more thorn bushes and brambles than figs and grapes.
We need to rely on our connection to Jesus if we want to bear good fruit. We need to build our house on a rock if we don't want our own efforts swept away by the flood. It is all about our connection to him. We are called to be constantly in contact with him, connected to the source. What this means is no matter what fruit we see in someone's live at the moment they are not condemned to that forever. Jesus can give them the life they need to bear his fruit for the kingdom.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
Of these I am the foremost.
But for that reason I was mercifully treated,
so that in me, as the foremost,
Christ Jesus might display all his patience as an example
for those who would come to believe in him for everlasting life.
Paul himself is all thorns and brambles until he meets Jesus on the road to Damascus. But he is allowed to become a branch of the vine of Jesus. He is filled with life and made to bear incomparable fruit for the kingdom. He even says that God does this for someone as bad as him just to prove that he can do it for anyone. "He raises up the lowly from the dust; from the dunghill he lifts up the poor." He can definitely do it for us!
To the king of ages, incorruptible, invisible, the only God,
honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
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