I am not much of a “tree expert” at all. I know some people can just look at a tree and say, “Oh that’s a such-and-such tree …” but I have never been able to do that. I could probably identify about 3 kinds of trees; a weeping willow, a Japanese maple, and maybe an oak tree. But there IS another kind of tree I can pick out pretty well: and that is a tree that has fruit on it! Once Cheryl & I were driving to Disney World and as we were heading south down the interstate towards Orlando, all the sudden I shouted out “Orange trees!” There was a whole orchard of orange trees just off the right side of the highway. How did I know that? I didn’t pick out the shape of the leaves, or the smoothness of the bark, or anything like that: it was the fruit that gave it away. I saw these big orange circles hanging off the leaves, and it was obvious even to a novice like me, from hundreds of feet away, that those were orange trees! You could tell the tree, by its fruit.
And that’s what Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:16 isn’t it: “You will know them by their fruits”? He went on to say (:17) “Every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit … (:20) so then, you will know them by their fruits.” THEN He added in :21, “Not everyone who SAYS to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who DOES the will of My Father who is in heaven.” Jesus said, if you really belong to Him, you won’t just SAY it; you will also SHOW it with the fruit of your life — and this is just what we’ve been seeing in James 2 and 3;
— In Chapter 2 James said if you really have faith in Jesus, you’ll have some works in your life that back up that claim. And he gave 5 examples of that, including a practical example, caring for a fellow church member, the demons, Abraham, and Rahab from the Old Testament.
— Then the week before Cheryl’s stroke we saw in 3:1-12 this same theme continued, only now in the context of our words. He started off with the principle that if our faith is real, it will affect the way we talk, then again he gave 5 examples of that: the horse’s bit, the rudder, and the fire, and then the tamed animals and the spring of water. So he said again: if your faith is real, you’ll show it with fruit from your life — and one of those “fruits” will be the way you speak. The way you talk should show you are a Christian.
— So now this morning as we come to James 3:13-18, James continues this theme of how faith, if it is real, will have some works to validate it; and like Jesus he uses the word “fruits” — that confirm that it’s real. Let’s look at what this passage tells us about “The Fruits of Righteousness;” things that will be present in our lives if we really know the Lord:
shawnethomas 