Good? Who determines what good is? Good to me isn't always good to my wife. Good to you may not be good to your classmates. In fact, good to you may not be considered good to God either.
So what is "good"? Basketball? Absolutely! Relient K? Of course. The food we are going to eat tonight at our Christmas party? Duh, Lisa's making it!
In Matthew 7:17 Jesus says, "Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit." So let's think for a minute in earthly terms. What constitutes a good fruit? When I go shopping and I pick out some apples for my kids, these are some of the things that I look for - consistant color, no rot, no insect holes, no bruises, and plump. Nobody wants to eat an apple that's half rotton, with bugs, or one that's sour.
In fact, Jesus goes on to say a tree that produces bad fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire (v19).
Let's flip the switch and think spiritually now for a moment. What constitutes good fruit to God? I think that verse 18 shows us clearly that in order to bear good fruit you have to be from a good tree. Look at the way Jesus worded it in Luke 6:43-45.
"No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks."
I think the question for us today is, what kind of fruit are we producing? The fruit you bear shows what kind of tree you are rooted into. What is in your heart is shown in the way you talk and live. Search your heart and work at bearing GOOD fruit. Bearing good fruit for God is better than any gift you can give this Christmas.
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Psalm 139:23
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