I live in Florida and have a tangerine tree in my yard. I love this tree. I can sit outside, pick a handful of its fruit, throw the peel on the ground, and see how far I can spit the seeds. It bears good fruit.
This tree straddles my property line, and my neighbor and I have different philosophies on how to get the best fruit from our tree. Every three months I fertilize it. When it’s dry, I water it. When other trees encroach on its sunlight, I prune them back.
My neighbor is hands-off in his approach. He says, “I figure God will provide all that that tree needs.”
Well, that sounds pretty spiritual (he’s not a Christian). But, then I look in my shed and think – I have fertilizer, water, and pruning sheers so that I can nourish and nurture this tree to bear fruit.
Jesus compares his kingdom to a tree that bears good fruit. “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches” (Luke 13:18-19).
When this kingdom grows, it will produce good fruit in abundance (Mark 4:20). The growth is mysterious: “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how” (Mark 4:26-27).
I am in college ministry because I want to see the fruit of this Kingdom growing in my students. I believe that this Kingdom fruit will result in my students repenting of the idols of comfort and ease, and instead moving into broken areas and taking up the cause of the poor. I believe this Kingdom fruit will result in my students giving up lucrative offers from law firms to become advocates for the poor. I believe this Kingdom fruit will result in my students moving to the mission field. I believe that this Kingdom fruit will result in my students developing a thoroughly biblical worldview. I believe this Kingdom fruit will result in my students learning to give up their own needs to carry the needs of their brothers and sisters in Christ. The poor, broken, and helpless will find refuge in the Kingdom’s branches.
But, my neighbor is wrong about how God intends for this tree to grow. Sure, it grows mysteriously, but the cause of its growth is not mysterious. This tree will grow only as we tend to it with the Word of God. The sower sows the Word and it is that Word that produces the fruit, which grows “thirty-fold, sixty-fold, and hundred-fold” (Mark 4:13, 20). Sometimes, I am afraid that the current emphasis on the fruit of the Kingdom neglects the means by which that fruit is produced. What we need in gospel ministry is not balance between Word and deed, but the proper relation between Word and deed.
There are many times in the building of Christ’s Kingdom that I am VERY baffled as to what to do or how to proceed. Sometimes I baffled in one-on-one discipleship. Sometimes I’m baffled in what strategies our ministry needs to take as a whole. But, when I look in my ministry shed, I see the tools I need: a strong core of biblical preaching and teaching so that my students are drawing life from the Lord of the Harvest. If we neglect the nourishment of the Word of Christ, we will have an anemic Kingdom of Christ. While the Kingdom of God takes a while to grow (and it grows mysteriously) we can know that tended by the Word of God, good fruit will be born.
While the hearers of the Word cannot neglect the fruit for the Word, in ministry we cannot neglect the Word for the fruit.
So, take heart my fellow field workers. I know you are as baffled and frustrated as I am at times. But, be encouraged - the Lord Jesus produces the fruit through His Word. And, its world changing, good fruit.
Paul,
Well said. Thanks for a helpful piece.
Posted by: GL | January 09, 2008 at 07:25 AM