The Produce Department by David Kalas

The Produce Department

Walk into Sentry and turn right, and you'll find yourself in the midst of that most appetizing portion of the store -- the Produce Department. Before you get to all the foods that are boxed, canned, bottled, and wrapped, you walk through Nature's section of the store. These foods are not wrapped in plastic or cellophane. These foods are wrapped in things like peels, leaves, and husks.

Admittedly, there is a great deal of modern technology that goes into producing our produce today. Still, the product remains fundamentally the same. Bring into our supermarkets a visitor from the 18th-century -- or anyone earlier -- and he will recognize the apples, oranges, and bananas. The macaroni-and-cheese shaped like Spongebob will not look familiar to him. Neither will the Froot Loops, the Fritos, or the Fanta. But he will know what he's looking at when he walks through the Produce Department, for it most resembles what every generation of humanity has known.

Indeed, the Produce Department is the part of our grocery store that most resembles Eden -- the fruit-filled garden, which was God's first home for human beings (Genesis 2:7-17).

God's first instructions to His Creation was to "be fruitful" (Genesis 1:22, 28; see also Genesis 8:17; 9:1, 7; 35:11) It is within the very design of produce to re-produce, and this design reflects God's will for all of Creation. And so we see, as the Scriptural story unfolds, that He continues to want to see fruitfulness from His creatures.


Fruitful Living

At the beginning of the Book of Psalms, we read a brief, poetic description of the righteous person -- the true man or woman of God. The Psalmist describes for us what this individual does and does not do. And, along the way, we are told that this exemplary person is "like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season" (Psalm 1:3 NIV).

The Old Testament understanding of righteousness was a thing that functioned the way that it was designed to function. A righteous human being, therefore, was understood to be one who lived the way that God designed a human being to live. And so the image of a fruitful tree was a natural metaphor for a righteous person.

Conversely, a wicked person is often identified in terms of a tree that does not bear fruit. John the Baptist warned that the judgment of the wicked would be like the cutting down of trees that fail to bear fruit (Matthew 3:9-10). And Jesus, likewise, indicated that you could tell the righteous from the unrighteous by "their fruit," echoing the prospect that any tree failing to produce good fruit would be cut down and thrown into the fire (Matthew 7:15-20).

Evidence of the mercy of God, however, is the fact that even the sinful are urged to bear fruit. Specifically, there is a sort of fruit that a sinner is capable of: the fruits of repentance. John the Baptist urged the crowds that came to hear him preach, saying, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance" (Luke 3:7-8 NRSV).

Meanwhile, once a person has repented of his or her sins and has come to salvation in Christ, there is a new and different kind of fruitfulness that God desires.


God's Orchard

When the Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Galatia, he impressed upon them the differences between a life lived according to the flesh and a life lived according to the Spirit. He detailed for them what each kind of living produces. And the produce of a Spirit-lived life he appropriately referred to as "the fruit of the Spirit."

According to Paul, "The Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23 TEV).

Produce, you know, is what comes naturally. You have to "make" macaroni. You have to "make" Froot Loops. But you don't have to make an apple or an orange or a peach. They grow naturally on the trees that produce them. And, likewise, the spiritual fruit Paul itemized are supposed to come naturally out of a certain kind of tree: namely, the individual who is living under the influence of the Spirit of God.

We have a phrase to capture that which is abundant and free. For we say of our limited resources, "You know, that stuff doesn't grow on trees." Well, fruit does grow on trees. It is God's design that trees produce and reproduce. There is fruitfulness and abundance in His will for nature, as well as in His will for human beings.

This, then, is truly fruitful living, and this is true righteousness: to live a life filled by the Spirit of God is to live the way God designed us to live. And that life blossoms forth in the virtues that reflect and resemble their Source.

Finally, we recall that insight of the Psalmist: that the righteous person is like a tree "which yields its fruit in season." That raises the question of the "seasons" for the spiritual fruit. What exactly is the "season" for self-control? What is the "season" for patience? If you and I are really allowing the Spirit to do His strong and lovely work within us, then we will be like that fruitful tree in Psalm 1: when the need rolls around for kindness, humility, or whathaveyou, we'll be there with the ripe produce!


Personal Reflection

As we embark on a several-week e-study of the fruit of the Spirit, give some personal thought to these fruit individually.

Here, again, is the list. As you read it, who is the person in your life experience that comes first to mind as exemplifying that particular fruit? As you read it, which fruit do you think others would say characterizes you? As you read it, which fruit do you especially lack? And, as you read it, consider a recent occasion in your life that was perhaps the "season" for each.

Love

Joy

Peace

Patience

Kindness

Goodness

Faithfulness

Humility

Self-Control