Fruit In The Field

Read: Matthew 13:24-30

The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. Matthew 13:24

IN WORD

Some instinct within us wants to define Kingdom citizenship. We want to know who’s in and who’s out. We notice evidence of Kingdom fruit and works, but we realize that outward evidence isn’t always a reflection of inward reality. We also realize that true Kingdom citizens bearing good fruit are flawed and as human as we are. So how do we discern who the true Kingdom citizens are? How can we separate the genuine believers from the false?

We can’t. We can have a general idea, but the separating isn’t up to us. We aren’t called to sort everything out, to settle our boundaries and form an exclusive club. Even though the enemy will sow the seeds of weeds into our midst, we still have to embrace all who come. A harvest will come, and Jesus will sort everything out. But we don’t have to. We can be free from that burden.

That means we will experience a lot of discomfort within the body of Christ, dealing not only with the human frailties of believers but also the issues of those who aren’t. It also means outsiders will lump us all together and criticize the whole field for the things the weeds have done. That’s okay; we have an advocate, a defender who will guard us and keep us even in the mess of human speculation. Our goal is simply to be Kingdom citizens, not define those who aren’t or explain why the Kingdom on earth looks so weedy. We can trust the harvester to make everything clear whenever He chooses to do so. In the meantime, we are called to live with Christ, the hope of glory, within us. That’s it.

IN DEED

Don’t get distracted by the imperfections within the church. Some of them come from the fact that we are all human beings in the process of becoming like Jesus, even after we’ve been with Him for years. And some come from the painful fact that not all among us are truly His. Regardless, our only responsibility is to follow Him and let Him be formed within. True fruitfulness is never limited by the weeds.

ADDITIONAL READING: Matthew 7:21-23

We get no deeper into Christ than we allow Him to get into us.

JOHN HENRY JOWETT