The Orange-Bearing Mango Tree

Have you ever seen one: An orange-bearing mango tree? No?

I have. Well, not exactly a mango tree that had oranges hanging from it. It was something close. I saw it one time when I looked in the mirror at a point in my life, and saw a person whose actions and thought processes didn’t quite match my profession as a Christian.

John the Baptist, during his time, also had people that fit this description. And he had a few things to say to them.

“Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:”

(Matthew 3:8, KJV)

The above was a message that was relevant in John’s time. And I can’t help thinking how relevant it still is in our current time and age. “God sees the heart” is a much vaunted phrase and it has become a shield to hide behind when willful sin is questioned. And it’s ironic because “God sees the heart” should actually be a cause for concern because God actually knows why we do the things we do, better than we think we do.

God’s Word says that our thoughts, decisions and actions must match our profession of repentance from dead works (sin). In short, our fruits, the things that people see and hear us do must match our calling as Christians. This implication of this is that any sinful action, especially if willful and sustained, is an indication that we do not actually believe what we claim to believe, no matter how you want to spin it.

John said a few more things to them. I’ll just highlight some more of it.

“And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.”

(Matthew 3:10, KJV)

Serious stuff! But if you call God “Father” and God calls you “Child” (or Son), then He has expectations of you. Indeed, only God can judge. And the beautiful thing is that He has judged us righteous and bearers of righteous fruit. That is the very reason why He expects us to produce righteous fruit: because He has designated us so, and given us everything to make it so.

Notice that the tree is cut down: it’s not a mere surface dressing of the problem. That’s because only a bad tree can produce bad fruit and a good tree can only bear good fruit (Luke 6:43). Now God will be patient with an apparently good tree that isn’t yet producing fruit (Luke 13:6-9), but the only solution to a bad tree is to cut it down. God has expectations of everyone that claims to carry His spirit. What will you do with that knowledge?

One thing to not do is go around looking for Mango trees with Orange fruits, figuratively speaking (and literally, I imagine). Your tree, your own self, is the first tree you must examine. As a believer, are your thoughts, decisions and actions in consonance with the nature of God in you? If no is the answer, there’s no better time than now to repent and begin to walk in Christ’s righteousness as God helps us.

A Mango tree bearing Orange fruits is an anomaly: a freak of nature. An anomaly; a freak of nature is exactly what describes a believer in Christ who continues in sin and refuses to truly repent. If you fall in that category, please do fix up ASAP (like right now ASAP).