Your Fruit ExposesYour Roots

"As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving."

(Colossians 2:6-7)

A plant will never thrive without roots. And we never expect them to either. Gardener or not, we are aware that plant life will not survive if its roots are weak or non-existent. Yet, when applied to faith, we occasionally, expect flourishing fruit with little to no roots.

Paul said that we should be rooted and built up in Christ, but I fear we, at times, attempt to build up before we have been rooted. And although we attempt to build with good intention, if we have no root in Christ, our fruit will dry up and die. Jesus Christ mentioned this in Matthew 13.

"But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles."

(Matthew 13:20-21 NKJV)

In this parable, Jesus gave a few examples of how the Word of God was given but did not take root into the heart of the person who heard it. And with no, root, the person's faith failed. With no root, how can we expect to see fruit? Godly fruit, that is.

Contrary to some people's beliefs, our fruit isn't always about our good works and prosperity. Working in ministries to encourage others and blessing the unfortunate can be evidence of someone being rooted in Christ ... Or it could be a facade. Having earthly abundance and success could be an outward show of God's favor on someone's life, or it could be a display of the wealth of the wicked.

Real fruit, godly fruit, is determined by the fruits of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control". The only way anyone can produce these fruits is if they are rooted in Christ. Often we expect believers to exhibit these fruits, but how can they if they have not allowed Christ to take root in their heart?

And if our roots aren't in Christ, then they must be in our flesh. Paul listed the fruits of the flesh a few verses before he described the fruits of the Spirit. They are found in Galatians 5:19-21.

"Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."

A person with little to no root will commit adultery. A person with little to no root will commit fornication. A person with little to no root will continuously show forth evidence of living in the flesh instead of the Spirit. Our fruit is evidence of our roots. Our fruit exposes whether we live according to the flesh or the Spirit.

If we find ourselves producing fleshly fruits, it's because we aren't as rooted in Christ as we may have thought. And when we see others consistently producing fleshly fruits, then we don't have to wonder why. It's because of their roots ... or the lack thereof.

Abiding in Christ is the answer to our fruit problem. Too often, we attempt to address the fruit without getting to the root. A drunkard may fix their fleshly fruit of drunkenness but may very well still struggle with sexual immorality. This is because the fruit was addressed, not the root.

A sexually immoral person may discipline themselves not to commit adultery or fornication but still struggle with pride, which is again a root problem. But when we shift our focus to the root, every fleshly fruit we have can be healed. If we surrender our sins to Jesus Christ and allow Him to be the root of our fruit, then fleshly fruit will be replaced with the fruits of the Spirit.

If we allow Jesus to take root in our lives, He will overflow every sin infested area of our lives. Our desires will shift. Our hearts will change. We will transform and become who God desires us to be. Addressing the fruit will never solve our problem. It's great to acknowledge that the ungodly fruit exists. I'd say it's even healthy and wise to do so. But to correct the fruit, we must get to the root.

A lack of Christ, a lack of continuous intimacy and surrender to God, will leave us with weak roots, or worse ... It will leave us completely rootless. And without roots, not only does the plant fail to produce fruit, but the plant itself dies. Without roots in Christ, how can we ever produce the fruits of His Spirit? Without roots in Christ, we ourselves die in more ways than one.

This is not to say we won't struggle with our flesh when rooted in Christ. Our flesh will always war with God's Spirit within us. But the deeper our relationship with Christ becomes, the better the fruit we will produce. So, before we attempt to build or before we attempt to tackle the fleshly fruits on our own, let us remember that it must start with the root. As well intended as the building up may be, as wonderful as it is to address the fruit, if we are not rooted in Christ, we will not produce the fruit we aspire to have.

To be rooted, our faith and knowledge of God must grow and strengthen with the time God gives us. So, if the Lord grants us entrance into 2026, may we deepen our roots in the new year. In fact, let's start now.

Let's get more of Christ. More of His Word. More intimate conversations with Him. Let's get more of God, so that we can have more prosperous, beautiful fruit. And may our fruit be evidence of our roots, which is Jesus Christ our Beloved.

That's all I have for you. May God bless you and keep you. Until next time, take care.

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Sincerely,

Quin Arrington