I have a disease — Lyme disease — and it’s nasty. The list of symptoms makes most doctors want to flee to a deserted island. Thankfully, one doctor didn’t. She told me if I hadn’t come in when I did, I would have died within a month. She has helped me on the hard road to recovery.

However, I’m not the only diseased one. You are too, in a way.

We’re all diseased with a sinful nature. It’s a genetic type of disease — one that comes from being human, as descendants of Adam and Eve. Instead of leaving us bedridden, it leaves us sin-ridden. And the disease of sin also leads to death, both physically and spiritually. Its symptoms can be nasty, too — pride, anger, deception, murder, adultery, idolatry, selfishness.

When we are diseased with sin, we cannot bear good fruit, and the verse above says we will be thrown into the fire — into hell. The fruit we produce shows others what kind of tree we are. But if we’re all diseased trees, how are we supposed to produce good fruit? There’s good news. Just like I found a doctor for my Lyme disease, there’s a Healer for our sin. He died on the cross to provide the cure for our sin-disease by redeeming us and clothing us in His righteousness.

Now that we are on the road to recovery, in His grace, we can produce good fruit. And our fruit is powerful.

God, thank you for providing a way out of our sin. Thank you for sending Jesus to die on the cross, and thank you for not leaving us to fight our sin alone. Please forgive me for the sins I have committed and help me to live in a way that produces good fruit for your glory.

Go Deeper — Look at the fruit in your life as objectively as you can, and determine the root of both the good and bad fruit . . . Think about how you can replicate or eradicate it respectively.



Tags: Sermon on the Mount Matthew 7
Photo Credit: Boris Baldinger