Thorny Fruits || Punishable by God || Week 5

Welcome back to “Punishable by God,” a series diving deeper into the consequences God gave to the snake, Eve, and Adam in the Garden of Eden. 

Last week, we began discussing the consequences God gave to Adam. We talked about the struggles that life will bring because of sin. 

This week, we’ll continue looking at the consequences of Adam by looking at the thorns and thistles of life. Let’s read what it says in Genesis 3:18. 

18 It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains. 

(Thought as I’m writing this: God still provided for Adam but just made it difficult. The ground will provide the product, but getting there will take more work. Something to think about and dive into later.)

Worthless Fields

Our primary passage for today is Hebrews 6:7-8. The author of Hebrews wrote this letter to present the sufficiency and superiority of Christ. This passage falls in the discussion of discussing the superiority of Christ. Christianity is a significant way that we can connect with God. The author pushes the point that says this is the only way. As a Christian author pushing Christianity, it makes sense. Let’s read what it says: 

7 When the ground soaks up the falling rain and bears a good crop for the farmer, it has God’s blessing. 

8 But if a field bears thorns and thistles, it is useless. The farmer will soon condemn that field. 

The real seeds (the gospel) are given genuine care by the farmer (God) and planted in a fertile field (a person’s heart and life) will produce a spiritual crop (spiritual maturity). Weeds (temptations) will threaten to overwhelm the crop. If the field only produces weeds, the seeds are lost, and the field is useless. Make sense?

God wants us to have productive, fruitful Christian lives that result in the fruit of the Spirit and the love and service of others. God’s grace has watered you with clear and abundant teaching and preaching. Our job is to ensure that life bears the proper fruit, not weeds.

We will build on two things with this: the fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23 and the “I am the Vine” statement from Jesus found in John 15:1-5. I want to dive directly into these passages. I’d typically give some background context to the book and the section of scripture the passages fall in, but studying this consequence was such a unique and challenging process that adding more information will do more harm. Let’s do it. 

Fruitful Fields

Galatians 5:22-23 says: 

22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

What do these fruits represent? We have our modern understanding of what these fruits represent, but how they were understood when Paul wrote them. Let’s talk about that.

Love is the ultimate expression of God’s loyalty, purity, and mercy extended toward his people. We must reflect this type of love in all our relationships, whether friendships, family, work relationships, marriages, or with God himself. There’s no law against this type of love. We feel the temptation to use this type of love to get what we want or manipulate people to do what we want them to do, either good or bad. This type of love, when used with self-intention, is the weeds that grow in our hearts. Let us reflect on the love God shared with us and those around us, friends and strangers.

Joy is the emotion revealed by well-being, success, or good fortune. There is no law against this type of joy. We can feel joy when life is going right when we get a good job, when we begin a loving relationship, and when we get into some new money. Joy produces weeds when we celebrate these things for ourselves and leave God out of the celebration. Let’s remember when we celebrate the joys of life with God. 

Peace can be one of three things or some combination of these three things: 

• State of tranquility or quiet
• Harmony in personal relationships, especially with God
• Freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts or emotions. 

Three different forms of peace that we strive for regularly. More often than not, three forms of peace feel very hard to come by. There’s no law against this type of peace, yet this doesn’t feel appropriate for most of us. We don’t often deserve any form of peace, or we should be punished by not receiving any peace. We can plant the seed that sets our environments and relationships in a peaceful state. We can plant the seed by renewing our mindset in a way that quiets any chaotic thoughts. Planting these seeds produces the necessary fruits that Jesus calls us to produce.

Patience is the power or capacity to endure something difficult or disagreeable without complaint. There is no law about being patient, yet it often goes against what our society teaches us. Patience comes from suffering. Patience comes from listening to someone’s opinions that don’t align with yours. Patience is also lying in bed with the flu resting when you want to be working. It doesn’t have to be a specific type of suffering for us to be patient. We are created to endure difficult things or have disagreeable conversations. All that matters is if we handle them without complaining. 

Kindness is the quality or state of being kind. The obvious answer is obvious, right? There’s no law about being kind. Kindness is holding the door for someone, smiling at someone when they look down, and sitting with someone when they need to vent. Kindness comes from what we say and do, and that should reflect what Jesus taught us. Goodness falls in line with this mindset as well. 

Faithfulness is the quality of steadfast loyalty or firm adherence to promises. There’s no law against being faithful. People are faithful to God, their spouses, families, friends, and others they care about. It can involve not turning your back on them and treating them poorly. It can involve promising to do right by them and for them. It can mean attending to their needs and asking them to attend to yours. It falls in line with learning how we say and do things.

Gentleness is the mildness of manners or disposition. There’s no law against this. We’re blunt people today. We don’t care what we have to say, how we say it, and who we say it to. With the propulsion of social media being a primary form of communication, it’s made it easier to say whatever we want without reaping the consequences of what that looks like. Gentleness is a weakness because “people can’t handle the truth.” Jesus calls us to produce gentleness. To not be so blunt but tell it how it is with gentleness and kindness. To do so with loving compassion that we forget most times today.

Self-control is the restraint exercised over one’s impulses, emotions, or desires. There’s no law in exercising self-control, yet it’s a major struggle for most people. We live in a “me-first” culture where everything needs to be ours, or we must get everything immediately. We react to the shiny object, a large amount of money, the likes and the feelings that come with them, and more areas let that guide our decision-making and reasoning rather than exercising proper self-control. Jesus doesn’t want this type of fruit growing. He wants a self-controlled fruit that prevents us from acting on uncontrolled feelings. It’s tough for us even to discern what that means. 

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are all fruits that should adequately grow. What happens when they do? Let’s talk about that with John 15:1-5 as our guide. 

Growing the Fruit

John 15:1-5 says this:

1 “I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. 

2 He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. 

3 You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. 

4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. 

5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.

Why grapevines? Well, it was a valuable and prolific plant during John’s time. It produces fruit to eat, raisins to store, and wine for meals and ceremonies. One vine can support many branches and bear a lot of grapes. In the Old Testament, grapes symbolized the fruitfulness of the Israelite nation by doing the work that God assigned them to do. With the Passover meal, the fruit of the vine symbolized God’s goodness. Goodness and fruitfulness are vital themes to walk away with. 

Jesus shares two kinds of pruning: cutting off branches and cutting back branches. Branches that produce fruit and get cut back promote growth. God must sometimes discipline us to strengthen us. It’s the same mindset why we got punished by our parents as a kid when we did something wrong. It showed us where we messed up and gave us time to improve. The branches that didn’t produce fruit were gone because they weren’t healthy and could cause issues with the rest of the plant. Those who do not produce good fruit for God or hinder others from doing so will become separated from God’s blessings.

Remaining in Jesus means being fully connected to him each moment of our lives. It includes:

• Believing that Jesus is the Son of God. 
• Following Jesus as Lord and Savior
• Doing what God says
• Continuing to believe in the Gospels
• Relating in love to the community of believers. 

When grown through Jesus, the fruit we produce involves these five elements. When they aren’t, we find our fields full of thorns, thistles, weeds, and other synonyms that make it challenging to receive the fruit. 

Let’s end that one here, everyone, because this was a fascinating and unique look at a consequence that feels easy to overlook. We talked about the thorns and thistles that will come when we try to receive God’s produce. We learned about what types of fruit we should grow and how to ensure that fruit grows through Jesus as the main vine. 

Next week, we wrap up this section and series by looking at the breath of God. Until then, stay blessed!