Are you producing fruit or religion?

Now in the morning, as Jesus returned to the city, he was hungry and seeing a fig tree by the road, he came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, ‘’Let no fruit grow on you ever again’’ Immediately the fig tree withered away Matthew 21:18-19

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A fig tree with foliage but no figs represents the religious spirit or religious activity- it has the appearance of holiness but lacks the power to give life.

This is why it does not produce fruit for the Kingdom. Something significant happened in this incident, and to full understand what it represents, we must return to the account of Adam and Eve in Gensis. When the first human beings sinned, they became aware of their nakedness and hurried to cover themselves with fig leaves, thinking that this might make them acceptable in the eyes of God.

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They went before the Lord with contaminated souls, believing that the leaves would cover up their mistakes.
When people feel guilty before God, they try to cover themselves externally with religious actions. Yet the scriptures are clear about this fact: only the blood of Jesus can make us acceptable before the Father. In Genesis, God gave Adam and Eve coverings of animal skins rather than fig leaves.

These sacrificed animals may represent the first symbol of Christ’s sacrifice and shed blood on the cross to atone for our sins

In the church today, there is a vast variety of ‘’Fig leaves’’ some ‘’leaves’’ may be found in Pentecostal churches and others in charismatic or evangelical ones; some may be found in Baptist congregations and others in Methodist ones; some may be found in Catholic houses of worship and others in Adventist ones, and so on. However, it is worth nothing that within various Christian’s denominations or organizations, there are genuine believers who are producing fruit and are not religious.

Regardless of what we call ourselves or what new denomination we may belong to, if we do not produce fruit for God, all we have is religion.

Fruit represents an interior life that pleases God. Fig leaves represent an external appearance that displeases him. Jesus went to the fig tree because he wanted to eat figs. He wanted to taste of its fruit. If Jesus came to eat of your fruit today, what would you be able to offer him? What fruit would you give the Lord to eat? Do you have fruit of love, peace and patience in your personal life?

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Can you offer him the souls you have won for his kingdom, the marriages that have been restored or the sick who have been healed? Or is your life like the fig tree that Jesus cursed- having much foliage but no fruit, religious in appearance alone? If you have no fruit to offer Jesus, then again, all you have is religion. Let us ask God not to curse us, as Jesus cursed the fig tree, and to enable us to allow the glory to transform us so that we can bear much fruit. The word clearly teaches that we are saved by grace, not by laws or practices. The Holy Spirit does not impose religion on us. Our obedience and love for God are expressed voluntarily, from the inside.