Mark 4:19 observes all too quickly the attractions of this world and the delights of wealth, and the search for success and lure of nice things come in and crowd out God’s message from their hearts, so that no crop is produced.

When a person becomes a Christian ‘all too quickly’ they revert back to doing and seeking the same things as those who do not claim to be Christians.

What separates Christians from everyone else? Is it merely what we believe? The demons believe in God and in all things spiritual yet their destiny is not heaven.

Was Jesus different only because He believed He was God or was there something else that made Him different? Fruit is what God says is inherent to the Christian identifying a person as a Christian.

What is Christian fruit? It is a combination of character and witness.

Fruit is character in that it is identified with attributes of God the Holy Spirit such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. While these are hard to measure as to quantity they are easy to see practically.

God expects this fruit to come from the Christian as opposed to sexual immorality, impurity, idolatry, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like which is the fruit of those who don’t claim to be a Christian.

Fruit is also the works that demonstrate the love of God to others. The feeding of the hungry, clothing of the naked, and visiting of the prisoner all of which when done to others is done to God Himself.

Finally, the fruit that lasts forever is that which causes people to live forever, the conversion of people from animosity or indifference to God to love for God. It is this fruit that causes parties to occur in heaven.

The tree is known by its fruit. What kind of tree are we? What fruit are we yielding?