You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits. Matthew 7:16-20
“Now how are we to judge whether we are really cultivating our talents? What test can we apply? What standard adopt? Or, leaving out of view the highest endowments of the ‘five’ and the ‘two’ and taking the humblest case, how can the man who has but the one talent, the ‘religious talent,’— how can he satisfy himself that he is using it? There is only one safe test and that is a divinely sanctioned one. It is not one of sentiment or of the feelings, for these may be deceptive in their foundation or misleading in their witness. The true test is that of Christ Himself, “By their fruits ye shall know them”; “The tree is known by its fruit.” And, observe, this is a test which men may and are to use and apply. “The tree is known by its fruit” might only mean that God will judge men that way, but the other form of the same saying was given to His disciples by Christ as one they were to apply to any given case. He said to them “By their fruits ye shall know them.”
Charles Slegg Ward in his sermon, “Well Done, Good and Faithful Servant,” preached at Worting Church 18 March 1883 (Basingstoke: C.J. Jacob, 1883) 5.
Every steward must consider Ward’s question: “Now how are we to judge whether we are really cultivating our talents?” His “safe test” is a good one. It actually comes from Jesus. How would you answer it? Are you producing fruit? What does your fruit say about you? The key is not to be doing things for God but connected to God, abiding in Him. Generosity is not a series of acts for God but the fruit of God’s work in and through each of us.
Want help on your journey? Check out Good and Faithful: Ten Stewardship Lessons for Everyday Living. The videos stream freely and you can order the workbook from Seedbed to go through it as an individual or with your small group. After distributing some of the first copies of this resource at a forum in Pittsburgh this week, I am thankful to be heading home tonight.