See Christ’s ‘Fruit-Bearing Metaphor’ Will Help You Defend The Church From Antinomianism And Legalism.

15 “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. 16 You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. 18 A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. 19 So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. 20 Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions. — Matthew 7:15-20 NLT

Christ’s fruit bearing metaphor isn’t limited to false teachers only, as this metaphor is applied to all the people of God. Even so far back as the Old Testament (Ps 1:3) and is applied again more definitively to Christians in Jn 15:1-17 & Lk 6:43-45.

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. 6 Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. 7 But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! 8 When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.

9 “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. 10 When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. 11 I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! 12 This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. 13 There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. 16 You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. 17 This is my command: Love each other.

— John 15:1-17 NLT

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43 “A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. 44 A tree is identified by its fruit. Figs are never gathered from thornbushes, and grapes are not picked from bramble bushes. 45 A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart. — Luke 6:43-45 NLT

True believers will always be marked by the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:22-23) and the children of the devil (1Jn 3:6-10) will evidently pursue the works of the flesh (Gal 5:19-21).

19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

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!

— Galatians 5:19-23 NLT.

The fruits of the faith are not the efforts of man, they’re the workings of God (1Cor.3:6-7; Jn 15:4; Ga 5:22-23) upon closer union with Christ. Fruit-bearing is anti-legalistic by nature because it is post-justification. We must never tell a person that they must perform some action in order to merit salvation, for we know that justification is by faith only (Eph 2:8-10; Rom 3:28), instead, we would say that if their faith was truly genuine, and they were in fact saved, that their lives would bear the fruits of obedience (Mt 3:8;Jn 15:8,16). “Therefore Christ justifies no one whom he does not at the same time sanctify.”

🍎 Fruit grows on salvation
🍎 Bearing fruit happens naturally for living trees.
🍎 A branch cannot bear fruit by itself (Jn 15:4).
🍎 Fruit of the spirit not of human decision (Ga 5:22-23).
🍎 If the fruit isn’t growing the root is dead (Mt 3:10; Jas 2:17; 2Cor.13:5).