Mark 11:12-25 — “12 On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. 13 And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.
15 And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 16 And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” 18 And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. 19 And when evening came they went out of the city.
20 As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. 21 And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” 22 And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. 23 Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.“
As we see Jesus’ displeasure towards this figless fig tree in Mark 11, we are reminded of another passage in which Jesus teaches about a fruitless person–the first half of John 15. In this text, Jesus is not denying the eternal security of a believer. The branches which do not bear fruit and are eventually burned do not represent Christians, but rather those who hang around the church and even participate in things in the church, just like those in Heb. 6. However, it becomes obvious over time that there is no spiritual life in these folks and we know that because there is no spiritual fruit. God is patient, but in his timing, he does remove dead branches from the church so that the real branches are not malnourished. What’s clear from what Jesus says is that fruitfulness is expected and that abiding in Christ, which means believing in and obeying his word and receiving the spiritual strength for doing so, is the only way to achieve real fruit. A connection to Christ by abiding faith automatically leads to evidence of his power and work in someone’s life. A fruitless church goer is not only one who displeases God, but he or she is in grave danger of being cut off from any exposure to the truth they have been experiencing. If apart from God man can produce zero fruit, imagine what the temple was producing. The discerning person observing the temple would look on and conclude that there was no worship happening whatsoever despite hours of prayer and countless sacrifices being made daily. That’s why we must be careful of attributing religious activity with spiritual fruit. Instead, we should be looking for the fruit of the Spirit as laid out in Gal. 5:22-23. Those can be manifested by any person in any situation and that is how we can know we are bearing fruit and proving to be His disciples.