Faith and Works: Like a Tree and Its Fruits

By Erika Schwibs

It is not easy, I think, for any Christian to come to a well-developed understanding of faith and works. The New Testament, if not read with faith, can seem contradictory. Jesus says over and over that people’s faith and belief in Him saves them, but He also says over and over that people will be judged by their works. I know it took me some years of meditation to come to what I felt was a very good sense of how the two relate.

Of course, this has been a major point of contention, too, between Protestants and Catholics.

The other day, the Lord pointed out something to me about how trees and their fruit can be used to get a better understanding of faith and works. Faith is like the tree, and works are like the fruit of a tree. We all have faith in people and things. There are different kinds of faith, in a sense. When we have faith in God, or else wrongly put the faith due Him somewhere else, these are trees we worship. The fruit produced will be the type of tree that it is.

Sometimes people can worship both the Lord and idols. And no human is yet perfect, getting all of our fruit from the tree of faith in God. When someone turns away from idols, and to Christ, it’s often when they realize that the tree of worshipping God produces much better fruit than the trees of the idolatrous world.

And as for faith and works, a fruit is not a tree, and a tree is not a fruit. Any fruit that is of the Lord will be come from the tree of faith in Him.