My home in Michigan was locked in the icy grip of winter. I, on the other hand, had happily escaped for a few weeks to the tropics. One free afternoon, I was making the rounds with a gardener friend. He tended the grounds of winter homes of several wealthy northerners.
We approached a tree laden with citrus. “What kind of tree do you think this is?” he asked.
“It looks like a navel orange tree to me,” I replied.
“Well, it’s actually a sour orange tree.”
“Those sure look like navel oranges,” I responded.
“Yes, they are, but most trees find it hard to root here. The soil is shallow, and the coral rock underneath makes it hard for the tree to form a root structure. But the sour orange thrives here. So first we plant a sour orange, and, when it’s established, we graft in the kind of fruit we want.”
“Well, that’s fascinating. But you know what the Word says about this? ‘You will know them by their fruits,’ not by their roots. (Mattthew 7:16) So this deserves to be called a navel orange tree now.”
The gardener, a believer, agreed, because that’s what believers do—submit to the Word of God.
Which brings me to my point. Sinners, like the sour orange, thrive in this shallow world, and our fruit is as unpalatable as the Citrus aurantium.
As Paul would describe it, “The effects of the corrupt nature are obvious: illicit sex, perversion, promiscuity, idolatry, drug use, hatred, rivalry, jealousy, angry outbursts, selfish ambition, conflict, factions, envy, drunkenness, wild partying, and similar things.” (Galatians 5:19-21, GWT)
If you don’t see yourself in that list, you must be in the “similar things” category, because we’re all in the same predicament. “There is none righteous, no, not one.” (Romans 3:10)
What to do? How could we have instead “the fruit of the Spirit” which “is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control”? (Galatians 5:22-23)
We’ll need to learn what the old gardener knew. The only way for the sour orange tree to produce sweet fruit was to have a new kind of life grafted in.
That’s exactly what the Bible says we should do: “receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.” (James 1:21)
Gardeners call trees like the sour orange their root stock. The bud they take from the fruit tree of choice to graft in and bring new life is the scion.
Would it surprise you to know that the prophet Isaiah called the coming Messiah a scion? “Then a shoot [Heb, hôtêr, a scion] will spring up from the stump of Jesse, and a Branch from his roots will bear fruit.” (Isaiah 11:1, BSB)
Have you received with meekness the Word concerning the Lord Jesus? That He first gave His life FOR you at Calvary to pay the penalty of your sins? And that in resurrection He will give His life TO you, producing in you this sweet “fruit of the Spirit”?
The old life will still send out shoots, trying to reclaim the tree. Believers still face a struggle with sin. Thankfully Jesus called His Father the heavenly Gardener (John 15:1) who is more than happy to trim away that old life so you can “bear more fruit.” (v 2)
And that’s how sour souls can turn sweet.
Article published June 14, 2025 in the Commercial Dispatch.