My Boy Scout troop went camping one weekend of every month. As we packed up to go home on Sunday mornings, we would “police the area,” picking up even the tiniest specks of trash. Some bits of trash—such as cigarette butts—were clearly not dropped by any of us, but we picked them up anyway. Our goal, or at least the goal of the men who were our leaders, was to leave the campsite in a better condition than we found it. Even as a lazy kid, that goal spoke to me somehow.
The Cultural Mandate[1] is a Christian doctrine with the same goal: God’s people must strive to leave this world in a better condition than we found it. Many careers have such a goal built-in.
But what about when you leave work? Are you bearing fruit AFTER HOURS? Are you making the world a better place ALL the time? I hope so.
Yet these ideas—at first glance—stand in contrast to the actions of Jesus in Matthew 21:18-22. One morning when Jesus was hungry, He walked up to a fig tree hoping for a sweet snack. But the tree had no fruit, only leaves. “And He said to it, ‘May no fruit ever come from you again!’ At once the fig tree withered.
What just happened? Jesus was feeling a bit ‘hangry,’ found nothing on the tree, so He cursed the tree on the spot? Wait. This man who fasted for forty days? He let Himself become so annoyed by a barren fig tree that He cursed the tree? How is Jesus fulfilling the Cultural Mandate? Is He leaving the world a better place than He found it? Or is He just pouting because He wanted a Fig Newton?
Of course, I am speaking facetiously. Jesus was neither hangry, nor pouting. He was teaching His disciples a lesson about faith (see Matthew 21:20-22). But more than that, He was addressing the matter of fruitfulness.
Jesus did not destroy a tree that was bearing fruit, but a tree that was not bearing fruit.
This is simply an act of pruning. As Bruce Wilkinson explains so well in his book, THE SECRETS OF THE VINE, a gardener cuts away excessive leaves to make more room for grapes.
By disposing of a fruitless fig tree, Jesus made more room for the trees that will bear fruit.
This cutting, this pruning, fulfills the cultural mandate by leaving the world more fruitful than it was before.
So the question comes back to you and me. Are we making the world a better place, both in our vocation and our avocation—our job and our hobbies? Are we blessing people and the culture at large? Are you a good influence? Am I? Do we spread love, joy, and hope?
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch that does not bear fruit, and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, so that it will bear even more fruit” John 15:1-2.
You must bear fruit. That is your entire purpose.
Read Matthew 21.
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[1] https://institutefc.org/the-cultural-mandate-embracing-divine-and-cultural-responsibilities/#:~:text=This%20concept%20of%20living%20a,the%20earth%20and%20subdue%20it.%E2%80%9D
Household Words: 