In our Matthew passage today (Matthew 20:12-22), Jesus curses the fig tree.
In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.
When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” (Matthew 20:18-22)
Is not every fruitless professor of Christianity in dreadful danger of becoming a withered fig-tree? There can be no doubt of it. So long as a man is content with the leaves of religion–with a name to live while he is dead, and a form of godliness without the power–so long his soul is in great peril. So long as he is satisfied with going to church or chapel, and receiving the Lord’s supper, and being called a Christian, while his heart is not changed, and his sins not forsaken–so long he is daily provoking God to cut him off without remedy. Fruit, fruit–the fruit of the Spirit, is the only sure proof that we are savingly united to Christ, and in the way to heaven. May this sink down into our hearts, and never be forgotten!
Knowing God through His Word ... Day by Day 