Made with real fruit. Bursting with fruity flavor. Fruit in every bite. Advertising slogans repeatedly reveal one simple truth: fruitfulness is inherently attractive and compelling. We are naturally drawn in when people tell us, “Come where the fruit is!”

What do we make of this fruit-filled observation? And what might it teach us when James tells us that the life of wisdom is full of good fruits (Jas. 3:17)? As we look at Scripture, we discover a connection. Like the luscious fruit stand by the road, the life of wisdom is to be inherently fruitful and desirable.

We need to go to Proverbs, that book of wisdom, to understand how and why James would speak of wisdom in fruit categories. Proverbs often connects wisdom and fruit (see 8:19; 11:30; 12:12, 14; 27:18; 31:16, 31). One Proverbs fruit-and-wisdom verse often stands out to me: “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life” (11:30).

Remember the tree of life in the garden of Eden? That tree represented the full vitality, prosperity, and fruitfulness of the life God created for mankind. Or maybe you remember the tree of life showing up in Revelation (Rev. 2:7; 22:2, 14, 19). Scripture concludes by promising an eternal life of vitality and fruitfulness—all signified by that fruitful tree of life!

Now consider the tree of life in Proverbs and how it speaks to the life of wisdom full of good fruits. Proverbs presents the tree of life not as a dream of time gone by in Eden or as simply the expectation of future life in the new heavens and new earth. In Proverbs, the fruitful tree of life can be ours now (3:18; 11:30; 13:12; 15:4)! And in the language of Proverbs 11:30, the wise life produces the fruit of that tree.

Catching the image here is crucial. Who doesn’t love a restaurant that offers you their delicious rolls or famous sweet bread as soon as you arrive? These taste tests or appetizers nourish you while letting you know how delicious the full meal will soon be.

For the Christian, the believer’s life of wisdom and fruitfulness produces the taste test of the eternal meal of the tree of life. “The fruit of the righteous” (Prov. 11:30) now is the firstfruits of the eternal life of fruitfulness yet to be. Thus, my life of wisdom is to bear the taste test of the fruit—the evidence of God’s fruitful plan—to a watching world. I am to be “full of good fruits.”

So what should our tree-of-life, fruit-bearing lives of righteous wisdom look like?

1. Our life of fruitfulness is to be a compelling, attractive, glorious life. A flourishing fruit tree is not simply nutritional or functional. It is beautiful, compelling, and rich. Too often, believers see the life of wisdom as ordinary, abstract, and perhaps drab. Maybe sometimes we live lives that give reason for that description.

But we must see the life of wisdom as God sees it. For His children, God sees and purposes lives full of tree-of-life vitality and nourishing fruitfulness. In Christ, do you see your life that way? And what kind of patterns of wisdom might God call you to that would display the vitality of the tree of life itself?

2. Our life of fruitfulness is to be abundant. An apple tree that produces just one apple—no matter how beautiful that apple might be—is not a successful tree. So it is with the life of wisdom. It must not have just a fruit or two, but instead be full of good fruits. I love those people in my life who seem to abound with good fruits day after day. It is as if I taste a bit of the tree of life whenever I’m around them. Such fruitfulness is the model of Christian wisdom for each of us.

3. Our life of fruitfulness comes through Christ alone. None of us can plant the tree of life. On our own, we are in Adam, who forsook that tree (Gen. 3:24). Instead, we must be cast on Christ, who endured the tree of death (Gal. 3:13) that we might return to the tree of life. May all our hope be on Jesus, all our fruit be from Jesus, and our wise lives of good fruit be lived to the glory of Jesus.

Joel Hart | associate pastor, Second (Indianapolis, Ind.) RPC