It’s normal to question our salvation. However, God has given us ways to test our faith. One way is by examining our fruit.

Confession time:  I was one of those geeky kids in high school.  I wasn’t an athlete or cheerleader or in band or anything cool like that.  Instead I was on the Mock Trial Team, in the Honor Society, and in the Environmental Club.  The Environmental Club was actually pretty cool, because we got to go on some really fun trips—to New Orleans, snorkeling with manatees of the coast of Florida, and white water rafting in West Virginia.  That last trip wasn’t all fun, though.  The purpose of going to West Virginia was for a forestry competition.  Part of the competition was tree identification, where we had to tell the type of tree by looking at the bark, leaves, and fruit. 

How Can I Know I’m Saved?

You may be wondering where I’m going with that story, but there’s actually a biblical application here. It’s about how to test our faith. Jesus said, “A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit…You will recognize them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:18, 20).  This passage actually became significant to me when I was a teenager.

I went through a period of questioning my salvation.  A lady from my church, who had been raised in church and was very faithful, came forward and said that she felt like she had not really been saved all those years, but now she wanted to be saved.  That concerned me.  I had been saved as a child, so I didn’t have this dramatic conversion experience to fall back on for assurance.  If this woman had been mistaken, maybe I was too.  How could I really know that I was saved?

You Will Know Them by Their Fruits

When I talked to my parents, my dad took me to the verses I just quoted.  He told me that he couldn’t know 100% for sure if I was saved, but that based on my fruit, he would guess that I was.  As I examined my own heart, I realized that I was really saved, and I thank that God for that assurance.   

The truth is, God has given us ways to test our own faith, and fruit is one of them.  As Jesus said, a good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a diseased tree can’t produce good fruit. People can fake their fruit for a while, so we can’t always tell about someone else.  However, we can’t fool ourselves.  We know what’s in our own hearts, and we can tell if our fruit is rotten. 

For a person that is in Christ and that has been made new, the old has passed away.  They are no longer a bad tree, so they should produce good fruit.  James states it this way: “Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:17).  It’s not enough to just say that we’re saved.  Anyone can do that.  If we are really saved, though, there should be some evidence.

In James 4:1-3, I see three fruit that we can use to test our faith:

First, we need to check our desires. 

James writes that people are at war with their passions (verse 1).  The word “passions” is referring to a desire for pleasure, so the people are clearly just seeking to please themselves.  So, to check your fruit, ask yourself, what are you passionate about?  What do you want most in life?  Are you just seeking pleasure?  Do you want more money or more possessions?  Do you want power or prestige?  Or do you want to honor and glorify God in the things you do? 

The second fruit that we should check is our reactions. 

According to James, when these people couldn’t get what they desired, they fought, quarreled, and even murdered (verse 2).  Some questions to ask:  What will you do to get what you desire?  Are you willing to sin for what you want?  How do you react when you can’t get what you want?  Do you get angry or bitter?  Or, do you realize that God has a purpose in everything?  Do you trust Him to give you what is for your good and withhold what He knows you do not need?

The final fruit that we can check is our motives. 

James writes that people ask for thing for the wrong reasons (verse 3).  Why do you want the things that you want?  Do you want them for your own selfish reasons?  Or do you want use them to glorify God and help others?

Inspecting our own fruit can be painful.  It’s hard to admit our sin.  But if we are truly new creations in Christ, we should want to uproot the sin in our hearts.  We should not want to follow our old sinful desires anymore.   By asking ourselves a few tough questions, we can test our faith and determine whether or not we are really in Christ.

In what ways do you fight against your own sinful desires?  How have you been successful in overcoming your desires? Leave a comment below!

This post is part of my Bible study series called “A New Creation.”  You can find other posts and resources for this free online bible study here:

A New Creation-What It Means to Be in Christ

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.