Why good fruit matters far more than influence

As a kid, I attended churches numbering less than a hundred people. Back then, no one was talking about church growth. We didn’t try to be “seeker sensitive.” Most folks belonged to smallish churches.

Photo by Maja Petric on Unsplash

I’m not saying those were the good ole’ days; I’m simply saying the average church goer didn’t think about the size of their church or why it should be bigger.

Things changed radically over the 70s and 80s. With the church growth movement and the rise of mega churches, we began hearing terms like “reach” and “influence” and “impact”—terms imported from the world of corporate business.

Then with the explosion of social media, it wasn’t just churches that were supposed to have “influence”—it was individuals, too.

There’s been an ongoing push for the average person to be an expert at something, build a platform, reach a wide audience, and draw as many followers as possible.

Despite Scripture telling believers to aspire to a quiet life and mind their own business (1 Thess. 4:11), our culture tells us living an ordinary life just isn’t okay anymore.

No, we must all be influencers—including Christians.

Meriam-Webster’s defines the verb as:

“to affect or alter by indirect or intangible means.” Synonyms include “leverage,” “sway,” and “impress.”

It can be argued that the way we live our lives does influence those around us. We set an example for good or bad by who we are.

However, influencing others cannot be the goal of the Christian life—especially when it involves swaying and impressing them with our oh-so-important selves.

The Lord seems far more interested in our character as individuals than he does by how many other people we influence.

Jesus said we would know the difference between true and false leaders by their fruit (Matt.7:16-20; 12:33; Luke 6:43-44.) He said his followers can only bear fruit by abiding in him (John 15:2-16).

Here is how the Bible describes the fruit he is looking for:

We are to bear it for God (Rom. 7:4). It is of the light, consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth, and pleases the Lord (Ephesians 5:8-10).

It is linked to discerning what is best, being pure and blameless, and being filled with righteousness (Philippians 1:10-11).

We bear fruit in our good works as we live a life worthy of the Lord, pleasing him and growing in our knowledge of him (Colossians 1:9b-10).

Wisdom from heaven is pure, peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, and impartial and sincere (James 3:17).

By contrast, ungodly people who make empty promises to believers are like trees that not only bear no fruit—they are uprooted and twice dead (Jude 1:12).

Put all these elements together, and we see what our priorities should look like—pleasing God by living righteously, walking in light and truth, and continually growing spiritually.

Humility, purity, honesty and mercy are hallmarks of good character, as are discernment and wisdom.

If that’s not clear enough, let’s top it off with the fullest description of spiritual fruit in the epistles:

Jesus doesn’t care about measurable outcomes or level of fame or size of platforms.

He isn’t interested in your stats, your reach, or your impact. No, he’s looking for your fruit.

The world tells us to be an influencer—that our value lies in our ability to affect others in some way.

But as a wise friend said recently,

“The moment you start chasing influence for its own sake is the moment you become corrupt.”

Let’s not wind up fruitless, uprooted, and doubly dead because we made influence an end in itself.

Instead, let’s do what actually matters.

Let’s bear good fruit.