Week 11 · What is actually growing here
A Home That Bears Fruit
Read together: Matthew 7:15-27
Also read: James 3:13-18 · Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Jesus says you can tell a tree by its fruit and a house by its foundation. This week you look honestly at what your marriage is producing.
The heart of it
By their fruits ye shall know them. It is a test Jesus expects us to apply, first to ourselves. Not by our intentions, our doctrine, or our attendance — by what actually grows. A home produces something: peace or tension, generosity or grasping, courage or fear. Children and guests taste it before anyone names it.
Then the two houses. Both hear the words; only one does them. Both get the same storm. The difference is invisible until the weather comes, and then it is the only thing that matters. Doing the sayings of Jesus is the foundation, and the doing happens mostly at home.
James adds the contrast between wisdom from above and wisdom that is earthly: envy and strife against gentleness, mercy, and peace sown quietly. That is a useful measuring stick for the atmosphere of a house.
What to notice
- The test is fruit, not fervor. Lord, Lord is not enough.
- Both houses hear. Hearing is not the dividing line; doing is.
- The storm is assumed for both houses.
- Deuteronomy 6 puts the teaching of God into the ordinary hours: sitting, walking, lying down, rising up.
Talk together
- 1What is our home actually producing right now? Name it without flattering ourselves.
- 2What storm has tested us, and what did it reveal about our foundation?
- 3Which of Jesus' sayings do we hear regularly and not do?
- 4What is the atmosphere of our house when we are both tired — and what sets it?
- 5What one thing could we build into the ordinary hours of our week, as Deuteronomy 6 describes?
Your own journal
Answer these on your own during the week. They are yours; you are never required to read them out loud.
1. What fruit is my life producing at home this month? Write it plainly.
2. What word of Jesus do I know well and consistently ignore?
3. Where is my house built on sand — what am I really depending on?
4. What would I want my children, or anyone in our home, to remember about this house?
5. Ask God to show you one thing to begin doing rather than only hearing.
This week's challenge
Write down together the three things you want your home to be known for, put it somewhere visible, and name one change each of you will make toward it.
"Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock."
Matthew 7:24
Pray together
Ask God to test your house honestly and to give you courage to do what you already know.
Next week: Fruit That Remains