Think about the last time you bought something and were handed a receipt. The receipt didn’t make the purchase happen. It didn’t pay for anything. It simply provided evidence that a transaction had already taken place. Fruit works the same way.

Jesus said that His disciples would bear fruit. He wasn’t saying that fruit earns our relationship with Him. Fruit is the evidence that something has been happening beneath the surface. Think about an apple tree in the spring. Long before you can pick an apple, an invisible process is taking place. Roots are drawing nutrients from the soil. Branches are growing, blossoms form and eventually an apple appears. Fruit makes an invisible process visible.

That’s what God wants to do in our lives. Philippians 2:13 says that God is at work in you. He starts in and works out. His work begins in places other people cannot see—our thinking, desires, attitudes, priorities, reactions and motives. But if we remain connected to Him, eventually something visible begins to grow. You don’t react the way you used to. Something that once made you bitter doesn’t have the same power over you. You become more patient, you forgive faster and peace begins replacing anxiety. Self-control begins replacing impulse, and love begins replacing selfishness.

Jesus said in John 15 that fruit comes from abiding in Him. A branch doesn’t produce fruit by gritting its teeth and trying harder. It produces because it stays connected to the vine.

Christianity isn’t primarily behavior modification. God isn’t simply trying to make us nicer versions of ourselves. He is transforming us. Fruit doesn’t cause God to work in your life.

Fruit is the receipt that God has been working in your life.