We British are rather fond of apples – Cox’s, Golden Delicious, Granny Smiths, Braeburns, Pink Ladies etc. My mother actually has an apple tree in her back garden. Every other year it produces a bumper crop, enabling us to enjoy apple crumble, apple pies, apple flans, baked apples and even stewed apple on our breakfast cereal. The neighbours and the church do quite well out of the crop too. But are there any spiritual lessons to be gleaned from the humble apple? I believe that there are:-
- Our Sin
Every apple has a hard core which is inedible and has to be removed. This mirrors our sad human condition. The Bible teaches that the heart of our problem is the problem of our heart – our essential nature and inner being. ‘The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately corrupt’ (Jeremiah 17:9). Salvation thus entails being changed – changed by the Spirit of God from the inside out. The Spirit of God alone can convince us of our lost condition, and incline us towards Christ for full salvation and transformation. God promises ‘A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh’ (Ezekiel 36:26) – that is, He bestows a new heart which is able to respond to His saving grace.
- Our Saviour
In the Song of Solomon 2:3 we read ‘As an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among young men. With great delight I sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.’
The Song of Solomon has often been interpretted by Christians as an allegory on Christ’s love for His people – His special bride, the church of the redeemed. Christ is indeed ‘sweet’ to His people. He is our Saviour; He gave His life to redeem us; He companies with us throughout our earthly life, and we will yet enjoy His blessed company for all eternity. So we can say ‘With great delight I sat in His shadow, and His fruit was sweet to my taste.’ The sweetest experience of all is the experience of salvation – the salvation which is found in Christ alone: the forgiveness of sins, peace with God and the sure hope of eternal life:-
Jesus the very thought of Thee
With sweetness fills my breast
But sweeter far Thy face to see
And in Thy presence rest
Nor voice can sing nor heart can frame
Nor can the memory find
A sweeter sound than Thy blest Name
O Saviour of mankind.
- Our Separation
Apples have to be carefully kept and stored or they will go rotten. One bad apple can infect another. So, at the end of the season, my mother packs the apples away carefully in a box. She uses layers of newspaper to separate them and ensures that the apples do not touch each other.
Here we have a less popular application for Christians: the Bible enjoins separation on God’s all people. We are to live in the world, but not to be ‘of the world.’ There is much in our modern society that is contrary to the revealed will of God in the Bible, and we have to take care not to be infected by it. If we are, our fellowship with God will be marred, our joy in the Lord diminished and our Christian usefulness blunted. Hence Romans 12:2 ‘Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.’ We should be aware and beware of spiritual contamination from the places we frequent, the company we keep, the media we use and even the churches we attend. ‘Therefore come out from them and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch nothing unclean’ (2 Corinthians 6:17). ‘Keep your heart with all vigilance; for from it flow the springs of life’ (Proverbs 4:23).
- Our Service
Finally, we note that apples have seeds in them. These seeds, in turn, produce new apple trees, and the new apple trees produce new apples, and the cycle continues. One biological law is that all living creatures reproduce or have the capacity to reproduce. And it is the same in the spiritual realm. God gives us new life in Christ – ‘the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Romans 6:23). Once we know that new life, we will want to share that life. Our longing is that others too will know the joy of salvation –new life in Christ. Our longing is that others too will know what it is to be born again of God’s Spirit and that God would even use us as a means to that end. We are saved to serve. Christians are to bear the fruit of their salvation in their day to day lives. The quantity of fruit may vary – ‘in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty’ (Matthew 13:23), but if the Spirit of God really is dwelling in us, the fruit of salvation will most surely be evident.
Apples. Their hard core reminds us of our need of salvation. Their sweetness and wholesomeness reminds the Christian of the sweetness of Christ and His salvation. Their liability towards going bad reminds us that we have to be separate from all that harms or hinders our walk with God. Their capacity to reproduce reminds us that the Christian faith is an evangelistic faith. True Christians long that others too will come to know Christ, for Jesus said ‘This is eternal life, that they know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou has sent’(John 17:3).
Timothy Cross
