Karpos Diem
which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth; Colossians 1:6 NASB
Constantly bearing fruit – One of the legends about the ‘olam ha’ba is that trees there will bear fruit constantly. No seasonal apple or oranges. Pomegranates all the time. We read those words and wonder, “How can such a thing happen? It defies all botany. But perhaps the statement about the ‘olam ha’ba isn’t actually about fruit trees. Perhaps it is about human karpophoréō.
Paul writes to the Colossians. He says that the gospel of God is bearing fruit all over the world. Obviously, he isn’t talking about apples and oranges. He’s talking about people, changed lives, new hope. He uses the analogy of fruit for a reason. There’s something we need to know about bearing fruit that has direct application to the growth of the Kingdom.
Fruit trees do not consume their own production. Orange trees don’t produce when the soil is enriched with oranges. Apple trees don’t do well on apple fertilizer. The entire purpose of fruit-bearing is to provide for some other thing to be nourished, and, as a result, originate a chain of symbiotic dependencies that will eventually return to the originator as food for growth. If you deliberately stop the chain, everything suffers. No better example in nature can be found than ignoring the essential cycle between the oceans and life on the planet. Damage one—damage all.
Biblical human symbiosis works the same way. I produce so that you may eat. You produce so that others may eat and—eventually—all of that chain of nurturing efforts returns to me so that I may eat. It matters not if the chain is about food or ideas, spiritual growth or physical well-being. As soon as I stop producing, or worse, start consuming my own production, the chain is broken. Everyone else suffers and—eventually—I will starve too. The Hebrew word ḥesed contains precisely this idea. It is, perhaps, the single most important covenant word in the Bible. And the most challenging. If your life is spent taking care of yourself, you starve others and eventually yourself. But if you spend yourself on behalf of others, you create chains of symbiotic dependence that have immeasurable reward. The process is counter-intuitive—and exactly correct. Yeshua gave us several important parables about this (barns, debts, etc.).
Today is a day of the myth of pagan eternal return. We should consider how we respond to the notion that everything just goes around and around and, in the end, doesn’t really matter much (ah, The Lion King again). Perhaps that best way to combat this ancient myth of purposelessness is to make a plan to give yourself away; to start some ḥesed chains today and see what happens. You might have to wait a while, but God will be happy immediately.
Topical Index: karpophoréō, bearing fruit, ḥesed, Colossians 1:6
