Good works are the fruit of a Christian life. What kind of fruit is your life producing? If the tree is good, it will bear good fruit. If the tree is bad the tree will bear bad fruit.

“Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.Therefore by their fruits you will know them” (Matthew 7:17-20). If you are living the life of faith, you will produce the fruit of faith—good works are part of that fruit.

What if you don’t have any good works? “And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.” Immediately the fig tree withered away” (Matthew 21:19). Jesus came to a fig tree, and found that while it had lots of leaves, it wasn’t bearing any fruit, and had nothing to offer Him. Good works are part of the fruit that we can offer to God and to others for His sake. If you do not bear good fruit, what use are you to the Kingdom of God? John 15:1-2 says this about those who don’t bear any fruit: “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”