Flourishing and Fruit

Google the word flourishing, and– depending on the current version of the algorithm driving your personal searches – the result may well be a fascinating cross-section of self-help, positive thinking, Instagram feeds and “TikTokary”.  

It would be fair to say that, if this kind of search were to inform your view of flourishing, the net result of responding to it would result in an inward looking, excluding pattern of behaviour – where discomfort and caring truthfulness in relationships might be jettisoned in the pursuit of happiness, calm and an absence of inconvenience.

Flourishing as a concept is found in the Bible. In Psalm 72:7, the psalmist passionately asks God to give the king wisdom and a love for justice, so that the righteous can flourish under his rule. In Psalm 92:12-13, the righteous are described as flourishing like the palm tree in the courts of God. 

Similarly, in Proverbs 11:28, the writer creates an image of the righteous flourishing like a green leaf. Furthermore, in Proverbs 14:11, he asserts that the household of the upright will flourish. In both Isaiah (66:14) and Ezekiel (17:24), the prophets promise that God will one day restore the people – who appear at the time as dry bones – so that they might flourish.

In the Old Testament, flourishing is often written about with a botanic (plant) imagery. Essentially, from the dead twigs of not knowing God to the new sprouts and rapid growth of living faithful to God’s call.

In the New Testament, flourishing is mentioned only three times – all in Acts (6:7, 12:24, 19:20) and all as a way of describing the early church’s thriving practice of teaching God’s message. 

But the botanical images of flourishing in faith continue, through the use of the word fruitfulness. Passages like Galatians 5, exhorting believers through descriptions of  the fruit of the Spirit are well known; ones less often talked about include instances like Hebrews 12:11 when the writer notes that fruitfulness is the result of painful discipline and suffering and because of hardship endured if and when we faithfully give praise to God, no matter what (Hebrews 13:15). 

For me, one of the most powerful passages that speaks to the fruitfulness of our walk with Jesus is His own teaching in John 15. Here He links our fruitfulness – our flourishing, our thriving in life – to close and intimate relationship with Him and each other.  

Bearing fruit, flourishing, cannot happen in isolation. It can only happen in relationship with the source of life, God the creator of the universe, made known to us through Jesus, and in relationship with one another as a community of His people. 

It’s a call to fix our eyes on Him, to hold on to all His promises, to support and build one another up, both individually and corporately, in the light of His grace and mercy extended to us.

As a community, flourishing by faith will be seen by the fruit we bear – may this fruit bring glory to God’s name.

Shalom.