Plucking Fruit from the Narcissists Tree
“You know he’s a narcissist.”
It’s shocking how casually a label like this gets thrown around. People are condemned in the court of opinion on mere anecdotes.
We can know a lot about someone by what we observe, but we must slow down.
Jesus told us that we could know a tree by its fruit. The words and actions of a person are fruit of an unseen root system.
Many times, the fruit can be hard to discern. We need time to discern fruit. That’s why we need humility and patience. Without humility we won’t have patience. Without patience we won’t have time.
We must humbly embrace our limitations. We have limited information. We have limited understanding of the information. We need to remember our limitations. Humility is the root of wisdom. We bow before the Lord who knows all and sees all.
God will judge all justly.
We can rest in God’s final justice. God is exactly who we want to judge. He sees all the facts with perfect wisdom while having power and authority to execute the right verdict.
When humble people rest in God’s final justice, we walk patiently with others. We patiently endure other’s struggles and sins. We patiently discern patterns and fruit.
We are patient in hope that God’s Spirit will make things clear.
All things will be clear in the Final Day. The thoughts and motives of the heart will be clear on the Final Day. The things whispered secretly will be shouted from the rooftop.
There will be no secrets when God judges.
Scripture also gives hope that, with patience, we will gain clarity even before the Final Day.
Paul encourages Timothy toward patience in calling pastors because patience will allow true character to be proven by fruit.
I believe this is deeply important for every believer, not merely for pastors.
24 The sins of some are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them; the sins of others trail behind them. 25 In the same way, good deeds are obvious, and even those that are not obvious cannot remain hidden forever.
1 Timothy 5:24–25
People will show you who they are by their fruit. We need a farmer’s patience to allow fruit to grow. A farmer’s patience is not inactivity or laziness but accepting dependence.
Are you willing to trust God while clarity grows? It will require prayerful dependence all along the way. We can talk to God about what we see and wrestle with God over what we experience.
In prayer, we can wait and watch with hope.