He who tends the fig tree will eat its fruit and he who cares for his master will be honoured.
Eventually, we are all rewarded by the one we choose to serve: It’s cause and effect. So let’s not bite the hand that feeds us.
We all have a hand that feeds us, even if the hand is invisible. When caring for a plant such as a fig tree, there is a period of planting, watering, tending, pruning, and finally reaping. Patience!
The benefits we can gain from others also require patient, dedicated labour.
It takes patience and humility to earn a reward. Consistent dedication will eventually pay off. Loyalty is a virtue. It’s important to be loyal to anyone or anything that will eventually yield good fruit.
Food Sources
The text compares a master to a fig tree—a source of nourishment. The more a servant helps his master become successful and wealthy, the more the master can share with the servant. Speaking well of your master produces benefits for both you and your master. The fundamentals in agriculture apply in the workplace. Just as farmers must cultivate their fields—picking rocks, breaking soil, fertilizing, planting—businesses must cultivate their customers and clients. Much care yields much return.
Classic Comments
Matthew Henry wrote:
This is designed to encourage diligence, faithfulness, and constancy, even in mean [i.e. simple, ordinary] employments. Though the calling be laborious and despicable, yet those who keep to it will find there is something to be got by it.Let not a poor gardener, who keeps the fig-tree, be discouraged; though it require constant care and attendance to nurse up fig-trees, and, when they have grown to maturity, to keep them in good order, and gather the figs in their season, yet he shall be paid for his pains...Nay, let not a poor servant think himself incapable of thriving and being preferred; for if he be diligent in waiting on his master, observant of him and obedient to him, if he keep his master (so the word is), if he do all he can for the securing of his person and reputation and take care that his estate be not wasted or damaged, such a one shall be honoured, shall not only get a good word, but be preferred and rewarded.
JFB Commentary1
Diligence secures a reward, even for a humble servant.
Charles Bridges
The fig tree was a valuable product of Judea. Its cultivation was probably a profitable labor, and therefore illustrated the general reward of faithfulness. The gardener’s hard work was compensated by eating its fruit... There are no exceptions to this rule.
Faithful work has inherent dignity and undeniable rewards.
Pick Your Master Carefully
It’s the law of the harvest; you reap what you sow.
- Similar in kind: You don’t plant carrots and reap tomatoes.
- Later in time: You must wait until a harvest comes.
- Increase in yield: You get back more than you planted.
Our master’s character will determine our return. Good masters pay well, and evil masters pay poorly. If we keep jumping around and serving many masters, we’ll likely satisfy none and risk any return. If we carefully pick our master, we can be sure that faithful service will receive appropriate compensation. The text speaks of a fig tree rather than a thorn bush. No farmer deliberately plants thorn bushes, yet Jesus warns of bad—destructive—“fruit.”
Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles. So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Matthew 7:15-19.
Choose your master carefully. Your choice has a huge impact on your future harvest.
Our Maker, Saviour, and Friend
Jesus warns that when you choose to serve yourself (self-worship) you will reap what is within yourself (Mark 7:21,22,23). If you're honest with yourself, you know that means turmoil and trouble. If you pur yourself last and serve God, you will gain unending benefits (Luke 9:24). This text does not directly advise on the choice of a master, good or bad, but it insists that all will eventually receive payment according to their service.
Jesus also had a master. Jesus did nothing on His own initiative (John 5:30).
Jesus obeyed His Father even to the point of dying an agonizing death—all out of intense and unshakeable loyalty (Philippians 2:5-8).
- Memorize the text in your favourite Bible translation and think about it often.
- Don’t quit your cause if you are convinced of its goodness. Be consistently committed.
- Discern the best way to help your employer, boss, or supervisor.
- Be persistently patient and loyal toward your master. Persistence trumps talent.
Which of these steps, if any, does Jesus want you to take now? Ask Him.
Related Illustration1. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary