Remember the parable of the fig tree that had plenty of leaves but no fruit. Jesus said to it: ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again’ (Mark 11v14). I love the way Joyce Meyer applies this parable: ‘If our lives revolve around the church but we have no fruit, we are not living out our faith. We can have Christian bumper stickers on our cars, wear Jesus pins, carry our Bibles around, spend the lunch-break sitting alone reading our Bibles, have plaques listing the fruits of the Spirit hanging on our walls, and listen to teaching tapes and say “Praise the Lord! Hallelujah” but if we do not have time to help anyone else or even show kindness, we are like the fig tree with leaves but no fruit… if we have leaves, we need to also have fruit.’

Cited by Nick Gumbel in Bible in One Year (accessed 2/3/2015)