A relative got many apples from a farm market or something and I was able to have some. I prefer to eat my apples cut instead of just biting into them but after washing and cutting a few open I found a strange apple and as I tried again found more. What was so strange? Well, you see from the outside of the fruit the apples looked perfectly fine to eat. And after cutting them in half most of the fruit on the inside also looked good, except for the core of the apple where the seeds were. The very middle of some of the apples looked moldy while the surrounding fruit looked perfectly fine.
Usually when an apple or any fruit is starting to spoil I would be able to notice the signs of decay on the outside, but these apples seemed to be going bad from the inside out. On a website for The Pennsylvania State University I found this information “Moldy core is characterized by the growth of fungus mycelium within the locules (the seed cavity), without penetration into the flesh of the fruit. External symptoms are rare, except infected fruit may color and fall prematurely. The disease isn't noticed until the fruit are cut open.” (Apple Disease: Moldy Core 2024)
I found it very interesting and reflected on how often such unexpected revelations can happen in life in regard to character and how we should be careful about rushing to judge others. When we say not to judge others it is often the case that we are communicating is that while we can acknowledge someone did something wrong, we should not leap to conclusions about the person’s overall intent to be good or bad even if we can judge the action or the impact to be bad. But sometimes we need to be careful about the opposite kind of judging, when we quickly leap to conclude that someone or something must be good because the actions look good on the surface and even at times many layers below it before getting to the core issues.
“And it is perfectly evident what the old nature does. It expresses itself in sexual immorality, impurity and indecency; involvement with the occult and with drugs; in feuding, fighting, becoming jealous and getting angry; in selfish ambition, factionalism, intrigue and envy; in drunkenness, orgies and things like these. I warn you now as I have warned you before: those who do such things will have no share in the Kingdom of God! But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, self control. Nothing in the Torah stands against such things.” Galatians 5:19-23
But the thing is, we can have what looks like perfectly good fruit spiritually and yet have a rotten core. And whatever spiritual fruit we have might be immature despite looking ready to fall as can happen in cases of the moldy apple disease referenced before. It is possible to do good for the wrong reasons. It is possible to be immature in our choices. Sometimes we like admiration we get from serving others more than we actually care about others. Sometimes believers can defend the Bible so passionately not because we actually care to follow it but because we are insecure and having “good” arguments make us feel better about ourselves. And the list can go on.
We should be careful to question our own motives for doing things even when the surface our choices look great and just below the surface looks great too. Sometimes the rot is so deep we are not able to notice it without the deep cutting introspection of God’s word. “See, the Word of God is alive! It is at work and is sharper than any double-edged sword — it cuts right through to where soul meets spirit and joints meet marrow, and it is quick to judge the inner reflections and attitudes of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12 It maybe painful but we must let the truth cut us open and not be defensive about our true condition if we want to be healed.
Reference: Peter, Kari A. Ph.D. 2024 Apple Disease: Moldy Core received 2025 from https://extension.psu.edu/apple-disease-moldy-core
