STOP STAPLING FRUIT TO DEAD TREES

5th in the Wide Witness, Deep Roots Series

Why your real values show up in the budget, calendar, and reflexes

—and the values needed for Christlike character from the roots.

If you want to know what you really value, don’t ask for your “statement of faith.” Ask for your calendar, your credit-card bill, and your browser history. Values don’t live in our vocabulary. They live in our reflexes.

That is why character formation is hard. Most of us are trying to staple shiny fruit onto a sick tree. We want patience, joy, self-control, and love, but we keep feeding the roots with whatever the culture is selling this week: comfort, applause, outrage, and control. Then we act surprised when the tree grows thorns.

My Christian Character Tree picture visualizes the idea that real change is mostly underground. The “visible” is downstream from the “invisible.” The fruit grows in the light, but the life comes from the dark.

So let’s talk about the dark. Specifically, the values that (1) root us in the soil of the transcendentals - the True, the Good, and the Beautiful - and (2) draw up the supplements of 2 Peter 1:3-11 so a person and a church actually become stable, credible, and Christlike. Is that not what we want? 

And yes, we are going to be specific. Not ‘quick tips’ specific—more like ‘put your finger on the real issue underground’ specific. 

Values are often either assumed or forgotten. Some churches have value statements, but they are not fleshed out in the life of the church. The same may be true for individuals. For this reason, I have built this blog around some questions on how values inform Christian character. Let’s take a look. 

1) VIRTUES VS VALUES: WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

Here’s the simplest way to say it without sounding like a philosophy professor:

• A value is what you prize.

• A virtue is what you can practice reliably when it costs you.

Values are the target; virtues are the trained capacity to hit the target when it counts.

That is why the same moral word can sometimes work both ways. “Self-control” can mean (a) the thing you admire and want (value), and (b) the settled ability to govern your appetites under pressure (virtue). Same label, different layer.

Think of it like this:

• Values live in the roots. They are the inner “pricing system” of the soul. They answer: What is worth it? What matters most? What do we protect, pursue, and celebrate?

• Virtues live in the trunk and branches. They are stable dispositions - the “joinery of the soul” - that make obedience more natural over time. See this previous blog for this “joinery”concept. 

A church can have orthodox beliefs on paper and still be shaped by unchristian values in practice. That’s why you can have a congregation that “believes the Bible” and still runs on the same fuel as the corporate world: efficiency, image-management, and growth-at-all-costs. The beliefs might be right, but the values are crooked - and the fruit tells the truth.

2) WHAT PLACE DO VALUES HAVE IN CHRISTIAN CHARACTER?

Values are the bridge between what you believe (Head) and what you do (Hands). They are how the Heart steers the whole operation.

Scripture talks about this constantly, even if it doesn’t always use the modern word “values.” Jesus says, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”(Matthew 6:21). Treasure is value language. Paul says grace “trains” us (Titus 2). Training is value-and-virtue language. Peter says God has given us “precious and very great promises” and then commands, “make every effort.” Promises are God’s value-claims; effort is our Spirit-empowered response.

Dallas Willard’s line nails the problem: “Grace is not opposed to effort; it is opposed to earning.”¹  If you confuse effort with legalism, you throw away the means of growth. You end up with “vampire Christianity”: people who want the benefits of Jesus’ blood but have no interest in Jesus’ life.² That is a values issue before it is a habits issue.

So values are not extra credit. They are the hidden engine. If the engine is wrong, you can polish the hood all day and still won’t go anywhere.

3) WHERE DO VALUES GO IN THE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER TREE?

Still underground. Absolutely.

If virtues are the trunk and limbs, values are the underground system that decides what gets drawn up and what gets ignored. Here is a quick reminder of what has been covered in previous blogs. 

In this tree:

• The soil is the transcendentals: the True, the Good, the Beautiful - objective realities grounded in God.

• The roots are foundational heart postures (the eight Beatitudes).

• The sap is Spirit-powered means: Word, prayer, and spiritual disciplines.

• The trunk and limbs are virtues: stable Christlike capacities.

• The fruit is what appears when the whole system is healthy: visible love, joy, peace, etc.

Values sit in the roots (and at the root-soil boundary). They are the “root permissions.” They determine what the roots consider nourishing. Two people can sit through the same sermon and one draws life while the other draws bitterness, because their value system filters what counts as “good.”

Values are also communal. Churches have values the way families have values - not always written down, but always enforced. “We are the kind of church that…” is values-speak. And churches enforce values by what they reward, what they platform, what they fund, and what they overlook.

4) WHAT VALUES ROOT THE TREE IN THE SOIL OF THE TRANSCENDENTALS?

The transcendentals are not three different gods. They are three facets of the same God. Classical Christian thought insists they belong together: the True, the Good, and the Beautiful are convertible - what is truly true and truly good is also truly beautiful. When a culture splits them apart, it becomes unhinged. When a Christian re-integrates and reorders them under Christ, the soul becomes whole.

So the following set of values is not a list of “nice ideas.” It’s a re-anchoring of what reality is.

If you want receipts, you can find this triad all over serious Christian thinkers. If you’ve read my other blogs you will remember the names and their thoughts repeated here. 

Thomas Aquinas treated truth, goodness, and beauty as “convertible” properties of being (because God is the source of being).³ Peter Kreeft loves to point out that everything that exists is in some way true, good, and beautiful - because it comes from the Creator.⁴ James K.A. Smith keeps reminding the church that we are not brains-on-sticks; we are lovers, shaped by the “liturgies” we rehearse.⁵ Timothy Keller said our biggest problems are often good things we have turned into ultimate things (that is, values gone rogue).⁶ John Piper emphasizes that we fight sin’s promises with better promises.⁷ And D.A. Carson is blunt that while we cannot create spiritual life, we are commanded to cultivate it with Spirit-empowered effort.⁸

Now we come to what I believe are the must-have values for the roots of our Christian character to hold fast in times of crisis, to draw in the nutrients of 2 Peter 1:3-5, to bear the Fruit of the Spirit in each choice, and to grow in the image of Christ over time.  I warn you now. It is a lot. 

As Psalm one states:

 “He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.” (Psalm 1:3, ESV)

VALUES OF THE TRUE (HEAD VALUES)

These four values keep you from living in the fog.

• Veracity 

Reverence for reality: We must value Truth not as a weapon to bludgeon our enemies on Twitter, but as a sacred alignment with What Is. Truth is not merely a tool but a moral obligation grounded in God’s own character—He cannot lie, His Word is true, and therefore His people must speak and live truthfully. This value cultivates humility and teachability: we do not get to invent the world or bend it to our feelings; we receive God’s world and God’s revelation with honesty, repentance, and courage.

• Teachability

Cognitive humility: the posture that receives instruction and correction because we are finite, fallible, and being sanctified. It is not gullibility or perpetual doubt, but a steady openness to be reformed by Scripture, reality, and wise counsel—submitting our opinions and impulses to God’s Word rather than forcing the world to fit our preferences. If we cannot be corrected, we cannot be formed, because spiritual growth requires repentance, renewed minds, and a willingness to learn truth even when it bruises our pride.

• Discernment 

Clarity over outrage: the Spirit-trained ability to distinguish truth from error and wisdom from impulse, choosing clarity over outrage in a culture engineered for reaction. It is rooted in Scripture and renewed judgment—testing claims, motives, and “fruit,” refusing to baptize fear, suspicion, or party loyalty as righteousness. Discernment values calm, truthful perception more than adrenaline, because the goal is faithfulness to Christ, not the temporary rush of being provoked.

• Integrity 

Living one life: an undivided self in which inner convictions and outward conduct are congruent because Christ is Lord of the whole person. Integrity flows from a sincere heart and a renewed mind—walking in the light with repentance rather than hiding behind spiritual performance or selective obedience. It means the same Jesus-shaped character on Sunday and Thursday, with truthful speech and consistent love in prayer, work, and the group text—no “religious voice” mask for church and “real voice” for everything else.

VALUES OF THE GOOD (HANDS/WILL VALUES)

These four values keep you from treating goodness as a preference.

• Liberation

Obedience as freedom: Modern life says obedience is oppression. Scripture says that God’s will is not oppression but liberation—because sin enslaves, and Christ sets us free. We obey not to earn acceptance but because we are accepted in Christ, and the Spirit supplies both power and new desires. God’s commands are not arbitrary restrictions but a map of reality and human flourishing, reshaping disordered loves that keep us captive. This value makes holiness feel like oxygen, not prison.

• Grit

Courage over comfort: It is the gospel-shaped resolve to obey God when obedience costs—choosing faithfulness over comfort because Christ is worthy and eternity is real. It doesn’t deny fear; it submits fear to a higher allegiance, trusting that God supplies strength to endure and grace to suffer well. It is perseverance under trial: steadfastness that keeps Christ’s commands when cultural approval, ease, or safety would be the easier master. Without this courage, virtues remain just an idea—because love, truthfulness, purity, and justice all eventually require costly obedience.Without courage, all other virtues become decorative.

• Honor 

Honor begins with worship: giving God His rightful place as Lord, Creator, and Redeemer, and then extending that God-centered posture into how we treat people made in His image. Honor is the outcome of fearing the Lord and the shape of neighbor-love—showing due regard, truthfulness, and humility rather than using others as instruments for self. It is impossible to grow Christlike character while valuing self at the center.

• Faithfulness 

Responsible stewardship under Christ’s lordship: recognizing that time, money, body, sexuality, speech, and influence are entrusted by God and must be managed for His glory and others’ good. It is marked by holiness, integrity, generosity, and self-control in the ordinary places where temptation and pressure actually live.

VALUES OF THE BEAUTIFUL (HEART VALUES)

These four values keep you from trying to do goodness without desire.

• Splendor

The beauty of holiness: if holiness looks ugly, you will never pursue it for long. Holiness is not bleak austerity but radiant beauty—the moral glory of God reflected in a life conformed to Christ. The heart must learn to see purity, gentleness, and faithfulness as attractive. The Spirit renews our desires so we don’t merely submit to purity, gentleness, and faithfulness as duties, but come to love them as what is truly good and fitting because they mirror God’s character and the gospel’s transforming power. 

• Thankfulness

Wonder and gratitude: it trains the heart to worship the Giver, not merely enjoy the gifts, and it deepens contentment and joy in Christ. It is therefore anti-idolatry, because it refuses to demand that created things—success, comfort, people, politics, or possessions—deliver the security and meaning that only the Creator can give.

• Adoration

God as the highest good: in Augustine’s ordered loves-God first, everything else in its place. This God-centered affection is the heart of worship and the engine of obedience: we do not merely choose differently; we treasure differently, because Christ is supremely worthy. That is why adoration is the root of repentance—repentance is more than regret; it is the Spirit-enabled re-ordering of love away from every idol and back to God.

• Assurance

Hope in valid promises: it is the steady confidence that God is real, good, and present even when the headlines are possessed and the world is unhinged. This steadiness is grounded in Christ’s finished work and God’s providence, so our peace is not dependent on circumstances, headlines, or cultural control. Hope is therefore not denial but anchored expectation: trusting God’s Word, enduring trials with perseverance, and living now in light of the coming kingdom.

These root values are not personality traits. They are commitments. A church can decide to value truthfulness over spin, depth over speed, integrity over platform. A person can decide to value reality over self-protection.

But you can’t do that if your “soil” is relativism, pragmatism, and entertainment. A tree cannot grow healthy fruit in poisoned dirt. 

5) WHY DO THESE VALUES MATTER - BOTH AS A WHOLE AND INDIVIDUALLY?

As a whole, these values create integrity. They align the mind (True), heart (Beautiful), and will (Good). Lewis called this “rebuilding the chest” - training the affections so the whole person becomes stable and human again.⁹

Individually, each value plugs a leak:

• Without veracity, you live in fantasy.

• Without teachability, you calcify.

• Without liberation, you are enslaved.

• Without grit, you compromise.

• Without faithfulness, you drift.

• Without splendor, you resent obedience.

• Without thankfulness, you demand.

• Without assurance, you panic.

You get the idea. In other words: you can’t skip one without paying interest later.

CONCLUSION: STOP STAPLING FRUIT

If your spiritual life feels like stapling apples to a dead branch, congratulations: you’re normal. You’re also being invited underground.

Christian character is not a self-improvement project. It is union with Christ producing a new value system, a new set of loves, and therefore new virtues. God’s grace does not just forgive; it forms. And Peter’s chain of supplements is not a guilt trip; it is a growth map.

So here’s the provocative challenge for both person and church:

Stop asking, “How do we look?”

Start asking, “What do we love?”

Because sooner or later, whatever you love will grow.

End Notes

¹Willard, Dallas. The Great Omission. HarperOne, 2006. P.166.

²Ibid. P.14

³Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae (II–II), Q.2, A.10 and Q.4 (faith considered as act/habit/object). Online: https://aquinas.cc/la/en/~ST.II-II.Q2.10 and https://aquinas.cc/la/en/~ST.II-II.Q4

⁴Kenneth Samples, “The 3 Transcendentals: Truth, Goodness, & Beauty,” Reasons to Believe (Feb 2, 2021), summarizing Peter Kreeft’s use of truth/goodness/beauty. 

⁵“Love, Liturgy and the Architecture of Time,” The Washington Institute (quoting James K. A. Smith on being “desiring creatures” shaped by liturgical practices). https://washingtoninst.org/love-liturgy-and-the-architecture-of-time/

⁶Timothy Keller, “What is Idolatry?” The New City Catechism (The Gospel Coalition). https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/new-city-catechism/what-is-idolatry/

⁷John Piper, “What Is Idolatry?” Desiring God (interview).  https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/what-is-idolatry

⁸Carson, D. A. A Call to Spiritual Reformation: Priorities from Paul and His Prayers. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic. 1992. P. 19

⁹Lewis, C. S. The Abolition of Man or Reflections on Education with Special Reference to the Teaching of English in the Upper Forms of Schools. HarperOne, 2001, Ch. 1.