Life & Wisdom Quote by Edwin Louis Cole

Cole’s image lands because it flips a common religious anxiety on its head: the fear of “too much,” of excess, of mess. The fig tree isn’t punished for abundance that’s imperfectly managed; it’s condemned for sterility. That’s a bracing recalibration for a Christian culture that often prizes tidiness, restraint, and risk-avoidance as if they were virtues in themselves.

The intent is motivational, but not in the syrupy sense. Cole is pushing back against a morality of preservation - a life spent guarding reputation, avoiding failure, keeping the fruit from ever bruising. The spoiled fruit functions as a permission slip: output will be wasteful, some efforts will rot, and that’s not only acceptable, it’s expected if you’re actually producing. Underneath is a critique of spiritual perfectionism: people who won’t act until they can act flawlessly end up offering nothing at all.

Context matters. Cole, a late-20th-century evangelical men’s ministry leader, spoke into a world of “potential” rhetoric and churchy self-improvement that can easily become an alibi for inertia. The fig tree story (drawn from the Gospels’ episode where Jesus curses a fruitless fig tree) becomes a parable for vocation and faithfulness measured in tangible outcomes, not pious intentions.

Subtextually, it’s also a warning to institutions: churches, leaders, and believers who look leafy - busy, respectable, full of talk - but never feed anyone. In Cole’s framing, the real scandal isn’t wasted fruit. It’s a life arranged to never bear any.