Dear all
Please find below the first part of the latest article of the Journal
of Biblical Accuracy. For space reasons I will post this here in 2
parts
But you can find the complete article here:
Fruit: What a Christian is all about
http://www.jba.gr/Articles/jbaaprmay07a.htm
You will find more biblical articles here:
http://www.jba.gr/
God bless your day
Tassos
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Fruit: What a Christian life is all about
What is the Christian life all about? It is all about
knowing God and His Son Jesus Christ and bringing
forth fruit. In John’s gospel, Jesus said:
John 15:16
"You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed
you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your
fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father
in My name He may give you.”
Also Paul said in Romans 7:4 :
“Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to
the law through the body of Christ, that you may be
married to another– to Him who was raised from the
dead, that we should bear fruit to God.”
In the parable of the sower Jesus speaks about four
categories of those that hear the Word. In the second
and the third category were those ones that became
unfruitful, while in the last one, in the commendable
one, is the one “who hears the Word and understand it
who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a
hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty." (Matthew
13:23).
What God therefore intended for Christians
was not just to believe but not change. To just be the
same kind of tree or to give the same kind of fruit
they were giving before. Our fruitfulness does matter
to God. Let me repeat this: it is not God’s intention
that you just flow through life. God created you a
unique creature, He gifted YOU, yes you, uniquely, and
he commissioned you to do one thing: to go forth and
bring fruit. We will soon see how this is done, but
keep this in mind. God has gifted each and every child
of Him, from the youngest to the oldest, from the
poorest to the richest, from the illiterate to the
most educated, He has gifted them uniquely and desires
from them to bear much fruit. Here is what the Lord
said, again in John 15:
John 15:8
“By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much
fruit;”
and John 15:1-2
"I am the true vine, and My Father is the
vinedresser.….every branch that bears fruit He prunes,
that it may bear more fruit.”
The Father rejoices when His children
produce fruit. See that He takes special care to
prune, to cleanse, those that bring fruit so that they
bring more! The Father does not want to just have vine
branches … He wants to have fruitful branches, no,
ABOUNDANTLY fruitful branches, branches that give
fruit to their full potential. Today many Christians
are sitting idle in the sidelines, waiting for
somebody else to “run the show” for them. A
“professional”, as they are not… “professionals”. But
Peter and the others - most of them fishermen - of the
first century were not “professionals” in this sense.
They didn’t graduate from any seminary nor did they
need to! The only degree they had was the one in
fi****ng! There are others again that though they have
believed, you can really see no change in their life.
But Christian life without change, Christian life
without fruit is an oxymoron. And I don’t mean with
this that passionate Christians with zeal for God and
His Word do not make mistakes. They do! But passionate
Christians deny the call of the m*****, that says
“follow the flow… it is enough to go on Sundays to
church building, sit in a pew, sing songs and hear
sermons, then go back home and forget about it till
next Sunday”. Passionate Christians do not compromise.
They do not settle for less. They look to God and they
want to grow in Him. They want to get closer and
closer to Him and His Son. They want to manifest
Christ as much as possible in their lives. Passionate
Christians have passion for fruit and vision for
Christ. And the news is that God wants you to be one
of them. To be A PASSIONATE CHRISTIAN, or to say it
differently, a Christian with passion for God. A warm
one, not a lukewarm one (Revelation 3:15). To be a
fruitful branch, blossoming and giving fruit in its
full potential. This is what the Christian life is all
about.
Fruit: What is it?
Putting it simply I would say that fruit
is a changed life, a Christ centred life, a life where
we have died to ourselves so that Christ will live
through us (Galatians 2:19-20). A life that seeks to
satisfy God rather than self or people. A life whose
central theme, focus and priority is God. Let’s see
what the Scripture says:
Galatians 5:22-25
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self–control. Against such there is no
law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the
flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in
the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
By spirit here is meant the new man, Christ in us.
Living according to the new man we produce the above
given fruit, the character the new man, Christ, has.
And in Ephesians 2:10 we read:
Ephesians 2:10
“For we are His workman****p, created in Christ Jesus
for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we
should walk in them.”
God has already prepared the good works in
which we should walk; He has already gifted each one
us uniquely, like a tree planted and destined to make
fruit. All that we have to do is to walk in what God
has already prepared. Doing this is destined to please
the Father and bring forth fruit. Also I Peter 4:7-11
tells us:
I Peter 4: 7-11
“But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be
serious and watchful in your prayers. And above all
things have fervent love for one another, for "love
will cover a multitude of sins." Be hospitable to one
another without grumbling. As each one has received a
gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of
the manifold grace of God. If anyone speaks, let him
speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let
him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that
in all things God may be glorified through Jesus
Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion
forever and ever. Amen.”
There are various things that this passage
instructs to “be”. Be watchful in prayers. Have
fervent love for one another. Be hospitable without
grumbling. See also that it says that each one of us
has received a gift from God. God has gifted uniquely
each and every one of His children. As each of the
body parts are unique and placed there with a
function, so also each one of us: we have been placed
by God in the body of Christ, the church, and we have
been gifted uniquely to function there (I Corinthians
12:12-27). And what Peter tells us here is simply one
thing: FUNCTION! God has not gifted certain
individuals only; He has not gifted just your pastor
or priest. This passage does not refer to a specific
group of people within the Christian community. In
contrast it refers to all Christians, including you!
See also that it says “minister it to one another”.
This gift was not given to lay dormant! It was given
for ministering to one another. I minister to you, you
minister to me. Today we are using the word
“minister”, to describe somebody with a rather
clerical role. So the pastor or priest in the local
community of believers is called “minister”. Is he the
only one that is supposed to minister, while all
others that are not pastors or priests or generally in
a clerical role are supposed only to be ministered,
yet never to minister? This is the idea that
implicitly or explicitly seems to be resident in many
minds. Well, the news is that this is not an idea that
originated in God nor is it an idea sup****ted by the
Scriptures! The idea the Scriptures promote is the
following: each one of us has uniquely been gifted by
God and has uniquely be placed in the body of Christ.
There is no such thing as clergy and laity in the
Scripture. As the Scripture tells us, all of us are
priests to God. See how wonderfully Peter puts it:
I Peter 2:9
“But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,
a holy nation, His own special people, that you may
proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of
darkness into His marvelous light;”
and I Peter 2:5
“you also, as living stones, are being built up a
spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up
spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus
Christ.”
Each one of us is expected to function in his gift,
ministering to one another. What I Peter 4:7-11 tells
us is get busy with what God has gifted you with.
Focus on your gift and exercise it. It is not a matter
of whether you have a “ministry” or not, because you
do have one! This is a fact! And what Peter says is,
get busy with it, get busy ministering according to
your gift.
Again however though the above are fruits and it may
appear that by getting busy doing or walking we will
produce fruit, this is not the whole picture.
Getting-busy-doing our gifting presupposes a living
relation****p with the Lord Jesus Christ. As
Philippians 1:9-11 tells us:
Philippians 1:9-11
“And this I pray, that your love may abound still more
and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you
may approve the things that are excellent, that you
may be sincere and without offense till the day of
Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness
which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of
God. ”
The fruits of righteousness “are by Jesus Christ” not
by our power. In addition their result is the glory
and praise of God. As Jesus explains in John 15, He is
the vine and we are the branches:
John 15:4-5, 8
"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear
fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither
can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you
are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him,
bears much fruit; for without Me you can do
nothing…."By this My Father is glorified, that you
bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.”
Bringing forth fruit, presupposes that we
are abiding in the Vine. And we are not the Vine.
Christ is! We are the branches. It is impossible for a
branch to bring forth fruit, unless it abides in the
vine. So also with us. It is our union with Christ,
that can make us, the branches, to bring forth fruit.
The branches are in this case nothing else than a way
for the vine to bring fruit. As we are abiding in
Christ, He will be manifested through us; the Vine
will live through us and will produce fruit.
Ministering and pursuing the good works that God
prepared for us presupposes therefore a passionate
relation****p with the Lord Jesus Christ, whom we want
to please. The focus is not so much on the works
themselves but in Christ, and through our union with
Christ, as we are abiding in Christ, “by Jesus Christ”
as Philippians said, the fruit is coming forth.
Moving a little further on this, Christ spoke of false
prophets and He said that we will know them by their
fruit.
Matthew 7:15-20
“"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s
clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. "You
will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes
from thornbushes or figs from thistles? "Even so,
every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears
bad fruit. "A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor
can a bad tree bear good fruit. "Every tree that does
not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the
fire. "Therefore by their fruits you will know them.”
The Word speaks of false prophets (Matthew
7:15), false Christs (Matthew 24:24), false apostles
(2 Corinthians 11:13), false brethren (Galatians 2:4,
2 Corinthians 11:20), false teachers (2 Peter 2:1),
deceitful workers (2 Corinthians 11:13). There is
something to know people such as these ones and this
is fruit! And good fruit can only come “by Jesus
Christ”. Any other tree, though it may speak about God
or even Christ, can only produce false fruit.
I would like therefore to encourage you my
dear brother and sister to pursue God with all your
heart; to passionately pursue to grow in your
relation****p with our living Lord and then get busy
doing whatever He has prepared for you. The fruit of
the spirit, is called like this because the tree is
the Spirit, the new nature, Christ in us. Abide in
Christ for He who abides in Christ and Christ in him
can only bring forth one thing: much fruit!
End of part I... Go here for the complete article:
http://www.jba.gr/Articles/jbaaprmay07a.htm
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