All of the Good Fruit, None of the Bad

6 July, 20245 July, 2024Marissa

I’m guessing you all know about the fruit of the spirit. You might have them memorized: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness, and self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23, NET). You might even have done in-depth studies on them, such as spending a month writing scriptures about each trait with my free 30-day scripture writing plans.

There’s another list in Galatians, though. It comes right before the fruit of the spirit passage and details the works of the flesh. We’re meant to read both and notice a contrast between the two because Paul is making a point about how Christians live. When he says you’re “not under the law,” he doesn’t mean God gives you freedom to go out and live a hedonistic, sinful life. Quite the opposite, in fact. We’re given freedom so we can fully follow God from the heart, with all the fruit of the spirit in our lives and none of the works of the flesh.

The Works of the Flesh

There’s a lot going on in Paul’s letter to the Galatians. He wrote to correct errors in the Galatian believers’ theology. They were confused, even following what Paul described as other gospels. It seems their main issue involved a too-strict reliance on Old Covenant law and Jewish additions to the law. Paul reinforces the good news he originally preached to them: the Old Covenant ended with Jesus’s death and a New Covenant took its place. Jesus’s faithfulness is what brings us righteousness and justification, not our own efforts. That doesn’t mean we break God’s law (Christ does not encourage sin nor did He do away with God’s law [Matt. 5:17-20; Rom. 3:28-31]), but Jesus didn’t redeem us and give us the Spirit so that we could then try to save ourselves by our own efforts. He saved us, and we’re to reciprocate with faith that involves active, relational loyalty.

For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity to indulge your flesh, but through love serve one another.For the whole law can be summed up in a single commandment, namely, “You must love your neighbor as yourself.”However, if you continually bite and devour one another, beware that you are not consumed by one another. But I say, live by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.For the flesh has desires that are opposed to the Spirit, and the Spirit has desires that are opposed to the flesh, for these are in opposition to each other, so that you cannot do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Galatians 5:13-18, NET (bold italics mark a quotation from Lev. 19:18)

When we’re baptized into Jesus Christ, we symbolically die to our “old man” and we’re reborn as children of God (Paul covers this extensively in Romans). That transformation has (or should have) a profound effect on our lives. We’re to change, becoming less and less like fleshy, selfish humans and more and more like spirit beings in God’s family. That involves putting off things associated with fallen humanity living in a world influenced by Satan.

Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, depravity, idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, envying, murder, drunkenness, carousing, and similar things. I am warning you, as I had warned you before: Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God!
Galatians 5:19-21, NET

This isn’t a complete list (Paul has similar ones in other letters, like 1 Cor 6:9-11; Eph. 5:1-6; Col. 3:1-10), but the message is clear. If we continue to do things that God defines as sinful or unrighteous we will not inherit as His children or be in His kingdom. That’s one of the reasons it’s still important for us to know about God’s law; His law defines sin and acts as a tutor or guardian pointing to Christ (Rom. 3:20; Gal. 3:24).

Image of green grapes overlaid with text from Gal. 5:22-23 version: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. " — Image by congerdesign from Pixabay

Live In The Spirit

Cleaning things God hates out of our lives is an important part of our relationship with Him. It’s not the most important part, though. First, Jesus is the one who initially washes us clean; only believing in Him, repenting of our sins, and accepting His sacrifice can make us clean. Then, we’re called to participate in His ongoing work in us. We’re supposed to keep examining ourselves, putting away bad things, and putting in good things as we become more and more like Him. If we don’t take any action, then we’re like the person Jesus warned about in this analogy:

“When an unclean spirit goes out of a person, it passes through waterless places looking for rest but does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the home I left.’ When it returns, it finds the house empty, swept clean, and put in order.Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there, so the last state of that person is worse than the first. It will be that way for this evil generation as well!”
Matthew 12:43-45, NET

If you remove something evil from your life and don’t replace it with something good, then there’s a chance something worse is going to move in. It’s like if you give up eating candy so you can be healthier, but don’t add any good eating habits, then take up smoking on top of going back to eating tons of sugar. Except in this case, we’re taking out works of the flesh and we’re supposed to replace them with fruit of the spirit. If we try to take out something like “outbursts of anger” without putting in things like love, peace, and patience then the anger isn’t going to stay gone and might get worse.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also behave in accordance with the Spirit.
Galatians 5:22-25, NET

We need to have all of the fruit of the spirit AND none of the works of the flesh. It’ll be a life-long process, but that’s the goal. We can’t be content with getting rid of most of the works of the flesh or having just some of the fruit of the spirit. God’s people shouldn’t look at themselves, shrug their shoulders and think, “Eh, guess I’m good enough now” (Rom. 11:18-21; 1 Cor. 8:2; 10:12). We need to stay faithful, keep learning, humble ourselves and repent as needed, and ask God to guide our growth.

Helping Each Other

Image of good and bad apples on the ground overlaid with blog's title text and the words, "We can't be content with getting rid of most of the works of the flesh or having just some of the fruit of the spirit. We need all of the fruit of the spirit AND none of the works of the flesh." — Image by Manfred Richter from Pixabay

If we just stopped at the end of chapter 5, we might think that removing the works of the flesh and putting on the fruit of the spirit is just an individual, private thing. In some ways it is: we’re each responsible for ourselves and we’re the ones who will answer to God for what we did with the gifts He gives us and the work He does in us. But at the same time, we’re also responsible for how we interact with other people. Christians are not called to isolated, individual walks. God calls us into a family, a collective body of believers who are meant to support each other.

Brothers and sisters, if a person is discovered in some sin, you who are spiritual restore such a person in a spirit of gentleness. Pay close attention to yourselves, so that you are not tempted too.Carry one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Let each one examine his own work. Then he can take pride in himself and not compare himself with someone else. For each one will carry his own load.
Galatians 6:1-5, NET

We’re supposed to help each other put away the works of the flesh and cultivate the fruit of the spirit. Notice that Paul doesn’t say “judge,” “condemn,” or even “correct.” He says to “restore” this person. The Greek word is katartizo, and it means to mend something that’s broken or “to strengthen, perfect, complete, make one what he ought to be” (Thayer’s Dictionary entry G2675). Sometimes, we’ll be the one in need of mending who needs help from other believers. Other times, we’ll be “carrying our own load” well enough that we can be the one who helps another.

Now the one who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with the one who teaches it. Do not be deceived. God will not be made a fool. For a person will reap what he sows, because the person who sows to his own flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.So we must not grow weary in doing good, for in due time we will reap, if we do not give up.So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who belong to the family of faith.
Galatians 6:6-10, NET

The sowing and reaping analogy fits so well with calling godly characteristics “fruit of the spirit.” Right before His crucifixion, Jesus told His disciples that He chose them to bear fruit, that their fruitfulness honors the Father, and that it shows they are genuine followers of God (John 15:8, 16). Our connection with Jesus should be a fruitful one. If we invest or “sow” into the life of the spirit–our life following Jesus and becoming like Him and Our Father–then we’ll produce good fruit to replace the works of the flesh that He’s working with us to remove from our lives.

Featured image by Manfred Richter from Pixabay

Song Recommendation: “I Am New” by Jason Gray

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A Song of God’s Vineyard

22 January, 202221 January, 2022Marissa

I want to start today with a scripture passage. It’s a bit long, but it sets the stage perfectly for what we’ll be talking about in this post.

Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard.
My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.
He dug it up,
gathered out its stones,
planted it with the choicest vine,
built a tower in the middle of it,
and also cut out a wine press in it.
He looked for it to yield grapes,
but it yielded wild grapes.
“Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,
please judge between me and my vineyard.
What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?
Why, when I looked for it to yield grapes, did it yield wild grapes?
Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard.
I will take away its hedge, and it will be eaten up.
I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled down.
I will lay it a wasteland.
It won’t be pruned or hoed,
but it will grow briers and thorns.
I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it.”
For the vineyard of Yahweh of Armies is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah his pleasant plant:
and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression;
for righteousness, but, behold, a cry of distress.
Isaiah 5:1-7, WEB

Love songs like this are one reason I love the book of Isaiah so much. It starts out sounding like something from Song of Solomon, with someone singing to Yahweh, their beloved. Then the song turns sour (like the grapes in this vineyard) as Israel turned their hearts away from their lover. God Himself interjects to finish the story. They turned their back on Him even though He did everything right, and for Him this isn’t an empty claim. No one can do more than God to show love and to provide fertile ground to grow in. It wasn’t unreasonable of Him to look at a people He “planted” and expect they’d yield fruits of justice and righteousness instead of oppression and distress.

I recently started reading a new one-year devotional called Worship The King by Chris Tiegreen. January 15-19 are all based on Isaiah 5:1-7, and one of the things Tiegreen points out is that, God’s question, “What more could I do?” is in some ways rhetorical. There was one more thing He could do, and He did it when He sent Jesus to die for our sins (p. 18). If you’ve ever wondered why Jesus spent so much time talking about agriculture and vineyards in His parables, this is it. He’s continuing a metaphor God started using in the prophets to show how He fits into God’s love story.

Image of one grape on a red-leafed vine, with text from Jeremiah 2:21, WEB version: “Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a pure and faithful seed. How then have you turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine to me? — Image by lizzymay from Pixabay

Vineyard Parables

There are three primary vineyard parables that Jesus shared during His ministry. One is focused on reward for workers in a vineyard (Matt. 20:1-16), and another on two sons whose father told them to work in his vineyard (Matt. 21:27-32). Then, right after that parable where only one son did his father’s will by working in the vineyard, Jesus says this:

“Hear another parable. There was a man who was a master of a household who planted a vineyard, set a hedge about it, dug a wine press in it, built a tower, leased it out to farmers, and went into another country. When the season for the fruit came near, he sent his servants to the farmers to receive his fruit. The farmers took his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first; and they treated them the same way. But afterward he sent to them his son, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But the farmers, when they saw the son, said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and seize his inheritance.’ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard, then killed him. When therefore the lord of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers?”
Matthew 21:33-40, WEB

The people Jesus is talking with are pretty sure they know the answer to that last question. The master will kill the servants and “lease out the vineyard to other farmers who will give him the fruit in its season.” In response, Jesus points them back to a scripture predicting the Messiah would be rejected by the people who should have been looking for His arrival (Psalm 118:22-23). The other servants who came before Him were prophets like Isaiah and many others whom Israel ignored. Now, the Master’s Son is here.

Jesus doesn’t point His listeners back to Isiah’s song about the vineyard, but we can easily see the parallels. Here in Jesus’s parable, though, the link between Him and the vineyard is made more explicit. God has a vineyard like the one Isaiah sang about. Jesus coming as the Master’s Son is the one thing more that God can do to receive the fruit His vineyard owes Him. And then the leaders of His people killed Him just like the wicked workers in this parable. Jesus points beyond that death when He says, “God’s Kingdom will be taken away from you and will be given to a nation producing its fruit” (Matt. 21:41-46). That doesn’t mean Jewish or Israelite people won’t be in God’s kingdom (as Paul points out using another agricultural example in Romans 11). It does mean that staying in a fruit-producing relationship with God is far more important to your long-term spiritual wellbeing than whether or not your ancestors had a covenant with Him.

Our Role as Vines

Image of grapes in a vineyard with the blog's title text and the words "We need to stay rooted in Jesus as the Vine. Only then will the Father be glorified by the fruit that we produce and the love song that we sing to Him." — Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay

Fruitfulness is something God comes back to again and again. In another vineyard song from Isaiah, God speaks of a time when “Jacob will take root. Israel will blossom and bud. They will fill the surface of the world with fruit” (Is. 27:2-12, WEB). Even in this song, though, it speaks of issues with the vineyard that must be forgiven before the vines can thrive. As other prophets point out, the vines that God cultivated for thousands of years weren’t always as fruitful as they should have been (Jer. 2:19-22; 12:10-11; Ezk. 19:10-14). It’s an issue that could really only be solved by Jesus’s sacrifice. Even after that sacrifice, though, fruitfulness requires our participation. Jesus addressed this idea in another parable, this time about a fig tree.

He spoke this parable. “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it, and found none. He said to the vine dresser, ‘Behold, these three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and found none. Cut it down. Why does it waste the soil?’He answered, ‘Lord, leave it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit, fine; but if not, after that, you can cut it down.’”
Luke 13:6-9, WEB

As vines and trees in God’s vineyard, we have a say in whether or not we produce fruit. He provides fertile ground where we can thrive. He prunes and forgives us, keeping us spiritually healthy. He feeds everyone connected to Jesus–the Root that we all rely on as branches who are part of Him as the Vine (John 15:1-16). But we’re human beings, not vines that always stay exactly where we’re planted. Whether or not we stay in that good soil is our choice. We need to keep seeking God’s correction and forgiveness as we grow to be more and more like Him. And we need to stay rooted in the vine. Only then will the Father be glorified by the fruit that we produce and the love song that we sing to Him.

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Featured image by alohamalakhov from Pixabay

Song Recommendation: “Dance With Me” by Paul Wilbur

Grain, Vines, and Olives: Becoming Part of God’s Fruitful People

29 May, 202125 June, 2021Marissa

The Bible uses a lot of agricultural imagery. You’re probably most familiar with this from Jesus’s parables about sowers and fields, or His statement “I am the vine.” These sorts of analogies are rooted both in the culture of Jesus’s day and in the Old Testament writings, and they focus on three types of plants: grain, vines, and olive trees. Those plants are also the three main agricultural products of Palestinian farming: “grain, new wine, and oil” (Theological Wordbook: Old Testament, entry 1040a). These three things figured prominently in scripture, mostly in tithes and offerings (Lev. 23:13; Deut. 14:23; 18:4; 2 Chr. 31:5; Neh. 10:39; 13-12) and promised blessings (Deut. 11:14; Jer. 31:12; Hos. 2:8, 22; Joel 2:19, 24).

Grain, vines, and olive trees were a key part of culture in Bible times and they’re used in teachings that are a key part of our faith. The study I’m sharing today started out with the question, “How can we bear fruit for God?” and the more I looked into it the more fascinated I became with the way God and the writers He inspired use these three plants to tell us about His plan, kingdom, and relationship with people. At first, I planned to divide this up into three posts (one for each type of plant), but the way the Bible talks about them is so intertwined I don’t think that would be useful. That means today’s post is a little on the long side, but I hope you’ll find this study as interesting as I do 🙂

A Brief History of God’s Vineyard

Obviously, grain, vines, and olives are useful for physical things. They were key to food production, they were used extensively for tithes and offerings, and olive wood played an important role in construction. In addition to these uses (and perhaps because these plants were so well-known and widely used), the Bible also talks about metaphors and spiritual parallels for us using these three types of plants and their produce. Hosea offers a great example of this.

Near the beginning of Hosea’s book, God brings a complaint against Israel, His unfaithful wife who “has refused to acknowledge that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil” (2:8, NET). God’s punishment for her idolatry was to “take back my grain … and my new wine,” turning the cultivated land for food production into an “uncultivated thicket” (2:12, 15). That’s not the end of the story, though.

I will commit myself to you in faithfulness;
then you will acknowledge the Lord.
“At that time, I will willingly respond,” declares the Lord.
“I will respond to the sky,
and the sky will respond to the ground;
then the ground will respond to the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil;
and they will respond to ‘God Plants’ (Jezreel)!
Then I will plant her as my own in the land.
Hosea 2:20-23, NET

When a new covenant is restored with God’s people Israel, the agricultural blessings return. God’s people are compared to “a fertile vine that yielded fruit” (Hos. 10:1, NET). In this passage, Israel is also counseled to plow up the ground of their lives and bear new crop–righteousness and love rather than wickedness and injustice (10:11-13). Here in Hosea, we see the fruit of grain, grape, and olive plants used to speak of blessings, punishment, and (most relevant to today’s topic) the state of human hearts. Are we planted by God, or growing wild? Are we sowing with a good harvest in mind, or investing in bearing bad fruit?

Cultivating a Faithful People

In the Old Testament, Israel is often compared to a vine. Typically, it’s in a negative context. Israel was a vine that betrayed God and so He withdrew His protection from them (Psalm 80:8-16). It was a vineyard where the grapes went sour, rotten, and foul (Is. 5:1-7; Jer. 2:21). It was a fruitful vine that used its fruit to worship a false god (Hos. 10:1). The consequences of all this unfaithfulness was to be punished, burned like a dried-out vine cut away from a plant (Ezk. 15:1-7; 19:10-14). There is, however, a promise of restoration. The Lord will protect and water His vineyard, and Israel will blossom and thrive (Is. 27:1-6; Hos. 14:4-8).

The way the prophets talked about Israel as a vine would have been very familiar to the Jewish people of Jesus’s day. When He taught parables which compared the kingdom of God to a vineyard (Matt. 20:1-16; 21:33-46), His listeners would have connected it to what they heard read in the temple about Israel as God’s vineyard. And when Jesus spoke of a vineyard where the people tending it betrayed the owner, the “chief priests and the Pharisees … realized that he was speaking about them” when Jesus said, “for this reason I tell you the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce it’s fruit” (Matt. 21:43-46, NET).

Jesus–as the Word who delivered God’s message to the prophets–knew exactly what He was doing when He compared the kingdom of God to a vineyard, showed that the Lord is the only one with the right to decide how that vineyard is managed, and warned that the unfaithful would not be allowed to grow in the kingdom/vineyard forever (Matt. 15:12-13). Much like the parables where Jesus compares His people and people’s reactions to His word to grain (Matt. 13:18-30), the way Jesus talks about vines shows that the kingdom’s inhabitants are not a group which automatically includes any one type of people based on their background. He’s specifically cultivating a field/vineyard full of faithful people, regardless of where they started out “growing.”

All Nations Grafted In

We’ll come back to the idea of fruitfulness, but this last point about a change in the composition of the field/vineyard also connects to an olive tree analogy that Paul uses in Romans. Like vines and grain, olives figure prominently in scripture. Olive oil was used to anoint kings and priests, and as part of the offerings. Olive wood was used to build sukkas (Neh. 8:15) and in the temple construction (1 Kings 6:23, 31-33). Someone who trusts “in God’s loyal love” is “like a flourishing olive tree” (Ps. 52:8, NET). Much like the vine imagery, Israel was also called a once fruitful and “thriving olive tree” that became “good for nothing” through unfaithfulness and was set on fire (Jer. 11:16, NET).

It’s with that background that Paul uses olive trees imagery to show his gentile readers how they relate to the Jews (which represented one tribe of Israel, Judah, though Paul uses them to stand-in for all of physical Israel). Even in the Old Testament, the name “Israel” referred to both a physical nation and to a smaller group of spiritual, faithful believers (Rom. 11:1-4). A similar thing is happening today, only now this faithful remnant doesn’t just include descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It includes those who were once outside Israel as well and who’ve responded to God’s call (Rom. 11:5-16).

To illustrate this, Paul compares Israel to a cultivated olive tree and the Gentiles (ethnos in Greek; tribes, peoples, nations) to a wild olive tree. Both groups are olives–people made in the image of God–but one has a longer history of being chosen, tended, and cultivated by God for a specific purpose. Now, the Master Gardener is expanding His cultivation project. He’s pruning out those who do not believe and grafting in those who have faith. Which olive tree you came from doesn’t matter; only the state of your heart (Rom. 11:17-24). In other words, God is still working in the same vineyard/field/orchard that He has always had, cultivating a kingdom people, but He is bringing new vines and branches in and grafting them all onto one Root.

How to Bear Fruit for God

Jesus is the holy root which makes the branches grafted into Him holy (Is. 11:1-10; 53:1-5; Rom. 11:16; 15:8-13; Eph. 3:16-19; Col. 2:6-7; Rev. 5:5; 22:16). Remember all those verses about Israel as an unfaithful, fruitless vineyard and the prophecy about future growth? Jesus is how that prophecy is fulfilled.

“I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He takes away every branch that does not bear fruit in me. He prunes every branch that bears fruit so that it will bear more fruit. You are clean already because of the word that I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me—and I in him—bears much fruit, because apart from me you can accomplish nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown out like a branch, and dries up; and such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, and are burned up. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want, and it will be done for you. My Father is honored by this, that you bear much fruit and show that you are my disciples.”
John 15:1-8, NET

See how this echoes so many of the prophecies we’ve looked at? Jesus reveals that He is the one we need to have a relationship with in order to be fruitful. Without Him, we wither away like ancient Israel so often did as they strayed into unbelief. The emphasis on being rooted also echoes other prophresies that talk of God’s people being rooted (Is. 27:6; 37:31-21; Jer. 17:7-8). The closer we are to God, the more firmly we’re rooted and the more we thrive. And the more we study what the whole Bible says about the way God’s people are like grain, vines, and olives the better we understand what Jesus is teaching us in passages like this one where He says, “I am the vine.”

God is looking for fruit from the people growing in His vineyard. He exercises patience, encouraging us to grow, but if we refuse to keep abiding in Him, He won’t force us to stay and bear fruit (Luke 13:6-9). We can’t grow and fruit without Him (1 Cor. 3:6-9), but we are also active participants in this fruitfulness and we are free to disconnect from the root and be unfruitful if we choose (as so many Jewish people of Jesus’s day chose to do when they rejected Him as the Messiah). When we choose to abide in Jesus, though, we will abound in the fruits of His spirit (Gal. 5:22-23; Eph. 5:8-11; 2 Pet. 1:5-8). In His grace, goodness, and love, God has opened the way through Jesus’s sacrifice for all people everywhere to become part of His kingdom-garden. Let’s stay close to Him, rooted with faith and trusting Him to supply all we need to grow and thrive and bear fruit that glorifies our Father.

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Featured image by pasja1000 from Pixabay

Good Fruits of Wisdom

8 February, 20207 February, 2020Marissa

“Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom,” says a verse in Proverbs (4:7, KJV). In an effort to do that, we’ve been studying how James defines Godly wisdom in his letter to the New Testament church.

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceful, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. (James 3:17-18, WEB)

Today’s post is about the sixth characteristic on this list — wisdom is full of good fruits. Fruit is an often used metaphor in the Bible. It typically refers to what is produced in/by a person’s life. Certain fruits are associated with a life guided by God’s spirit and others indicate a life lived apart from God.

How to Fruit

There are certain actions and things that are not fruitful. As followers of Christ, we are to “have no fellowship with the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather even reprove them” (Eph. 5:11, WEB). A life lived in spiritual darkness cannot lead to the production of good fruit. And if we’re not producing good fruit, then we’re in trouble. Read more →

The Fruit Of Gentleness

9 March, 20198 March, 2019Marissa

Meekness, gentleness, and mildness get a bad rap in today’s society. People tend to think of them as synonyms for being weak or boring. A door mat. But those three words I opened with are all possible translations of the Greek word praotes (G4236), which is listed as part of the fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5:22-23.

The spirit of God is not weak or boring. It is full of power, and it is also “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control.” Indeed, though we may not think of these traits as “powerful,” we cannot display them all unless we’re empowered by God. It takes a great deal of inner strength, commitment, and willingness to be transformed by God to live-out the fruit of His spirit, including gentleness.

The Meekness of Christ

In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul opened one of his lines of thought with the words, “I Paul, myself, entreat you by the humility and gentleness of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:1, WEB). The traits of gentleness, humility, and meekness that the world spurns are key to understanding Jesus Christ’s character. Read more →

Are We Making The Most Of God’s Gifts?

9 February, 20194 April, 2024Marissa

Salvation is a free gift that we cannot earn, but which we can lose or refuse because God always gives people a choice. Adam and Eve had access to a close relationship with God, but they also had the option to choose sin and death instead. Ancient Israel was asked to choose between “life and prosperity, and death and evil,” and implored to pick life (Deut. 30:15, 19). The Lord is not willing that any should perish (1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Pet. 3:9), but He also won’t force you into His kingdom. You need to choose, and then act on your choice.

We also can’t say “I choose life” and then keep living as if we chose death. We will be judged by what we do with the gifts given to us by God, and for those in His church today this judgement has already started (1 Pet. 4:17). God is watching us now to see what we do with all the gifts He gives us.

As we think about our relationship with God and examine ourselves as Christians, we all need to ask if we’re doing what God would want us to do with the gifts He’s entrusted us with. That includes examining how we respond to salvation, how we heed and use His Spirit inside us, and whether or not we’re truly following the example of Jesus Christ.

The Parable of The Talents

Shortly before His death, Jesus told a parable that illustrates how important it is for us to do something with the gifts we’ve been given. He compares His absence from earth between His first and second coming to “a man, going to another country, who called his own servants, and entrusted his goods to them” (Matt. 25:14, WEB).

This man divided his goods between his servants, entrusting each with a certain number of talents (a “talent” is measure of weight, typically used for silver, that is equal to 30 kg or 66 lb). This pictures the time that we’re in now as servants awaiting our master’s return. Like the servants in the parable, we’ve each been given gifts “according to his own ability” and must now decide what to do with them (Matt. 25:15). Read more →