Date: July 06, 2025
Series: Fruit bearing
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I want to further share with us on bearing fruit. We have seen from scriptures that God wants us to bear fruit. He wants us to bear fruit because doing so brings Him glory. He wants us to bear fruit because that is what He has recreated us for. And He wants us to bear fruit because we have a relationship with Him that puts us in a position where we can bring forth fruit.
Then we proceeded in our last teaching to look at the nature of fruit or to begin to look at the nature of fruit, the kind of fruit God wants us to bear. That is because it’s important that we know God’s expectations on our lives. We need to know what He is expecting of us. Otherwise, we cannot live lives that are pleasing to him. We may tell ourselves that we are trying to please Him. We may tell ourselves that we are making effort to please Him. And we may tell ourselves that we actually love to please Him. But if we do not know His expectations on us, we can only be trying. And our trying will ultimately not accomplish His will. So, we need to know what God expects of us.
Since God wants us to bear fruit, much fruit for that matter, we need to know what sort of fruit He wants us to bear. And I told us that bearing fruit in this sense has nothing to do with preaching the good news or evangelizing our world, as some preachers will have us believe. There are preachers that think that when Jesus says, “You did not choose me, but I have chosen you and appointed you to go and bring forth fruit,” He means that we should go and be winning souls, that we should go and be bringing people into the kingdom of God.
But that is not consistent with the body of truth given to us in Scriptures. In every place where fruit bearing is mentioned in scriptures, it is talking about exhibiting godly character. It has to do with bringing forth fruit that shows that we are related to God, fruit that shows that we are connected to Him. And that’s the point Jesus is making in St. John’s Gospel, chapter 15, which we have been looking at. He refers to Himself as the vine and to us as the branches. Because we have this kind of relationship with Him, we are naturally supposed to be bringing forth fruit. And it should be the fruit of our relationship with Him.
I already gave us some scriptures to point out to us that when God speaks of bearing fruit, He is speaking about exhibiting godly character. I want to give us additional scriptures on that note this morning, beginning with Galatians chapter 5. This is a familiar passage, and some people will probably know the verses I want to read off hand. I’m going to read them, nevertheless, from verse 22:
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22NIV)
Again, there are preachers that believe that when Paul speaks about the fruit of the Spirit here, he is speaking about the fruit of the recreated human spirit. For them, it is only the recreated human spirit that can bring forth the fruit that Paul speaks of here. Now I would love to believe that. There was a time I believed that. But having considered other [similar] passages of Scriptures carefully, I just cannot accept that explanation or interpretation. That is because there are times that those who have not been recreated by God, those who are not Christians, exhibit some of these qualities. In fact, some of them exhibit some of these qualities better and more frequently than believers who have been recreated. How do you explain that?
There are unbelievers, people that we know not to be Christians, who are loving. They love. They love those around them. Yet they are not Christians. If it’s only the recreated human spirit that can bring forth this fruit, as those preachers will have us believe, then what is the explanation for the exhibiting or for the manifestation of love in an unbeliever?
Now we can say that unbelievers cannot love. I will not accept that because some of us have come in contact with unbelievers that are truly loving. And there are unbelievers that are good, good people. Paul speaks about goodness here in the text. And sometimes you may even mistake, if you do not know their background, you may mistake some unbelievers for believers. You may think that they are believers. That is because they are good. They love to help. And they are not hypocritical about it. They just love to do so.
Then we have unbelievers that are often full of joy. No sad moment with them. No dull moment with them. They are always cheerful. We equally have unbelievers that are peaceful, peace-loving. They don’t want trouble at all. And we have unbelievers that are faithful. In their workplaces, they are faithful. As students, they are faithful. In their relationship with you, they will prove themselves to be faithful. And we have unbelievers that are gentle. We have unbelievers that are self-controlled. We have unbelievers who don’t engage in all these naughty things that people engage in: sexual immorality, drunkenness and so forth. Their lives are clean, as you see them. And I’m talking about outwardly. I’m not talking about what is going on inside them.
So, if you’re saying that it’s only Christians that can bring forth this fruit, what is that explanation for such instances? Mind you, there are believers that you don’t even see these things in expression in their lives. They believe in Christ Jesus. They have been recreated. But it’s hard to say that they are believers because you cannot see these things manifesting in their lives. These things are not obvious in their lives. But these things have to be obvious. Because when we are talking about fruit-bearing, we are talking about something that is obvious. And you have to do it abundantly for it to be obvious.
A tree that is not bringing forth abundant fruit may at some point be taken as fruitless. There are times that when the fruit on the tree is scanty, you may not be able to tell that there is fruit on it at all. But you can tell a tree that is bringing forth fruit abundantly from afar. You can tell that that tree is fruitful. And remember that Jesus says, “It is to the glory of my Father that you bring forth much fruit, abundant fruit.” That means God wants these things to be obvious in our lives. And the only way they are going to be obvious is if they are in abundance. (Cf. John 15:8)
But I am saying that there are believers that these things are not evident in their lives at all, while we have unbelievers that some of these things are evident in their lives. It follows, then, that we cannot simply say that it is only Christians that can bring forth the fruits referred to here as the fruit of the Spirit by Paul. Therefore, Paul is not talking about the fruit of the recreated spirit. He is actually talking about the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
What Paul wants us to get is that these things can only be evident in people’s lives by the Spirit of God, by the working of the Spirit of God. That’s what he is talking about. Every good and perfect gift comes from above, from the Father of heavenly lights who does not change like shifting shadows. That’s what James says in his epistle, chapter 1, verse 17, right? Right? So, every good and perfect gift, any good thing that you see in anybody is from where? It is from God.
No good thing comes from the devil. That’s what you must keep in mind. There is nothing good that comes from the devil. So, if you see anything good in anybody, that good thing is from God. That good thing is a product of the activity or a produce of the activity of God in that person’s life. Now, of course, God may not have all of His way in the person’s life. But wherever the person has permitted Him, God will have His way there. And you will see His work in that person’s life.
As for the believer, God has recreated him; God is living in him. So, God wants to fully express Himself in him. He will, of course, have to permit God to do that. But that is God’s intention. That is God’s purpose. That is God’s aim, to fully express Himself in him. And that’s why, in praying for the Ephesians, Paul speaks about us being filled with the fullness of God. He’s talking about a situation in which all of God is fully finding expression in us, as it was the case with Jesus when He walked the face of this earth. (Cf. Ephesians 3:19)
But, you know, for the unbeliever, because he is not recreated, because God is not living in him, it may only be here and there that we will see or that we will be able to see manifestations of God’s activities in his life. Because he is not fully yielded to God, he doesn’t even know that he is supposed to be fully yielded to God, God may be able to produce goodness in him, but He may not be able to produce self-control in him. So, this good man may lack self-control. I hope you know what I am talking about.
Everybody says he is a good man, but he is a womanizer. Or they say that she is a giver but she gets angry easily or doesn’t forgive. The point I am making, in any case, is that any good thing that you see in anybody is of God. It is a produce of the activity of God in that person.
So, when Paul is saying that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, he is saying that it is through the working of the Spirit of God in people’s lives that these things become evident. So, if you have the Spirit of God in you, these are the things that will show that He is actually in you, working. And as believers, we do have the Spirit of God in us. So, these things are expected to be evident in us. These must be the fruit of our relationship with Him.
Now observe that Paul does not say the fruit of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. That would have been correct English, wouldn’t it? It would have been perfect, if he had said. But he doesn’t say that. Instead, he says the fruit of the Spirit is all these things that he mentions. That means they are all together. If the Spirit of God is in you, working in you, to will and to act according to God’s good purpose, then all these things will be evident in you. So, he refers to them as the fruit of the Spirit, not the fruits of the Spirit.
Take an orange fruit, for example. In that fruit, there are all kinds of nutrients, vitamins. And all of them are together. So, when you take that fruit, you cannot choose which of the nutrients will go into your body. Are you following my explanation? You can’t choose. If you are not going to take any of the nutrients in it, then, you are not going to take that fruit at all. But once you take that fruit, you cannot choose which of the nutrients in it will go into your body and which will not. That is because all of the nutrients will go into your body.
It’s the same thing that Paul is talking about. When the Spirit of God begins to work in us, He will produce all of these things, not one, not two. He will produce in us everything that has to do with godly character. So, I cannot make excuses for lacking in anything called godly character. I cannot make excuses for lacking in love, or for lacking in gentleness, or for lacking in peace, or for lacking in faithfulness. I cannot choose to be faithful and not loving. I cannot choose to be loving and not gentle. I cannot choose to be gentle and not meek. I cannot choose. God is saying that all of these things must find their place in me. All of these things are the fruit of the Spirit. They are together. So it’s for me to look forward, or to look out for the manifestations of these things. I need to see the manifestations of these things in my life because God is seeking to see them in manifestation in my life, all of them.
We are still dealing with the nature of fruit God wants us to bear. We need to know what God expects of us. So, we are looking at these things. In Ephesians, chapter 5, from verse 8, Paul says, “For once you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth.” (Ephesians 5:8-9NIV) Did you see that? Paul says you were once darkness but now you are light in the Lord. Observe that he doesn’t say you were once in darkness. If he had said you were once in darkness, he would have been correct. But he doesn’t say that. Instead, he says you were once darkness.
So, we were darkness. We were not just in darkness; we were darkness. We represented darkness. Our lives represented darkness. That’s what the life of every unbeliever represents. It represents darkness. If you follow darkness, you end up in destruction. That’s the point.
But remember that he says, “You were once…” That is past tense. But now he says, “You are light.” And that is in agreement with what Jesus says, right? He says you are the light of the world. So, now we are light. (Cf. Matthew 5:14)
Then Paul speaks about the fruit of light. He says the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. What does it have to do with? It has to do with character. Does this have anything to do with preaching the good news or evangelizing the world? No! Instead, it has to do with character?
So, the point is that the Christian must make a business of exhibiting godly character. That is the most important thing for us, as far as living in this world is concerned. We must make a business of it. I must make a business of it. At the moment you may not know how to do so. At the moment you may find it hard to do so. But we all can learn. That is because we have God’s provisions for us to be able to do so. But we must first of all know that we must make a business of it. We must first of all know that this is what God is expecting of us.
Being a Christian goes beyond saying that I am a Christian. It goes beyond joining a Christian assembly. It goes beyond speaking in tongues. It goes beyond prophesying. It goes beyond praying. It goes beyond having a personal bible. Of first importance, we have to exhibit godly character. Remember that in Ephesians 2, verse 10, Paul says, “For you are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works.” You see, we were created to do good works. We were created to exhibit goodness. So, if somebody is telling you what you do is not important but what is important is what is in your heart or that you are born again, the person doesn’t understand what he is saying.
Of course, we do know from scriptures that we do not get saved by our good works. That has been made abundantly clear to us in Scriptures. Nobody gets saved because he is doing good things. Nobody gets saved because he is exhibiting godliness and all these things we are talking about. Nobody gets saved because of that. We get saved by accepting God’s offer of salvation through Christ Jesus. God worked for our salvation. He did what He had to do for us to be saved. And we get saved by accepting what He has done for our salvation. There is no other way to get saved.
So, we are not talking about getting saved by exhibiting godly character. Nobody gets saved by exhibiting godly character. Nobody is going to heaven because he is exhibiting godly character. No! You get saved by having faith in Christ Jesus. You become a citizen of the kingdom of God, of the kingdom of heaven by having faith in Christ Jesus.
However, we are saying that you have been saved for a purpose. Yes, your good works do not save you. But you were saved so that you can do good works. You were saved so that you can exhibit godly character. So, each of us has to make a business of exhibiting godly character. Each of us has to begin to look at these things that are mentioned in Scriptures about the fruit of the Spirit and begin to see to what measure they are finding expression in our lives. God is interested in this. I must be interested in it. He is interested in my fruit bearing. I must be interested in my fruit bearing.
So, the question for you this morning is, “Are you interested in your fruit bearing? Are you interested in seeing in your life those things that God wants to see in your life?” I am interested in seeing in my life those things He wants to see in my life. I am not yet seeing all of them as abundantly as I would want to see them. I am seeing some, but I know God expects more. And I want to be where He wants me to be. But I know what He expects of me. I know His demands on me. And I am going to take advantage of His grace to fulfill His demands on me. But it is important that I know His demands on me and that I am interested in seeing that His demands on me are fully accomplished. Is somebody following this?
Let me give you one more Scripture before I close. From verse 3 of 2Peter, chapter 1, he says:
“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption of the world caused by evil desires.” (2Peter 1:3-4NIV)
The first thing Peter tells us here is that God’s divine power has given to us everything we need for a godly life. So, everything I need for a godly life has already been delivered to me. I may not be taking advantage of everything I need. I may not even know these things that I need for a godly life. But the word of God says they have already been given to me. So, I’m not going to have any excuse for not living a godly life. That’s the point. None of us has any excuse for not living a godly life. There is no excuse.
I’ve been telling myself lately, “There is no excuse for doing anything wrong.” If I think of myself as having done something wrong, I tell myself, “Okay, so why did you do this? What excuse?” The truth is there is no excuse. As long as I keep making excuses, I’ll continue to do what is wrong. So, I need to be able to tell myself that there is no excuse for doing what is wrong. That is because the word of God says that everything I need to do what is right has been given to me. I may not know it. But it’s my job to know it. It’s my job to get myself educated in those things that God has freely given to me to live the kind of life He wants me to live. It’s my job. Or I may continue to make excuses for doing what is wrong.
Well, the word of God is clear about the fact that everything we need to live a godly life has been given to us. It goes on to tell us that we have been made partakers of the divine nature. Is that in your Bible? Does that even mean anything to you, that you are a partaker of the divine nature? You may think of yourself simply as human. But the word of God says you are a partaker of the divine nature.
One of the excuses we make [for not being what we are meant to be] is that we are humans. And it’s true we are all humans. We can’t run away from that. But we are not only humans; we are also divine. The word of God says that we are partakers of God’s divine nature. Now that’s something to meditate on. That’s something to think about, to consider its possibilities, the possibilities that are available to the one or to one who is a partaker of God’s divine nature.
What are the possibilities? If I am indeed a partaker of God’s divine nature, and I am indeed a partaker of His divine nature, what are my possibilities? What are the things I can accomplish with that? That’s something for me to meditate on. What do you think? We have to meditate on these things. We have to think about these things. What does it mean to be a partaker of God’s divine nature? Am I actually a partaker of his divine nature? I don’t look like that. I don’t look divine. Do I look divine? I don’t look divine. But the word of God says you and I are divine because we are partakers of God’s divine nature. So, I should not be using the fact that I am a human being as my excuse for not living the kind of life God wants me to live. That’s because God has already equipped me with His own nature to live the kind of life He wants me to live. He has made me divine.
Now you may not accept that. But you are not going to say that God has not told you. You say, “Oh, how can I be divine? Me, divine? What is divine about me? Yesterday I still fell ill. So, what is divine about me if I am divine? Should I fall ill at all, if I am divine?” But the word of God says that you are divine. It’s up to you to look at the possibilities, to look at the advantages, and to tell yourself, “Look, these are my advantages. These are my possibilities. Let me begin to employ them.”
Well, Peter is telling us all these things to let us know that God has fully equipped us to live the kind of life He wants us to live. Now from verse 5, Peter goes on to say, “For this reason…” What reason is he talking about? The things it just tells us. He just speaks about the fact that God has given to us everything we need for life and godliness and has made us partakers of His divine nature. Because of this, then, because you are now partakers of God’s divine nature, you are to make every effort to add to your faith goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection and love.
Furthermore, he says, “For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2Peter 1:8NIV) What does that mean? Well, it means that because you are now partakers of God’s divine nature, make effort to bring forth these things, to add these things to your life. And he list the things we need to add to our faith in God for us, which are: goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection and love. If these things must be obvious, you see, you are going to make effort to make them obvious. And because you now have what it takes to produce them, begin to produce them.
Now observe that Peter says if you produce them in abundance or if you have them in your life in abundance, you will not be ineffective or unproductive. Another word for ‘unproductive’ here is ‘barren’. You will not be barren. You will not be fruitless. And what are we talking about? We are talking about bearing fruit. So, when the word of God is speaking about bearing fruit or when God is telling us to bring forth fruit, He is talking about bringing forth godly attributes, exhibiting godly character. That is our main business. That is my main business. That is your main business.
Somebody has said, “We have to see to it that the main thing remains the main thing.” In your life, you too have to see to it that the main thing remains the main thing. Otherwise, what you are occupied with are irrelevancies. And what is the main thing? The main thing is for you to bring forth fruit that is consistent with righteousness, that is consistent with godly character. And you go this week, begin to do that in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let’s bow our heads and thank God for His word this morning.
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