God’s objective – His desire for a church or an individual is that they would “bear fruit for God” and no longer “bear fruit for death!” I really don’t think we grasp how passionately our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, longs for us (as congregations and individuals within them) to bear fruit. He want us collectively and individually to “bear fruit” more than anything else! (see John 15.1-7)
When the Bible talks about “fruit bearing” the point that the Bible is making is that those who are God’s people – those who claim to be Christians – should produce a lifestyle, character and results in keeping with who they are (or claim to be).
This morning during “coffee with the Lord” I read Romans 7.1-6 and was especially impressed with verses 4-6 had to say about “bearing fruit ”Using the analogy of a marriage, Paul described the situation in the church at Rome and among the believers there as having been at one time “married to “the law” … He says the result of that union – the “fruit” of it was “death” (they were incapable of keeping the law). As a result of that, he urges the believers there who have “died to the law” through Christ’s death on the cross to “be married to another” (the One who rose from the dead – Jesus Christ) and as “the bride of Christ” to “bear fruit for God!”
They had experienced death to an old way of life through Christ (i.e. they stopped bearing the fruit the old way of life produced). Christ’s death on the Cross was in some real way their death to that old way of life – they had fully identified spiritually with His death on the cross. Now they had embraced a new relationship – one that brought life! The resurrection of Christ had brought life to them! Now they were “bearing fruit for God” be serving God in the “new way of the Spirit”!
As I read this passage this morning, I found myself praying this prayer… Oh Lord, may I recognize who I belong to!! You want congregations and individuals to embrace and appropriate this wonderful truth! I belong to Jesus! I am now a part of as the “Bride of Christ” and my privilege and responsibility is to “bear fruit for God”! As Christians the “life-dynamic” of the Holy Spirit is at work within us to do it! Praise the Lord!
Coffee With The Lord 