Bearing the Fruit of Faithfulness?
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Lifestyle of Faithfulness is what matters. In God’s eyes, it is not the number of failures, but the times of faithful fulfillment that count.
It is the devils’s attempt to get a foothold in our lives through guilt and condemnation. This is not of the Lord.
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
Our old nature is like the pig and the raven, always looking for something unclean on which to feed. Our new nature is like the sheep and the dove, yearning for that which is clean and holy. No wonder a struggle goes on within the life of the believer!
Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 718.
“The contrast between works and fruit is important. A machine in a factory works, and turns out a product, but it could never manufacture fruit.
Fruit must grow out of life, and, in the case of the believer, it is the life of the Spirit ().
When you think of “works” you think of effort, labor, strain, and toil; when you think of “fruit” you think of beauty, quietness, the unfolding of life. The flesh produces “dead works” (), but the Spirit produces living fruit. And this fruit has in it the seed for still more fruit (). Love begets more love! Joy helps to produce more joy! Jesus is concerned that we produce “fruit … more fruit … much fruit” (, ), because this is the way we glorify Him. The old nature cannot produce fruit; only the new nature can do that.
Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 719.