By: Mike Kelly
Retired Pastor
Faith and Fruit are like the old song says, “Love and Marriage go together like a horse and carriage. You can’t have one without the other.”. You can’t have faith without fruit.
What is the fruit we are to bear as Believers? The Fruit of the Spirit as explained in Galatians 5:22-23 is…” love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” If we don’t see fruit over time, our relationship with Jesus must be questioned.
John 15:5 says it like this “”I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.”
Fruit is a natural outcome of being attached to the vine. We can’t help but produce fruit if we are attached. And we cannot bear fruit if we are not attached. That’s simple agronomy.
A tomato branch will bear tomatoes if it is attached to the tomato vine but if it becomes unattached, it is dead and will not/cannot bear fruit. And it is simply tossed away.
We’ve all seen grapes with fine succulent grapes but also some poorly underdeveloped ones as well. That’s natural. Not all fruit will bear equally but if it is attached, it will bear some level of fruit.
Why is this important to us? As protestants, we have been taught for 600 years that our relationship with Jeus is what saves us. And I completely agree with that.
What I struggle with is how some of our churches and leaders teach that asking Jesus to forgive you and promising to follow him is all it takes for a ticket to Heaven.
And I agree with that as far as it goes but to be a true disciple, a true believer, a true saved, born again Christian if you will, is more than a declaration. There must also be fruit.
Without the fruit, there is no salvation since if we were related, we would bear fruit because there is a relationship and a relationship bears fruit naturally.
No fruit, no relationship. No relationship, no eternal life in Heaven. Matt 25 illustrates it in another way, but the message is the same. “v31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.”
So what is the difference in this judgment between sheep and goats? To the sheep Christ says: “35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
But to the goats, Christ says; “V41…Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
Feeding the hungry, housing the stranger, clothing the needy, caring for the sick and for those in bondage of one kind or another is considered the outcome of the relationship with Christ. If we did not care for those in need, then we did not care for him.
He goes on to take it from the wording of a parable to the very clear conclusion for us today “v.44 “They (the goats) also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ 45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46 “Then they ( the goats, the ones who did not show compassion for the needy) will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous (those whose relationship with Christ compelled them to care for the needy and outcasts) {will go} to eternal life.”
Our relationship with Christ must change us both in our spirit and in our actions. “If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
“Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”
———————–
Mike Kelly is the founding pastor of Bryan’s Grace Community Church (retired) and Board Chairman of Bryan’s Sanctuary Homeless Shelter and Williams County’s Compassion (free) Medical Clinic.