Equipped to Be Fruitful

Thoughts From a Bible Reader

We are saved by grace alone, which means that none of us can show up before God and tell Him that we’ve earned our way into heaven. No, it is Jesus alone, and His dying for our sins, that has paid for all of the damages that we have done in our sinful lives. And so our salvation starts with our admitting to the wrongs that we’ve done and being sorrowful over these. That’s what is known as repentance. And then we trust Jesus and that His death has paid our sin-debt. That is God’s grace that He has offered to us, an amazing gift for fallen creatures.

And then, from the moment that we accept God’s grace, we need to hold on to our faith. There are some who say that our salvation can never be lost, once we have accepted it. But I think that the Bible is pretty clear that, while Jesus will never abandon us, we can abandon Him. And then the New Testament makes it abundantly clear that we also need to be fruitful. Or, in other words, we need to have good works. Why? Because, as James told us, faith that is not accompanied by works will die (James 2:14-17). Jesus told us that unfruitful branches will be cut away and burned. So how do we bear fruit? “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” (John 15:4). Our being fruitful begins with remaining in Jesus, abiding in Him. To be fruitful we also need to obey what He has told us to do. I wrote two posts that listed every single thing that Jesus told us to do, but the simple version is to only treat other people in the ways that we want to be treated ourselves.

But God has not left finding ways to be fruitful up to us. No, He has given us gifts to equip us to be fruitful. Paul told the Corinthian church, “Now there are different gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are different ministries, but the same Lord. And there are different results, but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. To each person the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the benefit of all” (1 Cor. 12:4-7). Notice that Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit has given a manifestation, a visible appearance of itself, to EACH person in the body of Christ. And those gifts aren’t for our own self-benefit, but rather they are to benefit everyone in the church. And they differ from one another, and yet not a single one of them is unimportant to the body of Christ. Because a body needs each and every one of its parts. “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I do not need you,’ nor in turn can the head say to the foot, ‘I do not need you.’ On the contrary, those members that seem to be weaker are essential, and those members we consider less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our unpresentable members are clothed with dignity, but our presentable members do not need this” (12:21-24).

And then Paul lists different manifestations of spiritual gifts that God may give us. First there are apostles. We speak of the apostles as being Jesus’ inner group of twelve disciples, and the Bible clearly describes the disciples as being the foundation of the church. In fact, in Rev. 21:14 we are told that the New Jerusalem will have twelve foundations, each with a name of one of Jesus’ twelve apostles written on it. But the Bible also calls Paul and Barnabas apostles (Acts 14:14), so there are apostles beyond the twelve. But the apostles all seem to have seen Christ after His resurrection. They were also all chosen by the Holy Spirit, went out to share the gospel with the world, and could perform signs and wonders. Some say that there are still apostles in the church today, in the same sense that the early church had apostles. Not everyone agrees with this.

Next Paul talks about prophets. Prophets speak for God to specific people or groups. Paul, when he was heading back to Jerusalem, was warned by a number of prophets that he would be arrested in Jerusalem (Acts 20:18-24). I have a dear Christian friend who spent time in India decades ago with a missionary couple, going from village to village to share Jesus. In one village, and on only one night, the Holy Spirit came upon my friend, manifesting itself through him, and he prophesied. As villagers came forward to him, he would tell them that God was unhappy with them for stealing from their boss, or for beating their wife, very specific messages like those for each individual person. My friend did not know a single one of these people. But God did, and He spoke through my friend that night. Yet he has never prophesied since, as far as I know. And the Holy Spirit may never manifest through you or me with the gifts of being an apostle or a prophet, even for a single night. But that’s up to the Holy Spirit, and not to us. But Jesus warned us to keep an eye out for false prophets, saying, “Watch out for false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are voracious wolves. You will recognize them by their fruit” (Matt. 7:15-16). And I think that we can say the same for those who claim today to be apostles. Check their fruit. And the Didache, one of the earliest Christian books that we have outside of the Bible, tells us that any prophet who asks for money is a false prophet (XI:6). I think that the same would be true for apostles as well.

The third gift Paul mentions here is teaching. I hope and pray, as I share these posts, that it is God who is speaking through me and not just Steve blathering on. And I feel, as I prepare them, that God truly is leading me in my thoughts to share. Even with what I am sharing now, I sat down to write with no thought other than to talk about how God has given us spiritual gifts to make us fruitful. And I can feel Him leading my thoughts as I work, as I think that there are some of you out there, reading these posts, that He wants to talk to. And the Holy Spirit can take the words that I share here and speak to you in completely different ways than it will speak to someone else through those same words.

The next gifts are the ability to do miracles or to heal. I still believe that these gifts are here today, to be used both for the good of the church as well as for a testimony to unbelievers as to the truth of the gospel. Jesus told His disciples, after the last supper, “Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, but if you do not believe me, believe because of the miraculous deeds themselves. I tell you the solemn truth, the person who believes in me will perform the miraculous deeds that I am doing, and will perform greater deeds than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it” (John 14:11-14). That is a rather open invitation from Jesus. And today there are a number of very visible ministers (thanks to modern media) who emphasize that they are performing healings and miracles. Are all of them legitimate? I don’t think so. A number of them, like Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, Joel Osteen, and David Oyedepo, have estimated net worths of well over $50 million apiece. The idea that God would give a follower of Jesus a spiritual gift to help them amass a very large personal fortune doesn’t seem to fit very well with the things that Jesus taught us. And I have to think, too, of the Didache’s warning against those who minister and ask for money.

On the other hand, a close Christian friend told me about a family cat that died when she and her siblings were young. Her little sister took the dead cat to their dad, and asked him to anoint the cat with oil and pray for it. Their dad told her sister that the cat was dead. Her sister responded, “But Jesus can do anything!” And so their dad, who was out working in the garage, took a little motor oil, anointed the cat, and prayed over it. And the cat came back to life. My friend’s little sister had true faith that Jesus could deliver, and He did. If you and I had only as much faith as a mustard seed has, we could tell a mountain to move, and it would obey (Matt. 17:20).

The next gift that Paul talks about is helping. Perhaps you and I don’t have the faith of a mustard seed that will allow us to move mountains (or heal, or do miracles). But helping is different. I think that each and every one of us can find ways that we can help, all around us. God has given me abilities in building, and He has also given me opportunities to use those abilities. When we spent half a year in the Sahara Desert with a missionary family, I spent that time making windows and doors for them, to keep desert sandstorms from coating everything in that family’s house every time the wind blew. I have worked on an orphanage in Haiti, on a Bible school in Canada, and on numerous church and ministry properties here in the US. Even now I am finishing working on a handicap ramp for a local ministry. The church we attended when we lived in Pennsylvania had a women’s group that focused solely on getting meals to families who had lost a loved one, or when someone was in the hospital or having medical issues. The men’s ministry there had twice-annual oil change days for widows and single mothers in that town. A woman in our present church is very involved in a ministry that helps those just out of prison transition back into the world outside of a prison. Others are involved in the Backpack Project, which provides food for local elementary students to take home every week for their family. Many local Mennonites are heavily involved in disaster relief, and a Mennonite friend who is a civil engineer has designed dozens and dozens of private bridges to replace ones washed out in the western North Carolina floods, with groups of Mennonite volunteers actually building these bridges, giving many families a way to finally drive their vehicles right to their houses again. And at the heart of each and every one of these opportunities to help? A message of, “God loves you, and so do I!”

The next gift that Paul lists is leadership. And what does a true, gifted Christian leader look like? I would think that they would look like Jesus, who came to serve, and not to be served. Jesus, who washed the feet of His disciples. “So when Jesus had washed their feet and put his outer clothing back on, he took his place at the table again and said to them, ‘Do you understand what I have done for you? You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and do so correctly, for that is what I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you too ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example—you should do just as I have done for you. I tell you the solemn truth, the slave is not greater than his master, nor is the one who is sent as a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you understand these things, you will be blessed if you do them’” (John 13:12-17). My dad was a servant leader. He would show up first, to make certain that everything was ready for whatever was happening that day. He would leave last, making certain that nothing had been overlooked or left behind. He was not a leader who wanted the spotlight, he did not relish the podium, but he competently made sure that everyone was taken care of, that no one had been overlooked.

And then Paul mentions the gift of speaking in tongues. We first see this happen on the day of Pentecost, when the church started. The Holy Spirit came upon the believers, and “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven residing in Jerusalem. When this sound occurred, a crowd gathered and was in confusion, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Completely baffled, they said, ‘Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that each one of us hears them in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and the province of Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own languages about the great deeds God has done!’ All were astounded and greatly confused, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’” (Acts 2:4-12). In 1 Cor. 14:22 Paul explains that the gift of speaking in tongues is for a sign for unbelievers, even as we see happened on the day of Pentecost. Unbelievers hear this happening, and wonder what it means. The gift of tongues is used to give the Holy Spirit an opening into the lives of unbelievers. But there are some Pentecostal churches which teach that if you don’t speak in tongues, then you aren’t saved. And yet that disagrees with Paul, when he told us, “Not all are apostles, are they? Not all are prophets, are they? Not all are teachers, are they? Not all perform miracles, do they? Not all have gifts of healing, do they? Not all speak in tongues, do they? Not all interpret, do they?” (1 Cor. 12:29-30). It’s obvious that the answer to each of Paul’s questions is, “No.”

In Ephesians 4:11 Paul adds to this list of spiritual gifts evangelists and pastors. In Romans 12:3-8 he adds exhorting, contributing and showing mercy. We can think of evangelists and those who exhort as those who carry the gospel to the world outside of the church. Pastors shepherd those who have become believers in Christ. And then Paul adds the gift of having things to contribute to the needs of the church. There was a local businessman who my dad knew, and this man was extremely successful. He was also very generous. In fact, my dad said that this man would say that God had blessed him so that he could bless those around him. But we don’t have to have a lot of money or things in order to contribute to the needs of the church. We just need to be willing to contribute out of the little that we have, if the need is there. And it’s interesting to me that showing mercy is on Paul’s list from Romans as a spiritual gift, but then most of us certainly aren’t naturally inclined to be merciful. Maybe we need for God to give us that ability.

Going back to 1 Corinthians, Paul tells us that we “should be eager for the greater gifts. And now I will show you a way that is beyond comparison” (1 Cor. 12:31). Yes, there is something that will let us be fruitful and that is even greater than any of these spiritual gifts. And what could that be? Love. In fact, all of those other gifts mean nothing without love being in the mix.

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but I do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I give over my body in order to boast, but do not have love, I receive no benefit. Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious. Love does not brag, it is not puffed up. It is not rude, it is not self-serving, it is not easily angered or resentful. It is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. But if there are prophecies, they will be set aside; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be set aside. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when what is perfect comes, the partial will be set aside. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. But when I became an adult, I set aside childish ways. For now we see in a mirror indirectly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor. 13).

Amen! May you live a fruitful life by loving others for Jesus!

Do you have questions or comments that you would like to share with me? Feel free to drop me an email (stevesuterfaithandfruit@gmail.com).

My posts come from my observations in reading the Bible literally dozens of times, always hoping to understand it a little bit better. If you want to go back and read more of what I’ve observed in my reading, click here.

Unless otherwise noted, the Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® https://netbible.com copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved