Faith verses Fruit…

[Stefcui]

Please share from the scriptures and your own personal experiences about faith, works and the fruit of the Spirit. Although Christians have a certain amount of freedom to follow alternative beliefs and doctrines, we do not have freedom relative to the fruitage of the Spirit. Some considerations to help guide us are as follows:

· Why do our works identify if our faith is genuine or not? (James 2:20)

· Is it possible to have an intellectual faith yet have no fruit? (James 2:14)

· Why do the fruits of the Spirit demonstrate whether we are really followers of Christ or not? (Galatians 5:25)

There is a reason why God told us to pay attention to the qualities and attitudes exhibited through His blessings. The fruitage of the Spirit is our litmus test… it shows whether we are genuine wool or synthetic wool; whether we are sheep or goats, whether we are wheat or weeds. We can be wrong in our theology and still be spiritually right with God… We can be right in our theology and be spiritually wrong with God.

"Examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith; prove your own selves." (2 Corinthians 13:5)

This is a way to determine whether we have the faith, or whether we have lost the plot...

God Bless
Steve

 

[Stefcui]

I have had a fair bit to do with cults and sects. I have studied them, and talked with many of them. I find there is a personality type that gravitates toward erroneous thinking. They can be extremely nice to you if they think they have you agreeing with them, and they are nice to all people who share the same opinions; but as soon as they encounter resistance to their thinking, they become very argumentative, rude, obnoxious, unloving, careless, hurtful, proud, boastful, arrogant. This is an evidence that the Holy Spirit has not been in their lives to produce spiritual fruit.

Whether it is a Catholic or Protestant, the same litmus test can be applied. Those most prone to this zealous religiousness are fringe groups, like the JW’s, SDA’s, LDS’s, British-Israelites, and sometimes even Pentecostals who try to push “spiritual gifts” down your throat. I know a Pentecostal Catholic, and WOW; she is argumentative. She told me that she had more authority than the Apostles! This Jezebel made me quiver…

Our doctrine, or statement of faith, does not make us orthodox; it is the application of Christ in our everyday lives that makes us orthodox.

God Bless
Steve

 

[aspen]

JERK!







(j/k)

 

[Stefcui]

Very funny

 

[jiggyfly]

Good thread Steve, Faith vs Fruit, while in many,this may be the case, spiritual maturity reconciles faith and fruit along with knowledge.
11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.
Eph 4:11-13 (NLT)

So with that said, if our faith, knowledge and/or fruit are at odds then this would be a clear indication of a lack of spiritual maturity and thus a lack of spiritual teaching, mentoring and the need for some adjustments to our faith, knowledge and/or submission to Jesus' lordship. When my faith, knowledge and character are in unity I will be spiritually mature.

5 But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us.6 For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love.
Gal 5:5-6 (NLT)

Here we see the importance of our faith being expressed through/by love, the fruit of HolySpirit. One of my favorite scriptures concerning love is found in Paul's letter to the Ephesians.

14 When I think of the wisdom and scope of God's plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, 15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. 16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit.17 And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
Eph 3:14-19 (NLT)

This fullness or maturity comes from experiencing Christ's love and submitting to it's work within me. So many today are very confused about what that entails because of the centuries of false religious teachings bombarding us today. There is a simplicity to God's plan, but it is hard to see because religion has been covering it with a thick veil for so long and adding its own requirements, giving the appearance that the gospel is something very complicated and beyond the average man's intellectual scope. Today the problems are even more confounded by the many immature Christians trying to be teachers, mentors and spiritual fathers creating many false religious paradigms.

We need HolySpirit to guide and direct us in all areas of life so that we can mature spiritually to the fullness of God's plan.

 

[justaname]

JERK!







(j/k)

lol :lol:
Great posts!

 

[prism]

Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
(Gal 3:3)
But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
(Rom 6:22)
For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.
(Gal 2:19)
Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
(Rom 7:4)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
(Gal 5:22-24)



In my experience these Sciptures (among others) have been central in my understanding of fruit bearing.
Through faith in Christ Jesus and His redemptive work we receive not only the Holy Spirit (Gal 3:3)the righteousness of Christ as a free gift, as well as the operation made without human hands, i.e. crucified with Christ-dead to sin-dead to the law (as a means of merit or fruit) but instead set free to serve and have free access to God through the sin cleansing, life giving Blood of Jesus.

 

[Stefcui]

This is stated very well, Prism. Fruits are our service to each other in love. "By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another." (John 13:35) This love is a fruit of the Spirit.

Love is not to be confused with complacency. Love requires action on our part. God disciples those He loves.

“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.” (Rev 3:19)

​​​​​​​“For the LORD disciplines those he loves, just as a father disciplines the son in whom he delights.” (Proverbs 3:12)

“For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17)

If we lie about the fruits, then an even greater judgment is going to apply to us; for God judges us first because he loved us first. “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.” If we must be rebuked, then we must be rebuked to repentance. Refused repentance is refused love. Refused love is denying the Holy Spirit. A Christian without the Holy Spirit is a body without a soul; we are then merely a vessel of the devil. We aim for God's holiness in all things. "You must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect." (Matthew 5:48)

God Bless
Steve

 

[lawrance]

I have had a fair bit to do with cults and sects. I have studied them, and talked with many of them. I find there is a personality type that gravitates toward erroneous thinking. They can be extremely nice to you if they think they have you agreeing with them, and they are nice to all people who share the same opinions; but as soon as they encounter resistance to their thinking, they become very argumentative, rude, obnoxious, unloving, careless, hurtful, proud, boastful, arrogant. This is an evidence that the Holy Spirit has not been in their lives to produce spiritual fruit.

Whether it is a Catholic or Protestant, the same litmus test can be applied. Those most prone to this zealous religiousness are fringe groups, like the JW’s, SDA’s, LDS’s, British-Israelites, and sometimes even Pentecostals who try to push “spiritual gifts” down your throat. I know a Pentecostal Catholic, and WOW; she is argumentative. She told me that she had more authority than the Apostles! This Jezebel made me quiver…

Our doctrine, or statement of faith, does not make us orthodox; it is the application of Christ in our everyday lives that makes us orthodox.

God Bless
Steve

Yes i have a mate like that he is just selling jesus, just like a sales man. he rattles on with a whole lot of rubbish, on some dribble he reads off or just recites memories verses flat out and will not let you stop him and go through everything one at a time.
He is telling people simplistic rubbish that only a simpleton would like to hear. and then says you are saved now you can do what ever you like, because once saved always saved, it's a free gift. you can now go out and kill etc etc.
And he is someone who does not work and never has for years and has no intention to.