Shepastor: "What Kind of Fruit Do You Bear 'On the Regular?' "

9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,^[^a^] ¹⁰so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, ¹¹being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, ¹²and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you^[^b^] to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. ¹³For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, ¹⁴in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1: 9-14, NIV

In this text Paul is praying some detailed prayers for the people of God, the new believers in Colossae. Specifically, Paul prays:

- That the Lord would fill them with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding given by the Holy Spirit

- That they would live a life worthy of the Lord, pleasing him in every way

- That they would bear fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of the Lord

- That they would be strengthened by God’s power so that they may have great endurance and patience

It is so easy for us to say that we could never be worthy of all that the Lord has done for us. And that is true. The scripture says that “all of our righteousness is as filthy rags…” There is nothing that we can do to make ourselves clean, right before the Lord. However, we can live a life that is worthy of our Lord. In other words, through Christ, and with the power of the precious Holy Spirit, we can “walk worthy.”

Paul emphasizes that through the power of God’s Holy Spirit, we can live a life that is worthy of our Lord. We cannot do it on our own, but through Christ, we can do all things. Let’s consider his prayers for them:

The first two things Paul prays are:

(1) That the Lord would fill them with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding given by the Holy Spirit
(2) That they would live a life worthy of the Lord, pleasing him in every way

When we yield our heart, mind and spirit to receive God’s word, when we pray to understand and apply God’s word to our lives, we will, by faith, trust in the Lord with all of our heart, not leaning to our own understanding, but instead we will acknowledge him and trust him to direct our path. We will learn how to please the Lord….Trust, pray and obey!

Today’s focus is upon the third thing that Paul prayed for the believers:

(3) That they would bear fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of the Lord

Paul prayed that they would bear fruit in every good work and grow in the knowledge of the Lord. What does it mean to “bear fruit in every good work?” To bear fruit means that there will be evidence of our walk with the Lord. Jesus said, “they will know that we are Christians by our love.” Jesus also said that good trees will not bear bad fruit. We will be known by our fruit.

This does not mean that we won’t ever do anything wrong. It does mean, however, that our “record” of fruit, the kind of fruit we bear, should be consistent. What kind of fruit do we bear on the regular? For example, an apple tree cannot bear oranges. A grape vine cannot bear lemons. If we are living a life worthy of our Lord, then our fruit will be consistent with the Spirit of Christ. We are known by our fruit. We win lost souls to Christ through God’s love. It does not matter how many scriptures you know, how many days you fast or how many committees you join if you don’t have love. What kind of fruit do we bear “on the regular?”

Our fruit is reflected in the way we behave. Do we treat people like we want to be treated? Do we forgive, even when the offender does not apologize? Do we speak the truth in love? Do we have the joy of the Lord? Are we the hands and feet of Jesus, helping others, encouraging others, serving others, supporting others?

God’s people have the fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, endurance, patience, meekness “against such there is no law.”

In other words, when we live a life filled with the fruit of God’s Holy Spirit, we don’t have to worry about “the law,” for our love fulfills the mandates of the law. Jesus said that we can hang all of the law and the prophets on the two great commandments – the love of God and the love of fellow human beings. May we pray to bear good fruit regularly that reflects the love of Christ!

A song writer put it like this…

Day by day

Oh Dear Lord

Three things I pray

To see thee more clearly

Love thee more dearly

Follow thee more nearly

Day by day

May we join Paul in this prayer not only for ourselves, but for one another, that we will live a life worthy of our Lord, and bear good fruit in the name of Jesus!

In Faith, Hope and Perseverance,

Pastor Chris

www.shepastorchris.org

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