Bearing Fruit
2 comments | Posted by Steven Layson on 30 May 2010 in From Steve's Study ::
George Whitefield (1714-1770) is considered by many to be the greatest evangelist of all time. Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards and John Wesley, were the three men humanly responsible for the great spiritual awakening on both sides of the Atlantic in the late 1700’s. He spent roughly 24 years of ministry in Great Britain and about a further nine years in the American colonies, preaching to more than ten million souls.
The largest audience he ever addressed was in a town near Glasgow, where he spoke to around 100,000 people! He preached for an hour and a half to the tearful crowd. Converts from that one meeting numbered up to 10,000.
Near the end of his ministry he said, “There are so many stony ground hearers who receive the Word with joy that I have determined to suspend my judgment till I know the tree by its fruits… That makes me cautious now, which I was not thirty years ago, of dubbing converts too soon. Now I wait a little, and see if people bring forth fruit; for there are many blossoms which March winds blow away that I cannot believe they are converts till I see fruit brought forth.”
Whitefield’s caution should be a great challenge to us. It is one thing to intellectually assent to the message of the gospel, but it is a completely different thing to act on that assent. The Christian life is not merely a set of doctrines, but rather a radically new life. It is a life that is guided by the Spirit of God, rather than the spirit of the world.
Is your life under God one that demonstrates this radical change? Are you bearing the fruit of salvation, or is the seed of God’s word being choked by the worries and temptations of the world? We all need to open ourselves up to the work of God’s Spirit in our lives to make us into the people he always intended us to be.
« Follow-up from Stephen Longu Night Living in a Groaning World»
Discuss This Topic
2 people have already responded.
Commenting has expired or Comments are turned off for this article.
1 Theo Bentley :: 03/06/10 02:16 PM
This is a good message Steve, but can I put forward a question r.e the worries of the world…
What if a Christian experiences financial trouble, and so to support the family has to put in more hours at work, thus preventing time being devoted to ministry, etc. Does God understand this, or do you think he would want the person to put the fruits first, trust in him, and deal with the worries?
2 Steve Layson :: 07/06/10 11:54 AM
Good question Theo!
Of course life is never “neat” & Christians are just as likely as others to experience all kinds of difficulties. I would think that a person in the situation you have mentioned has a first responsibility to care for their family. Paul certainly seems to think so when he says in 1 Tim 5:8 that “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever”!
Having said that, it’s easy to use family “obligations” as an excuse for not serving God or his people. Sometimes we can be our own worst enemies in this regard (eg by taking the biggest mortgage we can possibly afford, or by taking a job or promotion that we know will take up huge amounts of our time).
I guess it all comes down to examining your own motives and decisions before God and always seeking to “bear fruit” for him, whether it be in your family, work or church life.