“Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless.”

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭2‬:‭12‬-‭13‬, ‭15‬-‭16‬ ‭NLT‬‬

How could Paul ever know that God’s work through him was real , bearing the fruit of the gospel? Not by those who answered altar calls. Not by those who prayed the sinner’s prayer. Not by those who signed on to church membership.  Not even by those who were “born again”. 

Jesus said there is only one test,  to find out the nature of the tree… fruit! A simple lesson from nature! Jesus taught His disciples to apply the test. 

“You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭7‬:‭16‬-‭18‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Always moving his converts towards greater maturity, Paul appeals to them to grow the fruit of their salvation by applying themselves diligently to his instructions. Two powers are at work in them…the work they put into their obedience and the work God does in them in response to their work of obedience. The one without the other doesn’t work!

We must never separate the two. We can never work for our salvation. Only God can do the work in us. By His grace, He made us alive, forgave our sin, reconciled us to Himself, reinstated us as His sons and daughters, blessed us with every spiritual blessing, and gave us citizenship in His kingdom. 

Our “work” is to respond to God’s work by working it out in obedience to His commands by…believing in Jesus (leaning our full weight on Jesus)  and…loving one another (helping each other in all circumstances at our own expense). 

When and as we obey Jesus’ instructions, His Spirit in us grows the fruit of our union with Him…the outward evidence of the nature of the tree. If the tree of which we are branches is the vine of which Jesus spoke…He Himself and our union with Him… we will bear the fruit of that tree…

“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”

‭‭Galatians‬ ‭5‬:‭22‬-‭23‬ ‭NLT‬‬

There is only one way to remain in union with the vine…

“Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me…Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.”

‭‭John‬ ‭15‬:‭4‬-‭5‬, ‭7‬-‭8‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Vine…branches…prayer…fruit! It’s a process…slow but sure. 

God’s word is the sap that flows from the vine to the branches, nourishing them and growing the fruit the identifies the vine. So, Paul exhorts…

“Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important.”  

Paul’s instructions would eventually be recognised as the very word of God. 

Staying in the vine and bearing the fruit of that “vine” is not airy -fairy but practical…remain in Jesus’ words. The word and the Spirit are never separated. 

“Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings.”

‭‭John‬ ‭8‬:‭31‬ ‭NLT‬‬

“But if you remain in me and my words remain in you…”

‭‭John‬ ‭15‬:‭7‬a NLT‬‬

So, there we have Jesus’ secret of fruitfulness encapsulated…living in the word, and sharing the word with one another with joyful and grateful hearts…

“Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.”

‭‭Colossians‬ ‭3‬:‭16‬ ‭NLT‬‬ 

To be continued