We are living in a time when many people think all they have to do is say something and that makes it so. It is not important to them that they actually believe in their heart, they are only saying words to impress others or to be accepted by them.
This is why so many people claim to be Christians but have no real witness in the world, not even the fruit of the Spirit.
Galatians 5:22-23
When words are only evident absent from the fruit then we have no reason to believe the conversion was authentic.
And, notice that many of these pretenders are embarrassed to speak of Christ to others, even ashamed when someone else mentions the name of Jesus Christ. In fact, most of the people I know who say they are Christians and attend a gathering, never allow the name of Jesus Christ to roll off their tongues.
Words are nothing, they only have power when the actions match the words and even then words and actions can be manipulations. An attitude of humility and loving-kindness without praise for it is stronger evidence that someone has been changed by Christ into a new creation. The fruit of the Spirit is a character of love through Christ. Born-again believers can discern this Spiritual quality and will feel a connection quickly to those who possess this fruit.
Every born-again believer has all of this fruit. Those who are pretenders often have a false love and some false fruit but it is always exposed when they are confronted with their lack of it and they rage or exact revenge on those who are not fooled by their counterfeit expressions of the fruit.
Since the fruit of the pretender is expressed in their fleshly attempts at spirituality they cannot keep up the pretense when they are exposed for what they are, they rage, they accuse and they do not express sincere regret at their sinful attitudes.
Those who are believers authentically will act saddened and ashamed when confronted with a sinful attitude or action. We almost never see this in our cultural Christianity today.
Believers hate being rude or mean, they hate harming another human being, the very reason we rarely see them having to confess, they just do not do the things that pretenders do as a lifestyle. When they have fallen they are sorry and will quickly confess to restore a relationship.
Born-again believers do not have anger lingering just below the surface ready to unleash. Their underlying mentality is one of calmness, kindness and peacefulness. In other words they live by the fruit of Christ's Spirit desiring to walk as He walked.
Let's review the fruit of the Spirit:
Galatians 5:22-23
"22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."
We need not follow rules because we are the very nature of our Savior Who lives in us. Rules are for lawbreakers not those who love the Law.
No comments:
Post a Comment