I attended the funeral of an elderly relative last month. Now the first thing that caught my eye was the number of people in attendance at the funeral (not to say that is an accurate measure of an individual’s impact), but most of us know, that we tend to judge the impact of a person’s life by the number of people at their funeral, and secondly, as I read the obituary, I realized the name of the church that this relative supposedly attended didn’t even exist! Well, of course, from there, I began to come to my own conclusions.
I found it really weird that this was happening because for the entire month of March, God had been speaking to me regarding faith, works, and fruit, and one would conclude that this relative probably hadn’t produced much fruit in his life. Who knows, maybe God was giving me a visual to demonstrate his point. There are two chapters of scripture that I have been intently studying regarding faith, works, and fruit, James 2 and John 15.
Lately, I’ve been evaluating all of my actions to make sure they are productive and effective. Some of my reasons for evaluation are: I realize that I’m not twenty-one anymore and must begin to take things a lot more seriously; I’m a mom who has to be conscious of the effect my actions and/or inactions have on our son; and the growth of The H.O.P.E. Center is “moving at the speed of light” and requires much analogy. Nevertheless, I have learned that only what we do for Christ will stand, and everything that I have taken on as of late has been analyzed to determine if it is a good fruit of my labor.
John 15:16 (The Message) tells us that “You didn’t choose me, I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won’t spoil…and James 2:14-18 (The Message) tells us dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense? I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, “Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I’ll handle the works department.” Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove.
I’ve said all of this to say that we should count it joy that God chose us to carry out his works on this earth, and our work must have a purpose. Many of us get so busy working to bear fruit, but is our fruit spoiling as soon as we bear it? Are we negating the fruit of our faith and works with sometimes shaky faith, ulterior motives, and hidden anger?
Let’s make a conscious decision to forego “pettiness”, and focus on the most important task at hand. With so many people hurting and in need, let’s get busy bearing fruit that will last, exhibiting faith that is unwavering, and works that are contributing to the Kingdom.
I leave you with this final thought from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Life’s most urgent and persistent question is what are you doing for others?” I strive for my answer to always be bearing good fruit because of my faith and my works.
