Apples to Zucchini - What is a fruit?

  • Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.

    If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!

    To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.
PennEd

PennEd

Senior Member
#1
Apr 22, 2013
12,920
8,652
113
#1
Many of our discussions revolve around fruit. If fruit is partly defined as works, are fruit necessary for Salvation?

Fruit could mean the Fruits of the Holy Spirit as listed in Galatians, or it could mean doing works for the poor and needy, or it could mean spreading the Gospel and bringing the Truth of the Word. It could mean all 3 and more.

Since we talk so much about knowing who is Christian by their fruit,
I'd be interested to see what you think fruit is. Thanks
 
Oncefallen

Oncefallen

Idiot in Chief
Staff member
#2
Jan 15, 2011
6,030
3,254
113
#2
PennEd said:
Many of our discussions revolve around fruit. If fruit is partly defined as works, are fruit necessary for Salvation?

Fruit could mean the Fruits of the Holy Spirit as listed in Galatians, or it could mean doing works for the poor and needy, or it could mean spreading the Gospel and bringing the Truth of the Word. It could mean all 3 and more.

Since we talk so much about knowing who is Christian by their fruit,
I'd be interested to see what you think fruit is. Thanks
Click to expand...


Ephesians 2:8-9 English Standard Version (ESV)
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Works are not "necessary" for salvation however those works (fruit) are evidence of said salvation.
 
Lanolin

Lanolin

Well-known member
#3
Dec 15, 2018
23,460
7,176
113
#3
Fruit isnt the same as works because fruit of the holy spirit is about ones character...love, peace, joy, faith, kindness, goodness, gentleness, meekness, temperance.

Showing faith by ones works or deeds is what you actually do with the fruits I suppose.
If we think of our fruits as our offering to God its not actually the fruits that is the work its the result of His work. Fruits of our labour, or rather, we bear fruit because we have His seed, the word in us, and we cultivate the soil of our hearts to bring forth this fruit. Fruit only comes to fruition when the time is right, the climate is right and the soil is good.

I am proably not explaining it very well but one might need to understand a bit about fruit bearing trees to get a good picture of this. What God doesnt want is us to bear thistles and thorns. Thats not His seed, thats what the devil has sown.
 
PennEd

PennEd

Senior Member
#4
Apr 22, 2013
12,920
8,652
113
#4
Oncefallen said:
Ephesians 2:8-9 English Standard Version (ESV)
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Works are not "necessary" for salvation however those works (fruit) are evidence of said salvation.
Click to expand...
I absolutely agree with this. But I think some people have other thoughts on what exactly fruit means to them.
 
Nehemiah6

Nehemiah6

Senior Member
#5
Jul 18, 2017
24,344
12,870
113
#5
PennEd said:
Fruit could mean the Fruits of the Holy Spirit as listed in Galatians, or it could mean doing works for the poor and needy, or it could mean spreading the Gospel and bringing the Truth of the Word. It could mean all 3 and more.
Click to expand...
You've hit the nail of the head. There are a variety of fruits produced by Christ (the Vine) and the Holy Spirit. One could even include the spiritual gifts.
 
PennEd

PennEd

Senior Member
#6
Apr 22, 2013
12,920
8,652
113
#6
Nehemiah6 said:
You've hit the nail of the head. There are a variety of fruits produced by Christ (the Vine) and the Holy Spirit. One could even include the spiritual gifts.
Click to expand...
Very good!
You've identified more fruit.

So is it safe to say that ALL Christians will have some type of fruit that we have identified so far?
 
J

Jackson123

Senior Member
#7
Feb 6, 2014
11,769
1,370
113
#7
PennEd said:
Many of our discussions revolve around fruit. If fruit is partly defined as works, are fruit necessary for Salvation?

Fruit could mean the Fruits of the Holy Spirit as listed in Galatians, or it could mean doing works for the poor and needy, or it could mean spreading the Gospel and bringing the Truth of the Word. It could mean all 3 and more.

Since we talk so much about knowing who is Christian by their fruit,
I'd be interested to see what you think fruit is. Thanks
Click to expand...
I believe fruit of the Holy Spirit is love. Love manifest or show in a lot of thing.

Feed the poor can be one of the manifestation of love, but it may some thing else. Feed the poor can be for political reason, in my country when politician running for office theiy feed the poor.

Preaching the gospel can be love, but some people preaching for money. A lot of pastor become millionaires

Love is a motivation, it can manifest in a lot of thing.

Work can be manifestation of love, can be something else.
 
E

eternally-gratefull

Guest
#8
#8
Fruit could be just a chamged life, which people see, and this change draws people to see what happened to change, and this exposes those people to christ.
 
L

Locoponydirtman

Guest
#9
#9
When someone says you know the by their
 
L

Locoponydirtman

Guest
#10
#10
When someone says you know them by their fruit, I always think of the fruit of the Spirit. I don't care if you're preaching, and teaching, and feeding the homeless. What I care about is what are you producing? Do you exemplify the fruit of the Spirit, and do you produce the fruit of the spirit in others?
I will give you an example from my own experience. One time when my family and I were returning home after having left because of a hurricane. It had caused many people to lose their homes, and businesses, and had wrecked many lives. My daughter who was a teen driver at the time was following me and the rest of the family in her car back, and some guys and a truck pulling a trailer full of supplies for the hurricane victims came along beside her began cursing at her and flipping her off and cut in between my vehicle and her vehicle. She called me and told me what was happening so I told her pull back around them and get behind me again. She did as I instructed her. They rode her bumper and honked, and cursed, and flipped her off, and even followed us into a gas station. They even began to get out of their vehicle as though they were going to assault my daughter; until I saw me and my son's get out of my truck, and head toward them. At which time they got back in their vehicle and started driving slowly cursing out of the window.

I hope that this clarifies the difference between works and fruit.
 
7

7seasrekeyed

Guest
#11
#11
it's definitely your character. an apple tree produces apples, an orange tree, oranges, banana...well you get the idea

works are works...which it seems would be born out of your fruit...love and so on

gifts are evident sometimes even in a nasty person so that is not fruit

why have different names if they are all the same?

I would like to add I have seem some interesting fruit around here lately in certain newer members

fruit salad, nut butter, bad bananas and loud mouth snooks...although the last is probably not a fruit
 
O

obedienttogod

Guest
#12
#12
Like a good basketball coach will later have assistants that become greater basketball coaches. That is the fruit of first basketball coach. Believers shows this kind of fruit by those who have been led to God by them, who keep in touch during the first months trying to be a believer, who when you think back to the 1 person that led you to Christ, and so forth. A good church with a pastor that has developed associate pastors to becoming a pastor elsewhere. The proof is in the pudding kind of fruit!!
 
p_rehbein

p_rehbein

Senior Member
#13
Sep 4, 2013
30,179
6,529
113
#13
PennEd said:
Many of our discussions revolve around fruit. If fruit is partly defined as works, are fruit necessary for Salvation?

Fruit could mean the Fruits of the Holy Spirit as listed in Galatians, or it could mean doing works for the poor and needy, or it could mean spreading the Gospel and bringing the Truth of the Word. It could mean all 3 and more.

Since we talk so much about knowing who is Christian by their fruit,
I'd be interested to see what you think fruit is. Thanks
Click to expand...
You are really posing two questions............

The first is Works Salvation..........which Oncefallen addressed.......

The second is what do others consider "fruit" to be in relation to "works."

As Oncefallen has already addressed the first........I will add that good works are a "fruit" of salvation, or, a result of one being saved. They are, however, not the only fruit. This question is discussed in detail HERE:

galatians - Is the fruit referred to in John 15:5 the same as ...
 
Locutus

Locutus

Senior Member
#14
Feb 10, 2017
5,928
685
113
#14
Too many fruit inspectors - but it's really easy to spot the nuts.
 
Deade

Deade

Called of God
#15
Dec 17, 2017
16,724
10,530
113
77
Vinita, Oklahoma, USA
yeshuaofisrael.org
#15
7seasrekeyed said:
it's definitely your character. an apple tree produces apples, an orange tree, oranges, banana...well you get the idea

works are works...which it seems would be born out of your fruit...love and so on

gifts are evident sometimes even in a nasty person so that is not fruit

why have different names if they are all the same?

I would like to add I have seem some interesting fruit around here lately in certain newer members

fruit salad, nut butter, bad bananas and loud mouth snooks...although the last is probably not a fruit
Click to expand...
I agree, fruits are a result of our character change once we are in Christ. We lose the ego, and suppress the greed, envy, strife, hatred, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, variance, emulations, wrath, seditions, heresies, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like:

We can accomplish that only if we take on Christ's character: Php. 2:5 "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:" :):cool:(y)
 
7

7seasrekeyed

Guest
#16
#16
Deade said:
I agree, fruits are a result of our character change once we are in Christ. We lose the ego, and suppress the greed, envy, strife, hatred, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, variance, emulations, wrath, seditions, heresies, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like:

We can accomplish that only if we take on Christ's character: Php. 2:5 "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:" :):cool:(y)
Click to expand...

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. 24 Now those who [k]belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also [l]walk by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.

Galatians 5
 
J

Jackson123

Senior Member
#17
Feb 6, 2014
11,769
1,370
113
#17
Some time not easy to tell the different between fruit of Holy Spirit and fruit of greed.

When politician run for office because of greed, he helping the poor, to get a vote, not because he love the poor.
When preacher preach the gospel, some time not because he love people and want people save. Some time to make him rich.

In my country some people preaching to the Christian from other church ask them to move to his church.

So his church get more member, may not produce more people save, because new member is already Christian.

That is why salvation not by work, by faith, but real faith produce loving work
 
You must log in or register to reply here.