Yes, Grace7's,
And it's that fruit-inspecting that drives new believers and seekers away.
'The legalistic crowd that tells others, 'You must do this, you must do that, you're not behaving, you better get baptised, you said this meanly, you don't have love, you're not obedient enough' etc, etc, it's maddening.
They put a yoke of burden around the necks of others, denying them joy and freedom in Christ unless they pass a check-list of their own rules of invention.
People are getting beat up by the world, the flesh, and the devil, and come looking for some answers to it all, only to get beat up some more by a bunch of legalists and fruit-inspectors that claim to represent the Saviour.
They might as well join scientology or become a muslum, or any number of other false religious groups that demand submission and obedience to their man-made structures.
Jesus came to say, You are loved with an everlasting love, and underneath are the outstretched arms, and here's proof...and He stretched His arms upon the cross, and there died for our sins.
When He rose from the grave, we were given the assurance that the penalty for our sins was paid in full, that the wrath of God due us was satisfied by Jesus' sacrifice on our behalf, and that by believing, simply by believing in Him, our sins have been removed, we have salvation and eternal life as a gift of His grace and mercy and love, we have peace with God, and that's the good good news!!!
Once we have salvation, how we grow in Christ and what kind of fruit we bear to what degree is part of our personal relationship with God, and it's just that, personal.
We're not called to inspect the relationship another believer has with God, (unless they're coming to us for advice or help in a given situation, then we're to exercise brotherly love as God leads us),
that's when we need to make sure we don't have a log in our own eye, so we can help remove a speck from a brother's.
But this burden of works-righteousness and subsequent fruit-inspection by some uppity ones goes from bad to worse and is not what we're to be on about.
We're to be about sharing the good news and ministering to each other as the Lord leads and gives us gifts and abilities to do so, (there's a myriad of ways, the Word being foremost), and when a person believes in Jesus, letting the Lord do His work in them in His way, in His time.
God bless you G7 and many like you here (I've tried naming before, but was leaving out too many that deserve recognition, so I'll just say thanks to all for now) who've been doing that, despite the opposition that takes place, the good ppl that get torn down or even banned, while false-teaching continues. God bless you. May He keep you encouraged in His love and grace.
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