Bearing fruit
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2 Timothy 4:3
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
I am a past tense sinner, but now a present day saint. I do not live in ongoing sin, but I have yet to be perfected. But what I am, and what you are does not change what the Word of God says is true. This is a Bible discussion forum, not what you think of me forum. 
So if we have yet to be perfected, then doesn't that imply that we still live in sin? Haven't you seen the plethora of adultery, divorce and porn threads that abound in the Family forum? Those are christians who are supposedly "present day saints". And they're viewing porn and having affairs and cheating.
Here is what scriptures say about being a son. - which if believed will allow the life of Christ in and through us to bear much fruit.
The servant does not remain in the house but the son does! Some people take a scripture out of context with the very clear abundant scriptures of the work of Christ and use these mis-represented scriptures to continually try to dis-qualify God's beloved children from all that the Lord has bought and paid for with His blood.
The son does remain forever in the house.
John 8:35-36 (NASB)
[SUP]35 [/SUP] "The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever.
[SUP]36 [/SUP] "So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.
Once we are in Christ - we become sons/daughters of God.
Galatians 3:26 (NASB)
[SUP]26 [/SUP] For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 4:6-7 (NASB)
[SUP]6 [/SUP] Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"
[SUP]7 [/SUP] Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.
1 John 3:1-2 (KJV)
[SUP]1 [/SUP] Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
[SUP]2 [/SUP] Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
I encourage us to start to believe in the gospel of the grace of Christ. It is "good news".
If we see ourselves as children of God we will walk as children of our Father and our true nature in our new creation will transform our minds to reflect that nature outwardly in our behavior powered by the Spirit of God inside of us.
The servant does not remain in the house but the son does! Some people take a scripture out of context with the very clear abundant scriptures of the work of Christ and use these mis-represented scriptures to continually try to dis-qualify God's beloved children from all that the Lord has bought and paid for with His blood.
The son does remain forever in the house.
John 8:35-36 (NASB)
[SUP]35 [/SUP] "The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever.
[SUP]36 [/SUP] "So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.
Once we are in Christ - we become sons/daughters of God.
Galatians 3:26 (NASB)
[SUP]26 [/SUP] For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 4:6-7 (NASB)
[SUP]6 [/SUP] Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"
[SUP]7 [/SUP] Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.
1 John 3:1-2 (KJV)
[SUP]1 [/SUP] Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
[SUP]2 [/SUP] Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
I encourage us to start to believe in the gospel of the grace of Christ. It is "good news".
If we see ourselves as children of God we will walk as children of our Father and our true nature in our new creation will transform our minds to reflect that nature outwardly in our behavior powered by the Spirit of God inside of us.
the biblical definition of sin is missing the mark, falling short of a set standard, knowing to do good and not doing so. unless a person does this every hour of every day, then according to Biblical standards, they are a sinner. this does not mean they live a sinful lifestyle, but coming up short of those standards makes one a " sinner" again, not saying living a sinful lifestyle. there is a difference.
That's right....malice ( which is name-calling and insults ) as well as slander and lying are just as much sin as are the biggie sins like adultery, sealing, murder.
It's funny how on here we can see the "malice, slander, and mis-representing the truth". These things can be seen on the web but the other ones which people are mostly "accusing" others of doing - these cannot be seen.
To the self-righteous - malice and slander and bearing false witness is the " normal Christian " life to them and they see nothing wrong with this kind of behavior.
Again this is a Bible discussion forum, not a personal attack forum.
if you feel insulted because you are being told that by Biblical standards you, me no one is sinless, then I'm sorry, but that is true. I AM NOT saying you live a sinful life, don't read that into it. you probably do not.
Being a "fruit inspector" has it's inherit problems.
Another aspect that goes with "fruit inspectors" is just what is fruit? And what does this fruit look like. What if as an analogy a Christian is like an orange tree?
An orange tree is still an orange tree even though it doesn't produce the fruit we want to see in the timeframe we think it should. What happens if this orange tree dies before it has had a chance to be fed properly to grow up to be able to produce the fruit of a ripe orange?
To some works-based people - you would have to display 50 oranges in order to prove you are a real orange tree ( saved ) - to others you need 100 oranges in order to be a proved orange tree. ( saved ) So, this fruit inspection thing is not viable ..that's for God to look at people to determine if they are in Christ or not.
A person could have love and kindness as a fruit in their life but be addicted to some pills or alcohol which they are continuing to struggle with in their life.
The people that don't have a struggle with alcohol ( or basically anything that they themselves don't struggle with in their flesh that others do ) will condemn the ones that do have these struggles in the flesh and declare they don't have the fruit and thus are not saved. This is Pharisee-ism at it's finest.
Does the orange tree stop being an orange tree even though it dies without having fruit that we think "proves" it was an orange tree to begin with?
What if Christians were like that? What if we fed them messages about the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness in Christ so that they could grow? Then they would produce an abundance of fruit.
I say let's preach and teach the grace of Christ in their lives so that they have the proper nutrients to grow up in Him!
Another aspect that goes with "fruit inspectors" is just what is fruit? And what does this fruit look like. What if as an analogy a Christian is like an orange tree?
An orange tree is still an orange tree even though it doesn't produce the fruit we want to see in the timeframe we think it should. What happens if this orange tree dies before it has had a chance to be fed properly to grow up to be able to produce the fruit of a ripe orange?
To some works-based people - you would have to display 50 oranges in order to prove you are a real orange tree ( saved ) - to others you need 100 oranges in order to be a proved orange tree. ( saved ) So, this fruit inspection thing is not viable ..that's for God to look at people to determine if they are in Christ or not.
A person could have love and kindness as a fruit in their life but be addicted to some pills or alcohol which they are continuing to struggle with in their life.
The people that don't have a struggle with alcohol ( or basically anything that they themselves don't struggle with in their flesh that others do ) will condemn the ones that do have these struggles in the flesh and declare they don't have the fruit and thus are not saved. This is Pharisee-ism at it's finest.
Does the orange tree stop being an orange tree even though it dies without having fruit that we think "proves" it was an orange tree to begin with?
What if Christians were like that? What if we fed them messages about the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness in Christ so that they could grow? Then they would produce an abundance of fruit.
I say let's preach and teach the grace of Christ in their lives so that they have the proper nutrients to grow up in Him!
back to the o,p. such a big part of bearing fruit is loving other people, believers and non-believers alike. a person who loves God, but does not have proper love for people ( neighbors) will not produce good fruit. they will use the Word of God as a weapon against people that God sent his Son to die for.
But you said in another thread
Your religion is not a reality, just twisty talk with no active manifestation of a true conversion by the power of God. You say you are a son, but yet you also confess you have not been set free from sinning. But Jesus said those who commit sins=sinning, are a servant of sin, not a son who has been truly set free from sin. So you just contradict yourself and scripture over and over again with your double talk.
F
I'm not personally attacking others, just exposing false teachings by those who teach them using the words of God as the sword of the truth, which the sword of the Spirit.
You want to know who it is that has "itchy ears"? Its those who are desperately looking for some shred of self-respect for which they can congratulate themselves. Something, anything, they can do. Anything but free grace. Nothing humiliates and angers the self righteous more than being told there is nothing they can do. It’s why they rail against the grace of God….it takes them and their works out of the equation and makes it rightly all about Jesus.