So, are you bearing fruit? Or do you need to walk out of more sermons to avoid greater judgment?

Second Sight - T.M. Moore
The Fruit of the Word
By T.M. Moore
5/4/2007

Getting Ready to Grow

For the land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. (Hebrews 6:7,8)

The contemporary evangelical Church is the most Christian-educated generation of believers in all of Church history.

That’s a pretty bold claim, I know, but I think there is sufficient evidence to back it up. Consider: Never before has a generation of believers had so many options and opportunities for studying and hearing the Word of God. Sermons, Sunday school classes, Bible study groups, TV and radio ministers, tapes and CDs, retreats, workshops, and seminars abound week after week, month after month, year after year. By all appearances, these manage to do fairly well; Christian people keep coming back for more. Some groups are enjoying unprecedented success in drawing new students into their learning environments.

And it’s not only these “informal” educational opportunities that are flourishing. Today there are more Christian day schools, home schools, colleges and universities, and seminaries than ever, training more students in more programs and offering more degrees that at any previous time. Indeed, across the board, in all our Christian educational endeavors, huge numbers of happy learners—millions and millions of them—continue to fill our classrooms and take copious notes on what they are hearing.

Couple the unquestionable success of all these educational opportunities with the continued growth in sales of Christian books and magazines, Bibles and study guides, and Christian curricula of all kinds, and you have a veritable monsoon of Christian teaching raining down on the evangelical community every day of the week, throughout the past couple of generations. The field of the evangelical Church is sown and re-sown with the Word of God, and watered and re-watered with the rain of God’s truth. There has never been anything like this unprecedented monsoon of teaching and learning in all the history of the Church.

Given that this is so, we have a right, based on our text, to expect that fruit in line of the purpose of Him who is cultivating this field should be everywhere abundantly in view. But what kind of fruit? Allow me to mention four.

THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT
First, of course, the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22,23). The wagon tracks of the typical church should be fairly squishing under the weight of wagon-loads of folks bearing such fruit in the normal course of their everyday lives (Psalm 65:11).

Everywhere we go we should encounter people whose natural demeanor is one of deference toward others, caring and concern, long-suffering and forbearance, sweetness, pleasantness, courtesy, understanding, and genuine love. We should find them in our homes and neighborhoods, at the office, in the halls of our schools, driving along the interstate, in line at the market, helping out at the clothing store, volunteering for a wide range of community activities, and reaching out as perfect strangers to get to know us and show that they care.

Where the Word of God has been firmly sown and watered by the Spirit of grace and truth, the fruit characteristic of that Spirit will be abundantly seen. People in all walks of life will not be able to escape the millions and millions of Christian-educated learners whose lives show the fruit of real learning in the everyday, ordinary ways that they live.

THE TOKENS OF LOVE
Since love is the first of the fruit of the Spirit, we should expect that this would also be prominently in view among the throngs of those who drink of the waters of God’s grace and truth week-in and week-out. We should all know bunches of people whose lives are characterized by patience, kindness, self-effacement, humility, thoughtfulness, a refusal to become irritated or resentful, boundless hope, thinking the best of others at all times, and rejoicing right out loud at every instance or experience of truth (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).

These are people who don’t give up on us, or talk about us behind our backs. They bear with us even when we let them down, and are quick to forgive us when we have offended. They go out of their way to show love to others, just because it’s the right thing to do. They never have a harsh word for or about anyone, but are always looking for ways to build others up with their words, and to encourage and uphold them at all times. Foremost on the well-watered branches of the evangelical vine should be clusters and clusters of people dripping with the sweet love of Jesus in all their relationships with others.

THE HOLINESS OF OBEDIENCE
Since, as John reminds us (1 John 5:1-3), God-nurtured love comes to expression as obedience to the God-given Law, we should also expect to see many, many people for whom obedience to God’s Law is just the way they live. Because they meditate on the Law day and night, looking for ways of unlocking its power for loving God and neighbor (Psalm 1:1,2; Matthew 22:34-40), and because they are filled with fruit-bearing Holy Spirit—whose principle task within us is to sanctify us by the Word of truth and bring forth the fruit of obedience to God’s law (Ephesians 5:18-21; John 17:17; Ezekiel 36:26,27)—they cannot help but be really zealous for God’s law and very careful to follow the example of Jesus in obeying every jot and tittle of it (Matthew 5:17-19).

Thus are they able to bring holiness increasingly to completion (2 Corinthians 7:1) and stand out like islands of holiness against the dark sea of our increasingly unholy age. These are people—we all know them—who refuse to allow pop culture to pipe the tune for their lives. They don’t waste their time on the works of darkness that promote relativism, materialism, sensuality, and the denial of any place for God.


Instead, enriched by God’s Law as it fortifies them from within, they seek out such cultural activities and diversions as will strengthen their souls, enlarge their vision of the kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Spirit, and help them to know the beauty and holiness of the Lord more perfectly. Their commitment to God’s law and devotion to the holy cultural heritage of their Christian forebears and contemporaries exercises a formative influence on their outlook, aspirations, and values; they show by the way they live the love of God and neighbor that is shaped by obedience to God’s Law.

POWER FOR WITNESS
Finally, we should expect the refreshing rains of God’s Word on the field of His Church to bring forth the fruit of Spirit-filled power for witness (Acts 1:8). Being and making disciples is, after all, our primary calling (Matthew 28:18-20). The Lord has not commanded the world to go to church; rather, He is equipping His Church through the work of Christian education so that we might go into the highways and byways of the world, embodying and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and gathering up the fruit of the harvest, which, the Lord assures us, is plentiful and ready to be reaped (Matthew 9:37,38; John 4:34-38). Why, we should expect practically every day to become involved in some conversation about the Gospel, or spiritual things, or the joys of knowing and following Jesus.

Well-watered by the Word of the Gospel, we should be veritable fountain-heads of spiritual truth, flowing from out of our innermost beings (John 7:37-39) as we fairly gush with ebullient joy and enthusiasm about the Gospel that means so much to us. As the people we spend time with each day get to know us, and experience our unique lives in the Spirit and our unbounded hope in Christ, they will be compelled to ask us about how this can be, what makes us so different (1 Peter 3:15). So we won’t even have to provoke conversations about the Gospel; they’ll just sort of crop up naturally, in the everyday situations of our lives.

SO, WHERE’S THE FRUIT?
The fruit of the Spirit, the tokens of love, obedience unto holiness, and fervent witness for Christ: These are the fruit the Lord Himself is expecting as He cultivates the field of the Church and rains down the waters of His truth upon it, week after week.

So where’s the fruit?

We all know lots of Christians. But I’m willing to bet we know very few Christians who match up to the four-fold profile outlined above as the reasonable fruit of the Word which God is looking for in our lives. Where are they? You don’t see ‘em. I don’t seem ‘em. Christian scholars, pollsters, and sociologists don’t see ‘em. The world complains over and over about our shallowness and hypocrisy. And every year the evangelical church moves more squarely into the margin of moral, social, and cultural issues and debates. What’s wrong? Why is the most Christian-educated generation in all of Church history so devoid of the fruit we should reasonably expect to find in them?

Perhaps we’ll tackle that question in another installment. For now, can we agree on just this much: Contemporary Christian education—from the sermons we hear to the classes we take and the degrees we earn—is very near to being a complete failure, when considered in the light of the fruit we should reasonably expect to find. I know that conclusion won’t set well with many, but I’ve been involved in Christian education for over thirty years, so I have to wear this indictment myself.

But the fact of our failure is not nearly so scary as the fact of God’s threat to His unfruitful field: But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned (v. 8).

But, oh, what comfort I take in that word, “near.” God is not through with us. He calls us always to reflect on what we’re doing, where we should be heading, how we should be working, and so forth. We’re not quite “worthless” or “cursed”—not as yet, anyway. But I think it’s fair to say we’re “near.” Let us acknowledge our nearness, deplore our failures, and begin the hard and careful work of trying to find out what’s gone wrong in the Christian-education enterprise, so that we can work smarter, work harder, and work together for a more fruitful community of the followers of Christ.

FOR REFLECTION
Evaluate yourself in each of the four areas of fruit outlined above. On a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being the highest rating), how do you come out in each area?

T. M. Moore is dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics, (Waxed Tablet). He and his wife and editor, Susie, make their home in Concord, Tenn.