Faith that Bears Fruit

  • 2015.06.26 10:57

God planted in us a seed of life which is salvation by Jesus Christ – the Gospel. That’s why we are just like a field in which the seed of life is sown. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. (1 Peter 1:23)

 

The word of God is the seed. When the word of God falls on our hearts, we must be the good soil that the seed springs up, brings forth flowers and bears fruit according to the word. God himself makes you bear fruit when you obey the word of God. In short, the result of obedience is the fruit. Just like the seed that is sown in spring sprouts, grows up and bears fruit, you must act as you are told when you hear the word of God.

 

You can’t bear any fruit if you aren’t obedient to the word even though you know the word well and have heard it numerous times. Faith without deeds is dead although you have faith. (James 2:26)  Everything in the world bears fruit in the due course of time by the effect of physical time. But the spiritual work that God performs is fulfilled by transcending time and space. The moment we believe in Jesus, our spirits are new and bear fruit abundantly. We have to prepare the fruit of faith by the life provided by the Lord.

 

As a farmer harvests good fruits after working hard, we can harvest good fruits when we do to the point of death the work of the Lord entrusted to us. If we have no fruit to present to the Lord, we have nothing to do with the Lord who waits for the fruit. No one can make an excuse for not having any fruit.

 

If you make an excuse, the Lord will ask you a question in return: “Didn’t I tell you to pray? Didn’t I say, “I will help you if you believe in me and rely on me?”” When the Lord comes, the faith of spring and summer is useless. Only the faith of autumn, that harvests plentifully, can be acknowledged by the Lord.

 

        

Seok-Jeon Yoon

Extracted from Yonsei Newspaper #437 (June 6, 2015)