Imagine a
tree with a lot of branches and leaves so green and fresh, looking so calm and
radiant, providing shelter for the birds of the air and serving as a place of
comfort for man. Imagine the leaves so richly
used as herbs for medicine, but it doesn’t
bear fruit. As good as the tree looks, it doesn't give all the satisfaction
required of it because it produces no fruit. And therefore, it lacks identity since a tree is identified by its fruit.
And if as beautiful as the leaves are, they do not reproduce, they will wither
and perish.
Now we come to understand what the
great Apostle Paul had in mind when he wrote the 13th chapter of his 1st letter
to the Corinthians:
‘Though
I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am
become [as] sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have [the gift
of] prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I
have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed [the poor], and though I give my body
to be burned, and have not charity, it profits me nothing’. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
We have seen men with different
spiritual gifts; the church is full of revelations, teachers, and miracles, and
people have sought after them, and followed them. Many are carried away with various
manifestations of the gifts of the Spirit that they don’t give attention to the Fruit. The
same Spirit produces in those that are willing to be nourished by Him.
The fruit we bear is our identity.
The incorruptible seed we are born of is able to
produce fruit within us. The nature of our
Father is LOVE and that is the fruit He desires that we bear. Love is the fruit
that encompasses all other fruits that the Spirit within us produces. It is Love that produces the kind of life we desire in
others. It is time Christians stop
discriminating and show Love. Let the strong
show love to the weak and help them grow. Let’s tell the world who we are by
our fruit.
No comments:
Post a Comment