A Picture of Growing in Christ, Part 9 - Gospel Bears Fruit
March 31, 2022 | by: Dale Thiele | 0 Comments
Posted in: Pastoral Encouragement
In this series, I have been painting a picture of what a healthy, growing Christian looks like. The central, core commitment of a growing Christian is the commitment to the ordinary means of grace. The ordinary means of Word and Sacrament offered in the weekly worship of the church are the fountainhead of God’s sustaining and empowering grace in our lives. This core commitment flows into and invigorates personal commitments to the Word, prayer, and body fellowship throughout the week. These health-sustaining habits then flow into the third level commitment, living as a blessing to others. Today, I want to conclude the series by talking about the fruit of such commitments.
Paul opens his letter to the Colossians by giving thanks to God for their faith in Christ and love for the saints. Then he explains that the gospel, “which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing – as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth” (Col. 1:6). In this greeting, Paul is celebrating the powerful work of the gospel. The Colossian church has enjoyed the benefits of the gospel since the day they heard it and understood God’s grace offered in it. The promise is the same for us. Paul says, “In the whole world it [the gospel] is bearing fruit and increasing.” When we commit to hearing and understanding God’s grace offered in the gospel, it will bear fruit and increase among us.
After this opening thanksgiving, Paul turns his attention to praying for the Colossians. In this prayer he speaks about the fruit which the gospel bears. He writes, “We have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (1:9-10). Trace the logic of this sentence with me. Paul asks that the church would be filled with the knowledge of God’s will. He asks that that knowledge would be handled in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Paul does not want the church to be puffed up in knowledge, but to utilize such knowledge in wisdom. The wisely held knowledge leads the church to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. To walk is to live. The church will never understand how to live in a way pleasing to the Lord without being filled with the knowledge of his will. While the church lives in a manner pleasing to God, they will bear fruit in every good work. How a Christian does a good work is just as important, if not more so, as doing the good work. Paul doesn’t stop at good works, though. He says that while the church is living in God-pleasing manner, they will increase in the knowledge of God. Paul comes full circle! He prays that the church would be filled up with knowledge so that the church will live in a pleasing manner so that the church would bear fruit and increase in knowledge. Knowledge of God and his gracious ways in the gospel transforms us and equips us and leads us to deeper knowledge.
We see this practically work out in the life of the early church. Acts 2:42 says that the church “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” Commitments to the ordinary means of grace and to body fellowship. And the gospel bore fruit among them. They walked in a manner worthy of the Lord in that they “received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day whose who were being saved” (Acts 2:46-47). We see the same evidence of gospel fruit throughout the story of the early church in Acts (see 4:32-37, 6:7, 9:31, 16:5, and 28:30-31). When the people of the church devote themselves to the gospel, the gospel bears fruit and increases among them. May we, the people of Oak Hills, be devoted to the Gospel. May we make the commitments of healthy, growing Christians.
