God made His people into His people. As such, we are God’s good fruit of light. Are you shining forth the light of your Father?
We Are God's Good fruit, Meant to Produce Good Fruit
James 1:18
Pastor Kerry Kinchen, Bridgeway Bible Church
Turn to James 1:18. As you are turning to James 1:18, I want to share with you that way back before God called me to full time ministry as a Pastor whose work is to preach and teach, in guiding the flock according to His word, (1 Timothy 5:17, Acts 20:28, 1 Peter 5:2, 1 Timothy 3 etc. etc.) that shortly after I graduated from High School, I wanted to become a Biblical Archaeologist. In all of that pursuit, I had one big goal in mind. I wanted to find any fossilized remnants of Noah's Ark that might still be on Mt. Ararat. I went to UTSA to get my basics out of the way, and while on my first day in Geology class, the professor told the auditorium of students that he did not believe the Genesis account of history. I sat there in anger as he warned us students that if anyone submitted any papers on creationism, or on Noah's Ark, or a worldwide flood, or any of that kind of thing, then he would immediately fail that student. I was shocked. I thought, How could anyone be allowed to command such a narrow view, with no opposition? But what was more shocking was that this guy was my teacher. This fact meant that I was paying his salary to teach me his foolishness and sin. Nevertheless, when we stuck to the basics of geology, and I could weed through all the arbitrary dating, and all the bogus philosophical language of humanistic evolutionary spontaneous generation, I learned something about rivers, of all things--yes rivers. Essentially there are various kinds of rivers that have been labeled according to observation. There are rivers that geologists and geographers typically call, Young Rivers. A Young River is generally a fast flowing river that moves down a steep gradient. Normally, Young Rivers typically have one source. This kind of river is swift. It flows rapidly. These kinds of rivers are generally exciting--at least in a way that one could find a river to be exciting. Keeping this in mind, I want us to be thinking about the fact that there are sermons that are preached this way. They have one rushing theme and that is it. Evangelism sermons are oftentimes like that. They are usually fast--typically exciting. They are direct to the point, and they generally wet you with a rushing stream of pure exhortation that hammers out one big point; which is that you are a sinner in need of the Savior; repent and have faith in Christ. Then there is something that geology identifies as a Mature River. The flow of Mature Rivers go down a gradient that is not very steep. These kinds of rivers flow relatively slowly. They are fed by other tributaries as they move along, and they typically get bigger as they go. These rivers are generally wider than young rivers. This also describes another kind of sermon. It moves along at a sauntering pace. It brings in various connecting points that feed it. It is wide, and it is steady. Some people do not think this kind of sermon is as exciting as a young river sermon. But it is a mature sermon. It's meant to bring maturity; and so, in that respect, it can be exciting, but it depends on the mindset of the person receiving it. It depends on what they are expecting from God in their prejudices concerning how God ministers His word through His servants. Then there are what are called Old Rivers. An old river flows slow and low, like the perfect barbecue cooking method. These rivers typically have snake like loops called meanders. They take their time and slowly meander along to their destination. There are great sermons that are like this. They meander. They are slow and low, and they take their time to get to their destination. But they are steady, and though they meander, they flow, and their flow reaches its destination because they are sound, they are stable and they are what God says is edifying, relevant, and needed. They are extremely detail oriented. They bring in a lot of facts, points, and explanations. It is an Old River sermon that not only brings solid Christian maturity, and wisdom, but it pushes even those who are mature onto greater heights of spiritual growth and edification. Then there is something that is considered to be a rather unstable kind of river. It is called an Ephemeral River. This river is like the ancient mythological Phoenix. Basically it is a river that is there one year, but it may disappear the next. A sermon that is like this is trendy. According to misdirected thinking processes that are driven by culture, it is usually wrongly touted as being more relevant than the other types of sermons. It's unstable source is culture based. It's culture driven. It's flow is pushed by philosophies of meeting humanistic felt needs. Typically, it only applies to a certain audience, like the culture of cool, or the silliness of postmodernism, but just as typically, it has no lasting substance. Ephemeral sermons will get you wet, but they will leave you dry. Why? Because they are not solely based upon what God defines as relevant. They are not solely based upon what God says are the needs that we have that we can not always identify on our own--needs that are met in walking in His precepts, His decrees, His rules, and His teachings on how to live and act in wisdom. So, these kinds of sermons dissipate--only to be resurrected by immature trend chasers who want to prop up trendy beliefs that are based upon opinions rather than God's enduring truth. Finally, I'll mention another phenomenon that is characteristic of some rivers. It is called braiding. This leads to the identity of something called the Braided River. Braided Rivers have a flow that looks somewhat like a distorted fish net. A braided river is really lots of little river fingers that go in and out of each other. They weave together, as they connect to each other, then flow away, and then some come back into others; and still others go off without touching again. All the while they are going in the same direction with the same purpose and destination in view. What is fascinating about this kind of river is that at times it seems like the braids are separate rivers that have no relationship to the main flow of the whole river system. There are also sermons like this river. They are hard to follow at times, but there is a direction, there is a purpose, and there is a destination in view. The destination is a full deep body of water that is rich with the abundant substance of what all the braids have brought together in the end. The reason why I am sharing about these various kinds of rivers is because there are various ways of teaching, preaching, and writing that reflect these same kinds of descriptions. The epistle of James, for example, is a sermon styled manuscript. Its central theme is,
Belief Backed By Believer's Behavior
or to put it another way,
We Are God's Good fruit, Meant to Produce Good Fruit
In James, we can identify some elements of some of the kinds of rivers I have mentioned. As we proceed this morning, we will see that some of the various river analogies will be helpful for understanding the points that James makes. Please keep these things in mind, because I will touch on them some more in a moment. But, before we go further, let us read our James passage together--1:16-18,
"16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17 Every good thing [gift] given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. 18 In the exercise of His will [determination--sovereign plan] He brought us forth [gave us birth] by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among [ESV--of] His creatures."
I'm going to be preaching a somewhat Mature River kind of sermon that employs some meandering, and maybe even a bit of braiding. I ask you to humbly, openly, and analytically, prepare your hearts for the sacred preaching of God's word this morning as we dive verse to verse into James in this sermon titled;
"We Are God's Good fruit, Meant to Produce Good Fruit"
In light of what I have suggested so far, (in terms of the various types of sermons) there are a lot of commentators who see James as writing in a jumble of unrelated exhortations where he is urging action upon action for the early Israelite Christians in a seemingly erratic shift from one thought to the next. It is supposed to be a kind of New Covenant book of various proverbs for living that have been jotted down. Unfortunately, critics don't see that James quite resembles the typical kinds of sermons I have already mentioned. So to many academics, it looks more like a flash flood that has burst forth and washed together dozens of rivers into an overwhelming deluge. Those same people say that between the torrent of exhortations of the flood, there are currents of theological explanation that are brief and choppy, as if James doesn't want to spend too much time on each point. Floods are this way. They just wash everything together and mix it up as they push you along in forceful energy. I agree that James is writing in a preaching style of a series of exhortations. I also agree that his theological explanations for what he says are brief. I also agree to a point that James quickly moves from one subject to another in a very rapid pace. I agree that most of it may seem, in some cursory manner, to be somehow disconnected to the points beforehand, and to those that follow; or washed together like a flood. But I only agree with these assessments to a point. You see, we must be careful when we work through an epistle in the New Testament. We've got to be cautious not to think that James, for example, simply sat down and started writing out little blocks of proverbial commands in a mixed up staccato style; you know, as if there isn't some sort of contained, purposeful, and intentional flow of thought going on that connects the various sub-points to one another to lengthen and magnify some bigger points of the whole flow. People don't typically write letters in the flood kind of way that some have suggested. Further, sermons are not generally preached that way. The passage we have come to this morning demonstrates what I have been talking about. Some people think that our passage is just more volume of water added to a flood, but in reality it is not that at all. It is a sub-point in a lengthy connection of points. So far, from the beginning, there is a logical flow of thought. I would say that it is more like a Braided River kind of flow. It even involves some meandering, but nevertheless, James is contained; it is purposeful, and it definitely has an orchestrated direction. The intentional flow of thought moves along and connects the various subpoenas to one another to lengthen and magnify some bigger points of the whole flow. This is important, because when we recognize this, then the continuous flow is easy to see. We see, for example, that James is moving on in a precise pattern, and he's exhorting us to recognize that we are God's good fruit, meant to produce good fruit.
Looking at the beginning, James starts out explaining that trials for good are trials that we should count as all joy. Those kind of trials test our faith to produce endurance, which is good fruit. It takes wisdom to understand this, and if we lack this wisdom, we need to ask God for it. In the flow, we see that even if the Israelite Christians that the epistle was originally intended to go, are poor, then they need to produce good fruit by counting their poorness as joy, and glory in their humble circumstances. Even if you are rich, your good fruit is to count your fading riches as a joy, and glory in your humiliation. Why?; because the same future awaits both the poor Christians, and the rich Christian--We all die, and then we all receive the crown of glorified eternal life. Then James flows on to other kinds of trials. They are temptations toward sin. There is a distinction between the various kinds of testing. There is testing for good, which is hard, and it hurts, but it is good and the result is the good fruit of endurance and joy. There is also testing toward evil. It is called temptation. Being tempted toward evil, by evil, is bad, and the result is bad fruit. James has just made this point in his contextual flow coming directly into our passage under study this morning. He says that God does not tempt anyone with evil toward doing evil. The great irony is that temptation to evil by evil comes from down here. It does not come from above. It is the insidious life cycle of sin. We are the ones who are wholly accountable for it. What happens is that you are lured away by your own self generated lusts. Then the lusts that you have, which are like harlots in your own heart, conceive in an immoral union. The result is the birth of sin. It is birthed as evil fruit. It matures. Ultimately the life cycle of sin has the ending of death. In other words, you reap what you sow. This life cycle of sin, is like a cursed gift that we give to ourselves from our own wicked desires. You can't blame it on God. You can't blame it on your circumstances--on your spouse, on your parents. You must take the blame. You must own your sin as your evil gift to yourself. And so James goes on by saying,
"16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17 Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow." James 1:16-17
So, what do we see? We see that God, on the other hand, gives us every perfect and good gift. He's the Father of lights. There is no variation at all in the Great Light who is the Father of all lights. In other words, He is pure immovable light, where there is no moving shadow. God is not like the sun, which is a ball of fire that the earth revolves around where the shadow shifts until ultimately we see the dusk, and then the glimmer of fading twilight, and then the sun is gone; the sky darkens, and there is the blackness of night. God is not like that. God is not like the oil lamps of the days of James, where when the wind came, or as the wick reached its end, and the oil dissipated, there would be a flickering of the flame--the shadow would shift, and the light would go out, leaving nothing behind but a drape of a shadow that leaves the room black with darkness. God is the ever shining Father. He is perpetually white hot with intense glory. He is pure Light, and He is the Father of lights. This is the flow of thought that James is preaching. In his flow, I want to bring out something else that I think is so important to understanding how James describes our God. It has to do with interpreting what James means in his river of thought. What I mean is that James calls God
"... the Father of lights ..." James 1:17
You know, it seems possible that James means to say that God is the Creator of the sun, the moon, the stars, and all of those kinds of shining things. Of course, God is the creator of all of those kinds of shining things. God spoke it all into existence. God even said,
"Let there be light," Genesis 1:3
and there was light. But let us examine something here because I want us all to think through this very carefully. It has to do with seeing the epistle of James as a river rather than a muddy flood. It has to do with God's good fruit, which is His first fruits in Christ. Let's ask ourselves;
Who is it that James has had his concern toward?
James is concerned with the saints--the Christians--the brothers and sisters of the family of God. He starts out talking to the brothers. He uses family language. He says,
- "2 Consider it all joy, my brothers, ..." 1:2
In 1:9, he says,
"... the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position" 1:9
And then coming into our immediate passage,
"16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers."
Then immediately following,
"19 This you know, my beloved brothers:"
2:1 has the family language again,
"1 My brothers, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.
And verse 5,
"5 Listen, my beloved brothers:"
Then 2:14 and 15,
"14 What use is it, my brothers, ... 15 If a brother or sister ..."
It is all the way through.
In 3:1,
"1 Let not many of you become teachers, my brothers,"
In 3:10, and 12,
"My brothers, these things ought not to be this way. ... 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, produce olives,"
Notice the fruit language--We brothers and sisters are God's good fruit meant to produce good fruit. Then in 4:11,
"... brothers He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, ..."
In 5:7, 5:9, 5:10, and 12,
"7 Therefore be patient, brothers, ... Do not complain, brothers ... As an example brothers ... But above all my brothers."
Then finally we read, in 5:19,
"19 My brothers, if any among you strays ..."
So, we see that James is focused upon the siblings of the family of God. Our family occurs in Christ, where we find our spiritual identity, and position in the Son of God, who is the first born Heir. But, what is it about this particular point that is so special, and so pertinent? Well, every family has a father. James gives the identity of the Father of this family in the flow of this same river. In a few more verses, in verse 27, we read,
"27 Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father ..."
There it is. James says it again in 3:9,
"9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, ..."
James has the family of God in mind, where He also has God as our Father in mind. We are His fruit. He produced us. So here is what we must recognize; God is our Father and we are His children--simple isn't it? This is one of the great doctrines of Christianity. Okay, we know this makes sense, but what about being the Father of the lights? Is this language that describes this same relationship?; or is James saying that God is the Father of the sun, moon, planets, and stars; even though James mentions none of those things. Does this language actually describe us?--his true living children in Christ? I believe the answer is yes it describes us. We find it all through the Bible. As a first principle, God our Father, is Himself--Light,
"This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all." 1 John 1:5
That is the first principle. God, the Father of lights, is in fact, called Light. This leads us to the second principle; namely Christ the Son, who is God manifest in the flesh, is also Light,
"4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. 6 There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light. 9 There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man." John 1:4-9
This is so important because God the Father of lights, Who is Light, is the one who regenerates us, and the Father does it through His Son who is also the Light. This is why Paul says,
"... giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the set apart ones in Light." Colossians 1:12
Our qualification comes from the Father of lights. He qualifies us in Christ the Light, who is our hope of glory. And so this leads us to the third principle. We are, in fact, children of Light as light ourselves.
I laid all this scriptural groundwork of the light relationship to the family of God, to get to this point right here. Essentially you and I are light as God's children. Stay with me, because Paul explains both. Paul explained that we are children of God who is the Light in Ephesians, and he also explains that we are light in the same passage, saying,
"8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light ...
[There it is. It is a clearly straightforward declaration of the truth we are examining--children of Light,]
9 (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth)," Ephesians 5:8-9
Notice the fruit of the Light statement. This is an amazing parallel to our James passage. Being in Christ the Light, we are also Light, and we are children of the Father who is light. In other words,
We Are God's Good fruit, Meant to Produce Good Fruit
Paul also explains our light contrast from the dark lost, saying,
"Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?" 2 Corinthians 6:14
Believers are light, as children of Light. Unbelievers are darkness--lost in their sins and destined to perish in hell unless they receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. This is what we are talking about. This is what James is talking about. In Philippians, we see that we are,
"children of God ... in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world." Philippians 2:15
So though it is poetic and rather interesting to think that God is the father of the planets, the moon, the stars, and the sun, when we think of God being the Father of lights we should quickly recognize that the lights are us who comprise the church--the children of God. This follows James contextual flow of thought, which is a river that leads us where?--to verse 18. Everyone look at verse 18. Verse 18 is our primary passage under consideration this morning, because it is here that James continues to explain that God who is our Father, is the one who gave us birth, saying,
"18 In the exercise of His will [ His determination, His sovereign plan] He brought us forth [Birthed us]..."
The Greek wording here apokooeho (apekuhsen hmav) that the NAS words as brought us forth, is a breeding term of reproduction that is accurately rendered, "He gave us birth" as the New English Translation words it. So James says,
"18 In the exercise of His determination He gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures." James 1:18
Okay, now we see very clearly that this all makes sense as one big flow of thought that closely ties together all the intentionally braided together subpoenas of this life giving river system. God is the Father of lights. You and I and all who are saved are light in the Lord. God has done this by His sovereign determination in His effectual calling. This is a good and perfect gift that comes from the Father above, and so the initial Israelite Christians are to walk as children of light as His first fruits that He conceived and gave birth. You and I are also to walk as children of light. Paul says,
"... be imitators of God, as beloved children;" Ephesians 5:1
What this means is that we are not to produce life cycles of sin in our lives as sin fruit, but rather, we are to produce fruits of light as light in the world. Life in Christ is so much different than life in the world. But it all starts at birth. In the world, we are born into sin and darkness, where, if we are not saved, then we have the life cycle of sin, death, and eternal damnation. We are born after the image of darkened Adam, in sin. We are all conceived and born as children of darkness and we walk according to spiritual darkness, in sin.
I was reading a news article last month, where even scientists of the world are starting to recognize the effects of Adam's sin, even though they don't call it that. The headline read,
"Babies Not as Innocent as They Pretend"
The article goes on to explain that behavioral scientists have discovered through research that infants can be recognized as lying at six months old. Until this research, the futility of the Gentile mind had postulated that children were only capable of lying at about age 4. But we know that everyone is conceived and born in sin, and so therefor, we already knew that no one is as innocent as they seem, or pretend. Interestingly, research from the University of Portsmouth identified seven categories of deception used between six months and three years of age. For us, we know that this is not surprising--Why?--because we have a Biblical world-view. We are God's good fruit, meant to produce good fruit. We know that in Adam, babies are the fruit of fallen man, and so in sin, they produce the fruit of fallen man. Okay, I want us to be thinking about this as we consider the statement once again,
"18 In the exercise of His determination He gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures."
I want to draw our attention particularly to the fact that it was in the exercise of God's determination that He gave us birth by the word of truth. This is a clear proclamation of the sovereignty of God in salvation, where our redeemed life of salvation begins, not at conception in sin according to Adam, but in the conception of God in spiritual rebirth in Christ--where we are transformed as a miracle from spiritual death into spiritual life. When we think of good and perfect gifts, this one (the salvation gift) is the greatest gift of all. Not only is it the greatest gift of all, but every single aspect of it is all a gift. It is all completely according to God's unmerited favor. Nobody can boast in doing something to bring this gift on. Nobody can add anything to the gift. Clever salesmanship doesn't coax people into it. God does it in the effectual call through a supernatural work, by His sovereign hand. Peter explains the process this way,
"1 ... To those ... who are elect 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the setting apart work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: ..." 1 Peter 1:1-2
Notice the details of what Peter is telling us. Notice that we were elect in God's omniscience by a particular work that the Holy Spirit does. What the Holy Spirit does is set certain people apart. These people are the elect. This setting apart is all part of the good and perfect gift. Now, I want us to notice something else. It is something that we can't overlook when we read this verse. What we need to notice is that we are elect by the setting apart work of the Spirit specifically to do something. In other words, God elects certain people, and the Spirit sets them apart, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood. Notice that. The Spirit pre-sets us apart beforehand to do what all is involved in this gift of setting us apart. The rest of the gift that we who are saved are set apart to necessarily do is obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His precious blood. It is not so-called seeker sensitivity. It is not so called cultural relevance. It is not so-called emergent, emerging, or any kind of other cheesy sales tactic of the culture of cool. Further, this is not a good and perfect gift that we give to ourselves. We do not elect Jesus Christ. We do not elect to be sprinkled with His blood. No, that reverses the point that Peter clearly makes, and serves no purpose but to make a fictional Ephemeral River type sermon. What we find is that Peter goes on with his point that magnifies the point James is making by saying,
"3 ... God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ..." 1 Peter 1:3
Remember, James says that the Father of lights gave us birth by the word of truth. Peter says here that the Father has caused (as the great mover and shaker) us to be born again through the resurrection of Christ. Paul the apostle says it this way,
"29... whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers;" Romans 8:29
The point is that it is because we are graciously gifted by God as the cause, that we can be born again as Christ's brothers--as first fruits--as lights from our Father in heaven. Folks, Christ is our life. Christ is also the light who is the personification of the New Covenant according to Isaiah 42:6, and Isaiah 49:8. Christ is the gospel. He is the word who became flesh. He is the resurrection and the life. Now, listen because Peter goes on to say,
"23 for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God." 1 Peter 1:23
This great truth is so vitally important. It's also in our James text. The reason is because God has blessed us with the gift of life through the good news preached, where the Holy Spirit causes us whom he saves to respond positively to the gospel. All of this is God's doing. It's pure grace. According to the exercise of His determination He gave us birth by the word of truth. With this rebirth that is accomplished by our Father at the forefront of our thoughts, I want us to focus on what James mentions at the end of his point back in James 1:18. There is a "so that" mentioned there. Looking at our passage we see,
"18 In the exercise of His determination He gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures." James 1:18
In other words, God has made sure from eternity passed that He will get something. God never loses out. His plans never get thwarted. He gets it from His people He makes in the New Covenant. In other words, God makes sure, in sovereign election, and the miracle of regeneration, that He gets us--you, me--He gets His lights--God makes sure that He always gets His children that He has planned on conceiving and birthing. He gets all of us whom He saves, but He gets us as special fruit that He alone has produced in every aspect. Yes, it really is all a gift in every sense of the word. Back in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, we see that God demanded the first fruits of the produce of Israel for Himself as a dedication to Him. In fact the Holiday of the Feast of Weeks, was commanded to be celebrated with the first fruits, Exodus 34:22. In the New Covenant, God wanted the first fruits of the gospel of that age, and He got it. This is what James is preaching. It's what Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 16:15 when he describes the first harvest of people into the church that God produced in the region of Achaia. Paul says,
"... (you know the household of Stephanas, that they were the first fruits of Achaia, ...)" 1 Corinthians 16:15
Paul says the same things about the Christians of Thessalonica,
"13 But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God elected you as the firstfruits [Greek, aparchn] to be saved, through setting apart by the Spirit and belief in the truth." 2 Thessalonians 2:13 ESV
Paul thanks God for electing and setting apart to be saved. He does not thank the Thessalonican Christians for being smart enough to elect God and set themselves apart in humbleness to be saved. The reason why this terminology is so important in our James context, is because James has been writing an early epistle to the Israelite Christians before the ingathering of the Gentiles and the subsequent explosion of a harvest that follows. The Israelites, starting with Mary and Joseph, John the baptist, and then the Lord's disciples, and then the great harvest at Pentecost in the New Covenant, were the first fruits of God's work in that age that He gave to Himself. The Christians of the 12 dispersed tribes were first fruits among Gods living creations, which James calls His creatures, (Greek, ton autou ktismaton). God's creatures are all the children of light through every generation. God's creatures that the early Christians were the first fruits of, are people like you and me and the whole family of God. God made all of us completely as His created fruit, just as He individually makes every Christian;
"if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." 2 Corinthians 5:17
We are God's good fruit, meant to produce good fruit. This is what James means. Brothers and sisters, we are God's lights that He has shining the glory of His son in this world. Your salvation is a beautiful gift where you are created in Christ for good works which God prepared beforehand that you should walk in them. Being God's creatures as living light among the darkness of the world, you and I really are different. So what this means is that you are to be a living testimony of God's miraculous work in the world. We need to see this at each moment. We must question everything we do and plan in comparison with God's word. So, not only are you and I supposed to be living testimonies of God's miraculous work in the world because we are different, but we are to be living testimonies of God's miraculous work in the world by actually acting differently than the world.
When you are at the office, and you are working, does everyone notice that you are different? In other words, when you are among the worldly, you know that you are among the fruits of darkness--right? So, when you are there, does the atmosphere remain dark? Think about it. Or, has the Light of God been radiated into the midst of the sin stained blackened world culture with your presence. Are you like the line from the Christian song;
"Like a sequin, he sparkles with desire for the heavens."
Or do you dress, talk, and act like sin. In other words, two things will happen when you start to manifest the steadfast white hot light of your Father that has no shifting shadow. What will happen is that you will either repel those who are in the darkness, or you will attract those who are in the darkness. I'm not talking about sales tactics, or so called strategies for being relevant. If you are not either repelling or attracting based purely upon spiritual substance, then you are not shining God's light. You are not reflecting the light of your Father. It is interesting that such insects as silverfish, and cockroaches, are repelled by the light. When light enters into their environment, they get agitated. It pushes them away. They run away from the light and even hide from it. But, it is also interesting that certain insects like moths are attracted to the light. When light enters their environment they want to go straight to it. They want to be around it. Here is the point--Your light will do what it is supposed to do. But again,
do you notice that you are the light of God that has entered the environment of darkness in the mission field He has placed you in?
It's where you shine the glory of Christ, where you are either repelling, or you are attracting. Remember, I'm not talking about the faded glory of the culture of cool, or the fading glory of repackaging what some people consider to be the harshness of propositional truth. I'm talking about Biblical mission. I'm talking about the fact that you are in the mission field. You say,
"What mission field?"
Your mission field is wherever you are, which is wherever you go, because wherever you are, you are supposed to be God's light there that He wants to shine. Those who God has already saved, or who He is drawing to Himself, will be attracted to you. You will minister the life of Christ to them. Isn't that comforting? Those who are content in their sin, will be repelled by you. Ask yourself whether you are living the big lie that extinguishes the light and eclipses it into darkness. Since we truly are God's good fruit, meant to produce good fruit, we need to ask whether we are putting a lamp shade over ourselves in an impotent attempt to minister to darkness in the camouflage of darkness. It is the dimmed-down ministry practice of the ephemeral river. Remember, ephemeral rivers exist for a season, and then all of a sudden they dry up--they dissipate, and they disappear. Is this how you are trying to shine your light?; where you foolishly seek to demonstrate how much like the world culture you can look and act, to be acceptable to the world, so you can show the world that Christians are really more like them than they probably think. This is not light that the Father of lights wants from His lights. This is not the fruit that the Fruit Maker wants from His first fruits. What God wants, is fruit that is blinding light, like the light of Christ that blinded Paul on the road to Damascus, where there was no mistake as to how different Christ, and the body of Christ truly is. We know our light is shining the fruit of the Father when we shine the very demonstration of how much like the intense Christian culture of the heavenly kingdom of Christ we can look like, and act like, to be unacceptable to the world, so we can show the dark world that we are really not as much like them as they probably think. This is light that repels the hardened heart. This is attracting fruit that ministers life to those whom God has prepared for glory. This is authentic, uncompromising, and truly fruitful ministry. Yes it is what God calls, relevant. When you are around your friends, and you are just being yourself, does everyone notice that you are different than the dark world culture? First of all, your intimate friends should be saved people. Everyone else should be mere acquaintances. Anything deeper is fellowship with the world, and James says it is enmity against God here in James 4:4. But the question is whether your brothers and sisters in Christ see the same light in their Father shining in you, and out from you when you are fellowshipping with them. They better be seeing you that way. If they are not, then why are you not consumed with the glory of God enough to change your behavior from being off color, and mediocre in your spirituality, to being a vibrant glowing hue of the radical difference of Christ wherever you happen to be. Are you pressing, and pushing on toward the high goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, Philippians 3:14? Do the members of the body see your love for them? Do they see someone who cares about spiritual conversations that are biblical--about spiritual actions that are biblical? Do they see you dressing modestly, and discreetly like Paul says in 1 Timothy 2:9, or do they see you looking just like the fruit of the world?
We Are God's Good fruit, Meant to Produce Good Fruit
What does the body of Christ see when it looks at you? Do your casual acquaintances see the same light of the Father shining in you, and out from you when you're associating with them? How many of you realize that everyone in your life, in some way, is a divine appointment? There are no accidental relationships. Fathers, our children are watching us. They will see the light of God, but only if we are shining it. The same way for mothers. Parents, it is our responsibility to raise our children according to the rules. Where are the rules? The rules are in the Bible. It is not legalism. It is discipleship. It's light. It's fruit. So, I urge you Bridgeway, act like God's fruit that you are. Be the light of Christ by purposefully shining Him out from yourself in this generation according to the teachings from the Bible. This is what it means to be God's good fruit, meant to produce good fruit.
