Question about Fruit and Works

townerka

Active Member
Hello,

I just stumbled upon this site a few days ago and can't stop reading! Awesome stuff.

I have a question that I'd like some help with. I've been struggling to define what the Bible means by Fruit and Works exactly? My understanding of Fruit is Christ-like traits? (Love, slow to anger, meekness, etc). Is there more to it?

What then would be works? Spreading the gospel? Helping others? What else?

Reason I'm asking is because I'm trying to become more pleasing to God and show him and others I'm not ashamed.
 

mbrown1219

Heaven's Stables
:welcome: Glad you have joined us!

I just love GotQuestions.org where I research things like you are asking!

Search GotQuestions.org There are a lot of articles on this subject at this link. Here is one of them:

Question: "What is the key to bearing fruit as a Christian?"

Answer: In the natural world, fruit is the result of a healthy plant producing what it was designed to produce (Genesis 1:11–12). In the Bible, the word fruit is often used to describe a person’s outward actions that result from the condition of the heart.

Good fruit is that which is produced by the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:22 gives us a starting place: the fruit of His Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The more we allow the Holy Spirit free rein in our lives, the more this fruit is evident (Galatians 5:16, 25). Jesus told His followers, “I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last” (John 15:16). Righteous fruit has eternal benefit.

Jesus told us clearly what we must do to bear good fruit. He said, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:4–5). A branch must stay firmly attached to the trunk to stay alive. As disciples of Christ, we must stay firmly connected to Him to remain spiritually productive. A branch draws strength, nourishment, protection, and energy from the vine. If it is broken off, it quickly dies and becomes unfruitful. When we neglect our spiritual life, ignore the Word of God, skimp on prayer, and withhold areas of our lives from the scrutiny of the Holy Spirit, we are like a branch broken off the vine. Our lives become fruitless. We need daily surrender, daily communication, and daily—sometimes hourly—repentance and connection with the Holy Spirit in order to “walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). Staying intimately connected to the True Vine is the only way to “bear fruit in old age” (Psalm 92:14), to “run and not grow weary” (Isaiah 40:31), and to not “grow weary in well-doing” (Galatians 6:9).

One counterfeit to bearing good fruit is pretense. We can become experts at the routines, the lingo, and “acting Christian,” while experiencing no real power and bearing no eternal fruit. Our hearts remain self-centered, angry, and joyless even while we go through the motions of serving God. We can easily slip into the role of the Pharisees in judging ourselves by how we think we appear to others and neglecting that secret place of the heart where all good fruit germinates. When we love, desire, pursue, and fear the same things that the rest of the world does, we are not abiding in Christ, even though our lives may be filled with church-related activity. And, often, we don’t realize that we are living fruitless lives (1 John 2:15–17).

Our works will be tested by fire. Using a different metaphor than fruit, 1 Corinthians 3:12–14 says, “If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.”

God is the judge of even our thoughts and motivations. All will be brought to the light when we stand before Him (Hebrews 4:12–13). A poor widow in a one-room hut can bear as much fruit as a televangelist leading giant crusades if she is surrendered to God in everything and using all He has given her for His glory. As fruit is unique to each tree, our fruit is unique to us. God knows what He has entrusted to each of us and what He expects us to do with it (Luke 12:48). Our responsibility before God is to be “faithful with little” so that He can trust us with much (Matthew 25:21).

Recommended Resources: Bearing Fruit in God's Family by The Navigators and Logos Bible Software.

Read more: What is the key to bearing fruit as a Christian?

I also sometimes just look up a verse on BibleHub and read the whole page side to side, top to bottom for an in-depth study of a topic.

http://biblehub.com/john/6-29.htm

So glad you are here.

Others will give you good answers that will be quite helpful very shortly, I am confident.
 

townerka

Active Member
Thanks I'll look that up. Appreciate the help that really helps clear things up. I can't believe all those years in Church and Sunday School and I didn't have a good understanding of what "Fruit" meant.

So good works will be tested with Fire? You gave examples of Fruit that the Bible describes but does the Bible describe what it means by "work?" I'm really trying to change the way I live and I want to bear good fruit and show my faithfulness through works.
 

Micki

MARANATHA!!
Great question! I'm sure you will receive many wise replies. Let me start with the meaning of the Greek words for fruit and works:

For fruit:
NOUN-Nominative, Singular, Masculine
- grc -
Strongs nt:2590

καρπός {kar-pos'}

καρπός probably from the base of ἁρπάζω; fruit (as plucked), literally or figuratively: fruit.


For works:
NOUN-Accusative, Plural, Neuter
- grc -
Strongs nt:2041

ἔργον {er'-gon}

ἔργον from a primary (but obsolete) ergo (to work); toil (as an effort or occupation); by implication, an act: deed, doing, labour, work.

I see fruit as a kind of adornment we are given. Just as apple trees look best when full of apples, we look best when we are full of The Holy Spirit and we put Him on display through our thoughts, actions and words, and our joy and peace. Willingness to forgive an enemy or someone who has wronged us is a fruit. Our fruits are closely linked to our works, but seem to go beyond them to me.

Our works can be something as small as letting some other car pull out in front of us or as large as running into a burning building to save someone. They are done not for our own glory but for the glory of Yahweh! They are usually physical manifestations of our faith and of course they include prayer, praise, worship and charity or love.

I'm looking forward to seeing what my brothers and sisters have to say!
 
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