As children of God, we are called to “be holy, for I AM holy”—in all our behavior, says the Lord (1 Peter 1:15). The church means: “called-out ones”. As we have learned, we are justified and sanctified to live in a godly, loving manner—as God’s children. We are called to be christlike—to exhibit the love of Christ toward one another and exhibit the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives.
Our Christian life is a relationship and a process toward maturity. We have been created to participate in allowing God to bear His fruit through us. We are to practice allowing Jesus Christ to use us to participate in good works for building up His body—to encourage our fellow Christians in their growth and to help non-believers to know Jesus. These good works can be many and varied according to God’s customized plan for us. Each of us has unique abilities, talents, resources, temperaments, spiritual gifts, desires, passions, etc. Our levels of spiritual maturity, knowledge, backgrounds, life circumstances, and available time are all different.
Only by trusting in God’s leading can we discover God’s plan, which weaves our complex daily life to develop christlike character and to do good. Good works done in God’s love allow us to participate in building the body of Christ. In the midst of life’s difficulties, God’s character is forged in us by practicing a life of trust. The good works that God may lead us to do could be unnoticed by man, but they are precious in God’s sight. A kind word, a note of encouragement, generous giving, a meal, caring for the needy and sick, physical labor, prayer, etc.—all directed and done in God’s love to build up fellow believers and to help win the lost to Christ—are examples of these good works.
Bible verses to think about:
A. Read Ephesians 2:10/ (The Greek word for “workmanship” can mean: “work of art”). God has a unique plan for your life’s bearing of His fruit. He has created good works for us in advance for us to do. Romans 8:14 implies that those led by the Holy Spirit are acting as mature children of God. We need to pray that God would lead us into those good works that He has created for us to do.
B. Earlier, we discovered that the fruit of the Holy Spirit is a reflection of God’s character that results in doing good. Ephesians 5:8-9 tells us that the fruit of the Lord is all goodness, righteousness and truth. John 15:7,8,16 implies that loving character and loving deeds are the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Colossians 1:9,10 addresses doing good by God’s power. Fruit can be praising God. (See Hebrews 13:15.) Wholesome words from our mouth. (see Proverbs 12:14), giving with proper motives (see 2 Corinthians 9:9-10), and saving souls (see John 4:34-38) are other biblical examples of spiritual fruit.
C. John 15:5 describes Jesus as the vine and us as the branches. Jesus tells us that, apart from Him, we can do nothing to produce the fruitful life that He desires. Only by abiding (which implies continuing to trust and rest in the Jesus as the vine) can we, as branches, bear fruit.
D. 1 Corinthians 13 is often called the “Love Chapter of the Bible”. (See 1 Corinthians 13:1-8.) This passage is describing agape love, which is God’s love. Without love, our good deeds profit nothing. God is showing us that our good works need to be guided and motivated by His power working through us. In John 6:28-29, Jesus declares that we need to believe in Him to lead and direct us to produce good works that are pleasing to God. God is interested in a godly life of doing good deeds, but these are to be done in a new way: by Jesus living through us.