Passion, Purpose, and Fruit
John The Baptist is truly a pioneer of faith. To some he may have seemed a little radical. He lived alone in the desert, wore camel hair and a leather belt, and ate locusts and wild honey. But his clarity of purpose and passion that drove such “radical” behavior is exactly what made him so effective in his calling. Today’s scripture is one of those passionate teachings.
Scripture: “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.” – Luke 3:8
Observation/Application:
What does John mean when he told the crowds to produce fruit? It is similar to the scripture that “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” – (James 2:26). Basically he was telling the people to live out their faith. Belief in Jesus is the path to eternal life. But our actions, producing fruit, is the path toward blessing.
A similar teaching of Jesus in scripture can be found in both the Parable of the Ten Minas in Luke 19:11-27. This is one of the best summaries that I have found on that parable:
- “The nobleman in the parable is Jesus, who left this world but who will return as King someday. The servants the king charges with a task represent followers of Jesus. The Lord has given us a valuable commission, and we must be faithful to serve Him until He returns. Upon His return, Jesus will ascertain the faithfulness of His own people (see Romans 14:10–12). There is work to be done (John 9:4), and we must use what God has given us for His glory. There are promised rewards for those who are faithful in their charge.” – (Source: https://www.gotquestions.org/parable-ten-minas.html)
The Parable of the Talents found in in Matthew 25:14–30 is another very similar teaching. God will bless those who are good stewards of His resources. What are our resources? Maybe we think that we don’t have much to offer, because we live paycheck to paycheck, and can’t give much. But that could be farther from the truth. We all have much to offer. We can bless God with our time, our talents, our kindness, our mercy, our love, our respect, our understanding. The list of our available resources is tremendous. We can all walk in God’s love and grace, and have so much to offer this world. And when we do, God will bless us in ways that we can barely imagine.
Being filled with passion and clarity of purpose is a great place to start if we want to produce fruit in abundance, and live the blessed life that God has planned for us. How sweet it is.
Prayer:
Dear heavenly Father, thank you for your Word today. Help us to live lives full of passion and purpose. Let us produce fruit, honoring the time and talents and other resources that you have given us. Help us to be courageous to be obedient to your Will. We seek you first Lord, and honor you in all that we do. Bless us with all of your goodness, in Jesus mighty name. Amen.
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