It seems very clear to me that Jesus and the New Testament authors
thought there were two important things people needed to understand:
1.
Salvation and life come through faith in the atoning death, and
resurrection, of Jesus Christ.
2.
Because of their faith, believers should operate differently than
non-believers. James calls this difference “works.” Jesus and Paul often
referred to the results of faith in the life of a believer as “fruit.” All of
them believed our “fruit” or “works” should, among other things, attract people
to the gospel.
But what is this fruit, these works, they’re all talking about? What
does it look like, in our real lives here on the ground? I was reading in the
book of John recently, and these words of Jesus struck me as being a
particularly good picture of this process:
I am
the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me
that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that
it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have
spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit
by itself, it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you
remain in me. John 15:1-4
People can disagree about the definition of biblical “works” or “fruit.”
Jesus’ words in John 15 and elsewhere lead me to believe it’s something
different than we often suggest, but we experience it all the time. Try to hold those verses of John 15 in your
head while I tell you a story…
There was an elder named “Tom,” who pulled “Sue,” a friend of
mine, aside one day after a Sunday service. He wanted Sue to have a word with a
teenaged girl about what she’d been wearing to church. Sue wasn’t surprised the
issue had come up—the girl tended to arrive at Sunday services in clothing that
would raise eyebrows on the Hollywood strip, let alone in this small,
conservative, Evangelical congregation. Tom said the way the girl dressed was
offending other women in the church and bothering the men.
So far, we can chalk up Tom’s reaction to ordinary human nature.
People are commonly disturbed by appearances or actions of others outside their
cultural norms, especially those of different generations. Because the Bible
emphasizes modesty and humility, this can be a special source of contention
among Christians when it’s coupled with legalism, and has caused a world of
hurt in more than one church congregation. But our story continues…
Sue could sympathize with Tom and the other elders. At the same
time, Sue was certain that it had taken a huge amount of courage for this girl
to walk through those church doors, and she’d done so, all by herself, because
she was thirsty for the Word of God and communion with other believers. Sue
believed, at this delicate stage of the girl’s relationship with the congregation,
if anyone mentioned her appearance she would feel embarrassed and judged and
never darken the doors of the church again. Sue explained all this to Tom. She suggested for now, the elders
avert their eyes if they had to, but somehow find a way to offer the girl grace
and ignore her outward appearance.
As she
was speaking, Sue was counting the ways this conversation with Tom could go bad.
In other churches at other times, she had experienced all of the following
possible reactions that Tom might have:
1.
Tom might become
defensive and say he was insulted that Sue thought she knew how to handle this
situation better than him, and she was wrong to question his authority.
2.
Tom might start
quoting scripture at Sue about how women should dress in the church and imply
that Sue just wasn’t intelligent enough to understand the Bible like he did.
3.
Tom might claim that
he was an elder in the church and older than Sue so she should just do what he
told her, or he would find a more mature woman who could handle it.
4.
Tom might employ the
nuclear option, which happens far too often in church congregations, and
suggest that if Sue didn’t understand how important this issue was maybe both
she and the girl would be more comfortable worshiping elsewhere.
There was
another important thing that Sue knew—she knew Tom. Tom was definitely a
product of Evangelical church culture. Truth be told, Sue was skeptical about
the Evangelical church, this conversation being one of the reasons. But not
Tom. Tom had come to know Jesus in church and he loved being involved in church
culture, for many reasons. In fact, around town, one of his nicknames was “Tom
the Baptist.”
But while
people used Tom’s nickname in a tongue-in-cheek way, most of the time he was
referred to with great affection. Tom was extremely grateful to God for the
grace he had received, and because of that, he tended to be gracious. He was
known for his hospitality and his willingness to help people in need. In fact,
many people in town would have been astounded at all the needs that Tom
met—because he didn’t make a big deal out of it. If he saw a need, he didn’t
form a committee or start a Facebook campaign. He just met the need, as best he
could, with the resources God had given him.
At the same
time, Tom was a man, with a healthy male ego and some very definite ideas about
biblical roles for women. So Sue really had no idea how Tom would react to what
she was saying—she imagined many different outcomes, but not the one that
actually happened.
Tom had approached Sue and described his discomfort with this girl
and his perception of her lack of modesty. Sue had watched him go from disturbed,
to self-righteous, to outrage. Now, as Sue explained her thinking, she watched
the emotional battle raging inside him as it passed across his face. His
outrage gave way first to defensiveness, then incredulousness, and finally,
what Sue could only describe as bemusement. She finished speaking. There was
silence for a moment. Then Tom grinned, said simply, “You’re right,” and walked
away.
While Sue knew that Tom and the other elders had to battle against
their gut reaction to the girl’s appearance in successive Sundays, that was the
last time she ever heard any of them mention another congregant’s appearance. The
girl, who is now a woman, is still attending the church. Whether or not she’s
dressing more in keeping with the elders’ idea of appropriateness, Sue couldn’t
tell me. It seems to have become a non-issue for everyone involved. In addition,
the whole experience, and especially Tom’s reaction, gave Sue hope—hope in the
value of a church community, and hope in the way God’s love can change a heart.
Fruit—the results of faith—not really the good or bad things we do
or the opinions we hold, but a testimony to the truth of who we believe we are
before God, and before our fellow believers. It has a ripple effect on the
people around us that can’t be measured, and of which we are often unaware.
Do we respond to God and to others with pride or humility? This
question is central to our lives as believers. James tells us that God
resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. God so resists pride, it is often
put into the same category as idolatry in the Bible—so much so that at times,
the Bible makes pride and idolatry synonymous. I heard someone suggest recently
that the sin of pride could be found at the root of every other sin.
When God says, through other people, circumstance, or the Bible,
“this attitude, or opinion, or belief, or thing—that you hold so dear—it’s not
of Me, you must give it up,” what do we say?
We can shake our fists at the CEO we’ve made God into. We can look
at Him and defiantly demand our bonus pay. “Not this time. You owe me this for
all I’ve done for you. I deserve this.”
Or we can fall to our knees at the foot of the cross in humility
and thankfulness—changed, pruned clean, and ready to love.
The latter, I believe, is proof of faith—it is John 15—it is the
Christian life.
