 Below is a visual representation of what has been presented above: 
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As we yield to and are filled by the Spirit in the Christian life (sanctification), each Christian is to progressively bear all of the fruit of the Spirit as a witness to the saving reality of our faith (are we who we really profess to be). Such fruit is not limited to the description found in Gal 5. Many other fruit can be found listed throughout the New Testament. James 3:17 is one such place. Speaking of the fruit that comes from the wisdom from above it lists:
Pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. I’d like to zero in on one fruit: open to reason, or the fruit of “reasoning”, or being reasonable. There is a reason why the Bible speaks so much about good communication and that is because we are so bad at it. Most church conflicts are not about doctrine, or wrong doing, or even personality differences, they’re communication issues that usually arise from a wrong disposition, a want of sanctification. Immediately after James speaks of taming the tongue he shows what someone being transformed by the Spirit will look like in their communications: be open to reasoning. The word here can mean well-persuaded, already inclined, already willing, easy to come to terms with because already willing, etc. It conveys the notion of someone willing to go to great lengths to come to terms with someone, foster understanding, get to the bottom of the situation, be level headed, committed to working something through, labouring to this great end. This is not being quick tempered, which short circuits the intellect, but restrained, mentally engaged and charitable. It is a clarity of the mind and a calmness of our affections. It is a rare quality today, to be patient, peaceable, and restrained, enough to work through a difficulty. It is a key Spiritual fruit that enables us to truly submit to one another out of reverence for Christ (Eph 5:21). So the next time you are presented with a difficult situation, in or outside of the Church, as a believer, would you pray that the Lord would enable you to be open to reason, for everyone’s good and His glory. To God all glory, praise, and love be now and ever given by saints below and saints above, the Church in earth and heaven. (Charles Wesley, “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing”) It can get lonely thinking you are all alone. That is why a big perspective on what the Church is vitally essential. It reminds us that if we are in Christ we are part of a great cloud of witnesses. The Church militant describes believers who are still alive and still battling on for the Lord in this life. The Church triumphant describes those who’ve won the battle, fought the fight and finished the race, those whose spirits have gone to be in the presence of the Lord and who await the final Resurrection. Here are all of those whose faith was in the promises of God, which point to Christ and are Christ: Abel, Noah, the Patriarchs, Gideon, David, the disciples and all believers since. We pick up this distinction from places such as Rev 7 where John witnesses fellow believers worshiping the Lord in heaven. How encouraging a thought it is to know that we are not alone. Not only is Christ with us in Word and Spirit, but what is more, we are part of a great company of believers, far greater than our isolated geographic distribution allows us to fathom, not only here on earth, but in heaven above. In the words of Heb 12:1 the Church triumphant grace the side-lines of our race and cheer us on as it were. May we be encouraged that as a Christian we are part of the Church militant and triumphant! It can get lonely thinking you are all alone. That is why a big perspective on what the Church is vitally essential. It reminds us that if we are in Christ we are part of a great cloud of witnesses. The Church militant describes believers who are still alive and still battling on for the Lord in this life. The Church triumphant describes those who’ve won the battle, fought the fight and finished the race, those whose spirits have gone to be in the presence of the Lord and who await the final Resurrection. Here are all of those whose faith was in the promises of God, which point to Christ and are Christ: Abel, Noah, the Patriarchs, Gideon, David, the disciples and all believers since. We pick up this distinction from places such as Rev 7 where John witnesses fellow believers worshiping the Lord in heaven. How encouraging a thought it is to know that we are not alone. Not only is Christ with us in Word and Spirit, but what is more, we are part of a great company of believers, far greater than our isolated geographic distribution allows us to fathom, not only here on earth, but in heaven above. In the words of Heb 12:1 the Church triumphant grace the side-lines of our race and cheer us on as it were. May we be encouraged that as a Christian we are part of the Church militant and triumphant! This might sound like a very perplexing statement but I believe it is true; allow me to explain.
The Church, made up of baptized believers in Jesus Christ, ought to be an inclusive welcoming community, yet it is at the same time an exclusive, or distinct, body. Too often Christians fail to appreciate this paradox and opt for one extreme (inclusivity) or the other (exclusivity). Let’s see how this paradox is true, and ought to naturally flow from who we are, taking as our example the teachings of Jesus: INCLUSIVE Jesus was inclusive, if by that definition we mean welcoming or not embracing a judgementalism. He didn’t care if the person was the vilest sinner, He sought to be inclusive of everyone, for He had come as the Saviour of the world (in fact He said that He came to save not the “self-righteous” but sinners, Lk 5:32):
EXCLUSIVE Yet, just as Jesus met people where they were, He didn’t desire them to stay there. In fact in the same breadth in which He displayed an inclusive spirit He made some very exclusive statements. His inclusivity serves to build trust for He wants us to exclusively trust in and follow him and there find true inclusion in the exclusive body of Christ, an entry that can only come through trusting in Him alone:
In an age that champion’s unbridled inclusivity this paradox is a paradox indeed. In an age where Christian writers speak of people needing to “belong before they believe” the call to “believe before you belong” sounds harsh. Yet when it is matched by the inclusive spirit Jesus displayed, the latter loses much of its apparent harshness. We do need to help people feel like they belong, but through that honest welcome, to help them see they must believe if they are to truly belong, belong to Christ and be members of the local body. That is the paradox of the Church and it is the paradox of her Lord. |
Author: Chris CrockerPastor, historian and beekeeper. Archives
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