Monday 29 April 2013

Fruits of holiness


But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. – Romans 6.22

So what is the end result of it all for the believer? What is the end result of being set free from sin, a slave of God, and of bearing the fruit of holiness?

At the end is the greatest blessing and reward of all. At the end is everlasting life. ‘Oh what a day that will be, when my Jesus I shall see. What a joy when I look upon His face, the One who saved me by His grace. When He will take me by the hand and lead me to the Promised Land. What a day, glorious day, that will be.’

But we are not there yet. We are still here. We have to live in this present world.

So what do we do ‘to the end?’ What do we do while we wait for the joys of everlasting life?

We produce the fruit of holiness as God’s servants.

Holy living is almost a forgotten concept for a lot of Christians. We tend to think we can just go to church, say a few prayers, drop a fiver in the offering, do a few good deeds, and everything is grand.

But God expects more than that out of us. He expects us to not just be holy, He made us that way at salvation, but He expects us to produce fruits of holiness. We are declared holy, but now we are to be holy in our walk and our holiness should be evident.

The sad thing is that some folks are ashamed to be holy. Being holy may mean that we are not part of the ‘in’ group. It may be there are things to do and places to go that we can’t do and go and still show the fruits of our holiness.

I have to ask myself if, when people see my life, they see someone whose life fruit is holiness. Do people see the holiness of God in my everyday life? 

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