Some will notice the title is not “Bearing fruit because we know God,” so to avoid getting sidetracked with that, we can start with the fact that we won’t bear any godly fruit unless our heart has been changed and the Holy Spirit dwells within us. Also, to avoid confusion, I’ll be using the terms “bearing fruit,” “good works” and “service” interchangeably.
I took this article’s title from Part 7, of John Piper’s “Look at the Book” session on Colossians 1:9-12. I greatly encourage you to view that short video to get his excellent exposition on this subject.
When I saw the title of the video earlier this year, I got kind of excited because that’s the direction my thinking has gone in the past several years. My thinking was founded Biblically with verses on good works like Matthew 5:16 – “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father, who is in heaven.” But I couldn’t expand it to explain the joy and great blessing and sense of awe we get when we do good works.
I got a hint of where to take that a few years ago from a comment J. I. Packer made about his book “Knowing God”: “But one defect that I do see (in this book). In addressing my readers as individuals, trying as best I can to single them out and search their hearts before God, I fail to show that it is only as one gives oneself in human relationships, in the home, in friendships, with neighbors, as members of Christian groups and teams—in relationships that go sometimes right and sometimes wrong, as all our relationships do— that experiential knowledge (meaning knowledge resulting from experience) of God becomes real and deep.”
The statement that “it is only as one gives oneself in human relationships…that experiential knowledge of God becomes real and deep” was the direction I was going. And, as John Piper said in the video mentioned above: “…think about it. There’s book learning about God, there’s Bible learning about God, and then there’s real live obedience to God in which He is at work in you, and you watch Him, you feel Him, and you see Him working in your life, and when somebody works in your life to change you, you know Him in ways you couldn’t know Him any other way… because bearing fruit is the means by which we go deeper in our knowledge of the Lord as the one that is at work in our lives.”
So, the joy and great blessing and sense of awe we get when we do good works all come from God working in us and teaching us more about Himself, and us then having a deeper knowledge of His perfect love and greatness.
That realization, given in John Piper’s Biblical exposition in the video, along with J. I. Packer’s comment, take good works / bearing fruit out of the “they’re good things to do to glorify God, so work them in when you can” category and make good works / bearing fruit a critical part of discipleship. I believe they have to become intentional “must do’s” if we want to truly know God better and glorify Him. We must do good works if we truly desire to be discipled and to be transformed to be more like Jesus.
And, along that line of thought, churches that have considered what should be in their process of discipleship have typically included service / good works along with other parts like hearing the preaching of the Word, being in a Bible Study / Small group, and having/making opportunities for one-on-one mentoring. Service/good works is included for the reason given above, to know God deeper, but also because it’s key to building relationships that God can use to fulfill the mission of the church (more on that farther down).
As children of God, we are told many times in the Bible to do good works and bear fruit. And the pinnacle of that is Ephesians 2:10 that states we are in fact “..created in Christ Jesus for good works..” As has been shown above, one purpose of doing good works is to know God more deeply and become more like Jesus (Colossians 1:10 – “so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him; bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”) Other purposes shown are to magnify God by revealing his glory and goodness to others (Matthew 5:16 “..that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father..”), to literally make where we are – at home, in the neighborhood, and in the community – a better place to live by the Holy Spirit’s presence and His working within and through us (Matthew 5:13-14 “You are the salt of the earth…. You are the light of the world…”), to lift up the weak and downtrodden (James 1:27 “… visit orphans and widows in their afflictions…”).
All of those reasons, and more, to do good works are wonderful and if God chooses that a particular effort is to stand on its own for one of those reasons, His purpose has been fulfilled.
But also, as mentioned earlier, God uses our good works in critical support of the mission of the church. Because, even as critical and commanded as they are in our life as a Christian and as the church, doing good works is not the mission of the church. Our mission, through the Holy Spirit’s power, is to bring people to know Jesus Christ.
And for that, we hope and pray that the Lord will expand the results of our good works and make them the beginning or strengthening of a relationship with another person, in this case speaking particularly of those who don’t already know Jesus. And at some point in the relationship, hopefully, the Spirit will move them to ask us “why are you so hopeful all the time?” and we can tell them about Jesus. Or hopefully the Spirit will give us the opportunity to ask, “can I tell you about Jesus and what He has done for me?” or “would you like to visit our church – I’ll be glad to give you a ride?”
For many years in the history of the church, and especially in these contentious and conflicting times, those one-on-one relationships are the principal means the Lord has used to bring about fruitful Gospel conversations and invitations to those who don’t know Jesus yet. And we can readily observe in life that many of those relationships are begun and strengthened by our good works. So, to that end, we must be intentional every day in doing those good works. And we can rely on what Jesus said, that giving someone even a cup of cold water in His name will not be wasted.
Considering service as a critical part of discipleship, we as individual Christians can start with the foundation of good works by living under the control of the Holy Spirit and showing in our life what’s called the fruit of the Spirit (See Galatians 5:22-25.) We can pursue opportunities, large and small, inside and outside the church to do those good works and bear fruit. We can encourage others in the church to do the same.