THE "INWARD" AND THE "OUTWARD" FRUIT IN A MAN'S LIFE
The New Testament speaks of "Fruit" as the hallmark of a true Christian. There are actually TWO kinds of "Fruit".
The FIRST kind of Fruit I call the INWARD FRUIT. It is the Fruit of my walk with Christ, it is proof of the inner life of God dwelling in me. This Fruit actually testifies to the world whether I really know Jesus or not, whether I am really Saved. The best scripture for this is Matthew 7:16 "By their fruit you will recognize them".
In other words we can tell whether people are really saved by checking whether we can see evidence of the life of and the character of Christ in them.
This is important especially in America. Here in America we have sinners, then we have people who are truly know Christ, then people who are merely religious, and then there are people who just pretend to be religious. Many people actually believe that just because somebody went through the motions of praying a "sinners prayer" that means that they are "born again".
Americans like to label their favorite sportsmen, musicians, movie stars, politicians etc as "born again" even if they have no visible evidence of the life and the character of Christ through their speech or their behavior.
The Bible is VERY clear about this: "By their Fruit you will recognize them".
The SECOND kind of Fruit is what I call the OUTWARD FRUIT. It is the Fruit that we bear as a result of our service to the Lord. This Fruit can be measured by the number of souls we win, the miracles we see in our ministries, the number of poor people we feed etc. Jesus said "You did not chose Me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and you should bear fruit, and your fruit should remain" (John 15:16).
So it is clear that we are called to bear Fruit for the glory of God, but here is something that we must understand: That we can have this kind of "Outward" Fruit and still miss our portion in the Book of life! Consider these two Scriptures:
"Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’" (Matt 7:22,23)
and
"If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body, but have not love, I gain nothing.” (1 Cor 13:2,3)
These Scriptures clearly tell us that we can see the power of God, experience miracles, and do great things in the Name of Jesus, and still lose everything!
And why? It is because we had the "Outward Fruit", but NOT the "Inward Fruit". In other words we saw miracles, did some great things, but there was never any evidence of the life and the character of Christ manifested in and through us.
So in other words, the Outward Fruit of great things done in the Name of Jesus Christ mean nothing, without the Inward Fruit of the Life of Christ dwelling in us.
The Apostle Paul did not say that the greatness of our ministry or the great things that we did are our "Hope of Glory", but rather it is CHRIST IN US who is our Hope of Glory.
That is why my friends, let us nurture the inner man. Let us spend time with Jesus, and stay at His feet with a burning desire to be like our Master. Let our life and our character be the foremost thing, and the rest will follow. Instead of being success-oriented, if we are Jesus oriented, we will fulfill God's purpose and destiny for our lives.
Let us conclude with these fiery words of the Apostle Paul:
"I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to Him in His death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have laid hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus". (Phil 3:10-14)
Originally posted on Facebook by Pastor Christopher Alam