Paul tells us to bring forth fruits of repentance. Repentance is NOT salvation. The fruit we bring forth is because of our repentance! We absolutely should bring forth works that meet it’s expectations.
Our works should meet the demand of our repentance. The love of Christ, not our repentance, should constrain us to witness and to be a testimony of the gospel. It should be natural to us. There is a big emphasis on should here. The Bible uses this terminology as well.
The Lord is not willing that any SHOULD perish, but that all SHOULD come to repentance.
Now with this in our minds what about offense? Paul brought offense as Christ did. Jesus Christ himself was the offense! But Paul did not seek out occasion to offend or mock. That is the difference today between the public ministry of these great men of character from the Bible in contrast to the bully pulpit baboons we see today.
