The Intended Effects of the Fruits of the Spirit

What is the purpose of passing out a tract?  What is the purpose of witnessing or testifying for Christ?  Why do preachers preach?  Why do believers tell others of their salvation?  

I hear preachers commonly say “Contend with them!” referencing sinners for salvation.  Contend with the unbelievers int he streets, they say! Contending was never a reference to any saved person dealing with the lost!   

Jude 1:3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. 

Ephesians 2:12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

Titus 1:4 To Titus, mine own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.

This is a striking verse.  The term, “the faith” is only found in the New Testament beginning in Acts 3. “The faith” was no longer being preached.  It was delivered to “the saints” which is a OT and NT reference.  God’s collective bodies, the saints and the body  of Christ, are all considered saints now.

Jude said the “common salvation”.  “The faith was reference many times to mean the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The faith IN Christ! To contend for the faith is to contend for the common salvation!  

Men were making it uncommon.  Men were apostatizing already.  Men were getting into unorthodoxy. Men were making things religious.  Preaching other gospels (Galatians 1)  Men were going back in to the Temple, men were keeping the law and the oblations.  Men were rejecting any gospel of grace.  Men were keeping to the old paths so to speak.  To do this was rejecting Jesus Christ.  To hold to the Law was to reject his payment for sins!  It was denying the Lord that bought them!

Paul’s Wisdom on Offense and Offending.

Unintentional most times, our Christian leaders, whether pastors, evangelist, and missionaries, place a emphasis on these types of works as evidence of fruits of salvation or fruits of “I am living for God”.  

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.