“Bearing Fruit For God!”

“Bearing Fruit For God!”(Rom.7:4-6).
“So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.”
A wise man once said, “A text without a context is a pretext for a prooftext.” Prooftexting means quoting a Bible verse out of context and making a case for a particular view or doctrine.
Prooftexting is a presumptuous sin for which the majority of prelates will repent of, after having deliberately prooftexted scriptures as a psychic weapon to stimulate fear in gullible believers with denominational doctrines that keep them in check. For example, in recent times, we have listened to clergies who have confessed their wrong teachings on tithes. If wine gets better with age, there is nothing wrong when we own up that realisation dawns on us as we get older and wiser, maturing in the faith and true revelation of scriptures become clearer to us.
As far as the text today is concerned, African Christian converts cannot in truth claim to have been released from a law of which they were never a part of.
However, the Ten Commandments came only to enforce what was already being observed by the Africans. It is in this way that Africans become possessors of the law of Moses by adoption – in the same way that they are heirs of Abraham by adoption and not through consanguinity.
Bottom line: Through the resurrection of Christ, we have received new life by becoming new creations “in order that we might bear fruit for God.” In the past, we had an inclination towards sinful actions whose fruit was spiritual death.
As it is, “we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.” In the new dispensation in Christ, we are freed from both “shame culture and guilt conscience.”
In simple terms, *the new dispensation is, live right not because there are any guidelines but because the Spirit directs your spirit to distinguish between right and wrong and to make the choice that is a delight to the LORD.
Prayer: O Christ, Light of the world, shine your light in our dark hearts so that we might bear fruit for God. Amen!
Have a blessed day! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.
29/04/2025.