Luke 3:7-14 John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.
9 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire." 10 "What should we do then?" the crowd asked. 11 John answered, "The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same." 12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized. "Teacher," they asked, "what should we do?" 13 "Don't collect any more than you are required to," he told them. 14 Then some soldiers asked him, "And what should we do?" He replied, "Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely--be content with your pay."
Galatians 5:16-26 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control.
Observations
Escaping hell isn't all there is to the Christian life, if there isn't a difference in the way we live then we have not grow in our Christianity. We are to live a life that proves that we are different, a true Christ follower will produce good fruit. John said that giving, honesty and treating people fairly were ways to show your fruit.
Galatians 5 tells us to live by the spirit and to deny our sinful desires and it list the good fruit that we should have in the make-up of who we are.
Application
I will rely on the Holy Spirit to produce the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control in my life. Setting aside the evil desires that everybody has.
Prayer
Dear Jesus, I want to grow in the fruit of the spirit so that I can be useful for your work.
