#63 – What the Gospels Teach – The Centurion’s Faith (Part 2) – Matthew 8:5-13

And when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him, and saying, "Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented." Jesus *said to him, "I will come and heal him." But the centurion said, "Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. "For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, 'Go!' and he goes, and to another, 'Come!' and he comes, and to my slave, 'Do this!' and he does it." Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, "Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel. "I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." And Jesus said to the centurion, "Go; it shall be done for you as you have believed." And the servant was healed that very moment. (Matthew 8:5-13 NASB)

Jesus takes this opportunity to make clear that He is indeed a light to the gentiles, but He goes even a step further to give warning that the ‘sons of the kingdom will be cast into the outer darkness...’  We can only imagine the tension this must have caused.  For the Jews to hear from the prophets of old that the Messiah would be a light to the gentiles would have not have been difficult.  In fact it would be a joyous thing to consider that God would do a work among all peoples.  However, when the Jews were under the oppression of the Roman Empire and Jesus holds a representative from that empire in high regard it becomes much more personal for the people around Him, and far more difficult to swallow.  While Jesus was doing exactly what the Old Testament scriptures promised He would do, the emotional impact of this to the Jew would have case hardened their heart against Christ.  If Jesus would have said "I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven;”  In any other context, it may have been very palatable for the Jew.  However when Jesus places their enemies on the pedestal and essentially proclaims that some of the Romans themselves will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob the tension must have begun to rise.  Recognize that I am reading into this a bit, there is no direct reference to mounting tension here, but as this progresses through the next few chapters we will see it clearly. 

Again the Jews would have known that the Messiah was going to be a light to the gentiles, and that nations which they did not know would flock to Him, and that would have been something they embraced.  It is very easy to love from a distance, and to enjoy the idea of many people groups coming together under the Messiah.  It is no different than loving people in Africa and China and wanting them to hear the Gospel.  However when you meet the people directly, and realize they are just a depraved as you were prior to conversion, and you have to deal with their vice, hatred, covetousness, and idolatry they are not nearly as easy to love as they were when they were a mere evangelism target.  It is easy to see how many Jews would become progressively more against Christ as they saw Him being a light to the people they despised.

In this text you can see the breaking off and grafting in that is explained in Romans 11:17-25.  It is easy to see the hardening effect that Christ’s ministry would have on the Hebrew people, and moreover you can see, as in the case of this centurion how the gentiles would be grateful just to be grafted in and be nourished from the Holy Root.  More on that someday when this blog addresses Romans... like 20 years from now at the rate we are going!

#62 – What the Gospels Teach – The Centurion’s Faith (Part 1) – Matthew 8:5-13

And when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him, and saying, "Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented." Jesus *said to him, "I will come and heal him." But the centurion said, "Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. "For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, 'Go!' and he goes, and to another, 'Come!' and he comes, and to my slave, 'Do this!' and he does it." Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, "Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel. "I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." And Jesus said to the centurion, "Go; it shall be done for you as you have believed." And the servant was healed that very moment. (Matthew 8:5-13 NASB)


In the last passage we see a leper cleansed, and we notice that leper immediately acknowledges the authority of Christ, and places himself at the mercy of the will of Christ. Moreover we notice the end of the Sermon on the Mount, just preceding these happenings where the crowds stood astonished... why? because Christ taught with authority and not like their scribes. As it has been stated before in this series, the way Jesus did ministry was to preach hard with authority, and also to serve with compassion, He was balanced, not some liberal serve only mentality, and not some fundamentalist preach only mentality. It should be noticed though that both His teaching and His healing highlighted His authority.

The centurion comes to Christ with compassion for his servant and tells Jesus of the situation. Now, as a centurion this man had authority, moreover he would have been a man despised of the Jews. You can imagine the Hebrew people hoping that Jesus would really lambaste this guy, so it was a major disappointment to them when Jesus says “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel.” What caused Jesus to marvel at this man’s faith? First off, this is a man who is used to having authority and used to being able to do whatever he wanted or need to do. He expresses this to Jesus saying “...I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” Moreover as a roman centurion he also had authority over the Hebrew people around him. For a centurion with this type of authority to call someone else Lord publically was an enormous step of faith, it is a public admission that he is not the ultimate authority, moreover that he would call a Hebrew Lord only amplifies the humility of this admission. Jesus marvels at this man’s faith. This centurion has the force of the Roman empire with the ‘lord’ Caesar at the top of that empire on his side. Effectively in this moment the Roman Centurion makes a recognition that Christ is a greater authority than the roman empire.

Jesus said He hadn’t seen that type of faith in all of Israel. The people of Israel did not tangibly believe that God had authority over the Roman Empire... the centurion recognized Christ had that authority. Of course the theology of the Hebrew people was such that they intellectually recognized the power and authority of God, but when it was placed before them they could discern it. We see the same thing in ‘Christian’ America today. So much fear among Christians about politics and choosing the lesser of two evils, so much fear about being relevant no matter what it takes, so much financial worry, and so on. Our theology teaches us that God has control and authority and that He is ultimately good, but an honest inspection of American ‘Christianity’ shows that it is no more faithful than the established synagogues of Christ’s day. “I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel!” Ultimately Christ would be condemned by the Roman leadership and the Hebrew leadership together... the Hebrew people would appeal to the authority of the government in order to slay their own messiah who is a higher authority... do not believe for a minute that the largely unconverted professing church in America with its obsession over politics and desire to use the government to accomplish ‘God’s will’ is not doing the very same thing.

I guess I’ll leave it there, this post disintegrated into a rant, which was not the original intent.

#61 – What the Gospels Teach – Coming down from the mountain – Matthew 8:1-4

When Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds followed Him. And a leper came to Him and bowed down before Him, and said, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean." Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing; be cleansed." And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus *said to him, "See that you tell no one; but go, show yourself to the priest and present the offering that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them."  (Matthew 8:1-4 NASB)

Before Jesus went up to the mountain to teach ‘The Sermon on the Mount’ He was going throughout the area preaching repentance and also healing the sick and serving the people.  As it is has been said here before the way Jesus did ministry was to serve the community and to preach hard on repentance.  It seems in American Christendom we have lost balance.  In the fundamentalist church we find a intense emphasis on preaching repentance and the fact that ‘faith cometh by hearing’ and service is neglected.  Or service is not neglected, but is merely reduced to a way to get an audience to preach to.  On the other side the ‘emerging church’ is focused on service and justice to the point where they neglect the message of repentance unto faith.  The message of repentance is too hard and abrasive for the emerging church so they focus entirely on service.  Christ existed in the middle of these extremes.  Christ loved people and served them out of love for them, and at the same time He preached incredibly difficult words of repentance and even judgment.

In the case of Matthew 8:1-4 it is important to realize that Christ just got done teaching a very intense message, especially the end of it.  He references the destruction of those who are not truly converted, He references judgment based on mere anger and lust, He speaks of a required righteousness and the overarching theme could be said to be repentance.  Notice the very first thing He does after the teaching... it is to serve the very least of society, the leper.  It eliminates the possibility that Jesus’ was at all mean spirited, but it does not negate the difficulty of His teachings on the mount.  Again, Jesus ought to be the model for all our ministry, it is Christ who is all compassion, and at the same time it is Christ who makes unwavering calls to repentance and purity.

Now it is critical to notice the leper in this passage and how he approaches Christ.  “Lord...” there is an immediate recognition of Authority.  This cannot be overlooked, everyone wants Jesus to give them their ‘Best Life Now’ but nobody wants to come under His authority.  At the same time, a mere saying of ‘Lord’ means very little unless it is an actual recognition of His Lordship.  In the case of this leper it is clear that it is genuine recognition of Lordship.  “...if You are willing, You can make me clean.”  In this statement the leper is fully recognizing that he is not in some position to ‘name and claim’ his healing.  Quite the opposite is true, the leper knows He is at the mercy of the will of Jesus Christ, and that it is only if Christ is willing that he will be healed.  Of course this type of obedience and submission to Christ is honored by Christ and He indeed is willing and He cleanses the leper.

The final part of this passage is seen in various other healings as well... “See that you tell no one; but go, show yourself to the priest and present the offering that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”  After the leper is healed Jesus gives Him a task to go present himself to the priests with the proper offering as a testimony to them.  Recall that the people were under Roman control, there have been few prophets in the land, it had been 400 years since Malachi had prophesied, the reality of the presence of God must have seemed missing.  Why else would so many flock to John the Baptist, or even to Christ?  Of course the priests would have recognized this phenomenon as well so Jesus sends the leper to them to verify that God was truly at work, and He sends the leper not as a rebuke but actually has the leper fulfill what the law requires.  This leaves the priests with no legitimate recourse against Christ.

Again, it is so important to realize that the leper came under the Lordship of Christ and was in full submission to the will of Christ and knew that his state of being was dependent upon Christ’s will.

#60 – What the Gospels Teach – Teaching with Authority – Matthew 7:28-29 Part #2

When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.

(Matthew 7:28-29 NASB)

In the last post I focused primarily on ‘the crowds’ and attempting to understand whether or not the crowds were there for the entire Sermon on the Mount, as trivial as that may seem it does carry some importance.  For instance, are the beatitudes intended for the disciple only or for the crowd?  Read the previous post for more on that.

For this post let’s see what this text is actually saying.  Realize that the crowds who heard the teachings of Christ were amazed... why were they amazed?  The amazement came from the fact that He was teaching with authority, and not as their scribes.  The conjunction ‘and’ is important here to understand the text.  We must realize that the Hebrews of the time recognized the scribes and Pharisees as the ones carrying the upmost authority, and to hear ‘religious’ authority come from any other source, well would be amazing.  However that is exactly what Christ does here, He teaches amazing teachings authoritatively, AND He was not teaching as their scribes taught.  This text is not so much saying that the scribes did not teach with authority, in fact the opposite is true, the Scribes and Pharisees taught authoritatively.  The issue in this text is that a new person, Christ, is on the scene teaching with authority and not teaching the same things that the existing authority taught.

What is the application?  First of all, because someone teaches authoritatively, with fervor and eloquence does not mean that they teach truth.  This is important, Jesus comes along and teaches something entirely different, but also authoritative than the scribes taught... so who is right?  Of course Christ was right being the Son of God... but how in our time when we have different people, even within professing Christianity, teaching contradictory things authoritatively do we discern what is true?  The answer is from the word of God, the scriptures which are our authority.  Still if we are honest we will recognize that among professing Christians with contradictory theology both sides of every issue use scripture to support their stance.  Again, how do you discern between authorities?  You absolutely must be continually in the scriptures reading them entirely, Genesis to Revelation, and more than just one time in your life.  Recall that Jesus is the word made flesh, therefore He speaks from the perspective of the entire Holy writ, when we write and speak we must do the same... but the only way we can is if we familiarize ourselves with the whole book.  You can proof text to support any heresy, and you can speak with authority and still be wrong, just like the scribes, and those stuck in religious institutions which suppress the truth, will be amazed at your teaching as well, and that you teach with authority but not like their institution.

The other thing not to miss in this passage is that the crowds were indeed amazed... but they were not necessarily converted.  Why were they amazed?  Again because Jesus taught something other than the existing authority and He did it authoritatively.  People are always amazed when someone stands up and speaks against the system, it does not mean that they accept what is being said.  This passage shows the mounting tension between the scribes and Jesus and the crowds thrive on tension just like we do today.

Of course, I do recognize that this text could simply be comparing the authority of Christ to that of the Scribes, but given the teachings like “unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees” or all of the “You have heard it said of old... but I tell you” moments in Matthew 5, I tend to believe this text is emphasizing the fact that the scribes and Jesus both spoke with authority, but spoke entirely different things.

As an aside, the demands of life are significant and free time seems to be at a premium some people find it asinine that anyone would suggest that Christians should take in the entire scripture once a year or more.  I get that, I really do.  One suggestion I would make that has been incredibly helpful to me is to find a good clear reading of the scriptures in a version (not paraphrase) of the bible which you like and download it in mp3 format.  Most mp3 players today are large enough to hold the entire bible, or at least a few books at a time, and you can hear the scriptures read while you work out, cut grass, meditate, work, drive, etc... You will find it easy to take in the entire cannon once or more a year.  Moreover you can just listen not studiously, but in order to take in the whole flow of scripture and the nature and character of God.  This does not replace hard study of various texts, but it certainly supplements that.  You cannot just be a student of part of the book, you need to be immersed in the whole thing. 

#59 – What the Gospels Teach – The Gathered Crowd – Matthew 7:28-29

When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes. (Matthew 7:28-29 NASB)

I will be honest that this text perplexes me a little bit, and may cause me to go back on an earlier statement I made in this blog.  On May 15^th on #15 of what the Gospels teach I stated that the Sermon on the Mount was a teaching specific to the disciples and I made that statement based Matthew 5:1-2.

When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. He opened His mouth and began to teach them, saying,  (Matthew 5:1-2 NASB)

My take on this passage is this:  Jesus is amidst the crowds, so He goes up the mountain to get away, His disciples follow, He sits down and teaches the small group of disciples that followed. Matthew 5:1-2 seems to communicate a separation from the crowd by the disciples and Christ up into a mountain.  When Jesus “...began to teach them...” my assumption has been that that ‘them’ refers to ‘His disciples’ and not ‘the crowds’.  This idea has shaped much of my thought, especially on the beatitudes, but also the teaching on salt and light as well.  My premise has been that the Sermon on the Mount was not evangelistic at all, but was a message to the disciples.

Now fast forward to the end of the Sermon on the Mount... “When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed...”  At the end of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus is teaching crowds, this is clear from Matthew 7:28-29.  This leaves a couple options and I am not going to pretend to know which is right.  Either my understanding of Matthew 5:1-2 was entirely wrong, and when “He opened His mouth and began to teach them...” He was teaching the crowds from the very beginning, or the other option is that while He was teaching the disciples a crowd began to gather around Him.  Honestly I am not sure which stance to take.  I understand that if I take the stance that Jesus was teaching the crowd from the very beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, my understanding of the Beatitudes changes some.   However Matthew 5:1-2 really does seem to point to a retreat with only His disciples.  It does seem common in the scriptures that Jesus would draw crowds as He ministered, so to think that is what happened here is not out of line.  Moreover this would explain how Jesus could affirm that His audience was the light of the world in the beginning of the Sermon and then at the end of the Sermon make warnings about the house built on the sand... the audience changed.  The other option is that the group of disciples was a crowd, but that does not seem in line with Matthew 5:1-2 which seems to denote a separation of the disciples from the crowd.

The bottom line is that I am not sure whether the entire Sermon on the Mount was taught to a crowd, or if it started with just a smaller group of disciples.  This may be splitting hairs, and this is a pretty dry post, but it is not a trivial point.  The audience a message is given to gives insight into the meaning of the message and why it was given.  I will leave this post here, feel free to set me straight if you have more insight into this detail.

#58 – What the Gospels Teach – Building on the Rock – Matthew 7:24-27

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. "And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. "Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. "The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell--and great was its fall." (Matthew 7:24-27 NASB)

Anytime we read a passage of scripture starting with ‘therefore’ or any other linking word it is absolutely critical that the previous text be taken with it.  Jesus had just finished speaking about how not everyone who says ‘Lord Lord’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of the Father who is in heaven will enter.  THEREFORE who ever hears and acts on the words of Christ is wise... but whoever hears but does not act is a fool.  Could it be any simpler?  Does this passage really need any commentary?

The problem is that this text has been taught in the context of getting your ‘best life now’ and we have been led to believe that in order to have a good life Christians must build on the rock, and if a Christian does not build on the rock they will fall.  In context however we see that this passage speaks of the one who hears and acts as the believer who will withstand judgment, and the one who does not build on the rock is the unbeliever who will not withstand judgment.  Realize that this passage is speaking of believers and unbelievers.

The other thing that ought to be noticed here is that both the foolish man and the wise man heard the words of Christ, the difference in outcome was dependent upon action.  The mark of true belief is always a tangible reaction to the truth.  In other words, faith comes by hearing, but does not end with hearing.  Faith comes by hearing, and when faith comes it produces action, and a tangible submission to the commands of Christ.  Attending worship, listening to sermons online, even reading the scriptures, or great books about the scriptures will all prove to be vanity if there is no work producing faith created.

It should be noted that Jesus and John the Baptist both have taught in the Gospel that it is fruit / works of righteousness that differentiates between believer and unbeliever.  (I do not propose that works are the basis of salvation, but they are certainly the evidence.)

#57 – What the Gospels Teach – ‘Lord Lord' - Matthew 7:21-23

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.' (Matthew 7:21-23 NASB)

First, we must recognize that this text is spoken by Christ in the context of being aware of false prophets, and moreover that false prophets will be known by their fruit. At the same time it is also critical to realize that in some sense all people who make a profession of faith and make a statement about God, or a statement ‘from God’ are indeed prophets. This blog is prophetic in that it proclaims scripture and then seeks to explain it, and what God had intended the scripture to mean. Moreover, the professing Christian who has a conversation about Christ is having a ‘prophetic’ conversation. To profess... is to be prophetic. Unfortunately we view ‘prophecy’ to be telling the future, or having some special unique revelation from God, but that is not typically, if ever, the case at all. To be prophetic is to speak the word of the Lord as it is revealed in scripture. Even Christ and the apostles continually quoted from scripture, not expressing some new divine revelation, but expounding the God who has been revealed in His Word. So what is the point of all this? Everyone who makes a profession of faith in Christ is in some sense a prophet, and this text Matthew 7:21-23 is to viewed in light of that fact. We make a grave mistake if we view this text only in light of false prophets such as Jim Jones, and David Koresh.

Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’... realize that repetition here is a way of emphasis. In the Hebrew culture to emphasize a point you repeated words. To say someone is extremely Holy, you would say ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’ to emphasize that someone has made an earnest profession that Jesus is Lord, they would say to Him, ‘Lord, Lord’. The reality of this text is that not everyone who makes an earnest profession of faith in Jesus Christ will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. This is incredibly important, especially in our western culture where we want to have things easy and quick. We live in a culture where salvation has been reduced to ‘I prayed the prayer’ and I ‘confessed with my mouth Jesus is Lord’ and I am sure ‘that I believe in my heart God raised Him from the dead’ therefore I am a Christian. Jesus pours a big bucket of cold water on that notion in this text. He says that not everyone who makes that profession will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but He who actually lives out the profession by ‘doing the will of the Father’ will enter. At the same time we ought to be very careful to not over shoot this and make it into a works based salvation, or that we must perform the will of God by our strength in order to validate our profession and not be a false prophet. In fact, this verse goes a long way to speak against that notion as well... ‘did we not prophesy... cast out demons... do miracles...?’ The false prophet will argue with Christ on the Day of Judgment based on his or her own workings, not upon the merit of Christ.

“He who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter...” What is the will of the Father? “That we know the Him the one true God.” See John 17. We can do many things without knowing Him with any degree of intimacy, those ‘many things’ give us no standing with Him, as evidenced by this passage. Jesus labels those whom He will declare that ‘He never knew’, He calls them ‘You who practice lawlessness’. In other words Jesus tells those who have lived as though God never gave a law are commanded to depart from Him. So often we are quick to blast the Pharisees for legalism, but we venture to the other extreme. The opposite of legalism is lawlessness. In the case of legalism we see man implementing rules and regulations that go beyond the will of God and ultimately removing freedom which God intended people to have. On the other end you have lawlessness which essentially is to treat God as though He allows all things and has never spoken a law or given a regulation that must be followed. The problem in our day is not the problem of the Pharisee but the problem of Lawlessness. Moreover, because we are so accustomed to lawlessness as the norm, anytime someone mentions law, or speaks dogma concerning right or wrong action, they are immediately and falsely labeled pharisaical.

So what is the application? Examine yourself to see if you are in the faith, or if you are a false prophet. Do you only say ‘Lord, Lord’ and do nice things, or are you about the Father’s will which is to know Him intimately? Do you profess faith, and yet live as though God never gave a law? Will you hear the words... depart from me? It is too important of a question to dismiss.

#56 – What the Gospels Teach – You will know them by their fruit – Matthew 7:16-20

"You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? "So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. "A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. "Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. "So then, you will know them by their fruits. (Matthew 7:16-20 NASB)

Recognizing the false prophet and casting judgment upon a false prophet are two different things. We are commanded by Christ to beware of false prophets, and at the same time we are commanded not to judge in Matthew 7:1. Again one of the primary issues that handcuffs believers is that we have come to a point where we do not make any distinction between discernment and judgment, and they are two very different things. We must be very careful. First we must recognize the propensity in our own flesh to be a false prophet and to realize that before our redemption the vast majority of us were false prophets. When that is recognized it becomes much easier to discern a false prophet without standing in judgment over them, because you know you too were a false prophet apart from God’s saving work. One might think ‘I was never a false prophet’ however most people prior to conversion have some belief about God and are typically willing to share that belief. People, believers or not, often make statements about God, they make prophetic proclamations all the time. Even saying ‘God is love’ is a prophetic proclamation. Moreover, the false prophet is known by their fruit, not by their prophetic statements, in other words a false prophet can speak the truth and yet still be false. Confusing? It should not be. The point is that nearly everyone has something to say about God, beware of those who do not bear the good fruit of a truly converted soul.

So why ought we be on guard for the false prophet? Go back to Matthew 7:15, the answer is pretty obvious there. How can we be on our guard? Watch the fruit, if your fundamentalist buddy is always angry, never broken or contrite, impatient, rarely repentant, not exhibiting the genuine fruit of the spirit from Galatians 5, you can know him by his fruit. At the same time, and this may get me in trouble, the more liberal Christian who holds to some doctrines you know to be false but continually exhibits the fruit of the spirit, genuine compassion, concern for Christ’s glory, and loving their neighbor, well there is a good chance that though you may have some theological difference, that person is a genuine brother or sister in Christ. We will know them by their fruit.

This idea of fruit being the evidence of salvation was the topic back in an earlier post as well. Recall John the Baptist reminding us that the axe is at the root of the tree and the outcome of that tree is determined by the fruit it produces. Do not run too far with this, or you will end up believing in a works based salvation, but at the same time do not write off the importance of works, because they give the evidence of genuine conversion.