The Fruit of Serving God

The Fruit of Serving God

“But now having been set free from sin, and having become servants of God, you have your fruit to sanctification, and the end, everlasting life.”

You cannot receive a ministry from God without having been set free from sin. Sin is a transgression of the law. 1 John 3:4. Then I do not have the victory. Then I commit, or fall, in what I know to be wrong. Nevertheless, I can testify of my faith in God; that He is good and is a helper in need and forgives sinners, but I cannot be entrusted with a ministry by God. Eph. 4:11.

There are many doctrines among religious people, yet there is just one doctrine that sets us free from sin, although no one is set free from sin just because he either knows or understands the doctrine. Only those who obey that doctrine from the heart are being set free from sin. Rom. 6:17-18. Then the doctrine becomes their life, and only then can they become a servant of God. The fruit of their ministry will be sanctification—their personal spiritual growth.

Many people reckon they are servants of God without having been set free from sin. They seek honor and are envious of one another, but they do not reckon that sanctification shall be their fruit. They think that the fruit they are to bear is gathering many people and leading many of them to believe in the forgiveness for their sins. Well, we can say that this is a wonderful fruit, but the struggle involved in doing it causes them to compete against each other in order to gain a reputation. They are not liberated from sin themselves, nor do those whom they have led to believe in the forgiveness of sins experience any growth in God.

When we read Paul’s exhortations to Timothy, that man of God, we see that they almost exclusively revolve around his personal, spiritual growth. By growing, he was increasingly equipped for the ministry. “Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.” Here we see that Paul’s main concern was Timothy’s spiritual progress. Then the salvation of others would be a consequence of his personal salvation. “Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.”

You cannot serve people and lead them to something that you yourself do not have. Therefore we must always, in our ministry, consider our personal progress in sanctification as the real fruit of our ministry. All those who do that will have fellowship with one another so that the world can believe, and that second fruit will be abundant. John 17:21-23.

Those who do not have this understanding will always be busy organizing in order to gather people to increase their religious denomination. Then those with natural talents will have the authority, not those who have been set free from sin. Everything is geared toward pleasing people, and their activities gain an appearance of godliness without power. 2 Tim. 3:5. We are to turn away from such people.

“For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me, in word and deed, to make the Gentiles obedient . . . .” Rom. 15:18. This is the purpose for which Paul had received the apostleship. Rom. 1:5. If they were obedient, they were set free from sin. He did not dare to boast of anything else; this was the boast he had in Christ Jesus whom he served. He did not seek the praise of men.