Faith's Checkbook

brucesbiblepage

May 27

May 27
As the Life—So the Fruit
For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful
in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:8)
If we desire to glorify our Lord by fruitfulness, we must have certain things within us; for nothing can
come out of us which is not first of all within us. We must begin with faith, which is the groundwork of
all the virtues; and then diligently add to it virtue, knowledge, temperance, and patience. With these,
we must have godliness and brotherly love. All these put together will most assuredly cause us to
produce, as our life fruit, the clusters of usefulness, and we shall not be mere idle knowers but real
doers of the Word. These holy things must not only be in us, but abound, or we shall be barren. Fruit
is the overflow of life, and we must be full before we can flow over.
We have noticed men of considerable parts and opportunities who have never succeeded in doing
real good in the conversion of souls; and after close observation, we have concluded that they lacked
certain graces which are absolutely essential to fruit bearing. For real usefulness, graces are better
than gifts. As the man is, so is his work. If we would do better, we must be better. Let the text be a
gentle hint to unfruitful professors and to myself also.