Recently (and to be honest, my whole life as a follower of Christ), I have seen people picking apart the Scriptures to justify their lives, lifestyles, and lack of accountability toward Christ. The term (I believe) for such tactics is “cherry-picking.” I’ve recently learned that cherry-picking is a willing suppression of evidence, either by ignoring a part or focusing on a part to make one’s case seem legitimate. When I read and teach the Bible, one thing I always stress, with myself and with anyone else, is that Context matters. And people who do not like the context seek to justify themselves, rather than seek the truth. Loved ones, when we stand before God, there is no justifying ourselves: we’re either in Christ, or we will be accountable to the full letter of the Law. Besides, God did not save us to be cherry pickers and legalizers, but He saved us to bear fruit, and we bear fruit only as we abide in Christ.
The Bible is not there for your opinion, nor is it a guidebook: either it is all true, or it is not. If we’re to be the branches to Jesus’ vine, and if we’re to bear fruit, we must abide in Him, and, indeed, abide the Father’s pruning so that we, according to Jesus, may “bear much fruit.” “I feel” and “I believe” don’t matter unless it’s lined up with Christ, and we can test and verify the will of God through Christ in the Scriptures and by the Holy Spirit. And these are not mutually exclusive. The Holy Spirit will not contradict Scripture, not will the Bible compel us to act in ways contrary to the leading of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God, the same One who led the authors of Scripture over 1,500 years on three continents in three languages, and He cannot and will not contradict Himself. Seek the will of God, by the Holy Spirit who dwells in you, and the Word He inspired for you. Abide in Christ THROUGH the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures. Don’t pick cherries. Bear fruit.
John 14
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’
“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.
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