A word that can save.

[MoreCoffee]

Christ is The Word of God and Saviour of the world. He is the Word that can save you. Yet there is a sense in which what Jesus taught can save you too - not by doing what he said, nor by believing what he taught and then nothing more - it involves doing what Jesus commanded and believing what Jesus taught and a little bit more.

It is all that is good, everything that is perfect, which is given us from above; it comes down from the Father of all light; with him there is no such thing as alteration, no shadow of a change. By his own choice he made us his children by the message of the truth so that we should be a sort of first-fruits of all that he had created.

Accept and submit to the word which has been planted in you and can save your souls. But you must do what the word tells you, and not just listen to it and deceive yourselves.
Pure, unspoilt religion, in the eyes of God our Father is this: coming to the help of orphans and widows when they need it, and keeping oneself uncontaminated by the world.​

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[TurtleHare]

Being a first fruit isn't what saves because we can't bear the fruit unless we have been given faith by the him in the first place and then fruit follows but it isn't fruit that saves.

 

[MoreCoffee]

Being a first fruit isn't what saves because we can't bear the fruit unless we have been given faith by the him in the first place and then fruit follows but it isn't fruit that saves.

I wonder if the formula you suggest can be true after I read what the Lord said to the disciples:

John 15:1-17 1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he will take away. And each one that does bear fruit, he will cleanse, so that it may bring forth more fruit. 3 You are clean now, because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. Just as the branch is not able to bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so also are you unable, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit. For without me, you are able to do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me, he will be cast away, like a branch, and he will wither, and they will gather him and cast him into the fire, and he burns. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, then you may ask for whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. 8 In this, my Father is glorified: that you should bring forth very much fruit and become my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my precepts, you shall abide in my love, just as I also have kept my Father’s precepts and I abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be fulfilled.

12 This is my precept: that you love one another, just as I have loved you. 13 No one has a greater love than this: that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends, if you do what I instruct you. 15 I will no longer call you servants, for the servant does not know what his Lord is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything whatsoever that I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you. 16 You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. And I have appointed you, so that you may go forth and bear fruit, and so that your fruit may last. Then whatever you have asked of the Father in my name, he shall give to you. 17 This I command you: that you love one another.​

Fruit bearing requires attachment to the vine (Jesus Christ) and failure to bear fruit means pruning (separation from Christ) and eventual destruction (condemnation at the last judgement).

 

[TurtleHare]

I wonder if the formula you suggest can be true after I read what the Lord said to the disciples:

John 15:1-17 1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he will take away. And each one that does bear fruit, he will cleanse, so that it may bring forth more fruit. 3 You are clean now, because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. Just as the branch is not able to bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so also are you unable, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit. For without me, you are able to do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me, he will be cast away, like a branch, and he will wither, and they will gather him and cast him into the fire, and he burns. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, then you may ask for whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. 8 In this, my Father is glorified: that you should bring forth very much fruit and become my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my precepts, you shall abide in my love, just as I also have kept my Father’s precepts and I abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be fulfilled.

12 This is my precept: that you love one another, just as I have loved you. 13 No one has a greater love than this: that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends, if you do what I instruct you. 15 I will no longer call you servants, for the servant does not know what his Lord is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything whatsoever that I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you. 16 You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. And I have appointed you, so that you may go forth and bear fruit, and so that your fruit may last. Then whatever you have asked of the Father in my name, he shall give to you. 17 This I command you: that you love one another.​

Fruit bearing requires attachment to the vine (Jesus Christ) and failure to bear fruit means pruning (separation from Christ) and eventual destruction (condemnation at the last judgement).

The attachment to the vine was caused not by the fruit being beared.

 

[MoreCoffee]

The attachment to the vine was caused not by the fruit being beared.

But the detachment and eventual incineration is caused by not bearing fruit.

 

[Josiah]

I wonder if the formula you suggest can be true after I read what the Lord said to the disciples:

John 15:1-17 1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he will take away. And each one that does bear fruit, he will cleanse, so that it may bring forth more fruit. 3 You are clean now, because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. Just as the branch is not able to bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so also are you unable, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit. For without me, you are able to do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me, he will be cast away, like a branch, and he will wither, and they will gather him and cast him into the fire, and he burns. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, then you may ask for whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. 8 In this, my Father is glorified: that you should bring forth very much fruit and become my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my precepts, you shall abide in my love, just as I also have kept my Father’s precepts and I abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be fulfilled.

12 This is my precept: that you love one another, just as I have loved you. 13 No one has a greater love than this: that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends, if you do what I instruct you. 15 I will no longer call you servants, for the servant does not know what his Lord is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything whatsoever that I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you. 16 You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. And I have appointed you, so that you may go forth and bear fruit, and so that your fruit may last. Then whatever you have asked of the Father in my name, he shall give to you. 17 This I command you: that you love one another.​

Fruit bearing requires attachment to the vine (Jesus Christ) and failure to bear fruit means pruning (separation from Christ) and eventual destruction (condemnation at the last judgement).

Bearing fruit is not what causes the branch to have life, to be in relation with the vine. You have it backwards, my brother. Bearing fruit is evidence that the branch has life and strength and is in relation to the vine.



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[MoreCoffee]

In John 15 the detachment and eventual incineration is caused by not bearing fruit.