Grace and Truth
Bible Ministries

Paul's prayer for believers to exhibit divine good Phil 1:11 Gal 5:22-23


In the context of our study of the mandate for believer's prayer in the PPOG. . Phil 4:6; 1Thes 5:17;

We are considering Paul's prayer for the spiritual growth of believers recorded in Phil 1:9-11;

In verse 11 Paul is praying for believers to be filled with the "fruit of righteouseness."

Phil 1:11; having been completely filled up with the production of righteousness [which is the total fulfillment of spiritual progress] which comes through Jesus Christ, for the glory and praise of God


We are examining the phrase "fruit of righteousness" translated from the Greek words (karpon dikaiosune) which is produced in the believer through TLJC under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.



We have seen that in the Phil 1:11; passage the production is viewed with regard to the quality of it's character as the “fruit of righteousness,” and in Gal 5:22, the same production is viewed with regard to it's source as the “fruit of the Spirit.”where it's characteristics are also described.



We have looked at the first (5) facets of this production of Righteousness which are Integrity Love (Agape) , The Happiness of God (Chara) , Inner Peace and Overt Prosperity (Eirene), Patience and longsuffering (makrothumia) and we just finished the facet called "chrestotes", which means kindness, graciousness, generosity, and sensitivity to others.



We will now examine the sixth part of the fruit of righteousness which is the production of the Spirit which is described by the Greek noun "agathosune", which is from the root "agathos" which means which means to be generous, virtuous and to produce divine good. Divine good has inherent or intrinsic value.

It refers to Christian service or deeds performed by the believer who is filled with the Holy Spirit, directed by the truth of the word of God, and motivated by love for God. It is only such deeds that are accepted by God and rewarded at the judgment seat of Christ.

TLJC used this word to describe the works of God as being the only good that there is Matt 19:16;

In order to understand what is meant by Divine Good we must understand the other types of "good" that exist.

There are three types of good in history:

Human Good, Moral or Establishment Good and Divine Good.

Human good is the production of the believer in the cosmic system which God does not consider to be good, but the natual minded man does, and as a result it is the production of evil. Isa 64:6.

Human good is often a reaction that tries to solve some real or percieved unfairness or an attempt to show that one is better than someone else because of what they do.

All human good proformed by believers will be burned up at the judgment seat of Christ, 1Cor 3:13.

Anything produced outside of the PPOG that is not sin is human good. Human good is never produced from the proper motivation so it is always evil.

Remember all sin is evil, but not all evil is sin. Human good is evil, but not is not sin.

Human good, can be very deceitful Matt 6:23; 2Cor 11:13-15;

This passage says that Satan's ministers are teaching people how to be righteous and humanly good, they imitate the real ministers of Christ but they blind people from the true righteousness of God which is a gift from God's grace and cannot be earned or deserved by man by teaching some system of religion or asceticism or legalism.

 

 

 

© Copyright 2007, Michael Lemmon Bible Ministries. World Rights Reserved.  This document was created on  5/20/2007