Be Fruitful for Jesus – 1 Peter 2:1-3
What Jesus taught to His disciples in the Parable of the Sower –
མད་ཐཱ། 13:23
ས་བོན་ས་རྒྱུ་བཟང་པོ་ལ་འཐོར་བ་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་ཐོས་ནས་རྟོགས་པའི་མི་དེ་ཡིན། འབྲས་བུ་སྨིན་ཏེ། འབྲས་བུ་ཁ་ཤས་ལྡབ་བརྒྱ་དང༌། ཁ་ཤས་ལྡབ་དྲུག་ཅུ། ཁ་ཤས་ལྡབ་སུམ་ཅུ་བཅས་སྨིན་” ཞེས་གསུངས།
Matthew 13:23
As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
The key to being fruitful for Jesus is “the one who hears the word and understands it“.
Having adequate knowledge and good understanding of Scripture is foundational to living in obedience and doing the will of God and being fruitful for Jesus.
Being fruitful for Jesus is the measure of our relationship with God.
Peter a disciple and an appointed apostle of Jesus sent messages to disciples who were scattered due to persecution of their faith in following Jesus
པེ་ཏྲོ་དང་པོ། 2:1-3
1དེ་ལྟར་ཡིན་པས། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་གདུག་རྩུབ་དང་། གཡོ༌སྒྱུ། ཚུལ་འཆོས། ཕྲག༌དོག སྐུར་འདེབས་ཀྱི་གཏམ་སྣ་ཚོགས་སྤངས༌ནས། 2གསར་སྐྱེས་ཀྱི་ཕྲུ་གུས་བྱེད་པ་བཞིན། ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་བཀའ་ཡི་འོ་མ་ལྷད་མེད་དེ་ལ་ཡིད་སྨོན་བྱེད་དགོས༌ཏེ། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་དེ་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་ཐར་པའི་ཕྱོགས་སུ་རིམ་བཞིན་དད་པ་ཇེ་བརྟན་དུ་འགྱུར་བའི་ཕྱིར༌ཡིན་ཞིང་། 3ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་གཙོ་བོའི་ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཉམས་སུ་མྱངས་པས་དེ་ལྟར་བྱེད་འོས་སོ།།
1 Peter 2:1-3
So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Those who accepted Jesus as the Messiah were under obligation to be separated from the world of pagan worship and corruptions of the flesh.
What was discouraging for these disciples was that they were not persecuted for doing things that were morally wrong but in public rejection of false gods and man-made religions which plagued the world in spiritual darkness.
How society function was very much influenced by the beliefs and religions of law-makers and government leaders and today we are still faced with the same social-political problem. Peter was encouraging disciples of Jesus to “put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander” which was reflected in their personal beliefs and practices before they accepted Jesus’ redemption through confessing of their sins and denouncing their acts of sin against God.
Disciples of Jesus were denouncing falsehood in society and being persecuted.
Disciples of Jesus were living witness of scripture truth which testifies of God’s judgement against the wicked but redemption for those who choose to live according to God’s righteousness. And Peter was encouraging these disciples to remain faithful to Jesus and to be fruitful to observe God’s truth revealed in scripture.
Peter’s instruction “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk” was referring to scripture truth written in the Torah and the Prophets.
During the time of Jesus and the apostles the scripture and Bible text they used for teaching and admonishing was all from the Torah and the Prophets. Jesus and the apostles were living in the time of fulfillment of the message of the prophet Malachi
མ་ལ་ཀི 4:4-6
4སྔར་ངས་རང་གི་ཞབས་ཏོག་པ་མོ་ཤེའི་བརྒྱུད་ནས་རི་བོ་སི་ནཨེ་སྒང་དུ་ཨིསི་རཱཨེལ་མི་མང་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སྲུང་ཕྱིར་སྤྲད་པའི་བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་ཀྱི་སློབ་སྟོན་རྣམས་ཁྱོད་ཚོས་སེམས་ལ་དྲན་གསོ་བྱོས་ཤིག
5འོན་ཀྱང་འཇིགས་སུ་རུང་བའི་གཙོ་བོ་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་ཉིན་ཞག་ཆེན་པོ་དེ་མ་ཡོང་གོང་དུ་ལུང་སྟོན་པ་ཨེ་ལི་ཡཱ་དེ་ངས་ཁྱོད་ཚོའི་ཁྲོད་དུ་གཏོང་རྒྱུ་ཡིན། 6དེས་ཕ་དང་བུ་ཕྲུག་རྣམས་ཀྱི་བར་ལ་མཐུན་ལམ་བྱེད་རྒྱུ་ཡིན་པ་ལས། དེ་མིན་ང་ཡོང་ནས་ངས་ཁྱོད་ཚོའི་ཡུལ་དེ་འཇིག་པར་བྱེད་རྒྱུ་ཡིན་ནོ།།
Malachi 4:4-6
4 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.
5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
The words of God make distinction between those who worship God and those who do not.
Living in obedience to God’s words is foundational to being fruitful for Jesus.
In-His-Service
David Z