I bet it would have been life changing. He told people powerful truth. So they flocked to him and asked how they should live.

He said they should “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (Luke 3:8). In other words, if you repent of wrongdoing before God, there needs to be evidence—there needs to be a change in your behaviour. If not, your faith is a façade.

As this passage and others demonstrate, ‘producing fruit’ has to do with living in a way that is generous and loving toward others, even in a culture of greed.

We do this because (a) we know that God has already been generous and loving toward us through the gift of Christ, and (b) because we trust God will provide for us.

Because of that, we can’t not be generous!

Back then, John was saying that if you claim to have a life-changing faith, your faith should be changing your life. I think he’s saying the same thing to us today:

If you claim to have a life-changing faith, your faith should be changing your life.

If you claim to have faith in Christ and are actively blessing others with who you are, that’s awesome, be encouraged. If not, I think you need to ask yourself the honest question of whether or not you actually believe.

[If you need more information, click on the podcast below.]

As you prepare for Jesus’ birth, are you going through the motions? Are you giving lip service to God? Are you blending in to the values of the society around you? Are you stretching yourself to share God’s truth and love?

If you claim to have a life-changing faith, your faith should be changing your life.

By Matthew Ruttan