John 15:4 (ESV) 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.
The Summer of Love in 1967 was the peak of the hippy movement. People came from all over to the Haight/Ashbury District of San Francisco. The hippies wanted to love everyone, to be kind, peaceful, and gentle. The problem was that they had no basis for this, no foundation to build upon, except the wish for a better world. They would work for something not achieved through work.
It took just a few months for many of them to become disillusioned with the idea of inner peace. It wasn’t working. Most fell into what Paul calls the “works of the flesh.” Haight/Ashbury became one of the more dangerous areas of San Francisco. Free sex, heavy drug use (Paul calls this sorcery, pharmakiea), violent crime, all the works listed in Gal. 5:19-22:
Gal. 5:19-21 (ESV) Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
The search for meaning in the hippy movement brought disillusionment to many, but an estimated one to two million came to Christ out of the failures they experienced with self-willed inner peace. These people found Jesus alone could fulfill the promise of the changes they sought:
Gal. 5:22-24 (ESV) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
As with false religions, seekers often considered works as the path to peace: “If only I could just do . . . I would be at peace.” But that peace never comes. Works are futile. They will lead you nowhere. Fruit, the kind of fruit Jesus and Paul talk about, comes to us organically. It is produced in the Christian by the Holy Spirit within us. It isn’t something we do.
Fruit comes from dependence on the true vine (John 15:1). Without the food from the vine, the branches die, are cut down, and thrown into the fire (John 15:6). A branch cannot produce fruit by itself. Likewise, a man or woman cannot produce love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control without the Spirit of God in them.
Every day, we see those seeking these traits through effort rather than reliance on our Lord. It is man trying to produce what God produces in us naturally through our abiding in Him. It is man laboring for something that can only be received as a free gift.
Why is this important?
Even today, unhappy people are marching through the streets of our nation demonstrating for or against one cause or another – often for several. They are seeking purpose in their works but finding very little. They want personal peace but are looking for it in the wrong places. Only the Holy Spirit can bring true peace.
As Christians, we carry the secret to share with those seeking peace through works. Only we know the God of grace who can bestow what they seek. All they need is to be told and to ask God themselves.
How simple it is, yet it is so often rejected as “just too simple.” So the lost continue to work for something that is only found through yielding to the God of majesty, who offers it freely and is anxious to see all people accept it.
Believers Armed and Dangerous 