Jesus says that everyone who does the will of God is His family. I hope you are part of God’s family. You do it by abiding in God’s will, not by raising your hand or going up front at a church service or by repeating a prayer. There are no magic words to get saved. You surrender your life to God to put your life to death and to take on the life of Christ by the Spirit coming to live in you. That’s salvation. That’s the will of God for you.

But doing the will of God looks like loving others. That’s what the law teaches us to do. We love our neighbors as ourselves. We love others. That’s the will of God.

But we don’t just do the will of God. It starts in the heart.

A good tree produces good fruit. How do we get a good tree? A good tree has good roots.

If you are rooted in Christ, then you will have a good tree and good fruit.

We’re to be rooted and grounded in love, that’s the same as being rooted and grounded in Christ, who is love.

We get good roots by being filled with the Holy Spirit and then not quenching the Spirit.

We turn to God’s word and prayer to nourish the tree.

If you want to know how your heart is doing, listen to what you say. Is it complaint? Is it judgment? Is it worry? Is it mean? Is it hurt because of unforgiveness? Is it self, self, self?

Jesus points out that the mouth speaks what’s in the heart.

James says that only a perfect man can control the tongue. The only way your mouth is going to speak perfectly is if you are a perfect man.

Who is the perfect man?

Jesus alone.

We need to die to self and Christ needs to be alive in us. Self is rotten and will produce bad fruit. Christ alone is life and all the good we’ll ever have.

Be filled with the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of love, and let Him produce good fruit. He’s the only one who can.