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Read John 15:1-17 and you should see that bearing fruit involves loving others and doing things for others. It involves doing good works, in other words. Repentance and faith are not good works that you do for others.
You're taking that far too literally. Do you never consider context? Are you unable to brush your teeth without Christ? To eat food? Drink water? Is He saying we can literally do nothing without Him? No, that's not what He's saying. The context is that we can't bear fruit without Him because we need Him to work through us.
I agree with everything you said here except he wrote that in chapter 3, not chapter 2. Just 4 sentences after he said that the natural man can’t understand the things of God he told the Corinthians that they can’t understand it either because they were still carnal in nature even tho they were saved and had believed the gospel. So obviously Paul was not saying that the natural man cannot accept the gospel because they were still acting like natural men. Furthermore every Christian who ever lived was a natural man before they heard the gospel and obviously not all of them weren’t able to believe it. The gospel has the power to elicit a response in those who hear it.
I disagree, I don’t think it’s the works that are actually taken into consideration but the motivation behind the works that is being considered. Hence 1 Corinthians 2:11-15 and 1 Corinthians 13:3.
I wasn't intending to say he wrote that in chapter 2. You misunderstood what I said, but I should have been more clear. What I was intending to say is that 1 Corinthians 2:9-16 establishes the context of verse 14, showing that Paul was talking particularly about spiritually discerning the deeper things (1 Cor 2:10). And then in chapter 3 he shows that even those he called "babes in Christ" were not able to discern those things, which he equated with the meat or solid food of God's word in contrast with the only part of God's word that those babes in Christ could understand, which Paul referred to as milk.
Right.
I'm not saying otherwise. Read what I said again. It involves loving others. So, the motivation for the good works needs to be love for others.
Read 1 Corinthians 2:9-3:3. What Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 2:14 is something that even the carnal "babes in Christ" could not discern, so how could he have been including the gospel in the deeper things that the natural man can't understand? Those babes in Christ were carnal and looked at things like the natural man without using spiritual discernment, and, yet, they understood the gospel or else they wouldn't have been said to be "in Christ".
I don't follow you. This is how I understand the passage.
Romans 8 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
"For in him we live, and move, and have our being" is from Acts 17:28
It only mentions loving others. Would you not include the fruit of the spirit. Would you not include the works of God? It is a lot more than doing. It is being. The doing comes from being just as grapes come from grapevine branches. Grapevine branches are not made by grapes.
Bearing fruit involves being a branch connected to the vine.
But verse 2 shows that not all branches that are attached to Christ will bear fruit. Some don’t and are cut off by The Father.
Jesus is not talking about repentance in John 15, He’s talking about bearing fruit. He doesn’t say a single word about repentance in the entire chapter. And why would He? He’s talking to His 11 faithful apostles who have been following Him for 3 years. John 15 takes place in the upper room after Judas had left the group to go and betray Jesus. Why would Jesus mention repentance to men who were already believers? The point of the message was to tell them not to turn away once He’s gone.
The point is that those spiritually immature "babes in Christ" that Paul refers to in 1 Corinthians 3 are carnal and have the same kind of understanding as the natural man. They are not getting their understanding through the Holy Spirit so they are said to still be sipping spiritual milk and are not ready for solid spiritual food. They don't understand the deeper things of God that Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 2 which is the same as the solid spiritual food that he talks about in 1 Corinthians 3.
What does that mean? The Holy Spirit helps us see the context of scripture.
