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The principle of reproduction

In covering this Principle we will see the way in which we are to discern between true and false prophets, remembering that a prophet in this context is anyone who claims to be speaking a word from God. Our scripture reference is Matthew 7: 1523 and we will divide it into three sections beginning with verse 15 which is, in effect, an introductory statement.

“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves”.

Achievement in the kingdom of God

Although this point was well made in Principle 2 the Principle of Being, it is important here that we stress it again. Achievement in the kingdom of God does not come from what you do but from what you are. It seems that whenever God’s people are weak on “being” they become strong on “doing” as if the latter can be a substitute for the former. And yet as soon as we stop “being”‘ there is no amount of “doing”‘ that can enable us to achieve anything in God’s kingdom.  (For a fuller treatment of this subject, refer to Principle No. 2).

Genuine false prophets

You will never fault a genuine false prophet by what he does and what he says for in this he will appear perfect. A genuine false prophet is the “real thing” as false prophets go. That is, he will be so apparently flawless that any outward check would never reveal his falseness. This leads us to the fact that you will never know a man unless you know him inwardly. The prophet Samuel was reminded of this by God when he began to be impressed by outward appearances in the selection of a king for Israel.

“For the Lord seeth not as man seeth;  for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart”. 1 Samuel 16:7.

Whereas men are influenced by appearances  by what they see and hear  God is not. Because deceiving appearances succeed so well, the world uses them continually. Millions of dollars are spent on advertising to create desired impressions by presenting certain appearances and even if the deceit is not always outright, our susceptibility to being impressed by what we see and hear is heavily exploited in this and other areas.

How much more then, when it comes to spiritual matters, will the devil work heavily on deceiving appearances. We have, unfortunately, a preconditioned image of a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” as being a very obvious wolf with a sheepskin draped over him.

However, when Jesus spoke of them, he was speaking about wolves that are every bit a sheep so far as appearances go.

Outwardly they are sheep, it is only inwardly – in the area of the unseen  that they are ravening wolves.

The way to know a man

Verses 1620 further develop the teaching of verse 15:

“Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them”.

A man can only be truly known by what he is and the reproduction of his life in others. When God made man he reproduced himself:

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them”. Genesis 1:26,27.

Man is not a copy of God, he is a reproduction of what God is. In creating man God set out to display what he himself was. We read that Jesus was the express image of God (Hebrews 1:3). In a coin mint, the coins are stamped out with a die so that a vast number of coins will all bear not a copy, but the very express image of that die.

Likewise, it was God’s very image that was stamped upon Jesus and so it was with Adam at the beginning when God first reproduced himself. Although that image was marred by the fall of Adam, God has restored it in Jesus Christ. So we read in 2 Corinthians 3:18

“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord”.

Jesus is reproduced in us. We are to be fruit  not just followers. It is possible and it is often the case, that a person is saved and even filled with the Holy Spirit and yet, because of his unwillingness to allow the Holy Spirit to transform him into the image of Jesus, he is not fruit to God’s glory. God ought to be known by the reproduction of himself in the lives of his people.

Fruit and results

The difference between fruit and results is that you can produce results but you reproduce fruit. And this is often a deception within the church of Jesus Christ where God’s ministers find it easier to learn result-producing techniques than to be so much men of God that they will reproduce themselves.

A man will, of course, inevitably reproduce himself but if what he is is not glorifying to God, he will seek to keep the spotlight on results. The power of God, the promises of God and the gifts of God can be abused or misused and they often are for the purpose of producing results.   Travelling ministries certainly have their place in the Body of Christ but for some men in ministry a travelling “hit and run” ministry is a convenient way to emphasise results and avoid the damning evidence of fruit.

Ten thousand souls saved or bodies healed in an evangelistic campaign are not fruit they are results.   Though wonderful in themselves if they come from a God-anointed ministry, yet they must never be mistaken for a stamp of God’s approval on the minister.

This means, of course, that a man in local church ministry will have obvious fruit in those to whom he regularly ministers  fruit that will one way or another reveal the man that he really is. We are not speaking here of “personality cults@.

There is a distinct difference between reproducing yourself and forming a personality cult. To reproduce yourself is to be a father  one who imparts life which he has received. Paul was so confident in his commentary on his life and ministry as exhibited by his “children” that he told them that they were “living epistles”. This was much more significant than any written letter of commendation (2 Corinthians 3:13). These people were the reproduction of  the fruit of  Paul’s ministry. So it is that Paul drew the graphic distinction between instructors and fathers.

“For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel”. 1 Corinthians 4.15.

All of the result-producing teachers are no substitute for a reproducing father. It is sadly true that many Christians will fuss over a visiting instructor (of whom they can think the best because they do not really know him) and yet fail to appreciate the commitment and fatherhood in their own fruit-producing pastor. Churches are not built on results and neither can God be glorified by results, but only by the fruit of continuous growth under “fatherhood” ministry. So Paul claimed the role of a father to the Corinthians even though these people had begun to undermine him in their infatuation with their instructors. Instead of accepting Paul as their father whose fruit they were  they reduced his role to that of a contender in the ministry “popularity stakes” and we gather that he did not always shape up too well. He was not necessarily the best preacher or teacher but he was their father. He refused to be dragged into competing with other ministries for that was not the point. A visitor in a home may excel in some area of relating to the children in that home in a way that the father does not, yet the father need not be concerned for his role and is not threatened by an exciting visitor even if he does play ball “better than dad”!

The way to please God

This teaching is further developed in strong terms in verses 2123.

“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven;  but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?  and in thy name have cast out devils?  and in thy name done many wonderful works?  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you:  depart from me, ye that work iniquity”.

God is impressed with the person who does his will rather than the one who sounds right (Lord, Lord) and does the thing that looks right (prophesy, exorcism, wonderful works).  The will of God, as we have seen, is that his life be reproduced in us. God cannot be satisfied if we are doing his things but we are not the reproduction of what he is.

A better translation of the word “iniquity” (verse 23) is “lawlessness”.  He says, “Depart from me ye that work lawlessness. The person who is not reproducing the right fruit is lawless no matter what else he is doing right. God intends that the church of Jesus Christ be made up of families, each family being a growing “extended family” of God’s people. God ordains apostles and they become fathers, reproducing that which God gave to them in others who in turn reproduce that which has been reproduced in them.

Thus numbers of spiritual “generations” are brought forth and the seed or “lifesource” which came from God is multiplied. This is the principle which operates in Outreach International. There is, therefore, no credit given to the person who is doing his thing for God. Only those who in God’s way faithfully reproduce that which God has given to them can be accepted by God. For some, this would threaten personal ambition and so they choose rather than risk sacrificing their own success story, to work for God but not with God.

Yet Jesus had no ambitions for personal glory. When he was tempted by the devil with the offer of being given all the kingdoms of the earth, he was being offered personal success, personal glory, it was an opportunity to have prominence for himself. However, Jesus had a driving passion which was above all else.  We read of it in Hebrews 10:59.

“Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body has thou prepared me:  In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou has had no pleasure.

Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein;  which are offered by the law:  Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.  He taketh away the first that he may establish the second”.

What he was saying in effect, was “God, I know you are not looking for performance and results, but you are looking for the giving of a life to reproduce your life. You did not ask me for sacrifice and offering, instead you prepared a body for me”.

What was that body prepared for? When God created Adam he created a body and then breathed into it “the breath of life” and man became a living soul. When God prepared a body for Jesus “the second Adam”, it was a body into which and through which his life would be reproduced. It was God’s desire that the one who occupied that body would say of his own free choice, “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God”.

Jesus did not come to make a name for himself, he did not come to write his own success story nor to be prominent in his own right. That is why he kept pointing people back to the Father and reminding them that he was only doing the Father’s works and that without him he could do nothing. Jesus had no ambition for his own ends for he had none. His one desire was to reproduce the life of God and because of this God could say of him, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased”.

In the Hebrew family such words as those spoken by the Father in commendation of Jesus would be spoken by a father to his son, not in recognition of academic or other achievement, but in recognition of a son who was faithfully committed to his one real purpose in life, the reproduction in his generation of the truths and principles by which his father lived.

In the kingdom of God we are to be the reproduction of our Father, and therefore of our fathers in the Lord so that there will always be a faithful bringing forth of that which God has given to his church. Otherwise, no matter what a man does and no matter what miracles occur in his life and ministry, he will be lawless for he will be a law unto himself. Just as the fatherson relationship is relevant to this principle, so is that of husband and wife. For the church is the Bride of Christ. The words of Jesus, “I never knew you” speak of a lack of deep intimacy. When a man and wife come together in intimate love there is the reproduction of life. When Jesus and his church move together in intimacy there will inevitably be life reproduced and fruit borne. The reproduction of God’s life in and through us alone is the answer. We do not need to learn better techniques and more effective ways to do God’s work. We need, rather, to know what it is to live in an intimate love relationship with Jesus. Results have nothing to do with our acceptance (verse 23).

The cry of Paul’s heart for his spiritual children is expressed in Galatians 4:19.

“My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you“.

The father who brought them forth, whose reproduction they were, was going through another set of birth-pangs because of his desire to see formed in them that which Jesus had given to him. A mother who, having been through travail to give birth to her child, rejoices in the little bundle by her side, yet there is much more travail ahead for her as she seeks to bring this little bundle to maturity and adulthood. If that is the cry of the apostle’s heart, how much more is it the cry of God’s heart? There is, we know, great joy in heaven over every sinner that repents, yet having seen a man born again God has another ache in his heart and that is to bring that man to maturity.

No true father-in-God can be satisfied with seeing a church full of people who although born again, have not developed into mature reproductions of the life of God: until Christ is formed in them God cannot he glorified.

Paul’s travail was not because of a lack of doing on the part of the Galatians. He was not seeking to whip them into a frenzy of witnessing, exercising spiritual gifts or performing miracles. His concern was that they were not yet being the reproduction of Jesus and so we read in Colossians 1:25-27.

“Therefore I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;  Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints; To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

The thing which God wants to demonstrate to the whole world is Jesus Christ reproduced in his church. This is the mystery which was “hid from ages and from generations”. The prophets wracked their brains trying to figure out the meanings of the prophecies relating to it even as they spoke them, but could not. Yet this mystery is now unveiled, the reproduction of the life of Christ in us is the only thing that can possibly glorify God.

In this, God is operating by one principle only, the principle of reproduction. It must be life brought forth and only life brings forth life, the letter brings forth nothing. You can never become a fruitful Christian by knowing the “letter”, but only by possessing and bringing forth life. Something that is in another must be reproduced in you or there will be no fruit borne. God places the deposit of life within us just as he did with Adam and Eve, brought them together in intimacy and then commanded them to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. So it is in all of creation and so it is that the kingdom of God works by reproduction.

Likewise we, receiving that which God has given us and living in an intimate relationship with Jesus  “knowing ” him bring forth or reproduce the life of Jesus. Evangelism which is not true fruit-bearing is like rounding up all of the children in your street, taking them to your house, feeding and clothing them and giving them beds and then saying, “Look at my children”. But they are not your children. They are the children of others recruited by you so as to fill your house. To fill a church in that way is not God’s method but to multiply  to bring forth your own children  is to see growth as in the early church when God “added to the church daily”.

The only children who really are our children, are those whom we reproduce by the life of God in us.

About the author

Tony Kostas was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1941, where at the age of seventeen, he committed his life to Jesus at a Billy Graham Crusade. In 1967 he founded the Melbourne Outreach Crusade, a non-denominational evangelistic outreach. This later grew into Outreach International, which is now a worldwide body of believers, who share a God-given calling and are committed to live in love with Him and with one another.

Tony’s life is a true expression of all that God has revealed to him throughout the years, in its purity and focus on loving God. His passion is for God to have the desire of His hears: a people who truly represent Him because they are His and His alone.