oftentimes when we talk about this, people are like, well, it's so unfair of God, like,

he's standing off over there, watching you struggle, watching you trying to be good,

and, you know, he's just distant from you and this unrealistic standard.

And they always leave out the best part of the story.

That God didn't leave the standard unrealistic.

God made the standard accessible.

Welcome back to Verity Podcast, friends.

I'm Felicia Masonheimer, the host of Verity and the founder of every woman, a theologian,

the parent organization for this podcast. I'm so excited to continue the beginner of every woman, a theologian, the parent organization for this podcast.

I'm so excited to continue the beginner believer series this week with a really great question

from one of our listeners. What does it mean to bear fruit when I already was good before

salvation? This is an excellent question because it's one that many of us

don't want to verbalize, right? We think I was a pretty good person before I met Christ. So what's

the difference between how I behave now and how I behaved before I knew Jesus? We're going to talk about that a little bit and look

at what scripture says about bearing fruit, which is the biblical way of talking about a holy

and fruitful life in Christ. I think that this episode will be helpful to those of you who are talking to non-Christians,

unbelievers who believe they really don't need to adjust that much in their life and that God

should be pleased with them. Hopefully some of what we learn is helpful to you. Now before we dive into these scriptures,

we first have to talk about what it means to be good. Because I think a lot of this conversation

struggles due to a difference of definition. Whenever you start to talk about a topic, it's

important to define your terms.

Now, if we were to simply define the word good, we could come up with all sorts of definitions

...