I hope to see you in passing, and to be helped on my way there by you, when I have first enjoyed your company for a while - but now, I am going to Jerusalem serving the saints. For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. You do, no one else, nothing else. God is in control except when we take control from Him. The mind of man plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.
Fruit denotes that which is genuine.
Plastic bananas are easy to identify and they don't taste very good. The production we seek, the fruit we desire to bear, will come not because we are trying to make fruit but because we observe the proper conditions of faith. And it will be genuine fruit when it comes from faith. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. The fifth window to Paul's soul states that He is under obligation.