This mark of the church is a dynamic one. The writers of the epistles, both those of Paul and the general epistles, knew full well that the body of believers moved in and out of being obedient to God.
In one sense the believers moved back and forth between revealing the fruits of the Spirit and the fruits of the flesh. Where the fruits of the flesh predominated, they were not being true to their Lord; but when people experienced the fruits of the Spirit, they were revealing the love of Christ. While the other criteria are difficult to clearly measure, it is not difficult to know when the fruits of the Spirit are being exhibited. And when a community appears to exhibit them in both good times and bad, one knows that something powerful is present.
When those in the world enter the Christian community and see there love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, they will know that they have discovered something of value for their lives. The church will not have to seek ways to validate itself to the world because its life will be self-authenticating.
In contrast to the triumphalism of some periods of church history, the church need not try to find ways to impose itself upon the world but rather it can come as the humiliated-God community that seeks to serve and not to be served. It travels incognito, confident that as it is faithful, God will give the capacity to others to glimpse the glory of God in its life and recognize its Lord.
