Jan. 20

By Their Fruits.

Background: Matt. 7:15-20; Galatians 5:22-23.

In the early days of the Super Bowl, a brash young quarterback guaranteed that his team would win. This made headlines across the nation, because such arrogance and bragging publicly was unheard of, especially from the leader of a team that everyone knew was going to lose.

That kind of talk also usually only serves to inspire the other team to play even better, and reduce your chances of winning even further.

But on that fateful day, Joe Namath led the New York Jets to a stunning victory over the heavily favored Baltimore Colts.

Even his own teammates thought Namath was crazy for making such brash statements in front of the media, but when the day was done, his team had indeed won.

The fruit of his brash statements that day was victory. He had total confidence in himself and in his team, and believed enough to say so. From that point, Namath became a great quarterback, because on that day he made believers out of the world. His fruit emerged.

1. Fruit is the result of labor.

It was results, such as backing up what you say with actions, that Jesus had in mind when he told his disciples that they could recognize who false and true prophets were by their fruits – by the results that followed them.

In the context of the passage, Jesus is aiming his comments more at religious leaders than other believers.

When Jesus walked on the earth, the religious leaders of his day may have had the same attitude that people had when they heard Namath making his outlandish promise of victory. They wondered who this man could be, to say such things, and to question authority as openly as he did. In Jesus’ case, the religious leaders of the day eventually crucified him.

Knowing this was coming, Jesus told his disciples that they could tell who the true prophets were by their fruits. The fruit of the Jewish religious system of that day was a rigid legalism that offered no real hope for victory. The result, or fruit, of depending on the law, was death, as Paul would write later.

Jesus spoke of a living relationship with God the Father, not based on following a set of rules, but based on a loving relationship. The result of this kind of life, Jesus promised, was one of victory over sin and over the flesh.

2. Good fruit versus bad fruit.

While the popular religion of the day offered an endless set of rules, hundreds more than were recorded in scripture, the religion offered nothing to comfort the individual. People had to follow the law, and the extra laws the Jews had imposed, as well as make many sacrifices for their sins, and even then, they were not assured of salvation.

The fruit of this type religion deprived people of any depth in their walk with God. The religion of the Pharisees was one of externals only. In fact, the religion of the Jews often seemed more concerned about what others thought about a person than what God thought.

Jesus’ message flew in the face of this rigid type of religion, and he knew he was making many enemies. The disciples must have also wondered how they were to know who to follow, so that was why Jesus told them to look a the fruit, or results, of what was being said.

3. Modern day fruit bearers

It is the same today, with many religious leaders making many outlandish claims. Many claim to speak for God, and to have special revelations from the Holy Spirit. Some of them sound very good, and even have some scriptures to back up the things they say.

There are other religious leaders who are not Christian, but still claim to have a handle on the truth.

It is hard to know whom to believe because many of these speakers are quiet talented. Some are even more talented than true men of God.

The way we tell, just as they did in Jesus’ day, is to look at their fruit.

This examining of fruit could involve looking at their lifestyle, but it goes much deeper. It goes to the result, or fruit, of the ministry.

Many ministries that claim to be of God end up focusing on the minister, or the minister’s message more than on Jesus Christ. In a sense, it could be very simple to say that if a ministry points you to Christ, it has good fruit, and if it glorifies the messenger than that is not good fruit. That may be an oversimplification, but whether God or man is exalted, should be a key.

Even with this word of Jesus to know prophets by their fruits, we should still be careful in our judgments. God can still use false prophets and ministers to reach people. The point of our knowing them by their fruit should not be a method of condemning or criticizing. It should instead, be an internal compass to let us know whom we should be listening to.

4. Judging versus discernment.

Earlier in Matthew chapter seven, Jesus had told his disciples to not judge. Whey then would he, in his next breath, tell them that they could know the truth about a ministry or a prophet by their fruits?

Perhaps it was to draw a distinction between the rigid legalism of popular religion of the day, and his message of love and grace. It was also to encourage them to be spiritual discerners.

As is often the case in the scriptures, there is a fine balance that must be achieved. In this case, there is a balance between judging and discerning the truth. Jesus told his disciples to be innocent as doves, but wise as serpents.

We are not to be “fruit inspectors” with the purpose of judging others, but we can look at fruit, or results, to decide whether we should be involved with people or listen to certain preachers.

While it is true that Jesus wants us to discern who are true and false teachers or prophets, there is not the same indication that He wants us to be busily examining everyone’s fruit.

5. Fruit inspectors.

We should though, examine our own fruit. We cannot get to heaven by our good works, but if we do not have some good works, we should perhaps consider whether we have a real relationship with God.

In the book of James, it says faith without works is dead. He is saying that there is a result to faith.

God is faithful, and if we turn our lives over to him, he will bring about his purposes in our lives.

We should then, examine our own fruit. If we find we are lacking, we should ask God to give us fruit, be obedient, and then trust God to produce the fruit in our lives.

In John 15, Jesus tells us that the way to have good fruit is to abide in him, because He is the true branch. If we do not abide, or live, in Him, we cannot have good fruit.

We should also be biblical about what fruit is. You may or may not be as spiritual as other Christians, and that in itself is no indication of your fruit. We are not to compare ourselves to others, but we are to compare ourselves to the scriptures.

There are several lists of fruits of the spirit in the New Testament. These lists contain different things, but all of them focus on things like love, joy, peace, kindness and those sorts of things. They involve how we act toward others, and those actions should be the kind of actions Jesus would be pleased with.

We cannot get to this point through self-effort though, which is what the Jews were trying to do. Instead, we must abide in the vine. We abide in the vine by trusting ourselves completely to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and believing that he will bring about the fruit He wants us to have.