BY THEIR FRUIT

Be on your guard against false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves. You’ll recognize them by their fruit. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit; neither can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So you’ll recognize them by their fruit.  -Matthew 7:15-20

Jesus sometimes spoke in parables. The word parable comes from two Greek words: para (alongside, e.g. parallel lines), and bole (life), and it means a comparison or analogy. Parable literally means alongside life. Jesus told stories (parables) with origins rooted in things that people could understand.

Jesus rarely used witty, comical, or entertaining stories about His life to illustrate the gospel. You’ll never find that in Scripture because Jesus didn’t come to gather sermon groupies and boost Sunday attendance. Jesus came to bring us from death to life, i.e. to reveal (John 17:25-26) and glorify (John 17:1) the Father.

When we become followers of Christ by grace through faith, not by works so that no one can boast (Eph 2:8-9), the evidence of that new birth, regeneration, and in fact, resurrection to walk in newness of life is exactly that - radically supernatural transformation. It does NOT merely boil down to moral discipline, e.g. no swearing, no drinking, no drugs, no gambling, church on Sundays, daily quiet times, etc. Producing moral dead people is not what Jesus came for and it is certainly not what he taught, preached or died for.

Jesus came to reveal and glorify the Father. The character and nature of the Father were revealed in Jesus through Christ’s willingness to transform from our eternal Creator - existing outside of time and space - into the tangible incarnate Son of Man. The Father’s love, patience, benevolence, kindness, grace, mercy… are all on perfect display in Jesus, His words and His works.

In John 14:8 Philip asked Jesus, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us." In v.9 Jesus responded, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” That’s certainly not an apologetic for Modalism or Patripassianism (or any heresy that demands Jesus and the Father are the same person). Rather Jesus was telling Philip that there is no distinction in terms of their eternal character, nature, glory or holiness because those aspects of the Father are revealed perfectly in Jesus.

Jesus said, “You will recognize them by their fruit.”

Jesus didn’t ride down from heaven beaming in blinding magnificence in a golden chariot led by wondrous beasts. No. Immanuel, God with Us, chose to be born in a stinky animal pen and to die upon a blood-soaked cross in order to clearly articulate the extent to which He, God Almighty, goes for us - for you. Then He invited His friends, i.e. His disciples, to lay down rights to our own lives, pick up our crosses, and to follow in His footsteps of revealing and glorifying the Father in all that we do.

That’s what the fruit of the Spirit looks like.

The fruit Jesus was talking about - in fact the kind He produced in extravagant abundance doesn’t look like jealousy, infidelity, pornography, rage, fake smiles, gossip, golf claps, sarcastic barbs, grumbling and superficial religion. Yet that’s what the fruit of our selfish lives look like.

Paul David Tripp wrote, “The joy or complaint of your heart always shapes your willingness to trust God and to do his will.” Sadly, in fact, tragically many of us don’t even know what His will is. We memorize Scripture out of context and haphazardly administer it to self and circumstance as if the sum of God’s will were our personal safety and security.

“I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” - Phil 4:13

Clearly, this does not include making it to a worship service or ministry opportunity when your family is in town or your favorite team is playing. But we’ll pull it out like a rabbit’s foot when our self-absorbed lives and autonomous choices lead to discontent and tragedy.

“For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” -Jeremiah 29:11

Tragically preachers and Christians take this to mean that God’s plan for my life is for me to be safe, secure, and financially independent. We even go so far as to promise God that if he would bless us with health, security, and prosperity - then we would believe and return a portion of that back to Him. As if He needs it? Why aren’t we always using our current circumstances that have been orchestrated or foreseen by God to reveal Him and bring Him glory? Did Jesus say, “Father if you would deliver me from this cross -then- I will use a portion of my life to honor you?” No. It was through His humbly glorious incarnation, life, ministry, passion, death, and resurrection - ALL OF IT - that the Father was perfectly revealed and glorified.

"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” -Luke 11:9

In our selfishness, we ask for deliverance from struggles rather than faith in them. We beg and pout like spoiled children for material blessings rather than praising God for the abundance of relational blessings we could never fully appreciate or exhaust. We fail to intimately identify with or actively participate in the will and mission of God, yet have the audacity to claim, “God, you tell us in Scripture that whatever we ask - it will be given.”

Jesus didn’t say we’d be known by our salvation, by our baptism, by our theology, our doctrine, or our church programs. He said we’d be known by our fruit.

Well cultivated, nurtured, fertilized trees, i.e. good trees, can’t help but produce good fruit. Trees in the contaminated soil of selfishness, rebellion, and sin are incapable of producing good fruit. Therefore, we redefine what “good” fruit is…  podcast sermons, Bible studies, small groups, committees, mission trips, Christian concerts, etc., but we never really get lost in Christ. We never really become immersed in the soil of His love and grace. We don’t really trust that God’s got this. We don’t reveal and glorify God with every day, every opportunity, every challenge, every heartbreak, every loss, every victory, every relationship, in every moment.

Jesus said, “You will recognize them by their fruit.”

What story does the fruit of your life tell? What kind of tree would Jesus describe you as?

Don’t lose heart. If you’re not the kind of tree producing fruit that constantly and perpetually reveals and glorifies God there is hope and His promise.

The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. -Psalm 145:18

Blessings,

-Kevin M. Kelley

aMostUnlikelyDisciple.com

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