Matthew 7:15-20

Prophets, teachers, preachers – are we to judge them? The answer, according to Jesus is, yes. Jesus gives us two criteria: their doctrine and their actions. If either is in question, you are looking at a false prophet.

I wonder if the same standard applies to all of us who wear the name of Jesus? Shouldn’t we all speak the truth and shouldn’t we all bear good fruit? Of course we should. The preachers and teachers might be held to a higher bar, but there is a similar bar for all of us.

Oswald Chambers in his book on the Sermon on the Mount says this: “You do not gather the vindictive mood from the Holy Spirit; you do not gather the passionately irritable mood from the patience of God; you do not gather the self-indulgent mood and the lust of the flesh in private life from the Spirit of God.” (p 90 of the updated 2016 version)

Can a person be negative, fault-finding, complaining, and have a biting tongue and be a Christian? Honestly, I don’t see how.

We are like fruit trees. We all bear some kind of fruit. The question is, is it good fruit or bad? Does it come from a heart connected to God’s, or a heart connected to the world? It can’t be both.

An apple or a grape is produced out in the open. A fruit is not a vegetable which grows underground and out of sight. Chambers tells us the world has a prefect right to watch the private lives of Christians to see if the fruit of our faith is genuinely good, or sadly rotten.

If I claim to be a Christian but live a life connected with the world – I am not a Christian. A good tree CANNOT produce bad fruit. Coarse language, dishonesty, negativity, meanness, self-centeredness cannot be the Fruit of the Spirit in us. If those things are present in our lives, the Holy Spirit is not.

We are to be a light to the world, a city on a hill for all to see. Like it or not, the world is watching you to see if your claim to Christ is real or not. They will rightly judge you by your fruit. May it be sweet, genuine, and as good as the Spirit in you.