#DailyDevotion You Will Know False Prophets By Their Fruits

Matt. 7:15-20 ¹⁵“Beware of false prophets. They come to you dressed like sheep, but in their hearts they’re greedy wolves. ¹⁶“You will know them by what they produce. Can they pick grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? ¹⁷No, every good tree bears good fruit, and a bad tree bad fruit. ¹⁸A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor a bad tree good fruit. ¹⁹Any tree that doesn’t bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰So you will know them by what they produce.

What is Jesus talking about? He warns us to beware of false prophets. How will we recognize them? It’s hard to tell just by looking at them. They are clothed like sheep. They look just like us. But their hearts are like greedy wolves. What they teach and say sounds reasonable to us. Of course our sinful flesh is in tune with what they themselves teach, say and do.

How will you recognize them then? Jesus say we will know them by what they produce. Still not necessarily helpful, at first. So Jesus asks can we get grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? There is good fruit and there is bad fruit. Just as a bad tree cannot produced good fruit, a good tree cannot produce bad fruit. What is a good fruit and what is a bad fruit though?

We must just all things by the Word of God. What the Word of God calls good we must also. What it calls bad we must also. We may just want to look at what Jesus is teaching in this section of Matthew called the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus expounds the law here perfectly. Do they do or at least teach what Jesus teaches here? John in his epistle lesson chapter 3 tells us, “²³He orders us to believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and to love one another as He has ordered us to do.” Do these false prophets point us to Jesus as the only way to salvation? Do they teach us that only through faith in Jesus can we we be saved? Or do they require something else, robbing Jesus of his glory and honor? Do they teach us to love one another or do they demand sacrifice? Jesus in Matthew 9:13 teaches us, “I want mercy and not mere sacrifice.”

Paul in Galatians 5 tells us, “¹⁹Now, you know the works of the flesh. They are: sexual sin, uncleanness, wild living, ²⁰worshiping of idols, witchcraft, hate, wrangling, jealousy, anger, selfishness, quarreling, divisions, ²¹envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, those who do such things will have no share in God’s kingdom. ²²But the Spirit produces love, joy, peace. He makes us patient, kindly, good, faithful, ²³gentle, and gives us self-control.” We may take note that the fruits of the Spirit aren’t particularly exciting. The bad fruit seems to be pretty obvious, yet it seems we often ignore them.

False teachers are often greedy and cause divisions. They cause divisions to separate people for themselves from whom they may fleece them from their possessions. In order to separate them from the good and true teachers they of necessity must teach something different, something that sounds reasonable. They must appeal to our flesh and reason. They will preach a different Christ, one who does not save you solely by his works and someone who lessens God’s law and makes it easier to keep. You are responsible for not supporting and following false prophets. You have God’s Word to judge them by. You cannot claim you didn’t know. It’s not always easy but one you discover who and what they are, it is up to you to separate yourselves from them and attach yourself to a true teacher of God’s Word.

Gracious God, heavenly Father, give us your Spirit and your Word so we may rightly identify false teachers and not follow them but through the same identify true teachers of your Word, to follow and support them and produce good fruit. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.