Matthew 7:15-20
15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
Matthew 7:15-20
ReplyDeleteQuestions:
- What fruit do false prophets bear? What does it look like?
- Are we suppose to judge people to be false prophets to identify them?
http://cicministry.org/commentary/worldview0017.htm says:
ReplyDeleteFirst, personality traits are not fruits. On the outside, false prophets look like sheep. They are often very nice people who are kind, endearing, disarming, affable, winsome, and possess many other wonderful qualities. The false idea that these qualities are what Jesus means by "fruits" causes many people to be misled by false prophets. What they fail to realize is that the Dalai Lama has such qualities and he is hardly a Christian. Having a charming exterior is often the "sheep's clothing."
The number of one's followers is not fruit. Many assume that popularity is a sign of good fruit. But the context shows something entirely different: "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it" (Matthew 7:13, 14). The false religious leaders of Israel had more followers than Jesus did. This can hardly be what Jesus meant by "fruit."
And signs and wonders are not fruits.
People who call Jesus "Lord," come in His name, and do works of power are false prophets if they refused to abide within God-given boundaries. This is an important concept. This is lawlessness.
The boundaries are those that God's ordained spokespersons set. For us, they are the teachings of Christ and His apostles (See Hebrews 1:1, 2; 2:3, 4).
The lawless ones do not abide by the teachings of Christ. They are the false prophets. The fruits by which they are known are their teachings, not their personalities, the number of their followers, or their miracles.
To underscore how important judging teaching is, we will examine Paul's address to the elders in Jerusalem. We will see that guarding the flock is a key duty of pastors and elders.
It is important to see that the wolves come from two sources: outside and inside the church. Wolves are always inimical to the well-being of sheep. It is the responsibility of shepherds to make sure the sheep are safe from the wolves. To do this, the wolves must be identified. The way they are identified is through their teachings. Paul described the practice of the wolves: "speaking perverse things." The word "perverse" means "twisted" or "distorted." Their teachings are a distortion of the authoritative teachings of Christ and His apostles. Anyone is a wolf who purposely gives distorted teaching and refuses to repent when shown his error from the Scriptures. The elders must guard the flock against such people.
Notice what happens through the teachings of the wolves: they "draw away the disciples after them." False teachers and prophets have a message that comes from themselves, not from the whole counsel of God. The reason these wolves draw disciples away after themselves is that they are the only source of this teaching. Perverse doctrine cannot be found through valid implications from authoritative Scripture. Therefore, if the wolves succeed in giving some of the sheep an appetite for what they are offering, the sheep will have to follow the wolves to get that appetite fed.
https://bible.org/question/how-can-we-discern-false-teachers says:
ReplyDeleteThey may wear a distinctive garb which sets them apart as leaders. They may have the title ‘reverend.’ They may be men who hold positions of religious leadership. They may well have graduated from a divinity school. Indeed, they might even be seminary professors. Judging on the basis of external indications we might wrongly assume them to be reliable guides, but we must not evaluate them on such external evidence.
Judging by external forms is risky; judging (if you prefer, discerning) on the basis of fruits is absolutely necessary and part of our responsibility. ‘The proof of the root is in the fruit.’ But, what are these fruits? One must be very careful here, for false prophets are not without religious activities. A false prophet is often accompanied by deceptive signs and by seeming wonders.
We should expect false prophets to engage in acts of kindness and charity. We should expect them to perform deeds which suggest miraculous power. And we should expect that these deeds be performed under the pretext of being done by God’s power and to His glory.
We should expect false prophets to be accompanied by religious works, often unusual and spectacular, done ostensibly in the name of God.
(1) The first category of the fruits of the false prophet is their doctrine. False prophets speak from their own delusion, not by divine command (Jeremiah 23:16,21,25; Ezekiel 13:2). They do not proclaim or defend God’s word, but deny it (Jeremiah 23:17). In particular they deny unpleasant subjects such as impending judgment (Jeremiah 6:14; 28:17; Ezekiel 13:10). They offer temporary and partial relief to pressing problems (Jeremiah 8:11). Mainly, they tell people precisely what they want to hear (1 Kings 22:8, 13; 2 Timothy 4:3-4). Concerning the way of salvation they deny the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ and they reject the work of Christ on the cross (2 Peter 2:1; 1 John 4:2-3).
(2) The second category of the fruits of the false prophets is the effect of their teaching in the lives of men. Invariably it leads to a rejection of God’s word, a rejection of biblical authority, a division among the saints (Jeremiah 23:2,14) and a life of sensuality (2 Peter 2:2).
(3) Finally, there is the fruit of the false teachers as evidenced in their own moral character. They are easily distinguished by their pride (2 Peter 2:10), their greed (Jeremiah 8:10; Titus 1:11; 2 Peter 2:3,14) and immorality (Jeremiah 23:11,14; 2 Peter 2:14). They are men dominated by the flesh (2 Peter 2:10,12; 3:3). They prey upon the weak and the guilt-ridden (2 Timothy 3:6-7; 2 Peter 2:14,13). While they profess to know God, by their deeds they deny Him (Matthew 7:22-23; 2 Timothy 3:5; Titus 1:16). While they delight in authority, they refuse to submit to it (2 Peter 2:10).
My 2 cents:
ReplyDeleteThe fruit off a false prophet is their teaching or their "prophecies". Whether we should judge people as false prophets is a more subtle question.
Before, I claimed that, in contrary to what pretty much everyone was saying, that when Jesus said do not judge, He meant that we should never judge people's hearts. (Others claim that we can't judge unless we aren't hypocrites - which I claim is impossible). What I did say is that we can and must judge the fruit that comes from people - a subtle difference.
If one of us, say in our small group, bears some bad fruit, it is incumbent on the other group members to confront that bad fruit. The way we do that is to question the person without passing judgment. We judge the fruit not the person.
The same goes for potential false prophets. Whenever anyone speaks to us, we need to judge their words for their adherence to God's Word (or to the Holy Spirit who teaches us). Whenever we hear something that doesn't seem to match up, we need to question that person on what they meant and give them a chance to clarify. If we judge their clarification to be outside the word of God, we need to recognize that their fruit is bad.
Now here's the more subtle part. Jesus just said that if the fruit is bad the tree is also. So did we just judge a person? I say there still is a difference. It may end up being almost the same thing. We judged a person's fruit. Jesus says that that person is bad. Can we conclude that the person is bad? Did I just put my position into a logical inconsistency? I will think on this more.
My 2 cents continued:
DeleteIn the beginning of Matthew 7, Jesus said, "Do not judge", and then went on to talk about the speck and plank in our own eyes. I believe that Jesus is telling us something similar to "do not condemn". (I don't think the word condemn covers it though, though will use that word now to describe the kind of judging that I believe that Jesus is talking about). I have went on to say that the whole section is about that kind of judging (and even went on to hypothesize that Jesus words about the speck and the plank was to make us aware of the problem with condemnation and not a suggestion that we actually have the power to remove stuff from our eyes and see clearly).
Now we come to some verses about false prophets. We clearly are to discern whether someone is a false prophet. (And there are many other verses in the Bible that tells us to discern things about people).
I've been attempting to describe the difference between condemning and discerning, so that we can know which we are doing at the time. I attempted to say that we are allowed to discern fruit in people but not condemn people's hearts. But Jesus said that you will know their hearts by their fruit. So if we discern people's fruit as bad are we also condemning their hearts? This is where it stops.
I started with the rejection of the view that we are ever able to judge others with pure hearts - and concluded that we should never judge in the same way that Jesus is describing at the beginning of Matthew 7. On the other hand, we are to judge fruit constantly - whether it is good or bad, and doing that can condemn a person. Yep. I don't know.
It would be nice (and true) to say that it's all according to a person's heart. But our hearts are deceptive and can't be trusted. We are poor judges of our own hearts. I guess this is the time to say that we just have to depend on the Holy Spirit to help us (which is absolutely true).
I still lean toward the judging directive being a statement on how we shouldn't be hypocrites as I think that makes the most sense of telling us to remove a plank and then judge.
ReplyDeleteRegardless, the issue with judging the action and not the heart is that judging the action is still quite difficult. Think about how we might judge Jesus' action of overturning tables in the temple, of Abraham placing Isaac on an altar, of Jesus not wanting to sell the perfume for the poor. I'm sure there are many others where avoiding the heart doesn't bring us close to the truth. Therefore I don't think avoiding looking at the heart is good enough.
OTOH, attempting to look at the heart is often fraught with error itself. Often we can't rightly discern our own motives let alone someone else's. We can so easily go wrong in this area.
It seems to me perhaps this all comes back to our pride and our humility. (common theme?) Its our pride that can say "I will judge you regardless of my own sin" and its pride that can "I avoid judging you because I don't care about you and will look more righteous if I stay above it all". Its humility that says "I care about you and I think we might be having similar sin issues. We should talk."
In the end, rightly done its not simple nor formulaic.
I definitely agree that it's not simple or formulaic. I am wresting with how to express it as a truth. It's not good enough to say (which you aren't) judging is too complicated and so we can't make up guidelines.
DeleteI think your least paragraph above, the three scenarios of judging (or not judging), does a great job describing the heart of the matter. We must care enough about other to talk to them when they fall, and must be humble enough to admit that we struggle with the same kinds of things.
Your three examples, I think show the difference between judging and judging (which are two separate concepts that have the same word in our language). I would like to say the first judging could be translated as condemning - but I'm not sure that covers it. The second judging could be translated as discerning.
Meant to say "your last paragraph", not "least paragraph".
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