Good Fruit

False prophets do not produce the fruit of the spirit.

If you were given the choice between eating 10 rotten strawberries or 1 delicious one, what would you pick? Maybe it would depend on just how hungry you are or how hard it is in your situation to gather food. But supposing you have decent access to food, you’d likely choose the 1 delicious one, right?

The problem with false prophets is that everyone believes in them, but no one agrees on who they are. Jesus calls us beyond acknowledging that such untruths exist toward identifying them by their fruit. Paul’s listing of good fruit - that which results from the spirit’s work - is helpful: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

For real, read them again and for a moment, try to not let the rote-ness that often comes with childhood memorization take over.

So if the one speaking/teaching/leading is resulting in destruction, division, or derision…perhaps that’s not the truth. But rather, false.

Matthew 7:15-20

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you dressed like sheep, but inside they are vicious wolves. You will know them by their fruit. Do people get bunches of grapes from thorny weeds, or do they get figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, and every rotten tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit. And a rotten tree can’t produce good fruit. Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Therefore, you will know them by their fruit.”

Prayer

God,

Help me be the kind of person who, with the leading and working of your spirit, bears good fruit. Constructive fruit. Fruit that is sweet and full and good to take in. Help me to be loving. Give me joy and grant me to give it. Make me a peace-maker. Give me patience for myself and others. May all who come into my proximity know kindness. And goodness. And faithfulness. That is, help me to do what I say I will. Make me gentle. All 6’1” and 230 lbs of me. And dear God, perhaps most important for my hang-ups, give me self-control.

Basically, in short, help me to be like Jesus.

By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.