Good Fruit or Bad Fruit?

"By their fruit you will recognize them."

(Matthew 7: 16, 20, NIV)

 

In this blog I am going to briefly look at "fruit" in a believer's life. The fruit speaks of the works that a Christian produces in his life. It reveals whether his fruit is good or bad. Commentator Adam Clarke makes this statement on Matthew 7: 16: 

"7: 16.   Ye shall know them by their fruits.]  Fruits, in the Scripture and Jewish phraseology, are taken for works of any kind. "A man's works," says one, "are the tongue of his heart, and tell honestly whether he is inwardly corrupt or pure."   By these works you may distinguish (epignwsesye) these ravenous wolves from true pastors.  The judgment formed of a man by his general conduct is a safe one: if the judgment be not favourable to the person, that is his fault, as you have your opinion of him from his works, i.e. the confession of his own heart."[1] 

It is not enough to just profess to be a Christian, for many people and false teachers claim to be Christians when they are not. Even some Hollywood movie stars  as well as rock stars have claimed to be Christians when they are not. Sadly, we are living in times where the Church has very little discernment in knowing who is genuine and who is false. To illustrate: many bank tellers are trained to distinguish between counterfeit money and real money. To the untrained eye it will be difficult to tell the difference between the false and the true; but to the trained eye who really knows what to look for, the counterfeit money can be detected. So the believer should be able to discern the difference between those who are and are not Christians. "By their fruit you shall know them" (Matt. 7: 16, 20). Christians are even personally instructed by the Word of God to "But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup" (1 Cor. 11: 28). And "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" (2 Cor. 13: 5). 

A Christian's life that is fruitless is a life that is marked by "barrenness." An example of this truth can be seen in Jesus' lesson on the barren fig tree. Commenting on the passage of the barren fig tree in Mark 11: 12-14, John D. Morris gives this insight: 

"The fig tree was an object lesson on barrenness, typifying the Jewish nation's condition in spite of their privileged heritage. This type of hypocritical fruitlessness receives condemnation (vv. 20-21), exhibits a lack of faith (vv. 22-23), and hinders our prayers (vv. 24-26)."[2]
(To be Continued...)

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[1] Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke's Commentary, (Power Bible CD, 5. 2).

[2] John D. Morris, Days of Praise: Sept. - Nov., 2012, (The Institute for Creation Research, Sun. Sept. 16, 2012).