By Their Fruits

Matthew 7:20

Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

I find it quite funny that those that say not to judge will run to the beginning of Matthew 7 to try and prove their incoherent point. Anytime you hear someone talking about how Christians shouldn’t judge, you can be pretty sure that they don’t know the Bible. Why it is humorous to use Matthew 7 though, is because if you just keep reading we find the verse above in the same chapter. We are supposed to know people by the fruit that we see them producing. This would mean that we must judge their actions to determine if the fruit is good or bad. Is this a contradiction? Obviously not. The giant misunderstanding of the beginning of Matthew 7 is not what this blog is about (we have a whole podcast on it). I want to focus on the fruit.

Everyone that has been a Christian for at least a month has probably heard of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). We all focus on the behaviors that we are supposed to be expressing within our lives, but what about the behaviors that we are supposed to be separating ourselves from? Matthew 7:15 tells us to specifically judge the fruit to tell if there are false prophets among the people, but this is a concept that can and should be practiced throughout our lives. We see this type of judgement come into play in 1 Corinthians 5, where we aren’t supposed to associate with types of people, and in 1 Corinthians 6, where Paul rebukes the church because people are unwilling to make judgements between the brethren.

Why is this an important distinction? It seems like most Christians are very afraid of judging someone in a negative sense. The problem with this fear is that, like Matthew 7 said, you will not know when false prophets are leading you astray. Also, you won’t be able to listen to the teachings in 1 Corinthians 5 and 6. I totally understand the fear when you have verses like Matthew 7:2 telling us we will be judged the same way that we judge others, but that is not an excuse not to make judgments. If anything, it is actually the exact opposite. You are supposed to remove the beam from your eye so that you can help your brother with the mote in his eye.

This comes back to a chapter that I talk about a lot and that is Hebrews 5. The end of this chapter is all about rebuking people for not being skilled in the word. When someone can’t even understand the basics, then they are unable to judge correctly. Verse 14 tells us why we are supposed to be skillful in the word and it’s to be able to discern both good and evil. This relates to being able to discern both good and bad fruit that people produce. It is not wrong to judge a person by their actions. I would actually go as far as to say it is wrong for a Christian to not judge someone by their actions. We can’t always focus on the happy parts of the Bible, like the fruit of the Spirit. We must watch out for the bad fruit produced by others as well, so that we are not deceived.

Matthew 10:16

Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.