You Will Know Them by Their Fruit

You will know them by their fruit sounds like a real simple idea until you actually go try applying it to your own life. Mine got tested plenty back in high school and college, let me tell you.

I’ve got a whole running list of people I was convinced were my friends for life, and the second things got hard or inconvenient for them, poof, gone, not a trace. Talked a great game for years and showed zero fruit the one time it actually counted. My mama called every single one of them, way before I was ready to admit she was right, bless her. Turns out she’d been preaching Matthew 7 my whole life and didn’t even know it.

This week wraps up our time in the Sermon on the Mount, three sections that all end up saying the same thing in different outfits: what’s real always shows up eventually, in people, in words, and in whatever you’ve actually built your life on.

You Will Know Them by Their Fruit, and Yes, That Includes You

Matthew 7:15-20 warns about false prophets, wolves running around in sheep costumes, and gives one clean test: look at the fruit, not the talk. It’s basically the same test Paul lays out in Galatians 5, one of my favorite passages in the whole Bible, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. A real list you can actually hold up against anybody’s life, including your own, which is the part nobody enjoys as much.

Saying the Right Words Isn’t the Same as Living Them

Matthew 7:21-23 gets me every time. People prophesying, casting out demons, doing miracles, all using Jesus’ name the whole time. He still tells them, “I never knew you.” Knowing the right password doesn’t get you through the door. Performing and actually knowing somebody are two completely different things, and that ought to make all of us a little uncomfortable.

What You Build On Doesn’t Get Tested Until It Has To

Then there’s the wise and foolish builders, Matthew 7:24-27, the one you probably learned as a kid with hand motions and a catchy little tune. Both builders get hit by the exact same storm. The only difference is what’s underneath. On the episode this week I told a story about the actual foundation of our own house. Something Sam and I buried under it before the concrete ever got poured. You’re gonna want to hear that one, it’s not something I can do justice to in a blog post.

One Thing to Actually Check This Week

Don’t try to fix everything at once, that’s a recipe for burning out. Just look at your own fruit. Not anybody else’s, yours. What’s actually growing, and what’s just talk?

Check out my friend JoAnne’s ministry, Prayer Action Warriors. It’s a whole group of people choosing quiet, real obedience over noise, every single day at noon. Just set a daily reminder to stop whatever you are doing at 12 noon and say the Lord’s Prayer.

Listen you will know them by their fruit Full Episode

A couple more things:

• New here? Go catch Ask Seek Knock Bible Verse and What It Really Means on prayer, the Golden Rule, and the narrow gate, it sets up a good bit of what we get into this week.
• Need something for the table while you listen? Crockpot Chicken and Potatoes – Easy Dump Dinner is one I make on repeat.
• Want to read the whole passage yourself? Here it is on Bible Gateway.

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