What do we think of fruits? We may be most familiar with seeing them at the supermarket, all cleaned up and packaged, but we may not be familiar with the process of growing and getting them. Our modern experience with fruits is rather weird, and we just assume that they are within reach whenever we want it.
Christians also often speak about fruit. When did you last think about fruit in your own life? What is produced from you in your thoughts and deeds?
(A) Costly fruit: Separated from the world of ease (Matt 7:13-14)
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has been describing the Kingdom of Heaven (c.f. Matt 4:17,23 and Matt 5:3) In Matthew 7:13, Jesus raises the stakes and is speaking about whether they are with Him or apart from Him. This concerns whether we are with Him or apart from Him. It determines our life, standing and destiny.
This might be surprising, because the Sermon begins with this sort of tenderness and call for people to enter (c.f. Matt 5:3). All that is required is their poverty. Yet, the kindness of God is to lead us to repentance! And this might be more difficult that we imagine.
In Matthew 7:13-14, Jesus holds out two paths. The table below lays out the contrast:
What can we learn from this comparison? Firstly, we see that the Kingdom’s way of living is different from the world’s. The Kingdom has a distinct doctrine. There are many ways out there, but none of them matter because the only way to enter the kingdom is through Jesus (c.f. Jn 14:6). This is the narrow gate.
Next, the Kingdom’s practice is hard. Later, in Matthew 16:24-25, Jesus called His followers to take up their cross to follow HIm. It means an end to self — no right to determine own pathway. No wonder this way is hard. The easy way is to follow our own passions or to selectively obey God’s law when it’s convenient or easy for us. This is not surprising considering all that Jesus has been saying so far. He has shown us exacting standards that transforms our lives. This is what Jesus as the exclusive way means. If Jesus is the only way, nothing in our hands we bring as we approach Him!
This is what His followers are to do every day. And yet, it runs against all that the world tells us today, as it speaks about autonomy and a self-directed way of living. Yet, when we die to ourselves, we no longer live as we dictate and decide.
Jesus is honest about what Kingdom living is like. And if we think about the many things that Jesus said throughout this Sermon, and how hard it is, we cannot help but wonder how any of it is possible. The kingdom’s path is challenging. When we hear these words, we cannot help but wonder – who then can be saved? And then we are to remember: With men it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
Paradoxically, His way is also broader (c.f. love your enemies) and easier (my yoke is easy and my burden is light) than the world’s. How is that possible? Only because Jesus Himself will go on to say, for I am with you, always, to the end of the age. The one who pronounces such exclusivity is also the one who offers Himself as our chief treasure. The most narrow of gates issue forth the greatest of blessings ever known.
Examine yourself today. Are you standing in the narrow gate of Christ and His righteousness? Are you really just staking your life on Jesus or have you diversified and brought something else — your own goodness? Are you driven by your passions, swayed to do one thing today, and another tomorrow? Are you swayed in the public square? It matters to us how the many around us think. But, Jesus says something different here.
And if you are standing in the path behind this narrow gate, then give thanks, strive, and press on with humility. But all who are poor in spirit will not be too quick to give ourselves a pat on the back. Those who live humbly in the Kingdom can sing this:
How sweet and aweful is the place
With Christ within the doors
While everlasting love displays
The choicest of her store
While all our hearts and all our songs
Join to admire the feast
Each of us cry with thankful tongues
“Lord, why was I a guest?”
“Why was I made to hear Thy voice
And enter while there’s room
When thousands make a wretched choice
And rather starve than come?’
Twas the same love that spread the feast
That sweetly drew us in
Else we had still refused to taste
And perished in our sin”
Consider how our message of evangelism would also change. Our gospel message must carry the weight of His words. What do we tell people when we share the gospel? Do we convey the seriousness of the decision — one that affects eternity? Do we convey the difficulty of dying to self? Do we share the glory that comes with it, as we rest in this sort of a Saviour? Share the severity, difficulty but also the surpassing joy that comes from it.
It is then, that we are able to sing these too:
Pity the nations, O our God
Constrain the earth to come
Send Thy victorious Word abroad
And bring the strangers home
We long to see Thy churches full
That all the chosen race
May with one voice and heart and soul
Sing Thy redeeming grace
If you’ve never prayed this, consider how you can pray this tonight. Remember the grace that led you to Jesus and also pray that for others.
(B) Recognised fruit: Sifted from the dangers of wickedness and ignorance (Matt 7:15-23)
Jesus goes on to speak about false prophets (Matt 7:15) and workers of lawlessness (Matt 7:23).
False prophets appear in sheep’s clothings but are actually ravenous wolves (Matt 7:15). Other parts of Scripture help us understand what they look like and did. In Acts 20:29-30, we see how they spoke twisted things. There is a clear difference between what they taught and what the disciples did. Paul also wrote about them in his letter to Timothy. In 2 Timothy 3:1-5, he says that they had the appearance of godliness but denied its power. Yet, the problem is not only with those who teach. It is also a call to self-examination (c.f. 2 Tim 4:3-4) . What do we desire? What do we resist? What do we encourage? We should not be surprised by these words. We should not be surprised that these things are also true today. The wicked are like their father the devil (c.f. 2 Cor 11:13-15).
In Matthew 7:16-18, we are told that these false prophets can be recognised by their fruit. Fruit means “what is produced” — the outcome of their life, what they teach and do, live and reflect. Does it follow the gate and the way? Who are they calling you to trust in — Jesus and His absolute sufficiency, or diluting or diminishing the value of Jesus? Does their teaching cause you to grow in your devotion for Jesus? What kind of a path are they calling you to?
In other words, our doctrine determines discipleship and drives our devotion. Bad fruit subverts what God calls good.
Practically, this means that we can recognise the false fruits only if we know the right path and what the right fruit looks like. Bad fruit also makes subtle what is evil, so we have to be clear about what is truly good to spot the evil amidst its many subtleties – not too different from selecting the right fruit! Sometimes, it’s not so clear whether the fruit is coming from the right source. The entire work of discerning can be hard and overhwelming. The key is not to know all the variations of bad fruit, but to know how to identity good fruit.
Jesus is able to speak with such confidence because He tells us what good and true fruit is. The real test for us is to fix our eyes on what is real, true and glorious. Do we know the words of Jesus? If not, beware the many subtleties.
The outcome is that they will be cut down and thrown into the fire (Matt 7:19). This is a picture of eternal judgment! If you hide yourself in the shade of this tree and feast upon its fruits, beware. Where you stand, you will take root. And there, you will be cut away together with the fire of the end of the age.
What about workers of lawlessness? They might know about God by the right name, i.e. some sort of correct doctrine, or might show what seems to be God’s might by the right signs, i.e. some sort of spectacular practice (Matt 7:22, c.f. Acts 8:9-21).
Jesus’ indictment in Matthew 7:21 and Matthew 7:23 shows us that the warning of false fruit also applies to those that are foolishly ignorant. For all that they think they know about God, and even the right performances in God’s name, they do not truly know God nor do they do His will. What matters is that God knows them as His own.
To be sure, it is a gift of God whenever anyone can preach effectively, cast out demons, do miracles. But notice how the fruit that Jesus commands in His Sermon on the Mount are less sensational and more simple: revering Scripture’s commandments, casting out one’s anger, the miracles of sexual purity and martial fidelity, the careful speech that does not misuse God’s name by oaths or careless speech, and, most deeply, the heart that extends itself even to persecutors and enemies.
Beware the sensational! They might lay a claim on Jesus but what matters on the end is whether Jesus lays a claim on us. What do we prefer in the Christian life? Do we prefer the simple and faithful? Or is the Christianity we pursue no different from what the world seeks? Fruit that Jesus seeks in the Sermon on the Mount is less spectacular — self-control, careful speech, a heart that extends even to persecutors and enemies. What do you care about in the Christian life?
To these, Jesus says, “Depart from me” (Matt 7:23).
The end of the deliberately wicked and the foolishly ignorant are one and the same. There is final punitive justice.
What is Jesus’ assurance to us amidst these dangers? How, then are we to live? Jesus promises that we will recognise these people — and that is first built on recognising Him and His ways. Jesus says it twice, first in Matthew 7:16a and then again in Matthew 7:20. We only know and bear good fruit if we know this Jesus and abide in Him (c.f. Jn 15:4-11). This is intuitive to all of our lives. We may know many things about a person and we may not know a person until they reveal themselves to us.
How do we know God? And, how has He revealed Himself to us? He revealed Himself to us, and we abide in His Word. At the start of the Sermon on the Mount, He said “Blessed in the poor in Spirit”. Do you know what it means to know God in this way? Have you come to an end to yourself and your own salvation?
This Jesus also has not left Himself without witness. The words that we read here in the Sermon on the Mount is not to be read, relativised, and then shuffled to the back of your dust-collecting mental library.
What are marks of truly knowing God? If you know God, you will have great thoughts of God, and small thoughts of yourself. If you know God, you will be content in the greatness of God and the smallness of yourself.
(C) Lawful fruit: Sustained by the Father’s gracious love (Matt 7:12)
There is a way to respond to Jesus’ warnings with an ascetic, frenzied, and fearful retreat. But remember this: While Jesus tell us to be on guard, He commands us to be imaginatively and graciously generous with our love. This is what He says in Matthew 7:12, the fruit Jesus calls us to bear.
This is an oft-quoted “Golden Rule” and it appears in many other literature. But in many of these other literature, it is used in a constraining way, merely telling us what not to do. Here, Jesus puts it in the positive.
A.W. Pink writes,
“This rule of our Lord brings duty before the mind in a peculiarly inviting form. It not only enlightens the mind, but inclines the heart. Self-love is normally the great obstacle in the way of doing our duty to our neighbor. Here, our Lord makes even self-love become the handmaid of justice and charity. Having led us to change places with our neighbor, to feel what are our rights, and how unreasonable it would be to withhold them from another.”
All of this is built on the “So then” or “Therefore” of Matthew 7:12. It flows from what we read about in the previous verses in the last study. We see how in Matthew 7:7-11, the Father who has been gracious to “you who are evil”. Thus, we can and are to dream of ways to love a broken and biting world. Jesus’ assignment was the Cross. We, His slaves must bear some loss. His disciples take their Cross and daily nerve their hearts and mind to follow Him, to following Him in these works of lawfulness and righteousness that reflect His character! We are called to a great feast, a feast on a love that we won’t tire off and can enjoy forever.
How will you respond to His words? He calls us to turn back to Him and receive the grace that He has for us in this Jesus. Our Father in heaven gives good things to us when we ask of Him, and graciously so. Let us, therefore, make it our care to do good unto all who come within our sphere of influence.