Matthew 7:15-23
The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Langworthy, preaching
October 13, 2024
As a youngster, my father was a choir boy at St. John the Divine Cathedral in New York City. As an adult, he self-identified as an atheist. He was an intensely ethical man who was respectful of the Christian faith, but unmoved by it.
The older I get, the more I think about the things my father said to me (or the things I think he said to me, for often what I remember him saying all the time my brother and sister don’t recall his saying at all!)
At any rate, I think I remember his saying, “Everyone is a good example – if only to show you the opposite of how you want to be.”
In this, the next to the last part of His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus speaks about people who model the opposite of how He wants His followers to be.
In thinking about the “the false prophets” of whom Jesus tells us to “beware”, we could dwell on how very bad they are, in a dishonest attempt to feel better about ourselves by comparison. But Jesus, I’m sure, would greatly prefer if we just noted how they, in an unintentional, back door way, cast in vivid relief two ways of living, and then let that stark contrast inspire us to lead a life exactly the inverse of theirs! In other words, we can let their deceitfulness, selfishness and harmfulness to others energize us all the more to instead pursue integrity, altruism and servanthood. The fakes can so repel us that they can propel us to seek to be the real deal in following Jesus, embodying the “exceeding” righteousness to which He calls us at the start of the Sermon on the Mount.
These fakes hide their true nature by clothing themselves in a disguise of godliness and concern for others. They thereby look as harmless as sheep, when in fact they are as dangerous as “ravenous wolves” ready to devour whomever they can.
These false prophets talk a good game, call upon the name of the Lord often, and do “many deeds of power” in His name – by prophesying and casting out demons – but they are still, Jesus says in verse 21, not among those who do “the will of my Father in heaven”. They are, for all the good they do, “evildoers”, Jesus says with the last word of this passage. The impressive work they do is not the fruit of the heavenly Vine that Jesus is, and their good deeds are not the right deeds for their time and place – but right only for their wrong agenda, as they serve themselves under the guise of serving God and others.
Twice Jesus says in this passage that we can tell that they are bad by the “bad fruit” they bear. “Fruit” is a metaphor Jesus employs here and elsewhere to signify what comes forth from a person’s life in terms of both their character and their impact upon others.
Jesus in these verses does not spell out the nature of the bad fruit these false prophets bear, but we may surmise it by what He says to them. He addresses them in verse 23 as those He “never knew”. How might He not know them? By their never making the effort or taking the time to know Him as He really is: Lord of all. Though they call Him Lord, they never in actuality submit to Him as their Lord. They use Him as if He were their servant and not their Lord. They use Him to advance their self-centered, selfish interests, and as a result use and abuse people to establish their own kingdom. They give Jesus no place in their life to be Lord of it. Since Jesus can only be His authentic, genuine self, this amounts to giving Him no place in their life except as a mere tool to serve their egocentric ends – as if the Lord of all creation could fit into their small circle of concern! They thereby give themselves no chance to get to know Him – and Him no chance to know them in the sense of a having a close relationship with them by which He can make them people whose character and conduct more and more matches His.
In John 15 Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit.” In other words, we bear much good fruit, not by our intention of our willpower or by the intensity of our activity, but by inhabitation of His Spirit ruling over our heart. Since the false prophets have all kinds of intention and intensity of action, but don’t bother to get to know Jesus or let Him inhabit them, the only fruit they bear is bad fruit: giving God a bad name, making those under their leadership worse off, and making themselves unhealthy trees that are worthy of nothing but being “cut down and thrown in the fire” as Jesus puts it.
Everything depends on whether He’s living in our heart.
Tim Keller tells of a handsome and charismatic college student who was well known for seducing freshman coeds. One evening, he shocked the campus Christian group when he showed up at a meeting, declared he’d just committed his life to Christ, swore he was going to live a life respectful of women and promised to participate in every Christian activity of the group.
At first people were amazed at the change in how he lived; but then they couldn’t help but notice how at every Bible study or fellowship event he grabbed control of the group and took over the leadership of it. He was orthodox and insightful in his remarks, and was the life of every social gathering; but his self-assertive involvement never proved helpful or up-building to anyone in the long run. It eventually became clear that, while he had repented of sleeping around, he had never repented of imposing his personal power over others. It turned out that, when he had been seducing all those coeds, it wasn’t really about sex but about showing how forceful and dominant a person he was. It was about conquering resistance and winning the game. Thus, though he was saying all the right things – calling Jesus Lord like the false prophets – and though he was making many events more interesting, fun and “successful” – doing thereby “deeds of power” in Jesus’ name like the false prophets does – he had not yet let Jesus sit on the throne of his heart as Lord of his life, not yet let Jesus take control of his desire to exert his force of personality and not let Jesus turn all that energy into fuel for humbly serving others with his gifts. Until that happened, he remained an “evildoer” like those false prophets.
We may not all be spiritual leaders in the way that pastors, Bible teachers, church musicians and Christian counselors are; but we all are leaders in that we all have influence and impact upon some people. If any of us are to bear the fruit of Christ-like character and conduct that inclines others to follow Jesus too, we must to be the real deal: genuinely authentic in our commitment to Him.
So what does it mean to be authentic? Several years ago Scientific American reported how diverse folks’ views of that are. Some say it’s being consistent with your feelings, others with your values; some it’s claiming your “right” to self-satisfaction, others carrying out your duty to keep your promises; some your accomplishment, others your kindness; some your reputation, others your righteousness.
What does Jesus say?
Let us become the real deal by following Him faithfully, that we might be conformed to His character and conduct fully, and bear all the good fruit that results!
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