Matthew 7:15-23
A Tree and Its Fruit
15"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
21"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'
Jesus warns us to watch out for false prophets...They are sometimes hidden even though they are near us and around us...Some evil is hidden and we can't see it...Outwardly things look fine from some evil, even sometimes nice, very nice...But Jesus tells us to beware, because inwardly they are like all evil, ferocious wolves...Evil wants to destroy...It wants to destroy something in our lives...Their final goal, this goal of evil is to destroy our soul...
Jesus says, if we look closely, we can recognize evil...We can recognize evil by their fruit, according to Him...Jesus tells us we do not get grapes from thornbushes...But righteousness produces good fruit...Evil will produce bad fruit...Every tree that produces bad fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire...Thus, by what they have produced in life, we can recognize them...Something has to be produced in life...
Here, Jesus tells us something interesting...He says that not everyone who says, recognizes, and calls Him, LORD, LORD will enter the kingdom of heaven...Many followers of Christ will have prophesied in His name, and drove out demons in His name, but this is not enough... They were even able to perform miracles...But He will tell them plainly, "away from Me you evildoers"...Even though they have produced fruit, but not produced good fruit...
There are many men who in the end who want to be called Christians...Many people do go through the motions of following God...But Jesus knows who call Him, My LORD, My LORD and are obedient to Him...We are each given this tent we call a body...Some of us have happy, courteous personalities and we call them good...Others are given anxious, cynical, skeptical tents and can look at those people differently... Others are more apathetic and let life goes by and they are neither hot nor cold...Jesus knows each and every one of us, and more importantly how our tents affect us...Jesus looks at our hearts...
God still remains a mystery to man...God is pure love and pure light...God gives us just enough love and light to understand and see Him...But He gives others this same amount of love and light and they cannot see Him...There will be people who appear to us very good people and we think, they will certainly go to heaven...There will be others who we would think, they will not get to heaven...(And I know I am not to judge)...When we get to our day of judgment, we will be surprised by some we see in heaven, and wonder how they got here...We will not see others and wonder, where are they at...St. Paul tells me (in Romans 7:24) that I am a wretched man...I want to do good, but I know I sin...We are told in 1 Samuel 16:7 that "man looks at the outward appearance, the the LORD looks at the heart"...God answers Job in chapter 38 and His answer is with questions...God turns His pure light on Job, and Job now sees himself better...God was there, in the beginning...He was there when everything was created, including Job...He was there for even your birth...We must thank God for His grace...God will judge us perfectly...