The Word in Focus with Dr Larry Taylor

Thoughts on the Sermon on the Mount

Matthew 5-7

Part 18

There are people who will lead you, often quite subtly, off the narrow road back to Eden. Don’t be led astray by people falsely representing Jesus who tell you you can have your best life now, wealth is a sign of God’s blessing, or you need a dictatorial pagan king to protect you.

^7:15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. ¹⁶ You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns or figs from thistles? ¹⁷ In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰ Thus you will know them by their fruits.

False prophets deceive by means of false fruit. Big crowds, lots of people streaming forward and being baptized, coffers filled with wealth, eloquent speeches, tight rock bands, emotional music, and beautiful campuses are not indications of God’s blessing. 

False prophets lead people astray by convincing them that they can more or less do as they please, live self-centered consumerist lives, indulging themselves in innocent pleasures, and be welcomed as is into the Kingdom of God. False prophets don’t call out racism, xenophobia, misogyny, or othering. Follow a false prophet and you will wind up praising God for the devil’s works.

A good character is formed over many years of obedience to Christ, doing what he says to do in this sermon on the mount. A good character produces good fruit. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is love; – joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and self-control. True spiritual fruit is walking in the footsteps of Jesus, doing the same kinds of things Jesus did, connecting with the same sorts of people Jesus hung around, taking up the towel, the basin, and the cross.

The question is what kind of long-term effect has an individual or a faith-community had? 

Fruit comes from living plants. The production of good fruit requires husbandry. Once harvested, fruit is sustenance.

Fruit comes from living plants – it is not manufactured in a factory. To produce godly fruit, you must be spiritually alive, born from above, indwelt by the Spirit of God. It is the Spirit that breathes life into us. We must be with Jesus, learning from Jesus how to be like Jesus.

God is the vinedresser. God prunes, digs, weeds, fertilizes, irrigates, guards against predators and harmful insects. If we have a genuine desire to bear the fruit of the Spirit, we welcome (albeit sometimes reluctantly) God’s refining, pruning attention. It is rarely pleasant, but the result is worth it.

Fruit is sustenance. The love, shalom, compassion, and care we extend to the broken and hurting is balm for their wounds and food for their souls. It is also sustenance for God. Not that God needs it to survive. Love radiating in practical ways from us blesses God, warms the divine heart, brings God a sense of satisfaction somewhat akin to our eating a cold juicy peach on a summer’s day.

There are times when the falseness of the prophet is obvious – encouraging violence, political support for criminals and fascists, a net worth in the tens of millions of dollars, private jets, mansions, an entourage of sycophants, a disregard for the poor, the immigrant, the addicted, or the otherwise marginalized. When a “prophet” blames poverty on the victims, or promotes a patriarchal hierarchy, discourages doubts and questions, dismisses criticism out of hand, or props up a system of imbedded racism, they are false.

You will know them by their fruits. Sometimes, however, bad fruit isn’t obvious. No analogy is perfect. Rotten apples or raspberries are easy to spot. They look, smell, and taste nasty. With people, however, it’s sometimes not so clear. The preacher is eloquent, tells funny stories, engages the audience, seems like a nice person. And he (usually a “he”) quotes a lot of divinely inspired scripture. False prophets often have a large following, so we assume they must be doing it right. 

The fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil was desirous and pleasant to look at. All of us are capable of being deceived. 

^7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. ²² On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ ²³ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you who behave lawlessly.’ 

The criterion for determining the health of spiritual fruit is love expressed in welcoming, kind, practical service to others, offered freely out of a genuine heart authentically attuned to God. 

Is there genuine agapé love that welcomes the stranger, invites the poor to the dinner table, secures affordable housing for the homeless, and visits the incarcerated?

Is this “prophet,” this spokesperson for God, turning the other cheek, going the second mile, loving their enemies? 

Or are they trying to coerce, force interpretations on others, condemning of certain people-groups, promoting war, or embracing Christian nationalism? 

Is the “prophet” following godly people or supporting unethical and immoral leaders?

In context, lawlessness refers to disregard for the underlying wisdom of Torah. It’s not talking about secular law. If we meditate on Torah, we learn not to hate, harbor bitterness, or retaliate. We learn to return good for evil, respond to hatred with love, and conquer death by dying.

At the time Jesus spoke these words, tensions were building with Rome. After his death and resurrection, people who were false representatives of YHWH, false prophets, convinced a sizeable group of Jews to engage in violence against Rome. They quoted scripture and channeled the mighty warriors of Israel’s past. It all sounded so biblical, so righteous, so just, so manly.

It resulted in the nation being crushed out of existence, the temple utterly destroyed, and the few survivors scattered. In the Jewish Wars (66-73 AD), 1.1 million people, mostly Jewish, were killed during the siege, the Temple was destroyed and never rebuilt, many Jewish people were enslaved and taken to Rome where 70,000 of them built the Roman Coliseum. The Romans engaged in genocide – they hunted down and slaughtered entire clans, including all the descendants of the House of David. 

Machination, violence, and compulsion are not the Kingdom way. The Kingdom way is one of nonviolence, noncoercion, non-manipulation. The Kingdom way is one of love for one’s enemies. The Kingdom way is love for all others, love for God’s creation, our environment, and non-narcissist love for self. You cannot love God without loving others, nature, and self. In this Kingdom, love conquers hate, nonviolent civil disobedience conquers injustice, and dying conquers death.