The truth behind Matthew 7:20 - "Therefore by their fruits you will know them."
A quick background:
The entire Bible is like a perfect embroidery with no loose ends, every detail interconnected, making sense and giving life as a whole to all who believe and only through God’s Wisdom for all who believe Grace Himself: Jesus Christ. Taking books, chapters and verses out of their context is quite dangerous. For example, here’s Christ’s response to the Canaanite woman who asked Him for healing for her demon-possessed daughter, right before He commended her for her faith and healed her child— Matthew 15:24—
“Then Jesus replied, “I have been sent only to the lost sheep of the people of Israel.””
The above word of Christ is the truth for that dispensation/time. Applying this truth to this now dispensation of Grace would mean that no Gentile (non-Jew) can be saved and this is simply not true. Context is very important when studying the Bible. So let’s see Matthew 7:20 in its context and subsequently, what the verse means:
“15 Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a 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 is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ Matthew 7:15-23.
I put some verses above in boldface for emphasis. In this passage, Christ likens men to trees. A good tree will bring forth good fruit and a bad tree will bring forth bad fruit. In essence, a good man will produce good fruit and a bad man will produce bad fruit.
But then, who is good?
We see Who in Christ’s interaction with the rich, young ruler who called Christ “good" in Luke 18:19—
“So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.”
This Jewish ruler was under Law and not under Grace. He believed that inheriting eternal life depended on his ability to be good by his own strength aka keep the law. He thought he was doing a good job of this, even boasted about keeping the law from his youth. So Christ gave him the law when he asked "what must I do..., "(you must not murder, you must not steal, etc,) to bring him to the end of his tether of self-righteousness as the law was designed to do. See this in Romans 3:19-20:
"19 Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God. 20 For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are."
No matter how well one tries to obey the law, as long as the doer is dependent on human effort aka arm of flesh, always, “There is still one thing you haven’t done.” This is the purpose of the law according to God's word - to show everyone up as guilty before God. Also Galatians 3:19 says:
"Why, then, the Law [what was its purpose]? It was added [after the promise to Abraham, to reveal to people their guilt] because of transgressions [that is, to make people conscious of the sinfulness of sin], ..."
Of course the rich young ruler went away sorrowful! He could not keep the very first commandment - “You shall have no other gods before Me.” No one but God is good. Romans 5:19 shows us that by default, everyone born of Adam is a sinner aka a bad tree that can only bear bad fruit:
“By one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous.”
From the above verse, we see that committing acts of sin is not what makes a man a sinner aka a bad tree. Adam's sin took care of that before anyone could commit a single act of sin. By the same token, doing “good things” is not what makes a person belong to God. Christ's obedience has taken care of that for all who do not depend on themselves to be good like God.
All have sinned. Everyone born of Adam has the sin nature. Bad trees that can only bear bad fruit. Sinners will produce sins just as a person born with sickle cell disease will experience the crisis that is associated with the disease. The crises do not come everyday but they will when the sufferer faces adverse circumstances. We can also liken sinners producing sins to an HIV carrier -- even though he presents zero symptoms of his disease and looks like the picture of health (good,) his blood and whatever his body produces (“good” works) are still tainted with the virus (sin nature) and so are unacceptable-
“For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.” Romans 3:20.
He can try to suppress his symptoms with medication (a picture of trying to keep the law using the arm of flesh in order to be good aka be like God the righteous) but the arm of flesh will fail. When circumstances beyond his control cause him to lose access to his medication, just like Peter who thought he was doing great until Satan sifted him like wheat, those suppressed symptoms (sinful urges) will burst forth in a harvest of disease (sinful deeds) that lead to death. See Romans 7:5:
"When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death."
“And God saw that it was good" is a recurring phrase in Genesis 1- the account of creation. Genesis 1 ends with:
“31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”
Being and producing good is a godly characteristic that only God possesses. There is none good but God. By default, all of mankind is bad. Sinners by nature. The one with the sin nature often thinks that he has some good in himself or that the (self-)righteous things that he does by human effort (arm of flesh) count towards being good before God; but God's ways and thoughts are higher than man's (see Isaiah 55.) God's interpretation of “good" is quite different from that of man. You see those righteous works and acts of kindness that many think should count for something in His sight, this is how He sees them:
"We are all like one who is unclean, all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in Your sight." Isaiah 64:6.
Because of the sin/old nature which was inherited from Adam by all of his descendants, everyone falls in the category of "bad." God saw how hopeless man's case was (many churchgoers still do not) and so gave His own Son to suffer and die to make us good like Himself- godly; Isaiah prophesied of Christ's suffering for us in Isaiah 53. See the result of His decease which He accomplished at Jerusalem in Isaiah 53:11-
"After He has suffered, He will see the light of life. And He will be satisfied. My godly servant will make many people godly because of what He will accomplish. He will be punished for their sins."
Only through Christ's blood does God see us as the good/righteous who can produce good fruit--
"And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God." Romans 5:9.
In Him- our Saviour Jesus Christ - we get to bear much fruit (John 15:5,) not in accordance with the fruit of the sin nature which strives to attain godliness by human effort, but in accordance with God's righteousness nature which we who believe Jesus now have.
The one who has the sin/old nature does not believe that Christ's shed blood has made him good/righteous like God so he strives to produce good and be godly like God by through his human attempts at keeping the law which provides the knowledge of good and evil. See the forbidden fruit as a picture of the law which many churchgoers are striving to keep in order to be godly (be like God) in Romans 7:8-12 (MSG.)
“Don’t you remember how it was? I do, perfectly well. The law code started out as an excellent piece of work. What happened, though, was that sin found a way to pervert the command into a temptation, making a piece of “forbidden fruit” out of it. The law code, instead of being used to guide me, was used to seduce me…” Romans 7:8-12
Only God can produce good. Man cannot. The result of this dependence on human effort for the attainment of godliness (being or producing good like God) is the same today as it was in Eden: sin has dominion (Romans 6:14) and death reigns (Romans 5:17.) The more people with this old nature try to keep the law, the more they do wickedness. See Romans 7:5:
"When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death."
As long as the old Adamic nature is intact, acts of sin that lead to death will multiply. Satan and his cronies who are manning pulpits know this so they are actively preaching Matthew 7:16 and also verse 20 - Therefore by their fruits you will know them - in the context of doing good deeds as a CONDITION or prerequisite for being counted among those who are good like God. Not so. In the same passage where this verse appears, we see people who cast out devils, preached the word and did wonders which the world (not God) defines as good, but these people were never known to Christ-
The Pharisees were full of "good" works and did their best to be godly by obeying the law. They tithed on everything. But they hated and sought to kill Christ and His message. The spirit of the anti-Christ is not necessarily anti-God. Satan didn't tell Eve to go and murder Adam or steal something. He tricked her into falling under the dominion of sin and death by subtly convincing her that she was not godly (like God) and that she could be good like God by her own power. A quick trip to Genesis 1:27 tells us how God made Adam and Eve:
"So God created human beings in His own likeness. He created them to be like Himself. He created them as male and female."
Adam and Eve were made in God's likeness. They were already “like God.” Then, along came Satan who subtly deceived Eve into believing that she was not like God and that there was something that she could do by her human effort/arm of flesh in order to obtain godly characteristics e.g being and producing good. See the typology of the forbidden fruit as a picture of the law that many churchgoers are feeding off in their quest for godliness in Romans 7:8-12 (MSG)-
“Don’t you remember how it was? I do, perfectly well. The law code started out as an excellent piece of work. What happened, though, was that sin found a way to pervert the command into a temptation, making a piece of “forbidden fruit” out of it. The law code, instead of being used to guide me, was used to seduce me.”
As he did with Eve, Satan, through his ministers behind some church pulpits, is still trying to seduce many whom Christ suffered and died to make good like God (see Isaiah 53:11 above) by shifting the focus of the flock from the truth of the finished work of Christ in making the sinner who believes godly- like God to dependence on human effort for the attainment of the godly trait of being good. Such peddle the same deceit of Satan which claims that a person can become godly (be like God the good) by human effort at keeping the law or doing anything at all. I heard this same subtle deceit for much of my church-attending years. It seemed good to Eve, as it seems good to many in the church today. Afterall, what is bad in doing one's best in order to be good like God or get God's approval? But this seemingly right way is not God's Way. Rather, it is the way of death according to Proverbs 14:12-
Also consider Proverbs 18:20-21-
Now consider Christ's word in Matthew 7: “15 Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a 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 is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them."
You will know false prophets by their fruits which Proverbs 18 describes as the "produce of his lips." The fruit/produce of the lips of false prophets is no different from the one which Satan preached to Eve in Eden: deceiving man who can produce no good of himself into striving to become or produce good like God through human effort. This has been Satan's doctrine since he first preached it to Eve.
Beloved of God, there is none good but God. Only God is and can produce good and in Christ, He sees us as righteous. Utterly good. Goodness is a godly characteristic which no man can attain by human striving. Christ suffered and died to make us good aka “be like God.” In Him, God sees us as righteous, "even though we are guilty of many sins." This is not so that we should go on sinning sprees as Satan's mouthpieces who push man to trust in himself for the attainment of godliness imply. Never. The word of God whose ways and thoughts are higher than man's says that it is so that we should live in triumph over sin and death--
"And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. 17 For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ." Romans 5:16-17.
Right believing always produces right living
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