Year of Exposure Day 3: The fruit doesn’t lie.

Year ““Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭7‬:‭13‬-‭20‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

The religious leaders had accused Jesus of casting out demons by the power of the devil. The Lord responded:

“But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭12‬:‭25‬-‭26‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Further on in Jesus’ rebuttal to them, He makes a point that applied to the works He was doing, as well as to the works his accusers were doing:

““Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭12‬:‭33‬-‭35‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

You see, the way His accusers were living, belied their claim of righteousness. At the same time, the Lord’s deeds, as well as His words, confirmed what Spirit He was of.

Friend, while it is true that only the Lord truly knows the thoughts and intents of the heart, Jesus Himself, confirmed that the fruit of a person: what they say, what they do, gives a very good indication of what is motivating them.

In our opening scripture, we see something Jesus said just prior to some verses we employed yesterday, referencing people trying to carry on the charade of belonging to the Lord, even in the Day of judgment. Here, the Lord makes the point that the lives of those trying to prove they knew Him, produced bad fruit: evil deeds, evil words, etc., so that what they attempted to profess in their defense, had long been negated by the fruit they bore in their living.

Child of God, let us make sure that the fruit we are bearing is a product of our being led by the Holy Spirit of God. If our lives are cluttered with evil thoughts, evil deeds, evil self-interest, etc., not only do we have no treasure in heaven, no reward awaiting, but we may be forfeiting our entrance into the Kingdom of our God.

With that, we must also be careful that those with whom we have close associations, are not yielding bad fruit.

Of course, as the Lord leads, we reach out to people of all kinds with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

As well, we must operate in the attitude of God’s love with all people. What we are here referencing is exchanges with others in which we are perhaps opening our heart, our mind, and our spirit to someone who does not value the things of God.

Remember what happens when you put a rotten apple in the midst of good apples: Rotten generally wins.

Finally, let’s trust the Lord to fill our boughs with the beautiful fruit of His Spirit. Make no mistake, fruit doesn’t lie.

Peace to you.

Jesus is coming! Get ready for Him!