Matthew 7:15-20 Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
False prophets, cult leaders are almost impervious to criticism by their followers. They can bear all kinds of bad fruit in their lives, yet people will follow them zealously. They are thornbushes, prickly, ferocious wolves; they hurt and devour anyone who is not in their camp. Jesus said judgment will be their end: Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. The early church was invaded by people skewing the words of the Good News for their own benefit. Paul fought these people in his letters to the Corinthians. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. (2 Corinthians 3-4) People with intentions to dissemble the body of Christ will come as angels of light, but they seek their own cultural and financial benefit. They speak words that sound like light but actually are full darkness. Jesus said if your eye is full of darkness, how dark is that soul. (See Matthew 6:23) False prophets and cult leaders are full of darkness: their lives manifest darkness in their speech, lifestyles, and actions. Paul was afraid for his Corinthian sheep, for they readily heard the words of people who desired to lead them astray from the Spirit of Jesus Christ: a different spirit from the Spirit you received. What is the Spirit of Jesus Christ? He tells his sheep to follow the Spirit of love, mercy, and grace. He even says that there should be no difference in our love for our fellow brethren than for our enemies. If we are true followers of Christ, we will manifest love toward our enemies, not withholding our love. Often Christians say they love their enemies, but their words and actions toward people who oppose their ideas of life and truth reveal hatred, anger and bitterness. Christian love is characterized by walking the extra mile with those who despise them, hate them, desire their elimination from the face of the earth. If an enemy forces you to carry their baggage one mile, volunteer to carry the load an extra mile out of love for your adversary. This kind of love confounds the enemy; but bitterness, hatred, anger, and violence, he understands well; for that volcano lies within him. Jesus said if you desire to be my followers, Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:22-25) The question is, do we really want to be children of heaven or children of the earth? If we want to be of the earth, playing on the earth’s field of violence and destruction, we will covet the world’s spirit of power and authority, but if we want to be children of God, we will allow the spirit of servanthood to master our thoughts and actions. The choice is always ours—we are not automatons, manipulated by God above. No, we have a choice of what spirit we will follow, either God’s Spirit of loving kindness or the world’s way of control and selfishness.
The Lord directs us to Watch out for false prophets. By the authority of the Holy Spirit, we are able to detect false prophets. We are not left without direction or help from God’s Spirit in this life concerning the enemy’s opposition to our souls. In Paul’s third letter to the Corinthians, he says this: For I am afraid that when I come I may not find you as I want you to be, and you may not find me as you want me to be. I fear that there may be discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder. (2 Corinthians 12:20) How easily we can discern false prophets or people who follow wrong doctrines. Rather than espousing peace and mercy to others, especially their enemies, they erupt with the spirit of disunity and harm toward others. As you look at each one of these descriptions of falsity, are they part of your life? Is your internet clean of comments reflecting these dark spirits of discord or is your internet full of animosity, slander, and the lies of the Angel of Death? How quickly are you passing on information that elevates the characteristics of a false prophet? When you dwell in this spirit of dissemblance, monitor your feelings, the state of your heart towards others. Is there a volcano of anger and bitterness churning inside of you, rather than an overflowing fountain of love and concern for others? Do others see Christ’s divine Spirit or the carnal human spirit in your words and actions? The devil will make sure they detect even the hint of an adverse spirit in you if you claim to be a believer. If you exhibit hypersensitivity when people disagree with you by attacking their ideas, Satan will make sure you live in his domain of anger and discord. A clever deceiver, he will cloud your thinking processes for his own desires to ravage the flock of Christ. When Christians forget their purpose to spread the Good News, we can fall into a pit of sin and totally lose touch with the Holy Spirit: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23) When you discern that your last comment on Facebook was not healthy but destructive, are you willing to go back and say, I am sorry, my emotions got away from me? Or do you let your attack and disruption stand? If so, you are not listening to the kindness of the Spirit; you are following a spirit of division and hurt, even violence. The natural man since the fall has been on the playing field of self-absorption: his way or the highway. Eve wanted her way, not God’s way. Cults work this way; false prophets work this way. Your allegiance to them must be wholehearted, complete, without a chink in your armor of allegiance to selfish ambition. But, we who are IN CHRIST follow him, not the agenda of man, regardless of how good it looks. The devil comes in as an angel of light; then he exudes his darkness. His agenda seems to be ours, but his deception is great and leads to judgment by the only righteous one: Jesus Christ.
As Peter states to the church of the living God, we do not have to fall under the corrupt practices and ideas of false prophets, for Jesus has made us free from the entanglements of this world. He has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord. (1 Peter 4-8) We must mature in our walk with Christ who has given us eternal life. He has promoted us to be like him. Therefore, we should add to our daily walk the goodness of the Lord, his tenderness towards others on their way to destruction. Our lives should not be focused on the cares of this world, but on the cares of the Lord for the lost. We have escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. Let us not go back into that domain. Yes, we may gain power and influence in the church or in the world by fighting with their instruments of destruction: foul words, ridicule, lust for power, control, persecution, and the like. But even if we gain our vision of what the church or the world should look like, we must remember that God is not pleased with man’s conventions and aggressive nature. Someday all that we know of will be destroyed. The best of this world is not worthy of God’s domain of peace and love. By following false prophets and cult leaders, people might gain a certain amount of control over the world’s waywardness, but the winning of eternal life is not in the hands of individuals: it is under the purview of God. Jesus said we are to wash each other’s feet. We are to be humble and meek, not corroding the church or the world with our personal purposes. There is only one agenda: to love God with all our hearts and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Imposing our worldly ideas of control over the world and its actions will not achieve the victory God has for us when we seek the will of the Father: to love, not dictate; to serve, not control; to save, not destroy. The false prophets, the cult leaders of this world are easily identified, but they will come as angels of light, promising to fulfill your agenda for life, but God has reserved a place in hell for them. These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.” (2 Peter 2:17-19) As our Master said, by their fruit you will recognize them. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. If the leader of falseness in the church or the world displays boastful words, appealing to the desires of the flesh, beware. You are not followers of this world or any man, spiritual or not, you are the redeemed, looking for the glorification of your souls in heaven as children of the only true God. The answer to life is not to win this world or anything in it for the flesh. No man, leader, or prophet has the answers for our walk through this life on this tiny planet. Only the Savior of mankind has the answers to eternity. Follow the First and the Last, the Alpha and the Omega. Only He has the answer to your life, dear friends around this breakfast table. Amen!
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