Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves.  You’ll recognize them by their fruit. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit.  Matthew 7:15-17 HCSB

My former pastor used to say that we are not to judge, but we should inspect the fruit.  Growing up in the country and spending summers with my grandparents, I had the opportunity to pick figs from their trees and there was also an abundance of blackberry bushes.  Because boths sets of grandparents were farmers and their fields were fertilized, the fruit surrounding the field ended up getting fertilized as well. This yield big dark juicy blackberry and big sweet figs. I also spent time with my grandparents in their fields picking vegetables. Once all the vegetables were picked we would sit in the shade and cull them. This is the process of removing or throwing away those that were no good. Only the good ones were placed in bushel baskets to be sold.  Even as a very young child, I learned to look at a vegetable or fruit and determine if it was good or bad.

If we think of ourselves as a type of fruit,  would you be good or rotten?  The Bible tells us as Christians that we are to be fruitful or we are to produce fruit.  This means that we are not to get saved and then go about behaving as the world behaves, but we are to lead others to Christ.  We can’t do that if people look at us and see rotten fruit.

If you are not saved and are searching to try to get closer to God, be very careful about who you listen to.  There are televangelists who are more concerned with themselves and how much money they can get out of you. This could be the difference in  soaking a healthy plant with water or dousing it with weed killer.

Know that if you profess to be saved, your fruit is being inspected. Will it pass? Are you a wolf in sheep’s clothing? Are you a thornbush trying to pass yourself off as a fig tree?

If you have been saved, then pray for wisdom and discernment.  Keep your focus on God and ask Him to put good people in your life that exhibit Godly character.

And please remember, if you are going to run around inspecting other fruit, be sure that yours is up to par.  So many of us love to point the finger at what this one or that one is doing wrong.  We get so busy in pointing out the faults of others, we forget to take a good hard look at our own faults. I think oftentimes this is to cover that we use to try to distract others from our own indiscretions.

Romans 3:23 says that we all sin and fall short of the glory of God. We are humans, we sin. But if we are Christians, we are convicted, meaning we feel bad about sinning. We don’t want to sin and when we slip up and sin, we go to God and ask for forgiveness. We  ask Him to help us to not make that same mistake again.

When we select fruit, we want it to be ripe. We want it to be free of worms or insects. We want it to be ripe but not so ripe that it has started to rotten. If you are striving to get to know God and have a relationship with Him, then you want to pick good Christian friends and your church family in the same way. You want them to have a level of maturity where they can guide you. Some have things that disappoint them along the way and even though they should be mature Christians, they have soured. You don’t want sour or rotten. Who goes into a produce store and purchases rotten fruit, right?

People who try to pass themselves off as Christians but go around plotting evil are rotten fruit. The bible tells us we are to avoid these people (2 Timothy 3:5).  Matthew 7:19 tells us that every good tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. God gives us the opportunity to produce good fruit, what we do with that opportunity is up to us.

Today I ask you to do a little self examination. Are you producing good fruit? If so, well done. Are you aligning yourselves with those who produce good fruit? None of us know when we will be called to judgment, but we do know that we will face the Great White Throne of Judgment at some point. Will your fruit pass the inspection?

Have a great day!