Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
Every good tree produces good fruit and every corrupt tree produces evil fruit, so a person's words, deeds, conduct and influence unfailingly reveal the inward heart, character and motives from which they grow. It is given as the sure test for false prophets and teachers, who may appear harmless in sheep's clothing but are known by their lives, principles and lifework rather than by fair words or impressive works. Good fruit is doing the Father's will in obedience to all His commandments, seen in a Christlike character of love, kindness, humility and self-control and in self-denying service that blesses the needy and draws souls to truth and righteousness. Evil fruit is refusing obedience while claiming to serve God, seen in selfishness, dishonesty, harshness and pride, in jealousy, gossip, faultfinding and division, and in worldly, superficial profession that disregards His law. Good fruit grows only from a pure heart made new through repentance, faith and living union with Christ as the branch with the vine, and every fruitless tree will be hewn down and cast into the fire, calling for self-examination, wholehearted prayer and decided change.
Verse Setting and Context
The verse belongs to the Sermon on the Mount, delivered on a mountainside especially for the disciples but within hearing of the multitude after people had gathered from many regions to hear and be healed. It was given not for disciples alone nor only for those who knew the way of life, but to reach multitudes in ignorance and error whose darkened understanding could be reached, with Christ Himself as the Truth with hands ever outstretched to bless, seeking in words of warning, entreaty, and encouragement to uplift all who would come to Him. Within that sermon it stands in opposition to the doctrines and practices of the self-righteous scribes and Pharisees, correcting their misrepresentation of God and their presentation of human traditions as divine commandments. Failure to walk in the light God has given separates people from Him and brings darkness, while obedience to His revealed will prepares His people to show good character and works.
Its immediate setting is the command to beware of false prophets who come outwardly gentle in sheep's clothing but inwardly are destructive like ravening wolves, with the order to place the feet in Christ's footsteps instead of listening to human ideas, plans, and suggestions in order to be strong and safe. Nature is revealed by conduct, so that a sound life produces sound works and a corrupt life produces corrupt works, and teachers are known by their fruits just as surely as men do not gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit and a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit, and every tree that does not bring forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. This belongs to the command to enter the strait gate and walk the narrow way that leads to life rather than the wide gate and broad way that leads to destruction. It is joined to the truth that not everyone saying Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of the Father, while many who prophesied, cast out devils, and did wonderful works in Christ's name will be told, I never knew you, depart from Me, ye that work iniquity, and to the parable of building on the rock by hearing and doing Christ's words rather than on the sand. The same test exposes those who teach the truth yet do not do the Word, who greatly dishonor the Lord because they are looked up to as Christians, and when they do not make straight paths their course turns the lame out of the way. A teacher's true character is revealed by the results of life and teaching, for false teachers may first seem interesting, but their corrupt fruit exposes them. All may apply this test if they will, for there is always sufficient evidence on which to base an intelligent faith so that none need be left in uncertainty and doubt, yet God will never remove from any man all occasion for doubts, and those who turn from the weight of evidence because there are a few things their finite understanding cannot make plain choose the atmosphere of doubt and questioning unbelief and will make shipwreck of faith, for it is no virtue to be on the side of doubting rather than believing. It is to be spoken to infidels and rationalists who say show us a miracle and then we will believe, who refuse the Word of God, count the miracles of Christ as idle tales, reject great light, close their eyes and senses, and encase themselves in Satan's science and scientific delusions, to whom no further evidence is given beyond the record of God's past power and the monuments of Christianity seen on every hand.
The sermon gives a right conception of Christ's kingdom and of Christ's own character and undoes the work of false education, teaching the conditions of entrance into the kingdom of God while leaving hearers to draw their own conclusions as to its nature without direct attack on error. It meets the misery of the world on account of sin not by delineating wretchedness but by teaching something infinitely better than men had known, disappointing hope of worldly greatness, and it lays foundation principles of the kingdom of God that are no less important now than for the multitude on the hillside. Its principles are to be read and obeyed in order to live a life that leads others to Christ, a life that requires Christ to cleanse the heart and transform the character with selfishness yielded to Him. Ministers and church members need to study the instruction of Matthew 7 most critically again and again for their own enlightenment and not to prove supposed faults they discern in other church members, because being absorbed with the faults of others shows very serious defects that require decided conversion, lest those who think they are lights prove to be stumbling blocks. Living out the lessons of the Sermon on the Mount makes a deeper and more lasting impression than preaching alone, connecting the fruit of a person's life with the influence of Christ's teaching.
Fruit Reveals the Tree
Every good tree brings forth good fruit and every corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit, and this fixed correspondence means a person's deeds, words, works, conduct and influence reveal the inward character, heart, principles and motives from which they grow. Profession is worthless without corresponding practice, for those who follow Christ are to be trees of righteousness whose good life produces good works as surely as a corrupt life produces evil works, so that people are known by their fruits. A purified and cleansed heart produces good conduct while a corrupt heart produces evil conduct, and a good character produces good fruit while a corrupt character produces evil fruit. Building character means hearing Christ's words and doing them, with Christ Jesus as the rock on which a sure foundation is built. In its setting the fruit identifies false prophets despite outward appearance, exposing deceptive appearances and showing what they truly are.
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit and a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit, so the fruit leaves no question about the tree. Outward productivity cannot make a corrupt heart produce good fruit, and moral appearance, religious claims, outward religious claims and impressive works, prophecy, outward works or forms, and church approval cannot make bad fruit good or change its nature. Claiming to be righteous without manifesting the fruit of true conversion is utterly worthless, for outward works alone never make a man perfect before God, and only a heart made pure inwardly by repentance and faith in true conversion necessarily manifests good fruit in the life, while a selfish professor in sheep's clothing speaking fair words while watching for gain, working at cross purposes with God and having a form of godliness while denying its power, necessarily brings forth evil fruit. Human beings cannot reliably judge hidden hearts and human judgment is limited and finite, but character is made known by its fruits, and God looks at the character of the fruit and judges the tree good or corrupt by it. The test exposes those who teach the truth yet do not do the Word and greatly dishonor the Lord, because they are looked up to as Christians and when they do not make straight paths their course turns the lame out of the way; not everyone who says Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but only the one who does the will of the Father, and many who prophesied, cast out devils, and did wonderful works in Christ's name will be told, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity, while every tree that does not bring forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire, as illustrated by building on the rock and on the sand.
The test is applicable today to churches nigh and afar off, calling for a deeper consecration than has yet been seen lest many be unprepared to enter the holy city. This warning applies to God's commandment-keeping people in the last days, when every kind of deception will be practiced and the deciding line for testing profession must be drawn against false prophets. Ministers and church members need to study Matthew 7 most critically again and again for their own enlightenment and not to prove supposed faults they discern in other church members, because being absorbed with the faults of others shows very serious defects that require decided conversion, lest those who think they are lights prove to be stumbling blocks. The verse is applied to publishing institutions and their managers, whose actions and the condition of their work show whether they are doing God's appointed work faithfully. Applied to Sabbath-school work its genuineness is judged by its results in the character and work of the pupils, and applied to the youth the tree represents a life that should produce useful work for God's glory and the salvation of others. Instruction and discipline in child-rearing and the home sow seeds bearing good or evil fruit through life, and wheat and tares grow together until the harvest and are known by fruit, with angels never mistaking wheat for tares though men cannot read hearts or separate them by outward appearance.
Testing Prophets and Teachings
The verse gives the test by which false prophets and teachers are to be recognized, whatever harmless appearance, fair words, and impressive works they present. Their fruits — their lives, conduct, principles, and lifework — show what they are inwardly, and nature is revealed by conduct as a sound life produces sound works and a corrupt life produces corrupt works. All may apply this test for themselves, with sufficient evidence given for intelligent faith so that none need remain in uncertainty, though God never removes all occasion for doubt. This warning belongs especially to God's people in the last days, who must place their feet in Christ's footsteps instead of listening to human ideas, plans, and suggestions in order to be strong and safe.
It is the first rule for proving prophesyings and holding fast what is good, separating genuine prophecy from the counterfeit as surely as grapes are not gathered of thorns nor figs of thistles. The good fruit of true prophets is faithfully reproving sin even when it calls down wrath upon them, while corrupt fruit is speaking smooth things, prophesying lies, and crying peace and safety to please unconsecrated professors. That corruption also appears in mixing truth with error, using censure and flattery to deceive and lead into false paths, dismissing the law of God or any part of Scripture, presenting heresy as truth, and misinterpreting Scripture to sustain iniquity and make adultery and licentiousness appear harmless. It is further known by using influence to beguile souls into sin under pretended purity and piety as a means of power, even presenting clear truth such as the Sabbath to gain confidence while the course of action opposes the law of God and all the teachings of Christ, and by accepting truth from evidence without a holy heart and life. Where no precious fruit is found the tree is corrupt, as seen in watching every word and move with suspicion, conjecture, supposition, misinterpretation and misstatement, loving that kind of food, refusing to look candidly for good done, scavenging for evil and mischief, twisting words with wicked construction, tearing and devouring the flock, unsettling faith, sending brethren adrift, and using name and influence for that baleful work, which is the spirit of the dragon and of Satan the accuser of the brethren manifested for forty years and proves the voice of God is not speaking through them.
The same fruit test judges visions and Testimonies by the spirit of their teaching and the results of their influence, including whether their fruits show they have endured and grown stronger despite opposition. Claims to be wholly led by the Spirit while dismissing the law, and claims to great light while not sanctified through the truth, are dangerous yet easily tested by whether teaching and life agree with the law and the testimony, which distinguishes light from darkness, leaving no middle ground between what is from God and what is from the enemy. Doctrines and messages are judged by whether, when received, they sanctify the heart and make people gentle, kind, forbearing, truthful, and Christlike in character, for a harsh, hostile, unchristlike spirit and unrighteous conduct refute the claim to possess truth even where the interpretation is insisted to be scriptural. Belief in Christ's soon coming bears such good fruit in conviction of unreadiness, desire for purity, strength and grace, increased love for Jesus and other Christians, joy in Bible reading and prayer, peace, and readiness to meet Christ, and present truth with the message of righteousness by faith bears vigor, hope, courage, and faith where received.
Ministers, workers, and institutions are known by results rather than by education, talent, claims, or worldly standing. Good fruit gathers and builds up, draws people to Christ rather than to self, promotes unity in Him, and brings souls to truth, and a few godly, self-sacrificing laborers can do more good than many unqualified, self-confident ones whose converts often show the same faults. Corrupt fruit scatters, confuses, and divides through carnal contention and party spirit revealing limited spiritual experience, watches and accuses brethren, and bears wild fruit through self-confidence that misleads the flock. The true measure of a man and his teaching is even seen in the character of his followers, for a skeptical teacher unwilling to square his life by the Bible rule and seeking to gain the favor of all brings forth followers not in harmony with the work of God, pleasing to those defective in character with impure hands, unholy hearts, loose habits, unkindness at home, or untrustworthiness in deal, while those converted and grounded in truth find nothing pleasing or profitable in his influence. So publishing institutions and their managers show by their actions and the condition of their work whether they do God's appointed work faithfully, as in the Battle Creek institution's unfavorable showing and its managers' self-importance, and laborers are willing to be judged by fruits, with a calling to preach to show good fruit before receiving support.
Good Fruit Described
Good fruit is obedience to God, doing the Father's will, keeping all His commandments and living in harmony with His law. Profession of godliness in words, religious claims, feelings and emotions do not make the fruit good and do not establish genuine discipleship or right standing with God, for character is measured by God's law and revealed by deeds, works and conduct showing whether a person truly receives Christ, puts on His righteousness and strives to keep every commandment. Upright, honest dealings without deceit or underhand work, Christlike conduct, and honoring the sacred law that angels respect belong to this obedience.
It is a lovely, Christlike character bearing the Spirit's qualities of love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance and self-control. Supreme love for God and unselfish love for one another appear in harmony, love and unity where His Spirit rules the heart, while envy, strife and jealousy are the contrary evil fruit of Satan's influence, calling professed followers and teachers to examine what fruit their lives and influence display before the young. A good tree is a heart made new by transforming grace, with every defect, spot, wrinkle and peculiar trait of self effaced, bringing forth patience, kindness, forbearance, self-denial, self-control under provocation and reproach, serenity under trying circumstances, speech and labor unto righteousness, and good works that let light shine to convince others, dispel doubt, expose sin and guide sinners to heaven. Mere profession is nothing; only a godly life of humility, teachableness, courtesy, forgiveness and speech that builds up testifies to learning of Jesus and meets God's approval.
It grows naturally as genuine service, for profession is worthless without corresponding practice and those who follow Christ are to be trees of righteousness known by good works. Patient continuance in well-doing is self-denying labor for the needy, fatherless, widows, orphans, homeless youth and perishing souls, blessing others after Christ's example of bringing good tidings, healing the brokenhearted, freeing captives, comforting mourners and giving praise for heaviness, leading sinners to truth and righteousness, and using entrusted influence and means to save others so gained talents increase. Usefulness in varied forms at home or in foreign missions, ripening under the sunshine of Christ's righteousness, distinguishes the genuine Christian from mere show, and appears in pure principles, holy ambitions and noble aspirations with pardon and grace to live holy lives in submission to Christ. Christians in these last days as God's commandment-keeping people must reveal the most attractive fruit in unselfish actions, with words, deportment and dress of the very best quality, as farmers exhibit only choicest specimens of butter, vegetables, apples, peaches, apricots, oranges, lemons and plums, so that precious traits of Christ's character bring credit and praise to God for His grace; shunning burdens while seeking ease and caring chiefly for self proves a corrupt tree that unless greatly changed will not receive the reward of well-doing, which measures what was denied and sacrificed for others.
It appears in daily business integrity, for character is decided and known by daily conduct, where strict integrity and faithfulness prove sons and daughters of God and scheming dishonesty, false weights, deceitful balances and unfaithfulness bear briers and thorns, so that while continuing in dishonest dealing none can truly serve the Lord or hope to enter His kingdom. Unfair, grasping conduct in God's work is evil fruit even when mixed with outwardly good actions or presented as frugality and honest industry, for selfishness and greed taint the work, harm others and turn people from truth. Kindness at home that does not make skeptics and infidels of children belongs to good fruit, whereas an unchristlike atmosphere of strife, dissension, controversy, pride, bitterness, criticism and censure breathes poison charged with moral death, with management in the home producing fruit unto death and influence in church and Sabbath school bringing death to spiritual interests, disgusting unbelievers, confusing and disheartening believers, proving vain religion and unfitness to teach or hold religious responsibility without thorough transformation. Good principles produce kind, serious, godly speech and behavior in every relation, with neatness, cleanliness and purity in person and home without needless display and inward adorning of a meek and quiet spirit rather than vanity and show; unkindness, harshness, petulance, overbearing behavior, complaining, fretfulness, murmuring, frivolity and careless conduct are bad fruit, the same disposition at home appearing in church, and a minister's behavior outside the pulpit can undo preaching and lead converts to imitate a superficial, harmful example.
Evil Fruit Exposed
Evil fruit is professing to do the Lord's work while refusing to obey His commandments, choosing one's own way and neglecting what He has commanded, transgressing His law and doing work opposed to Christ. It is clinging to hereditary and cultivated traits of character that can never enter the kingdom of God, being quick to discern the faults of others while blind to one's own, persisting in one's own way after reproof and refusing to humble the heart, die to self and be corrected. Claiming holiness and faith in Jesus while disregarding God's commandments bears evil fruit and shows the faith is not genuine obedient faith. Belief in falsehood and scientific sophistry, delusion and lies, can never save from death, purify and ennoble character, elevate and refine the soul, sweeten the disposition, or prepare anyone for heaven, and none who dishonor the sacred law that angels respect and honor can be saved.
It is selfishness, covetousness, pride and greed, with unfair grasping conduct in God's work presented as frugality and honest industry, which taints the work, harms others and turns people from truth even when mixed with outwardly good actions. It is decided in daily business conduct by strict integrity and faithfulness versus scheming dishonesty, false weights, deceitful balances and unfaithfulness that bear briers and thorns, so that while continuing in dishonest dealing none can truly serve the Lord or hope to enter His kingdom. It is shunning burdens and cares in temporal and spiritual things, seeking ease while others bear burdens and making self-care the chief study instead of self-denial and sacrifice for the happiness of others, a selfish course that forfeits the reward of well-doing which is measured by what was denied and sacrificed. It is laziness and indolence, and dishonesty in handling God's goods which denies Christ in practice while professing to keep and teach His law without living its principles. It is exacting severity and dictatorial controlling influence that does more injury than good despite prayers and exhortations that appear devoted, and a parent's dishonest grasping example that shows disbelief in Christ's near return and leads children to follow it and mock religious truth.
It is dwelling on neighbors' supposed wrongs, accusing them and tearing character apart instead of bearing kindness, forgiveness, upbuilding speech and love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and self-control. It is jealousy, faultfinding, talebearing, gossip, sowing dissension, stirring up strife and meddling as busybodies instead of peacemakers, which reveals that such members are not a branch of the true vine but manifest the attributes of Satan and face being hewn down and cast into the fire. It is coarseness and frivolity in conduct and speech from a corrupt source, trifling, joking and flattery that deny Christ and harm souls, teaching others by influential example either to be elevated or corrupted. It is disconnection from Christ as the True Vine so that, though the name is on the church roll and knowledge of Christ is claimed, want of faith is proved by lack of good fruit and by a jealous fault-finding spirit that sows dissension by word and action as a false branch, a hearer and not a doer whose profession avails nothing for salvation. Connection with God produces harmony, love and unity while Satan's control produces envy, strife and jealousy, so all professed followers are called to examine what fruit their lives display.
It is superficial religious experience and influence that draws others toward worldly amusements, judged by Christ's divine standard for the Christian tree which must be prayerfully consulted to learn what is right to do. It is joining Satan's banquet of entertainment in gatherings for pleasure and sport, becoming his decoys who attract others into the ring, while Bible Christians who fail to apply the test become confused, follow example to avoid seeming singular, come under those never touched divinely in heart and mind, and are kept from accepting the call to the marriage supper of the Lamb and receiving the white robe of character which is Christ's righteousness. It is the tree of false sanctification known by insubordination, pride, envy, jealousy and evil suspicions of fellow believers, whose influence draws away from the church and brings dissension and division. It is claiming holiness, sanctification or sinlessness from feeling while living for self and the world, disregarding the commandments and bearing a stubborn un-Christlike spirit that keeps souls from Christ's standard.
Bearing Fruit Through Christ
Good fruit comes only from inward goodness, from a heart made pure inwardly by repentance and faith in true conversion. A good tree is one united with Christ as branches of the vine, abiding in Him and deriving His life and sap through the Holy Spirit, so that works reveal the kind of spiritual connection possessed. Knowing and nominally accepting truth, or being merely attached to the church without that living connection, leaves old habits and evil tendencies prevailing and cannot bear fruit to God's glory. Without a vital connection profession of faith or apparent fellowship does not make one a living member of Christ, and claiming to be God's child requires being in right relation to God because inner condition determines outward influence. Those united with Christ bear good fruit and reveal His likeness, while an unchanged heart produces evil fruit, showing the need for genuine conversion and meekness.
The inward change is Christ formed within, with the root holy, the will yielded and besetting sins overcome. It is a heart made new by the transforming power of grace, with every defect and peculiar trait of self effaced, bringing patience, kindness, forbearance, self-denial, self-control under provocation and reproach, serenity under trial, and speech and labor unto righteousness. Human effort alone cannot produce this fruit, and ministers must first be sanctified for their labor to be good. A corrupt tree can bring forth only evil fruit, and a selfish professor working at cross purposes with God, having a form of godliness while denying its power, necessarily brings forth evil fruit. Only a godly life testifies that one has learned of Jesus, and only that life God will approve.
Profession is worthless without corresponding practice, for those who follow Christ are to be trees of righteousness whose good life produces good works. Mere profession, religious talk, excited prayers, feelings, baptism, church membership, or outward works and forms, even those commanded, never make fruit good, never make a man perfect before God, and cannot purchase salvation. Only repentance and faith can make an impure heart pure, and claiming to be righteous without manifesting the fruit of true conversion is utterly worthless. A moral appearance or claim to serve God does not make one a true Christian when the life bears iniquity, and outward productivity cannot make a corrupt heart produce good fruit. Religious claims or impressive works alone do not establish doing God's will, for fruit means the principles and actions of the lifework revealing whether belief is genuine.
Genuine faith acts by love, purifies the soul, brings obedience and holiness, and is evidenced by good works, while its absence produces selfishness and unrighteousness even where solemn truths are professed. A purified, cleansed heart produces good conduct while a corrupt heart produces evil conduct, so actions reveal the condition of the heart and the kind of character and faith possessed. A professing Christian must show by the life a striving to keep all God's commandments, for mere profession does not establish genuine discipleship. Everyone will be judged and rewarded according to deeds, and the eternal reward, though not of merit, will be in proportion to work done through Christ's grace.
Every tree not bringing forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire like a dead branch, and persistent unfruitfulness ultimately separates one from Christ. The same warning exposes false prophets in sheep's clothing known by fruits, whose corrupt fruit is speaking smooth things, prophesying lies and crying peace to please the unconsecrated, while true prophets faithfully reprove sin even at cost of wrath. It belongs with entering the strait gate and narrow way to life rather than the wide gate and broad way to destruction, and with the test that not everyone saying Lord, Lord enters heaven but only doers of the Father's will, illustrated by building on the rock and on the sand. Without reconversion the fruitless become as a barren fig tree, virtually dead despite a name of life, excluded from the holy city and the kingdom. God tests men by daily business conduct, where strict integrity proves sonship and scheming dishonesty bears briers and thorns that bar entrance while continued.
The verse therefore calls for diligent work for salvation by careful self-examination and obedience, and for a deeper consecration than yet seen. Good fruit requires making a covenant with God by sacrifice of will and pride, praying earnestly with whole heart and soul, which Christ answers with patience and kindness toward others. It calls for a decided change bearing fruit in character, temper, conversation, dress and home, refusing hereditary and cultivated traits that can never enter heaven, refusing to persist in one's own way after reproof, and humbling the heart to die to self.
Every good tree produces good fruit and every corrupt tree produces evil fruit, so a person's words, deeds, conduct and influence unfailingly reveal the inward heart, character and motives from which they grow. It is given as the sure test for false prophets and teachers, who may appear harmless in sheep's clothing but are known by their lives, principles and lifework rather than by fair words or impressive works. Good fruit is doing the Father's will in obedience to all His commandments, seen in a Christlike character of love, kindness, humility and self-control and in self-denying service that blesses the needy and draws souls to truth and righteousness. Evil fruit is refusing obedience while claiming to serve God, seen in selfishness, dishonesty, harshness and pride, in jealousy, gossip, faultfinding and division, and in worldly, superficial profession that disregards His law. Good fruit grows only from a pure heart made new through repentance, faith and living union with Christ as the branch with the vine, and every fruitless tree will be hewn down and cast into the fire, calling for self-examination, wholehearted prayer and decided change.
Verse Setting and Context
The verse belongs to the Sermon on the Mount, delivered on a mountainside especially for the disciples but within hearing of the multitude after people had gathered from many regions to hear and be healed. It was given not for disciples alone nor only for those who knew the way of life, but to reach multitudes in ignorance and error whose darkened understanding could be reached, with Christ Himself as the Truth with hands ever outstretched to bless, seeking in words of warning, entreaty, and encouragement to uplift all who would come to Him. Within that sermon it stands in opposition to the doctrines and practices of the self-righteous scribes and Pharisees, correcting their misrepresentation of God and their presentation of human traditions as divine commandments. Failure to walk in the light God has given separates people from Him and brings darkness, while obedience to His revealed will prepares His people to show good character and works.
Its immediate setting is the command to beware of false prophets who come outwardly gentle in sheep's clothing but inwardly are destructive like ravening wolves, with the order to place the feet in Christ's footsteps instead of listening to human ideas, plans, and suggestions in order to be strong and safe. Nature is revealed by conduct, so that a sound life produces sound works and a corrupt life produces corrupt works, and teachers are known by their fruits just as surely as men do not gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit and a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit, and every tree that does not bring forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. This belongs to the command to enter the strait gate and walk the narrow way that leads to life rather than the wide gate and broad way that leads to destruction. It is joined to the truth that not everyone saying Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of the Father, while many who prophesied, cast out devils, and did wonderful works in Christ's name will be told, I never knew you, depart from Me, ye that work iniquity, and to the parable of building on the rock by hearing and doing Christ's words rather than on the sand. The same test exposes those who teach the truth yet do not do the Word, who greatly dishonor the Lord because they are looked up to as Christians, and when they do not make straight paths their course turns the lame out of the way. A teacher's true character is revealed by the results of life and teaching, for false teachers may first seem interesting, but their corrupt fruit exposes them. All may apply this test if they will, for there is always sufficient evidence on which to base an intelligent faith so that none need be left in uncertainty and doubt, yet God will never remove from any man all occasion for doubts, and those who turn from the weight of evidence because there are a few things their finite understanding cannot make plain choose the atmosphere of doubt and questioning unbelief and will make shipwreck of faith, for it is no virtue to be on the side of doubting rather than believing. It is to be spoken to infidels and rationalists who say show us a miracle and then we will believe, who refuse the Word of God, count the miracles of Christ as idle tales, reject great light, close their eyes and senses, and encase themselves in Satan's science and scientific delusions, to whom no further evidence is given beyond the record of God's past power and the monuments of Christianity seen on every hand.
The sermon gives a right conception of Christ's kingdom and of Christ's own character and undoes the work of false education, teaching the conditions of entrance into the kingdom of God while leaving hearers to draw their own conclusions as to its nature without direct attack on error. It meets the misery of the world on account of sin not by delineating wretchedness but by teaching something infinitely better than men had known, disappointing hope of worldly greatness, and it lays foundation principles of the kingdom of God that are no less important now than for the multitude on the hillside. Its principles are to be read and obeyed in order to live a life that leads others to Christ, a life that requires Christ to cleanse the heart and transform the character with selfishness yielded to Him. Ministers and church members need to study the instruction of Matthew 7 most critically again and again for their own enlightenment and not to prove supposed faults they discern in other church members, because being absorbed with the faults of others shows very serious defects that require decided conversion, lest those who think they are lights prove to be stumbling blocks. Living out the lessons of the Sermon on the Mount makes a deeper and more lasting impression than preaching alone, connecting the fruit of a person's life with the influence of Christ's teaching.
Fruit Reveals the Tree
Every good tree brings forth good fruit and every corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit, and this fixed correspondence means a person's deeds, words, works, conduct and influence reveal the inward character, heart, principles and motives from which they grow. Profession is worthless without corresponding practice, for those who follow Christ are to be trees of righteousness whose good life produces good works as surely as a corrupt life produces evil works, so that people are known by their fruits. A purified and cleansed heart produces good conduct while a corrupt heart produces evil conduct, and a good character produces good fruit while a corrupt character produces evil fruit. Building character means hearing Christ's words and doing them, with Christ Jesus as the rock on which a sure foundation is built. In its setting the fruit identifies false prophets despite outward appearance, exposing deceptive appearances and showing what they truly are.
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit and a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit, so the fruit leaves no question about the tree. Outward productivity cannot make a corrupt heart produce good fruit, and moral appearance, religious claims, outward religious claims and impressive works, prophecy, outward works or forms, and church approval cannot make bad fruit good or change its nature. Claiming to be righteous without manifesting the fruit of true conversion is utterly worthless, for outward works alone never make a man perfect before God, and only a heart made pure inwardly by repentance and faith in true conversion necessarily manifests good fruit in the life, while a selfish professor in sheep's clothing speaking fair words while watching for gain, working at cross purposes with God and having a form of godliness while denying its power, necessarily brings forth evil fruit. Human beings cannot reliably judge hidden hearts and human judgment is limited and finite, but character is made known by its fruits, and God looks at the character of the fruit and judges the tree good or corrupt by it. The test exposes those who teach the truth yet do not do the Word and greatly dishonor the Lord, because they are looked up to as Christians and when they do not make straight paths their course turns the lame out of the way; not everyone who says Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but only the one who does the will of the Father, and many who prophesied, cast out devils, and did wonderful works in Christ's name will be told, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity, while every tree that does not bring forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire, as illustrated by building on the rock and on the sand.
The test is applicable today to churches nigh and afar off, calling for a deeper consecration than has yet been seen lest many be unprepared to enter the holy city. This warning applies to God's commandment-keeping people in the last days, when every kind of deception will be practiced and the deciding line for testing profession must be drawn against false prophets. Ministers and church members need to study Matthew 7 most critically again and again for their own enlightenment and not to prove supposed faults they discern in other church members, because being absorbed with the faults of others shows very serious defects that require decided conversion, lest those who think they are lights prove to be stumbling blocks. The verse is applied to publishing institutions and their managers, whose actions and the condition of their work show whether they are doing God's appointed work faithfully. Applied to Sabbath-school work its genuineness is judged by its results in the character and work of the pupils, and applied to the youth the tree represents a life that should produce useful work for God's glory and the salvation of others. Instruction and discipline in child-rearing and the home sow seeds bearing good or evil fruit through life, and wheat and tares grow together until the harvest and are known by fruit, with angels never mistaking wheat for tares though men cannot read hearts or separate them by outward appearance.
Testing Prophets and Teachings
The verse gives the test by which false prophets and teachers are to be recognized, whatever harmless appearance, fair words, and impressive works they present. Their fruits — their lives, conduct, principles, and lifework — show what they are inwardly, and nature is revealed by conduct as a sound life produces sound works and a corrupt life produces corrupt works. All may apply this test for themselves, with sufficient evidence given for intelligent faith so that none need remain in uncertainty, though God never removes all occasion for doubt. This warning belongs especially to God's people in the last days, who must place their feet in Christ's footsteps instead of listening to human ideas, plans, and suggestions in order to be strong and safe.
It is the first rule for proving prophesyings and holding fast what is good, separating genuine prophecy from the counterfeit as surely as grapes are not gathered of thorns nor figs of thistles. The good fruit of true prophets is faithfully reproving sin even when it calls down wrath upon them, while corrupt fruit is speaking smooth things, prophesying lies, and crying peace and safety to please unconsecrated professors. That corruption also appears in mixing truth with error, using censure and flattery to deceive and lead into false paths, dismissing the law of God or any part of Scripture, presenting heresy as truth, and misinterpreting Scripture to sustain iniquity and make adultery and licentiousness appear harmless. It is further known by using influence to beguile souls into sin under pretended purity and piety as a means of power, even presenting clear truth such as the Sabbath to gain confidence while the course of action opposes the law of God and all the teachings of Christ, and by accepting truth from evidence without a holy heart and life. Where no precious fruit is found the tree is corrupt, as seen in watching every word and move with suspicion, conjecture, supposition, misinterpretation and misstatement, loving that kind of food, refusing to look candidly for good done, scavenging for evil and mischief, twisting words with wicked construction, tearing and devouring the flock, unsettling faith, sending brethren adrift, and using name and influence for that baleful work, which is the spirit of the dragon and of Satan the accuser of the brethren manifested for forty years and proves the voice of God is not speaking through them.
The same fruit test judges visions and Testimonies by the spirit of their teaching and the results of their influence, including whether their fruits show they have endured and grown stronger despite opposition. Claims to be wholly led by the Spirit while dismissing the law, and claims to great light while not sanctified through the truth, are dangerous yet easily tested by whether teaching and life agree with the law and the testimony, which distinguishes light from darkness, leaving no middle ground between what is from God and what is from the enemy. Doctrines and messages are judged by whether, when received, they sanctify the heart and make people gentle, kind, forbearing, truthful, and Christlike in character, for a harsh, hostile, unchristlike spirit and unrighteous conduct refute the claim to possess truth even where the interpretation is insisted to be scriptural. Belief in Christ's soon coming bears such good fruit in conviction of unreadiness, desire for purity, strength and grace, increased love for Jesus and other Christians, joy in Bible reading and prayer, peace, and readiness to meet Christ, and present truth with the message of righteousness by faith bears vigor, hope, courage, and faith where received.
Ministers, workers, and institutions are known by results rather than by education, talent, claims, or worldly standing. Good fruit gathers and builds up, draws people to Christ rather than to self, promotes unity in Him, and brings souls to truth, and a few godly, self-sacrificing laborers can do more good than many unqualified, self-confident ones whose converts often show the same faults. Corrupt fruit scatters, confuses, and divides through carnal contention and party spirit revealing limited spiritual experience, watches and accuses brethren, and bears wild fruit through self-confidence that misleads the flock. The true measure of a man and his teaching is even seen in the character of his followers, for a skeptical teacher unwilling to square his life by the Bible rule and seeking to gain the favor of all brings forth followers not in harmony with the work of God, pleasing to those defective in character with impure hands, unholy hearts, loose habits, unkindness at home, or untrustworthiness in deal, while those converted and grounded in truth find nothing pleasing or profitable in his influence. So publishing institutions and their managers show by their actions and the condition of their work whether they do God's appointed work faithfully, as in the Battle Creek institution's unfavorable showing and its managers' self-importance, and laborers are willing to be judged by fruits, with a calling to preach to show good fruit before receiving support.
Good Fruit Described
Good fruit is obedience to God, doing the Father's will, keeping all His commandments and living in harmony with His law. Profession of godliness in words, religious claims, feelings and emotions do not make the fruit good and do not establish genuine discipleship or right standing with God, for character is measured by God's law and revealed by deeds, works and conduct showing whether a person truly receives Christ, puts on His righteousness and strives to keep every commandment. Upright, honest dealings without deceit or underhand work, Christlike conduct, and honoring the sacred law that angels respect belong to this obedience.
It is a lovely, Christlike character bearing the Spirit's qualities of love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance and self-control. Supreme love for God and unselfish love for one another appear in harmony, love and unity where His Spirit rules the heart, while envy, strife and jealousy are the contrary evil fruit of Satan's influence, calling professed followers and teachers to examine what fruit their lives and influence display before the young. A good tree is a heart made new by transforming grace, with every defect, spot, wrinkle and peculiar trait of self effaced, bringing forth patience, kindness, forbearance, self-denial, self-control under provocation and reproach, serenity under trying circumstances, speech and labor unto righteousness, and good works that let light shine to convince others, dispel doubt, expose sin and guide sinners to heaven. Mere profession is nothing; only a godly life of humility, teachableness, courtesy, forgiveness and speech that builds up testifies to learning of Jesus and meets God's approval.
It grows naturally as genuine service, for profession is worthless without corresponding practice and those who follow Christ are to be trees of righteousness known by good works. Patient continuance in well-doing is self-denying labor for the needy, fatherless, widows, orphans, homeless youth and perishing souls, blessing others after Christ's example of bringing good tidings, healing the brokenhearted, freeing captives, comforting mourners and giving praise for heaviness, leading sinners to truth and righteousness, and using entrusted influence and means to save others so gained talents increase. Usefulness in varied forms at home or in foreign missions, ripening under the sunshine of Christ's righteousness, distinguishes the genuine Christian from mere show, and appears in pure principles, holy ambitions and noble aspirations with pardon and grace to live holy lives in submission to Christ. Christians in these last days as God's commandment-keeping people must reveal the most attractive fruit in unselfish actions, with words, deportment and dress of the very best quality, as farmers exhibit only choicest specimens of butter, vegetables, apples, peaches, apricots, oranges, lemons and plums, so that precious traits of Christ's character bring credit and praise to God for His grace; shunning burdens while seeking ease and caring chiefly for self proves a corrupt tree that unless greatly changed will not receive the reward of well-doing, which measures what was denied and sacrificed for others.
It appears in daily business integrity, for character is decided and known by daily conduct, where strict integrity and faithfulness prove sons and daughters of God and scheming dishonesty, false weights, deceitful balances and unfaithfulness bear briers and thorns, so that while continuing in dishonest dealing none can truly serve the Lord or hope to enter His kingdom. Unfair, grasping conduct in God's work is evil fruit even when mixed with outwardly good actions or presented as frugality and honest industry, for selfishness and greed taint the work, harm others and turn people from truth. Kindness at home that does not make skeptics and infidels of children belongs to good fruit, whereas an unchristlike atmosphere of strife, dissension, controversy, pride, bitterness, criticism and censure breathes poison charged with moral death, with management in the home producing fruit unto death and influence in church and Sabbath school bringing death to spiritual interests, disgusting unbelievers, confusing and disheartening believers, proving vain religion and unfitness to teach or hold religious responsibility without thorough transformation. Good principles produce kind, serious, godly speech and behavior in every relation, with neatness, cleanliness and purity in person and home without needless display and inward adorning of a meek and quiet spirit rather than vanity and show; unkindness, harshness, petulance, overbearing behavior, complaining, fretfulness, murmuring, frivolity and careless conduct are bad fruit, the same disposition at home appearing in church, and a minister's behavior outside the pulpit can undo preaching and lead converts to imitate a superficial, harmful example.
Evil Fruit Exposed
Evil fruit is professing to do the Lord's work while refusing to obey His commandments, choosing one's own way and neglecting what He has commanded, transgressing His law and doing work opposed to Christ. It is clinging to hereditary and cultivated traits of character that can never enter the kingdom of God, being quick to discern the faults of others while blind to one's own, persisting in one's own way after reproof and refusing to humble the heart, die to self and be corrected. Claiming holiness and faith in Jesus while disregarding God's commandments bears evil fruit and shows the faith is not genuine obedient faith. Belief in falsehood and scientific sophistry, delusion and lies, can never save from death, purify and ennoble character, elevate and refine the soul, sweeten the disposition, or prepare anyone for heaven, and none who dishonor the sacred law that angels respect and honor can be saved.
It is selfishness, covetousness, pride and greed, with unfair grasping conduct in God's work presented as frugality and honest industry, which taints the work, harms others and turns people from truth even when mixed with outwardly good actions. It is decided in daily business conduct by strict integrity and faithfulness versus scheming dishonesty, false weights, deceitful balances and unfaithfulness that bear briers and thorns, so that while continuing in dishonest dealing none can truly serve the Lord or hope to enter His kingdom. It is shunning burdens and cares in temporal and spiritual things, seeking ease while others bear burdens and making self-care the chief study instead of self-denial and sacrifice for the happiness of others, a selfish course that forfeits the reward of well-doing which is measured by what was denied and sacrificed. It is laziness and indolence, and dishonesty in handling God's goods which denies Christ in practice while professing to keep and teach His law without living its principles. It is exacting severity and dictatorial controlling influence that does more injury than good despite prayers and exhortations that appear devoted, and a parent's dishonest grasping example that shows disbelief in Christ's near return and leads children to follow it and mock religious truth.
It is dwelling on neighbors' supposed wrongs, accusing them and tearing character apart instead of bearing kindness, forgiveness, upbuilding speech and love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and self-control. It is jealousy, faultfinding, talebearing, gossip, sowing dissension, stirring up strife and meddling as busybodies instead of peacemakers, which reveals that such members are not a branch of the true vine but manifest the attributes of Satan and face being hewn down and cast into the fire. It is coarseness and frivolity in conduct and speech from a corrupt source, trifling, joking and flattery that deny Christ and harm souls, teaching others by influential example either to be elevated or corrupted. It is disconnection from Christ as the True Vine so that, though the name is on the church roll and knowledge of Christ is claimed, want of faith is proved by lack of good fruit and by a jealous fault-finding spirit that sows dissension by word and action as a false branch, a hearer and not a doer whose profession avails nothing for salvation. Connection with God produces harmony, love and unity while Satan's control produces envy, strife and jealousy, so all professed followers are called to examine what fruit their lives display.
It is superficial religious experience and influence that draws others toward worldly amusements, judged by Christ's divine standard for the Christian tree which must be prayerfully consulted to learn what is right to do. It is joining Satan's banquet of entertainment in gatherings for pleasure and sport, becoming his decoys who attract others into the ring, while Bible Christians who fail to apply the test become confused, follow example to avoid seeming singular, come under those never touched divinely in heart and mind, and are kept from accepting the call to the marriage supper of the Lamb and receiving the white robe of character which is Christ's righteousness. It is the tree of false sanctification known by insubordination, pride, envy, jealousy and evil suspicions of fellow believers, whose influence draws away from the church and brings dissension and division. It is claiming holiness, sanctification or sinlessness from feeling while living for self and the world, disregarding the commandments and bearing a stubborn un-Christlike spirit that keeps souls from Christ's standard.
Bearing Fruit Through Christ
Good fruit comes only from inward goodness, from a heart made pure inwardly by repentance and faith in true conversion. A good tree is one united with Christ as branches of the vine, abiding in Him and deriving His life and sap through the Holy Spirit, so that works reveal the kind of spiritual connection possessed. Knowing and nominally accepting truth, or being merely attached to the church without that living connection, leaves old habits and evil tendencies prevailing and cannot bear fruit to God's glory. Without a vital connection profession of faith or apparent fellowship does not make one a living member of Christ, and claiming to be God's child requires being in right relation to God because inner condition determines outward influence. Those united with Christ bear good fruit and reveal His likeness, while an unchanged heart produces evil fruit, showing the need for genuine conversion and meekness.
The inward change is Christ formed within, with the root holy, the will yielded and besetting sins overcome. It is a heart made new by the transforming power of grace, with every defect and peculiar trait of self effaced, bringing patience, kindness, forbearance, self-denial, self-control under provocation and reproach, serenity under trial, and speech and labor unto righteousness. Human effort alone cannot produce this fruit, and ministers must first be sanctified for their labor to be good. A corrupt tree can bring forth only evil fruit, and a selfish professor working at cross purposes with God, having a form of godliness while denying its power, necessarily brings forth evil fruit. Only a godly life testifies that one has learned of Jesus, and only that life God will approve.
Profession is worthless without corresponding practice, for those who follow Christ are to be trees of righteousness whose good life produces good works. Mere profession, religious talk, excited prayers, feelings, baptism, church membership, or outward works and forms, even those commanded, never make fruit good, never make a man perfect before God, and cannot purchase salvation. Only repentance and faith can make an impure heart pure, and claiming to be righteous without manifesting the fruit of true conversion is utterly worthless. A moral appearance or claim to serve God does not make one a true Christian when the life bears iniquity, and outward productivity cannot make a corrupt heart produce good fruit. Religious claims or impressive works alone do not establish doing God's will, for fruit means the principles and actions of the lifework revealing whether belief is genuine.
Genuine faith acts by love, purifies the soul, brings obedience and holiness, and is evidenced by good works, while its absence produces selfishness and unrighteousness even where solemn truths are professed. A purified, cleansed heart produces good conduct while a corrupt heart produces evil conduct, so actions reveal the condition of the heart and the kind of character and faith possessed. A professing Christian must show by the life a striving to keep all God's commandments, for mere profession does not establish genuine discipleship. Everyone will be judged and rewarded according to deeds, and the eternal reward, though not of merit, will be in proportion to work done through Christ's grace.
Every tree not bringing forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire like a dead branch, and persistent unfruitfulness ultimately separates one from Christ. The same warning exposes false prophets in sheep's clothing known by fruits, whose corrupt fruit is speaking smooth things, prophesying lies and crying peace to please the unconsecrated, while true prophets faithfully reprove sin even at cost of wrath. It belongs with entering the strait gate and narrow way to life rather than the wide gate and broad way to destruction, and with the test that not everyone saying Lord, Lord enters heaven but only doers of the Father's will, illustrated by building on the rock and on the sand. Without reconversion the fruitless become as a barren fig tree, virtually dead despite a name of life, excluded from the holy city and the kingdom. God tests men by daily business conduct, where strict integrity proves sonship and scheming dishonesty bears briers and thorns that bar entrance while continued.
The verse therefore calls for diligent work for salvation by careful self-examination and obedience, and for a deeper consecration than yet seen. Good fruit requires making a covenant with God by sacrifice of will and pride, praying earnestly with whole heart and soul, which Christ answers with patience and kindness toward others. It calls for a decided change bearing fruit in character, temper, conversation, dress and home, refusing hereditary and cultivated traits that can never enter heaven, refusing to persist in one's own way after reproof, and humbling the heart to die to self.