Author’s note: When I look back through most of my spiritual life, I lived far from the will of God. I was previously aided by a church that did not promote the Bible as God’s Living Word. Not understanding the will of God or His character makes oneself a spring pad for idolatrous, self-righteous behavior.
Through a faithful dedication to better understand the Lord’s expectation for my life I made the decision to seek His will by reading the Scriptures daily and frequently. Especially in this day and age, when we run the gauntlet of every worldly distraction with its deadly intent to succumb to temptation and to seek courage where none can be found.
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You Will Know Them by Their Fruits
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.” (Matthew 7:15:20)
This passage is bracketed by perhaps two of the most clarifying and sobering passages found in Jesus’ teachings and in the Bible. Preceding it is the description of the Narrow Gate, which we are warned not to be beguiled into the wide path that leads to hell.
The prophecy that follows the “Fruits” passage speaks about those who will be utterly shocked by Christ in the Day of Judgment when He declares He does not know them.
So when we talk about “fruits” from a biblical perspective, we are being warned about leaders, who blinded by self-righteousness become:
“… false christs and false prophets [who] will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect” (Matthew 24:24).
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How could religious leaders become “ravenous wolves”? In the case of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, there was enough greed and fleecing of the people, the comparison seems apt, but what about now?
Of course, there are many apt equivalents, yet I want to give some attention to those who are not clamoring for riches. There are those who are just as steeped in idolatry and are just as guilty of leading their congregations onto the wide path to destruction.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5).
Anything that takes precedence over God in your life or in your teachings, is a form of idolatry whether it be a material object or any idealism held in greater reverence than God.
In regards to idolizing such things as immoral lifestyles, the expressing of compassion by church leadership without the firm devotion to the teachings of Christ, and the guidance of the Scripture, will place at risk many unsaved souls in the pews to eternal damnation when they also forsake the authority of the Bible, the teachings of Jesus and the moral law.
Unless one seeks the necessary perspective on the righteousness and holiness of God and the teachings of Jesus, ask yourself, “Why am I a Christian?”
Intuition cannot be trusted without practical experience. The corresponding spiritual lesson would be: Moral truth cannot be relied upon without support from God’s revelations.
I’ve discovered that the standards cited in a denomination’s “Doctrine” gives many a foothold to fall away from Biblical truth. It’s easy to blur the lines when the Bible is not adhered to as the inspired and inerrant word of God.
Laws made by the denomination, call it doctrine, even if it has been in existence for over 200 years, becomes less of an anchor to sound decision than taking a stance that the Holy Scripture is inerrant and directed by God’s authority. It’s a subtle difference between a sound theological interpretation by a denomination and revering the Bible as God’s Words of instruction and but it is an exploitable difference.
A pastor speaking at length about making difficult decisions in guiding his congregation without having to state, unequivocally, that he (or she) believes in the divine authority of the Bible, leaves the door wide open to personal and worldly philosophy, and will fall away from what Christ emphatically states in the Gospels and God’s Commandments given in the moral Laws.
Jesus prophesied, “For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled” (Matthew 5:18).
Another warning for you listening in the pews, once a “Christian” pastor resorts to ridiculing parts of Holy Scripture to make a point or rejecting passages or even some Books as irrelevant, or not explaining difficult passages to discover the depth of the truth of God’s character, for your own sake and that of your loved ones, I would recommend seeking a Bible teaching church where the Holy Scripture is revered as an authority and inerrant.
As a Christian, your allegiance is to God through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ and the Body of Christ, the Church. Your highest allegiance is not to a human institution, otherwise you will create an idol out of it.
When I sat in the pews in the past, armed with some Bible education but without the conviction about the inerrancy of the Bible, it was easy to take into consideration the worldly perspectives and people’s sincerity as opposed to the Truth of God’s Word. It’s easy to drift onto the wide path without a compass.
I’ve witnessed these chain of events happen in my former home church. Looking back, I observed these things as part of an inflection point, the beginning of the slow demise of not only the congregation, but that denomination. Thirty to forty years later, I could make the argument that it was only a step in a greater war that catalyzed the depraved immoral condition the “free world” is finding itself in. That is the kind of fruit that these decisions have bore.
“The more people chant about their freedom and how free they are, the more loudly I hear their chains rattling.” ~George Orwell
CKY
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