When Bible Teachers Argue...Who Do You Trust? Matthew 7:16-20

 

 

Original Photo by Flickr user Kjunstorm

The context of this passage about fruit is Jesus' warning to beware of false prophets who "Come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves" (Mt. 7:15).

Jesus wanted his followers to know that there would be some people who would try to deceive them claiming a message from the Lord. The Jews would have immediately understood his reference to false prophets and to wolves. They had suffered at their hands many times in the past.

When I read this passage about false prophets, I thought about a passage I read in Jeremiah recently. In Jeremiah 28, a man named Hananiah tried to convince the people that Jeremiah was wrong about the destruction coming to Jerusalem at the hands of God. He claimed to speak for God when he said that God would "break the yoke of the king of Babylon" (Jeremiah 28:1-4).

Jeremiah's response was direct.

"Amen! May the LORD do so! May the LORD fulfill the words you have prophesied by bringing the articles of the LORD's house and all the exiles back to this place from Babylon. Nevertheless, listen to what I have to say in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people: from early times the prophets who preceded you and me have prophesied war, disaster and plague against many countries and great kingdoms. But the prophet who prophesies peace will be recognized as one truly sent by the LORD only if his prediction comes true." (Jer. 28:6-9)

 In response to that, Hananiah broke the yoke Jeremiah was wearing by direction of the LORD to symbolize that God would break the yoke of the Babylonians. "At this, the prophet Jeremiah went on his way" (Jer. 28:11).

But God sent him back to Hananiah.

"Listen, Hananiah! The LORD has not sent you, yet you have persuaded this nation to trust in lies...." (Jeremiah 28:15-17).

When I read that story several weeks ago, my heart went out to all of the people who were torn between believing Jeremiah's true words from God or Hananiah's false words. How were they to know who to trust when both were claiming to speak for God!?

And my heart went out to all of the people living today who face the same reality. It's not hard to see that we face a similar situation today. People claim to speak truth from direct revelation or even from the revelation of the written word...and so many people claim these truths in direct opposition to others who are also claiming God's word as the basis of truth! Both sides accuse the other of misinterpreting the scriptures. I remember a woman in Jamaica crying when we knocked on her door and offered a Bible study. She was so upset because several different people claiming Christianity's truth had been knocking on her door and they all said different things. She had no idea who to trust and who to believe.

How are we as followers of Christ supposed to know who to trust? Obviously, we go straight to God's word, but what about when two sincere students of God's word claim truths that oppose each other and it is not just a matter of opinion, but one that bears more weight and importance?


By pointing to their fruit, Jesus gives us a very good place to start. What is the purpose of the teaching? Is it self-serving or self-sacrificial? Does it lead one to closer obedience to the plain truths of God's word or does it force a choice between being obedient to a difficult-to-interpret passage over a plain one? Does the teacher live what he teaches? Is the teacher obedient to Jesus' commands to love as He loved us?

What does his fruit look like?

I think it is worth taking the principle a step further since as Christians we are all called to be priests and teachers (1 Peter 2:9, Hebrews 5:12-14).

Do I ask out loud or even in my mind for the preacher to preach messages that are pleasing to me instead of challenging to me? Do I claim to want to know more and more about God and His word and stand ready to defend His word, but balk at the idea of defending the widows and orphans? Do I claim the Spirit of God in my life and set myself up as a teacher in word or in example, but fail to actually carry (bear) the fruits of the Spirit- Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? (Galatians 5:22-25)

What does my fruit look like?

May we strive to be bearers of good fruit instead of simply bearers of a pleasant message of comfort and salvation without sanctification. May God give us the discernment to recognize wolves in sheep's clothing and may God give us the courage to look inside our own lives and allow Him to weed out those wolfish, self-seeking tendencies in ourselves. May we trust and may we become the Jeremiahs who speak the difficult but true messages of God's word. And may we never listen or spread the messages of the Hananiahs.

It should be very sobering truth to us who accept Jesus' teaching that "every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."

Why big worries= little crops- Matthew 6:28-20

original photo by flickr user Flavio~

 

 

 

I think I've already belabored the point about those of us with plenty complaining about our lack of options, so I won't do that today with this verse. I won't get on my soap box about the phrase, "I have nothing to wear!" that actually means, "the stuff in my closet is out of date now that I've already worn it," or "it doesn't fit quite right," or "someone else wore it already." I think I've already made that point about our "worry" about clothing in so many homes in the U.S. so I won't make it again, we'll just move on.

It's almost redundant to keep looking at this theme of worry, because Jesus' illustration of the flowers of the field doesn't really add anything to the conversation as much as it emphasizes what he has already said. However, I have a feeling that if Jesus used two illustrations to make the same point, its a point that is worth dwelling on for a couple of weeks!

Since we have already looked at the basic principle, though, I want us to approach it a different way by looking at one of Jesus' most famous parables- the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:1-23).

If you are not familiar with the parable, I would encourage you to read it at the link above or in your own Bible, but here is the gist of it: a farmer scatters seed in many different places. Some falls on the road, some falls on rocky soil, some falls among thorns, and some falls onto good soil that produces a bountiful crop. Of course the parable is a picture of how people respond to the gospel with each of the different types of soils representing the status of people's hearts when they hear and respond to the gospel (the seed). The soil that I want to look at today is the thorny soil, because the seed that fell there did produce a plant. In fact, as far as the parable goes, I don't believe the plant ever completely dies...it simply can't produce any fruit because, "the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful" (Mt. 13:22). 

How many of us have a faith... of sorts- we attend services regularly, we profess faith in Christ, we read our Bibles and pray- and yet we grow frustrated because we do not see more fruit produced in our lives? When we are talking about fruit, I believe it means one of two things. It can mean the fruits of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5, but it can also mean the good that is done in someone else's life because the "seeds" of our faith are being planted in someone else's life to produce a "faith plant" in them.

Take a minute to examine your life:

• Are you more loving now than you were last year, not just toward those who love you back, but toward your enemies and those you disagree with?
• Do you have more joy in your life now compared to a year ago?
• Can you face difficult situations with the "peace that passes understanding" because you know your future?
• Are you growing more patient as you age physically (which tends to make us less patient) but also mature spiritually?
• Are you kinder to strangers now than you were last year?
• Are you able to make better moral decisions (i.e.- goodness) now? 
• Are you more faithful now to people and to God?
• Are you more gentle now even as life gets more difficult as far as challenges and health goes?
• Are you more self-controlled now?

 Those are the fruits of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5. Are they yours? Are they growing?
Some more questions to ask:

• Whose faith is growing right now as a direct result of God working through your life?
• Who in the congregation are you currently encouraging in their faith?
• Who in your neighborhood is having seeds dropped on the soil of their heart?
• Who has come to faith in Christ over the past ten years that you know God has used you to either plant or water the seeds of their faith?

The reason I want us to think about those questions is that if we struggle to answer them, then there is a problem. These are the fruits that the Spirit is supposed to be producing in my life. I am called to bear them. If there is little to no evidence of fruit, then what has happened!?

Is it possible that many of us have let too many "thorns" (the worries of this world like clothing, and the deceitfulness of riches) grow up with our faith and it is choking out the fruit that should be produced? In other places, we read about the "quenching of the Holy Spirit." What if worry- lack of trust in God- does just that and is directly responsible for our faith not producing significant changes in our lives or in the lives of the people we come into contact with? What if we are not taking God at his word when he reminds us of the birds and the flowers and commands us to quit worrying? What if Jesus was not just giving us something else to feel guilty about but He was really trying to explain that God loves us and will take care of us, so we can quit worrying? 

Because worrying chokes out the fruit that should be hanging on our branches. And when we have no fruit, then no more seeds will be available to plant in others who are lost. What if our churches are stagnating not because of the secularization of society, or the lack of funding or the wrong method of attempts at "drawing in the crowds" but in direct correlation to Christian's lack of confidence in the providence of God?

What if we quit worrying about our clothing because God loves us just as much as he loved Solomon and infinitely more than He loves a lily? What if we quit being people of "little faith" and started living like we actually believe that the God we sing about actually is an awesome God?