Beware of Ravenous Wolves

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ Matthew 7:15-23

 

 I have mentioned in previous blogs that there are passages of scripture I have stayed away from because they make me nervous.  They make me nervous because, at first reading, which is always from the Action/Consequence perspective, they sound as if they are saying our salvation is based on how well we perform and not based on grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.  Matthew 7:15-23 has been one of those passages for me. 

The overall impression in the Action/Consequence version of this passage is that we should be on the lookout for false prophets who will appear to be good, but in reality are evil, and will try to make us evil as well. Then, we are given the secret of how to recognize these prophets.  The key is their “fruit”.  By the end of the passage, we are left with the feeling that we should be doing lots of good works; but that even things like prophesying, casting out demons and other mighty works are not necessarily good enough for God; therefore, we are all in danger of being cut down and thrown into the fire because we haven’t done enough.  Scary stuff!

Fortunately, there is a Death/Resurrection version; and, as always, it doesn’t come naturally to us, and is upside down and backwards from the Action/Consequence point of view.  So, I’m going to try to break it down, looking for the Death/Resurrection clues, and then pull it all together at the end.

The first clue in this passage is that these false prophets come in “sheep’s clothing”. I believe it is safe to say that these prophets arrive on the scene after Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension.  Frequently, those who are listening to Jesus have no way of understanding what he means, because the events which will make it possible for them to understand have not yet occurred.  They cannot make the connection, as we can, that prophets who come in sheep’s clothing are ones who present themselves as belonging to Jesus, but who, in fact, are actually ravenous wolves. 

Jesus continues explaining how we will be able to see through their disguise, and know they are not representing him.  He says we will know by their “fruit”; and then his next clue is in the form of a question:  “Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?”  The obvious answer is no; but what is Jesus implying?  These false prophets will not be capable of bearing fruit because they are only thornbushes and thistles.  Jesus didn’t randomly use those examples; thorns and thistles were part of the curse that came as a result of Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden. (Genesis 3:18) And Jesus said that thornbushes and thistles cannot produce grapes or figs.  Grapes and figs were often mentioned together in the Old Testament and represented God’s blessing; and, conversely, the lack of grapes and figs represented a curse.  So, what we learn from this clue is that, the false prophets who claim to represent Jesus but are actually destructive and dangerous, are cursed plants incapable of growing the fruits which represent God’s blessing.

Jesus elaborates on that point by telling us that healthy trees will only produce good fruit, and diseased trees can only produce bad fruit; and then gives us the fate of every diseased tree: it will be cut down and thrown into the fire.  The implication is that these prophets are diseased trees and are fit only for destruction. He says “Thus, you will recognize them by their fruits,” which are bad fruits.

Then Jesus gives us the best clue of all.  He says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” 

To understand what Jesus means by doing the will of his Father, we can look at John 6:40 where he says, “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life”.

I understand that you might think I’m stretching by tying those verses together, because our naturally Action/Consequence directed minds can only interpret the idea of ‘doing God’s will’ to mean performing works of obedience; so, let’s go to another passage, John 6:28-29.  In response to Jesus telling the gathered crowd that they should work for “food that endures to eternal life”, the people ask him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”   Obviously they had the same Action/Consequence understanding that we all do when we are told we have to ‘work’ for something pertaining to eternal life.  They wanted to know what they needed to do to be doing those works.  Notice the emphasis on their ‘doing’; but Jesus gave them a Death/Resurrection answer that was, of course, upside down and backwards from what they expected and even wanted to hear:  “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

The last clue is when Jesus immediately expands on the idea that only those who do the will of his Father will enter the kingdom of heaven by saying, “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” 

The fact of the matter is, our works, no matter how grand they may be, can never, ever be enough to recommend us to God! Anyone who comes to God saying ‘look at what I’ve done, let me into heaven’, will be turned away and called a worker of lawlessness; and the reason those who point to all the wonderful things they have done for God will be called “workers of lawlessness” is because they have failed to understand that the work of obedience God requires in order to earn eternal life is nothing less than perfect, unblemished holiness.  Believing and teaching others that anything less than perfect obedience to the law is acceptable to God is lawlessness, and an abomination to God.

False prophets are all who say they represent Jesus, but are preaching the lie of works righteousness. That is the bad fruit by which we will know them! As ravenous wolves, they will appeal to our Action/Consequence natures and deceive us into thinking we can and must earn our salvation, and this will ultimately lead us to destruction; because we are all diseased trees, only capable of producing bad fruit and only worthy of being cut down and thrown into the fire.

The only possible hope for any of us is to do the will of the Father by humbly and gratefully accepting as our own the perfect righteousness of his Son, Jesus Christ; and the only true prophets are those who boldly proclaim nothing but that glorious truth!