Matthew 7:15-20

[15] Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 

[16] By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?

[17] Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 

[18] A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 

[19] Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 

[20] Thus, but their fruit you will recognize them. 

What is the fruit that Jesus says will help you to distinguish between false prophets and true prophets?

In Matthew 7:15-20 Jesus is preaching and sharing wisdom about who he is. People had been saying that he was demon—possessed, of Satan and not of God (Matthew 12:22-37; Mark 3:20-35; Luke 11:14-28). Not that this scripture is Jesus defending himself but he realized the people were not able to distinguish between true and false prophets. 

Historically, prophets were people through whom God sent a message to his people. Sometimes this message was a warning to repent (Jonah 1 – Jonah 4). Other times this message was of comfort (Isaiah 40) that God would deliver his people through his might out of terrible situations (Isaiah 42). Through Jesus as God’s prophet, God was sending a message of mercy and salvation through faith. 

False prophets then are people who also claim to have a message from God for God’s people. 

So then what is the fruit that Jesus says will help you distinguish between false prophets and true prophets?

In Matthew 7:15 Jesus says that both the true and false prophet claim to be shepherds. Someone who cares for the body of Christ. Jesus often referred to himself as a shepherd and people who put their faith in him as his sheep (John 10:1-18; John 15-17). Jesus says that a shepherd who is good lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:11). But that a false prophet inwardly has a desire to do what wolves do to sheep in the metaphor, attack the flock and scatter it (John 10:12). 

A true prophet’s message, if it is from God is a message that points to Jesus as the only shepherd to model after and that his work on the cross, his sacrifice is what has given us our salvation. In pointing to Jesus and not themselves they put the lives of their flock in the hands of the true shepherd who laid down his life for their sake. Jesus says in John 10:9-10 that whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. 

Jesus says that the fruit of a false prophet exposes who they really are. Their message exposes them by what it does to the flock. It scatters the flock, consumes them with destructive ideas and does not point to Jesus the Shepherd and his sacrifice but their own intentions and desires. 

Jesus’ own words brought controversy among people of his time, but his message was about reconciliation to God. John 3:17 says that God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Jesus says that he did not come to bring a message of condemnation but to bring words from God that give life. 

This is not saying that Jesus’ ministry of forgiveness for sins for everyone who believed wrapped God up in a message that would be more palatable. The idea that God would forgive and accept everyone was controversial. Jesus exposed the truth about God’s will. People in Jesus’ time said that God’s promise of salvation and mercy was only for the Jew, people to whom the law was given and followers of the law (Acts 10:28; Galatians 2:11-14; Romans 1:16; John 4:22). Jesus came with a message from God that was controversial that said “whoever comes to me I will never drive away” (John 6:37). Anyone who looks to Jesus, God’s gift of mercy will be saved (Romans 10:13; John 11:25). Jesus’ sacrifice rescues from sin and the condemnation of sin anyone who puts their faith not in the scarifies they can make but in the sacrifice he made to be a blameless offering that God would accept that would make everyone who believes and accepts this sacrifice, righteous and reconnected to God, covered by the blood sacrifice of Jesus. 

This is a message of reconciliation of the entire world back to God. Jesus says, “all who have come before me are thieves and robbers” (John 10:8). Speaking about messages from false prophets that scatter and preach condemnation and share ideas that lead to spiritual death. If mercy and reconciliation meaning care and unity for the body of Christ is a sign of a true prophet, the ability to tell false prophets from true is realized because no one could go to these prophets and find the mercy and salvation that Jesus would bring. 

Matthew 7:16-17 says that you will never be able to find something sweet among a thorn bush. Meaning that a message from a false prophet will always be a message that leaves the hearer with no possibility of hope or mercy wanting the sweetness of mercy but not ever finding it. 

When Jesus says in Matthew 7:17 that every good tree bears good fruit, but that a bad tree bears bad fruit he was comparing the messages of the false and true prophets and how they would either be able to spiritually nourish people or not. 

He was not comparing characteristics or making a statement about self-righteousness. God’s own words say that there is no one who does good and that only God through his unfailing love can cleanse from sin (Psalms 14:3; Ecclesiastes 7:20; Psalms 51). 

God is good and has given us Jesus because he is good, not because we are good. God has given mercy not because we deserved mercy but because he is merciful. God has given us a way of salvation because of his unfailing love. 

A bad tree then is not a person who is bad but a person who claims to have a message from God but whose message or fruit cannot nourish, cannot give spiritual life, condemns, curses, points to righteous ways of living as a way of proving salvation or points to anything but Jesus’ sacrifice as the way of salvation. 

Jesus says in Matthew 7:18 that a good tree not a good person but a message that is truly from God and is good and cannot malnourish. A good message always points to Jesus, always remembers God’s mercy and is a message of salvation through faith in Jesus’ work that brings hope, life and peace. 

In Matthew 7:19 Jesus says that every message that is not from God, like a tree that does not nourish its end will be its own destruction. Or as is written, “every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire (Matthew 7:19). Meaning that messages that are not from God will be removed because Jesus is the good news and the only message through which God speaks (Hebrews 1:1-4). 

The destruction of the messages of false prophets is God’s mercy and justice. Removing them from his flock removes what does not nourish or messages that claim to be from God but are not and helps to reveal the only message that he is speaking through, Jesus, his gift of mercy. A message of forgiveness, of reconciliation, of mercy and life. Thus by this fruit you will recognize them, what messages are from God and what messages are false (Matthew 7:20).