Introduction

In the previous post in this series I sought to establish two things. First, that the fruit by which we distinguish true from false prophets (Matt 7:16-20) is moral character and ethical conduct. And, second, that the fruit test functions as a paternity test, designed to distinguish between two radically different sets of family traits, belonging to God’s family and the serpent’s seed respectively. 

Therefore, there are two possible pitfalls in applying the fruit test:

1. Substitute another type of “fruit” for the fruit Jesus describes. Fruit then becomes something other than character and conduct.

2. Substitute another type of fruit test for Jesus’ fruit test. The test now measures someone’s moral performance (how good/bad is this person?), rather than discerns their paternity (whose likeness do they display?). 

I’ll explore these ideas, first by looking at pitfall 1, then developing the idea of the fruit test as a paternity test, before unpacking the problems with the all-too-common second pitfall (the next post). What we’ll observe is that the second pitfall is actually a variation on the first.

Series Outline

Here’s a brief outline of the series, with this post highlighted:

1. Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing : Introduction

2. Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing: Their Identity

3. Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing: Their Activity

4. Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing: Their Paternity

5. Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing: Their Discovery, Part 1

6. Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing: Their Discovery, Part 2

7. Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing: Their Destiny

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Pitfall 1: Treating “Fruit” as Religious Duty or Ministry Performance

In the first post in this series, I observed that there’s a character (role) that doesn’t reflect a person’s true identity—sheep’s clothing—and a (moral) character that does—good or bad fruit. Both of the following can be worn by a wolf to give the appearance of being a faithful sheep. Therefore, neither counts as the good fruit that distinguishes the character of God’s children from that of the serpent’s seed.

1.The Successful Performance of Religious Ministry

The prophet-wolves appeal to the Lord on the day of judgment, by reminding him that they have prophesied in his name, and demonstrated his power through miracles and exorcism (Mt 7:22; cf. 1 Cor 13:1-2). They appeal to the successful performance of their religious ministry.

This appeal picks up on one necessary mark of a true prophet, and one ambiguous mark. Prophesying in the Lord’s name and not that of another god is a necessary mark of a true prophet (Deut 18:20-22). Performing the miraculous, whether through signs and wonders or through predictive prophecy, is not a distinguishing mark of being the Lord’s prophet (Deut 13:1-2). But it is something that can authenticate a true prophet’s ministry. Later on in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus warns of false prophets who perform great signs and wonders, “to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.” (24:24).

In 7:22, therefore, Jesus does not name three different groups: false prophets, exorcists, and miracle workers. It is one group, the miracle-working false prophets, who appeal to their miraculous works on the day of judgment as evidence of their authenticity and success as prophets (7:22).

We must not miss the plausibility and sincerity of their appeal, nor the shock factor of their rejection by the Lord. A person can know great spiritual gifting, and enjoy a powerful, successful ministry, without belonging to the Lord. We often speak of a “fruitful” ministry, by which we mean someone has been productive in the Lord’s service. But that is not the fruit of Mt 7:16-20. Ministry power and success does not distinguish prophet-wolves from prophet-sheep. 

2. The dedicated performance of religious duty

In the Sermon, Jesus critiques two types of inauthentic religious performance. There is that of the hypocritical insiders who “do [their] righteousness before others to be seen by them” (Mt 6:1). He illustrates his critique with the practice of almsgiving (6:2-4), prayer (6:5-6), and fasting (6:16-18). And there is also the religious performance of the Gentiles, the outsiders, who, when they pray, “think that they will be heard because of their many words” (6:7). 

The motive of the insiders is quite different to that of the outsiders. The former are seeking approval and status (see 23:5); the latter are seeking a hearing from God. The former have no problem believing that God hears them, and the latter have no hope of recognition or status in a context where they are also-rans. But in spite of this gulf in motive, what both have in common is a worldliness (see 6:19) that seeks reward in this life. As Jesus repeatedly says of the hypocrites, “they have received their reward in full” (6:2, 5, 16). 

Both types of prayer appear as the dedicated performance of religious duty. But there is no religious piety or duty, prayer or otherwise, that in itself is evidence of an authentic faith. 

R. T. France notes that “in a society which values piety, as did first-century Judaism, people are more easily conned by religious ostentation” (Matthew, NICNT, 234). We, on the other hand, tend to be turned off by it. However, whatever our particular Christian context, there are observable religious practices or duties that bestow credibility: think evangelism, leading Bible studies, praying in tongues, giving, preaching, attendance at prayer meetings, dropping off meals for new mums, or sick people, serving at a homeless shelter, etc. All of these can be done out of devotion to a Heavenly Father. And all can be camouflage for a prowling wolf. 

Pause for a moment to take in how persuasive a wolf’s disguise can be. If he or she is gifted, with a powerful ministry, and is fully committed to various religious duties, and sports a friendly, affable, genial persona, and prophesies in a context where the sheep are very wary of being seen to be judgmental (Mt 7:1-5), that wolf will certainly go under the radar unless the sheep are able to distinguish good fruit from bad.   

The Fruit Test Well Applied: A Paternity Test

Jesus contrasts two species of tree, from different families, which produce two correspondingly different types of fruit. He underlines the categorical distinction between the two: “A good tree can’t produce bad fruit; neither can a bad tree produce good fruit” (Mt 7:18). 

The Pattern of Bearing Good Fruit

In Zephaniah 3, God pronounces a woe on Jerusalem, which is defiled under the oppressive leadership of vicious wolves, deceitful prophets, and corrupt priests (Zeph 3:1-5). On the day of the Lord (which has come near in the kingdom of Christ), God promises to purge Jerusalem of such “arrogant” people, and repopulate it with a remnant, who are poor and meek, who do no unrighteousness, and whose purified speech is free of lies and deceit (Zeph 3:9-13). 

Righteousness and truth (Zeph 3:12) can only come from a humbled heart (Zeph 3:13). That is the pattern we see in Jesus’ Sermon. In the Beatitudes, Jesus describes God’s remnant people as poor in spirit, meek, pure in heart, merciful, and hungry for righteousness etc (5:1-12). From such a lowly posture comes righteousness, love (5:21-26; 5:43-48), and speech free of lies and deceit (5:33-37). That is the good fruit of the kingdom: a lowly, meek, peaceable character, issuing in behavioural righteousness, truth, and love.

The Beatitudes divide into two groups of four. The first group are the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (5:3-6). The second group are the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those persecuted for righteousness’ sake (5:7-10). As Rebekah Eklund observes, each group of four ends on a note of righteousness (The Beatitudes through the Ages, 2021, 40), thereby linking the Beatitudes to the central theme of the Sermon—the greater, whole-person, inside-out righteousness of the kingdom (5:20). 

Repentance cuts at the root of arrogance, self-determination and pride, humbling a person, and making them receptive to the righteousness of the kingdom. There is a seamless link between repentance, the character traits spelled out in the Beatitudes, and the righteousness of the kingdom (the lived-out, Jesus-fulfilled law).

The pattern of fruit bearing looks like this:

Repentance —> A lowly, meek heart —> A righteous, loving, truthful life

A Wolf’s Bad Fruit

A wolf is numbered among the “arrogant.” They are not poor in spirit, meek, peace-loving, and hungry for righteousness, since they have unbroken, unrepentant hearts. And because they lack a lowly, meek heart, they coerce and control to satisfy their ravenous cravings, rather than humbly seek righteousness from a heavenly Father. They trample over the beautiful, delicate Beatitudes, like a pair of size 12s treads spring flowers underfoot. 

Their hearts are duplicitous, their lips are devious and deceitful, and their will is unyielding, refusing to back down or seek peace. They are ministers of violence and masters of deceit, by nature murderous and mendacious. They are willing to injure sheep (by word and deed) to get what they want. Their “yes,” is not “yes,” and their “no,” is not “no” (5:37). Instead, they lie and dissemble to maintain the control and power that their ravenous appetites demand. Truth, righteousness, and love are replaced with deceit, unrighteousness, and hatred.

That is only a brief character sketch. But notice how different a wolf is to a sheep. They are totally different types of people, with different character traits leading to different principles of conduct. The differences are due to the presence or absence of repentance. 

John the Baptist warned the Pharisees to “produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (Mt 3:8). Like John, Jesus called the people to repentance in the light of the kingdom’s arrival (4:17). As Pennington says, “The Sermon in many ways is an unpacking of what this call to repentance looks like” (Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing, 169). Both John and Jesus, in their own way, link the bearing of good fruit to repentance.

Marks of Repentance

Therefore, it is critical to observe that poverty of spirit and meekness are born of repentance. Regardless of our differing personalities, lowliness before the Lord and meekness before others are not natural to any of us. We are all by nature proud. Repentance is a gift that renews and changes the heart, creating a totally new sort of person. 

One of the problems we have with Jesus’ fruit test is that the distinction between good and bad trees seems unrealistically absolute. There is no middle ground. But it’s important to understand these categories within their context. Not only does Jesus assume the need for repentance to become a good tree, but he even—just a few verses earlier!—refers to his own disciples as “evil” (7:11), even though most of them are good trees.

Jesus juxtaposes two important strands of biblical theology without apology or contradiction. On the one hand, all alike are evil by nature, sinners in the eyes of a holy God, the “good trees” included. On the other hand, the world is divided between the righteous and the wicked, categorically and recognisably different types of people. We cannot do justice to God’s revelation if we allow one truth to eclipse the other. The question is how they relate in the application of the fruit test. Or more specifically, how Jesus himself accounts for his disciples’ sinfulness within the context of his categorical distinction between good and bad trees. 

Built into the Sermon is the recognition that to be a good tree is to be marked by repentance. That’s how Jesus expounds the commandments against murder (5:21-26) and adultery (5:27-30). Not only does he understand the laws to be commanding the heart, but he considers obedience to involve a radically repentant lifestyle, prioritising reconciliation with a brother over every other duty (5:23-26), and purity over keeping an eye or hand (5:27-30).

A wolf’s murderous character, therefore, is not only visible in their treatment of the sheep (5:21-22), but in their disinterest in the rhythms of repentance and reconciliation that mark life in community (5:23-26). A sheep values their brother or sister and grieves offending them. Therefore, they repent and seek reconciliation, even at cost. But a wolf values what the sheep gives them (whether status, money, sex, power, self-esteem), and desperately holds onto it, like Gollum does the ring, at the cost of repentance and reconciliation. 

In a much-quoted passage, Jesus instructs his disciples to treat a disciple like an unbeliever if they persistently refuse to repent (Mt 18:15-17). What he has in view is a specific instance of serious sin against a brother or sister. The problem with a wolf is that they cunningly dissemble, deceive, deny and deflect to ensure that they are always exonerated of any specific serious sin. But by habitually avoiding the humbling exposure of repentance, they thereby expose themselves.

In the Sermon, Jesus applies God’s commands in such a way that obedience entails radical, costly repentance as an ongoing lifestyle. This self-emptying mortification shapes the sheep’s character into the family likeness of poverty of spirit, mourning, meekness, hungering for righteousness, peace making etc.

Sin takes on a radically different complexion in the lives of sheep and wolves respectively. Every prophet is sinful, but not every prophet is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The question is, therefore, what sort of sinner am I? What sort of sinner is this prophet? When a wolf harms, true repentance is lacking. They justify themselves, and dissemble and deceive to maintain the appearance of righteousness.

The importance of repentance makes the pattern of bearing fruit a dynamic loop, in which repentance continually reinforces the meek, lowly character of the tree:

When we approach the fruit test as a paternity test we are looking for three things. We are looking for character traits (the Beatitudes or their opposites), behavioural patterns (the Jesus-fulfilled law or its opposites), and repentance markers (or their absence), which serve to reinforce those character traits and behavioural patterns. The repentance patterns themselves provide evidence that the tree is good.

Sadly, at the time of writing (June 2023) we are now all too familiar with narratives of serious harm in Christian environments, followed by layers of collusion, cover up, and image management. It’s almost become the stuff of weekly news. Wade Mullen especially has shown just how common this has been at the institutional level. And there’s a risk that we become blasé, inoculated by the sheer repetition against feeling the devilish darkness of such behaviours. We need to be very clear that however tragically predictable such institutional responses have been, the playbook is the devil’s, not God’s. And when an individual leader makes a practice of deception and cover up, never willing to repent and become like a little child, they are behaving like a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Other New Testament Passages

These observations can be filled out with other NT descriptions of these two radically opposed ways of life, one heavenly and the other hellish. One obvious example is the apostle Paul’s contrast between the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5. Another, which receives less attention, is James’ contrast between heavenly and earthly wisdom. 

The apostle James contrasts the wisdom from above, which is humble, pure, peace-loving, gentle, conciliatory, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and without pretence with the earthly, demonic wisdom from below, which is selfish, envious and jealous (3:13-18). Notice the many points of overlap with what we’ve observed from the Sermon on the Mount, as well as the same categorical distinction, this time between what is heavenly and what is earthly and demonic. 

Lowliness, meekness, kindness, peace-making love, and uncompromising truthfulness is distinctive of the heavenly family of God. Just as deceitfulness, anger, envy, lust, hostility, and murder, are distinctively demonic. 

When the apostles Paul and James observe the family of God displaying traits from the fleshly, demonic realm, they emphasise how out of character such behaviour is. Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh (Gal 5:24). The same spring can’t produce both fresh and salt water, just as a fig tree can’t produce olives, or a grapevine figs (James 3:11-12). 

So when Jesus says that a good tree can’t produce bad fruit (Mt 7:18), he is underlining how utterly different the two types of fruit are, belonging to two different species of tree. The point, therefore, is not whether a Christian can deceive, or can show hostility to a brother or sister, or can lust, or can despise their enemy, or can be angry. Sadly we still can and do this side of glory. But doing so is completely out of character, because those are the traits of a different family, of a dark realm, ruled by the devil. They come from below, and Jesus’ disciples have been born from above. But, when wolves behave like that they are in their element. It’s who they are, and hence it’s how they operate. 

Therefore, the sheep are to ask of all prophets, What character traits do we observe? What behavioural patterns mark their life? What are the marks of repentance? Does this person characteristically tell the truth? Does this person consistently seek to live at peace with their brothers and sisters? Does this person characteristically display meekness in how they speak and instruct others? Does this person consistently act in humility and kindness? Those questions are just ways of asking if a prophet behaves like a member of the Christian family.

None of those good family traits are marks of high achievement. They are marks of lowliness, of becoming like little children (Mt 18:1-4), of belonging to the one who is meek and lowly in heart (Mt 11:29). Their presence in a spiritual leader leaves an unmistakably good taste in the mouth of the sheep nourished by their ministry. But their absence leaves a stench in the pen that no amount of window dressing can hide.

A prophet who claims to lead the flock on the path of heavenly wisdom, along the narrow path that leads to life (7:13-14), but whose life is marked by fleshly, demonic wisdom, is a deceiver, a false prophet.

In the next post, we will consider how the fruit test gets misapplied as a performance test.

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