“By their fruits you will recognize them [that is, by their contrived doctrine and self-focus]. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the unhealthy tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. – Matthew 7:16 -18, AMP

This season I decided to plant sweet potatoes. However, I could not find enough planting materials from one person so I sourced three varieties of sweet potato vines from three different people.

When time for harvesting came, I was shocked to note that only one variety had produced potatoes.

The other two had just roots – same soil, same weather, same garden – but zero fruits.

What could have happened to lead to such a loss?

Of course, I did find out the names of the unproductive varieties, and I’ll do my best never to plant them again.

In our meditation today, our Lord Jesus uses the analogy of farming to teach an important lesson as nears the conclusion of His ‘Sermon on the Mount.’

“By their fruits you will recognize them,” He says, after warning His questioning disciples to be aware of false ‘brethren.’

I really liked how the Amplified Version clarifies the notion of ‘fruits’ – by their contrived doctrine and self-focus.

The other synonyms for ‘contrived’ are; ‘manufactured,’ ‘artificial,’ ‘engineered.’

That easily gives us a clue on how to identify false teachers – they really put in a lot of effort or force to make people believe what they are saying!

Secondly, their preaching style is self-focused – it’s all about ‘me, myself and I’ – their number-one objective and focus is to attract or draw attention to one else but themselves.

But also note that there are two types of ‘trees’ the Lord is highlighting – one that can’t bear a certain fruit because it’s not its nature, and another that can’t bear the healthy fruits because it has a problem.

For example, it would be foolhardy to go looking for mangoes on a mahogany tree.

But also, it is possible to have a mango tree that starts producing rotten fruits every season.

Likewise, some genuine Christians may simply be misguided to become self-focused and greedy.

Those can be helped back to the right path through teaching and counseling.

However, others were never really of God and won’t bear the fruits you expect because it’s not their nature.

It’s like expecting to pick oranges from a muvule tree.

Only AI could do that, and only in videos, not in reality.

Are you really a child of God? Are you a god-fearing person? Please don’t waste time trying to explain or to prove it. Simply show us your fruits!

And if your ‘bad fruits’ of self-interest and materialism are all over you for everyone to see, please don’t bother explaining or arguing that everything is fine.

Check your roots!

As Jesus put it later in Matthew 12:33; “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is known by its fruit.”

Like someone said, our fruits usually shout too loudly that people hardly hear our words!