The Tree and It’s Fruit

Matthew 7:16-18 You will know these people because of what they do. Good things don’t come from people who are bad, just as grapes don’t come from thornbushes, and figs don’t come from thorny weeds. In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, and bad trees produce bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit.

Don’t you just hate it when someone pretends to be something on the outside, yet on the inside they’re something else entirely? We fall for who they pretend to be, and inevitably we get hurt.

Have you ever picked a plum off a lemon tree, or an apple off a thorn bush? Not likely! In fact, you only know a tree by its fruit. It’s an apple tree only if it produces apples. Thorn bushes … well, they’re full of thorns. The same, as things turn out, is true of people.

Matthew 7:16-18 You will know these people because of what they do. Good things don’t come from people who are bad, just as grapes don’t come from thornbushes, and figs don’t come from thorny weeds. In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, and bad trees produce bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit.

People aren’t always what they seem to be. We’ve all been duped by people who were all-so-nice when we first met them, only to discover that they weren’t who or what they pretended to be. So how do you avoid making that same mistake again? By looking at the fruit – their track record – the things that their behaviour has produced, good or bad.

If someone’s always surrounded by conflict and strife, we know what sort of person they are. If someone says they’re an expert in something, but they’ve never actually achieved anything in that field, then they’re lying. On the other hand, someone who’s always helping other people … well, we know what sort of person they are.

Good trees always produce good fruit. Bad trees always produce bad fruit. It’s never the other way round. Ever!

That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.

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