[Thursday's Devotional] - By Their Fruit

4  By Their Fruit Before concluding his sermon, Jesus issues a warning.  It comes in two parts.  The first part is about false prophets.   Watch out for false prophets.  They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.  By their fruit will you recognise them.   Matthew 7: 15, 16(a), [NIV]   There will be false prophets, Jesus tells the crowd.  There were false prophets in Old Testament times, and there will be false prophets in the church.  In the time of Jeremiah, for example, the false prophets gave a message of peace, when there was no peace (Jeremiah 8: 11).  They told people what they wanted to hear, not what God wanted them to know.   In our own day, there are people, even in the church, who deny Jesus' teaching.  Jesus has just been talking about the two ways, one which leads to life, and the other which leads to destruction.  But there are people, for example, who deny that there are two ways, or that the broad way leads to destruction.   To recognise the false prophets, we need to compare what they say with the teaching of the Bible, and we need to see if their lives are Christlike, showing the fruit of the Spirit.   The second part of Jesus' warning is about how we live our lives.  Just like the prophets, we need to show fruit if we are to not to be condemned on the Day of Judgement.  Jesus says,   Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord,' will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father in heaven.   Matthew 7: 21 [NIV]   Belief is essential, but belief without a changed life will not save us.   'It is good to worship Jesus, but the sincerity of our worship is proved by our readiness to obey him.'  [Graham Cray]   Spirit of the Living God… break me, melt me, mould me, fill me and change me more and more into the image of Christ.  Amen.   David Long   Twitter Website Copyright © 2017 St. Matthew & St. Oswald's Church, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email as a subscriber to the Daily Devotionals Our mailing address is: St. Matthew & St. Oswald's Church 1a New Street Rugby, Warwickshire CV22 7BE United Kingdom Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list Want to be added to our mailing list? - sign up here!