Good fruit we bear?

In sermon of the mount (Matthew 5-7, read it ya?) by Jesus to His disciples, teaching them different things. From beatitudes, to how we should live as His disciples, the higher standards that God has for His people so that we do not disregard the law as we receive grace through Christ’s death on the cross.

It’s a long sermon, today i like to just share what i learnt from Matt 7:15,20 “ By their fruit you will recognize them.”

The ‘them’ in the 2 verses, repeated twice in 5 verses, refers to false prophets. They claim to be God’s people, speaking in God’s name, do miracles and wonders in the name of God, but do not actually know God. How do we recognize them since they come in the name of God? By their fruit, Jesus says.

I am not going to talk about how to recognize the false prophets. I want us to allow Holy Spirit to search our hearts, our minds and spirit to see what FRUIT are we bearing? what Tree are we?

What FRUIT are we bearing?
From the seed to the plant to the flower to the fruit, we know what tree they came from, without actually seeing the mother tree. Similarly,our lives, behavior, beliefs,principles,values, people will know who we belong to.

The danger I see in these words of Jesus is this, that we can do things, do signs and wonders in Jesus name, but yet,we do not know Him, like the false prophets, in God’s sight, we are evildoers. He is more concerned about what is inside, who we are in the closet than what the public sees and know.

"The Private us vs The Public us"

Are we the good vineyards that bear good fruit?
We are all familiar with Galatians 5:22-26, are we bearing the fruit of the Spirit?

If Christ is the one we claim to follow, imitating Him, being holy because He is holy, then can we see the fruit written in the scriptures in our lives?

Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Not conceited, not provoking, not envying one another. Love one another, love your enemy, be righteous and the list goes one and on if we dig into the scriptures.

We have the seed of good fruit in us as Holy Spirit lives in us. But we need to sow rightly daily so that this seed, the nature of Christ will not wither and die without blooming,instead this seed will grow and eventually bear fruit.

We have the faith in Christ and desire to be more like Him, that I am sure, we know the way to sow rightly, so let the Holy Spirit ripen the fruit that is coming forth.
What is real cannot be fake…真的假不了