You Can Identify A Tree By Its Fruit

"Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit,

so you can identify people by their actions."

Matthew 7:20 (NLT)

A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree that produces good fruit is used symbolically in Scripture to represent a Christian who abides in the Lord Jesus Christ. A bad tree that produces bad fruit is used symbolically in Scripture to represent a follower of evil or a lover of self.

Now I ask these questions: Can a tree produce fruit that is neither good nor bad? Can a tree produce no fruit at all? And what do these trees represent?

First, a tree that produces no fruit has no life. Second, a tree that produces fruit that is neither good nor bad is worse than a tree that produces bad fruit.

Some Christians might argue that trees that produce neither good nor bad fruit represent Christians who, although they do not abide in the Lord Jesus Christ, will still be permitted to enter Heaven one day because, after all, salvation is a gift based only on the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, not by our own merits. The sole repercussion could only be that such a person will receive little or no heavenly reward from God. Big deal! So what?

Wrong! It's a very big deal!

Our salvation is indeed a wonderful gift of God, but when we become saved, Jesus Christ comes to live inside us. And when Jesus Christ comes to live inside us, He begins to work in us and His character begins to be revealed through us. In other words, it is Jesus who produces the good works in us, not ourselves. A tree that is neither good nor bad, but is just neutral, is a Christian who makes a half-hearted commitment to God. God knows the heart and He has commanded us in the Bible to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. A person who wishes to avoid following evil, but yet refuses to be a steadfast servant of God, is like a strong distaste in the mouth of God. We must make a decision to either be hot or cold! God does not want us to be lukewarm. We must decide one way or the other. That's the big deal!

"I know all the things you do,

that you are neither hot nor cold.

I wish that you were one or the other!

But since you are like lukewarm water,

neither hot nor cold,

I will spit you out of my mouth."

Revelations 3:15-16 (NLT)

Half-hearted Christians must not fall into the trap of believing that being lukewarm and unproductive for God only means that they will forfeit some jewels in their crown, that they will still be able to somehow slip underneath Heaven's gate. (Believe it or not, I am hearing this false teaching being preached in our Christian churches today!) Please listen: people who obey this false teaching will suffer eternal consequences, not just a few missing jewels or a lack of answers to their earthly prayers.

It is the upmost importance that in the last days, Christians must know all of God's Word, so they can decipher between what teaching being preached is false and what is true.