"You Will Recognize Them By Their Fruits" ... PART I

Jesus Christ spoke about two types of trees: 1.) bad trees and 2.) good trees (Matthew 7:15-20). This discourse was a part of His well-known "Sermon on the Mount." Here Christ is speaking to His disciples, warning them of false prophets who will try to attack them. He explains that these false teachers will come dressed up in the clothing of true sheep, or believers, "but inwardly are ravenous wolves." And to describe the method by which the believer is to recognize these wolves, Christ remarks, "You will recognize them by their fruits."

John Gill comments on this passage: "The Jews have a proverb pretty much like this, "a gourd is known by its branches". The gloss upon it is, "it is, as if it was said, from the time it buds forth, and goes out of the branch, it is known whether it is good or not;'' i.e. the goodness of the gourd is known by the fruit its branches bear. So a good preacher is known by the good doctrine he brings, and a bad one, by his unsound doctrine."

Again, Gill on the subject:

The meaning of our Lord is, that from the false doctrines of men comes no good fruit of faith, holiness, joy, peace, and comfort. Their doctrines are like "thorns", which prick and pierce, give pain and uneasiness; and, like "thistles", choke, and are unprofitable, afford no solid food and nourishment; yea, their words eat as do a canker, are contrary to vital religion and powerful godliness. This sense I prefer; because, on the one hand, it is possible for a false teacher to do works, which may be externally good; though indeed no good works, properly speaking, can be performed by an unregenerate man, because he has neither good principles to act from, nor good ends in view: and, on the other hand, a man who is destitute of the grace of God, and lives ill, may yet have right notions of the Gospel, though he has no experimental knowledge and relish of it; but where false doctrines are imbibed, and propagated, no good fruit can follow upon it.

It follows, both textually and logically, that only a good tree bears good fruit and only a bad tree bears bad fruit. Notice, the tree that is good bears the fruit that is good. In saying this, the tree is good even before the bearing of any observable fruit. The fruit, when grown, does not make the tree good or bad. The tree, being either good or bad in the beginning produces fruit that is like the tree, good or bad. Again, Gill :

As a good man does, and will do good works, but his works do not make him a good man; he is so before he performs good works, or he would never be able to do them; these make him appear to be a good man: so a good preacher, that has an experimental knowledge of the doctrines of the Gospel, will deliver out sound doctrine, who is first made so by the gifts and graces of the Spirit of God; and by searching the Scriptures, and examining his doctrines by them, he will be known and appear to be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and good doctrine; and such a good minister of the Gospel, out of the good treasure of Gospel truths put into his earthen vessel, will bring forth, from time to time, good and excellent truths, to the edification and profit of those that hear: "but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit"; if the tree is corrupt, the fruit will be corrupt; and as is the preacher, so will be his doctrines: if he is a corrupt preacher, or a man of a corrupt mind, destitute of the truth, his preaching will be such as will tend to corrupt both the principles and practices of men; for such evil men and seducers, out of the evil treasure of false doctrines, which they have received into their judgments, will bring forth, either more secretly or openly, evil tenets in their ministry, which prove of bad consequence to the souls of men.