New Testament Reading Plan: Philemon
SCRIPTURE READING
Matt 7:16-20 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes,
or figs from thistles? 17So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears
bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.
19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20Thus you will
recognize them by their fruits. (ESV)
In this passage Jesus completely refutes the idea that works don’t matter and that a person
who is bearing all kinds of bad fruit can feel safe. According to Jesus, if you’re bearing lots
of bad fruit that means something very serious is wrong on your insides, and the whole tree
might be bad – in which case you are in danger of judgment! Jesus did not have a category
for the carnal Christian whereby a person can believe in Jesus and be saved on one hand but
then on the other hand be bearing all kinds of horrible fruit, and be fully in love with the world
and steeped in sin, without any repentance. In Jesus’ theology you’re either a good tree, in
which case you bear good fruit, or you’re a bad tree, in which case you bear bad fruit. Now of
course we realize that none of us are perfect, we all have had bad days, and bad weeks, and
we mess up, and we say terrible things and sometimes we act in awful, unloving ways . . . but
the question is, when you mess up does it bother you? Do you feel remorse? Do you repent
and make things right? Do you ask God to grow you in these areas? Can you look back over
your life and see that you are growing, little by little, in all of these areas? If the Spirit of God
is in you, then there’s going to be a certain kind of fruit, because that’s what He does! A good
tree has good fruit and a bad tree has bad fruit.
PRAYER and MEDITATION
1. Ask God to show you some of the good fruit in your life. Where have you been growing
little by little, over the last few weeks or months?
2. Now ask God if there is any bad fruit in your life. What are a few things that you need to
confess and clean up? Ask God to forgive you and make things right with God.
3. Ask God that He would put in you a hatred of sin, that you would feel remorse when you
sin, that it truly would bother you.
