Jesus' Own Method for Knowing Who's Telling You the Truth
On a number of occasions I've been told, “Why should I believe your interpretation of the Bible? There's thousands of other ones out there.”
That's to be expected. Jesus said that “many” would come in his name,“many” false prophets would arise leading “many” astray, and “many” people would suppose they are Christians who are not (Matthew 24:5,11; 7:22-23). Meanwhile, the road that leads to life is narrow, and there are few walking on it (Matthew 7:14). It is to be expected that for every true interpretation of the Scriptures, there will be many false ones being preached. How do you tell one from the other?
Jesus gave one way and one way only. He said, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You shall know them by their fruit” (Matthew 7:15-16).
By their fruit? Is this a reliable method?
Jesus goes on to say, “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit.” There was once a pastor who wrote an attack on Rose Creek Village that began with, “In stark contrast to the petty backbiting and self-centeredness that characterizes so much of the church today, this gathering of Christians is a living testimony of what the church should be; a harmonious body of believers loving and laying down their lives for one another.” This pastor stated that this was the universal testimony of several of his friends that had visited us. However, he then went on to say that this amazing fruit was produced by a rotten tree because he did not agree with some of our teachings! Jesus said this was impossible.
Somewhere along the line, Christians have come to believe that a false prophet is known by our interpretation of the Bible. This is not true! A false prophet, according to Jesus, is known by the fruit his preaching produces. In fact, he specifically upbraided the Pharisees for trying to judge him by the Scriptures. “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have life. However, these are they which testify of me, and you refuse to come to me that you might have life” (John 5:39-40).
You do not judge fruit by your own interpretation of the Scriptures. In fact, it is the opposite. Your fruit judges your interpretation of the Scriptures. The testimony of borne fruit is reliable. Only good trees, says Christ, produce good fruit. The testimony of Bible interpretation is very unreliable. No one knows what good Bible interpretation is until the fruit of it is seen.
Perhaps this is why Evangelical Christianity struggles so much. Because we do not know to test our own Bible interpretions by the fruit we bear, we refuse to change. Pastors and other Evangelical leaders are always acknowledging publicly that Evangelicals are not bearing good fruit. In fact, the pastor who wrote the booklet against us acknowledged in the quote above that “petty backbiting and self-centeredness“ characterizes much of the church today. He was an Evangelical pastor, so he was referring to Evangelicals (basically all of Protestant, born-again Christianity). When this is the fruit that the Evangelical message is bearing, why can't these leaders see that it is their own Bible interpretations that need to change, not those of people who are “a living testimony of what the church should be”?
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