Fruit & False Prophets – Part 2
February 8, 2004
Dear Friends,
One day a long while ago, a friend of mine was walking with me in my parent’s yard one winter. He was a graduate of forestry school and working as an arborist. He commented on a tree in my parent’s yard calling it a pear tree. I quipped back to him that we must have the most unusual pear tree in the world since we had been picking peaches off of it for years.
Even for a trained professional, a quick glance at a fruit tree in the dead of winter makes for a difficult identification while even a child can identify a fruit tree when the fruit is ripe. So it is with the false prophet. Until their fruit is manifest, identification can be very hard. He are five fruits of a false prophet.
MONEY: Beware of people seeking for money in the name of Christ. Paul counseled Titus to beware of false teachers seeking for money. He said “You must stop the mouths of such men, for they overthrow the faith of whole families, teaching what they ought not, just for the sake of making money.” (Titus 1:11 Weymouth) One of the earliest Christian writings, the Didache, says “a missioner at his departure should accept nothing but as much as provisions as will last him to his next night’s lodgings. If he asks for money, he is not a genuine missioner.” Money is a necessary evil in promotion of the Gospel message, but watch out for those supposed men of God who display the trappings of wealth or are always asking for money.
SELF PROMOTION: A false prophet is more interested in promoting themselves than in promoting the Gospel. Speaking of one of the first century’s false prophets, John tells us “I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.” (3 John 9) We are told to “be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.” The promotion of Christ and the Gospel must be paramount in any true teacher. All things must be toward the glory of God and Christ. It is impossible for the man to overshadow the Gospel message, for when he does so, it is not the true Gospel he is preaching.
POWER: Beware of people who set themselves above you. A true prophet seeks to serve, not to be served. Jesus said “The greatest among you must be your servant. Anyone who raises himself up will be humbled, and anyone who humbles himself will be raised up.” “No one should seek his own advantage, but that of his neighbor.” (1 Cor. 10:24) A false prophet will seek deference, special treatment and acquiescence to his will.
TEACHING: Beware of people teaching things different that what the Bible teaches. The Apostle John says “If anybody does not remain in the teaching of Christ but goes beyond it, he does not have God with him: only those who remain in what he taught can have the Father and the Son with them. If anyone comes to you bringing a different doctrine, you must not receive him into your house or even give him a greeting. Whoever greets him has a share in his wicked activities.” We are not at liberty to pick and choose what doctrine we wish to believe or not to believe from the Bible. It is a package deal. If someone comes along teaching otherwise, have nothing to do with them. We must be like the “noble” Bereans who listened to the teachings of the Apostle Paul and “searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)
MORALITY: Beware of men who preach one thing while secretly doing another. Although no one is perfect, a false prophet will have a significant deviation between what they say and what they do. Remember, teachers have a higher standard than that of students. If we come to expect a slight deviation between a disciple of Christ and the message that they carry, this deviation should be even less in the teacher. The Bible tells us “a bishop then must be blameless.” (1 Tim. 3:2, Titus 1:7). A teacher’s hard work does not give them liberty for more sin, it gives them less liberty. Remember the words of James — “Be not many of you teachers, my brethren, knowing that we shall receive heavier judgment.” (James 3:1)
“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits.” (Matt. 7:15-16)
Have a great week!
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