By their fruits ye shall know them. Do [men] gather a bunch of grapes from thorns, or from thistles figs?
The Lord has just warned His disciples about false prophets in sheep's clothing. Now He gives them a test anyone can use: look at what a tree produces. But what counts as "fruit"? Why thorns and thistles? And how does an ordinary believer use the test when the teacher looks so good?
The disguise is deliberate. Behind it lies a plan to steal everything a Christian holds.
They may cultivate a show of holiness and pretend to devotion. But a mightier enemy than themselves controls them. They are filled with the keenest zeal to rob the Christian of a true Christ, of the eternal life he already has, of his present standing as God's righteousness in Christ, of his association with Him in and for heavenly glory. Are such not truly ravening wolves? What is left, if the disciple loses all the treasure that belongs to Christianity?
The Lord does not send His hearers to experts. He points to something everyone already knows.
To back up His warning against false prophets the Lord Jesus uses an illustration from creation. If you know nature well you will often be able to recognise a tree from a distance by its shape and its leaves. But even someone who does not know nature that well will generally be able to identify a tree by its fruit.
The word translated "recognize" is a strong one:
This word means "certain personal knowledge, and the recognition of the truth of a thing that follows from it" — "recognising because we know."
Bad conduct can be part of the fruit. But the test must reach further, because a false teacher may live an attractive life.
If our Lord meant nothing but evil deeds and wickedness, it would be hard indeed to detect these false ones. Satan is not so blind as to spread his lies through wicked people whose lives bear the stamp of immorality and open wickedness. He does it in quite another way. We were often told of people who hold the most detestable doctrines and deny the Deity of our Lord as well as the atonement: "But look at the beautiful lives they live! How meek and lovely they are!"... This outward moral appearance and a "sweet" temper belongs only too often to the sheep's clothing.
The caution runs both ways. The test looks at what is taught, not only at how the teacher behaves:
The fruit would make them known. But remember: this fruit is not always immoral conduct. If it were, the sheep's clothing would no longer stay on. It is rather their doctrines tested by experience, as when men look for grapes and find at best a mockery of them... on the other hand an evil life may dishonour the preacher of solid truth. But a true and needy soul, testing for itself the fruit of what is spoken, will certainly find that the truth has its own witness to the heart and conscience.
Grapes and figs feed people. Thorns and thistles only tear. That is what these teachers leave behind.
They have the character of thorns and thistles. They are harmful rather than productive, and give no food for the need of souls. No child of God should be deceived by them. They tickle men's ears, usually appealing to pride of intellect. But they know nothing of the truth that reaches consciences and hearts.
The test works because fruit is not an add-on. It comes out of what the tree is.
They are to be known not by their fine words but by their fruits. Fruit is the result and crowning expression of life, and it reveals the character of the life it crowns. The false prophet has a false life, which must reveal itself in false fruit.
It comes down to questions any believer can ask about a teacher.
Do they exalt Him who humbled Himself? Do they confess His incomprehensible being, God and man in one Person? Do they proclaim His grace and truth? Do they follow Christ in complete submission to Scripture?... Is the believer established? Is the sinner won and delivered? Or are minds filled with ideas that only inflate the spirit, encourage self-satisfaction, and end in death? These are practical effects that test what men teach. They are plain enough for simple souls who know little of Scripture and even less of human cleverness.
Christians have more than the disciples had on that hillside:
They were to know the false prophets by their fruits. But we have the Holy Spirit and the written word, so that we can "test the spirits to see whether they are from God." The two great tests are the person of Christ and the word of God.
- Disguise — the danger comes dressed as a sheep. Its aim is to rob you of a true Christ and all that comes with Him.
- Test — the Lord gives a test from daily life: you may not know the tree, but you know its fruit.
- Fruit — a lovely manner can be part of the costume. Test what is taught: does it feed or tear?
- Root — fruit expresses life. False fruit exposes a false life underneath.
- Verdict — does the teaching exalt Christ, obey Scripture, build believers, save sinners? The two great tests are the person of Christ and the word of God.
So every good tree produces good fruits, but the worthless tree produces bad fruits.
Jesus has just warned about false prophets who arrive dressed as sheep. Now He gives a test drawn from the orchard: what a tree produces tells you what a tree is. So if fruit follows nature, what hope is there for a bad tree?
The picture is ordinary, but the Lord leaves no middle case.
The Lord sets up a general principle: the quality of the tree decides the quality of the fruit. To stress this principle He adds that there are no exceptions. This principle from nature has a spiritual application. It is a simple but clear "either... or" which helps the disciple see where the message he is hearing comes from.
Bad behaviour is the obvious answer. It is not the first thing to look for.
The fruit would show them for what they are. But we must remember that this is not necessarily immoral conduct. If it were, the sheep's clothing would no longer remain. It is rather their doctrines tested by experience, as when men looking for grapes find nothing but at most a mockery of them. Satan, when he comes in as an angel of light, does not send out open evil-doers to recommend his doctrines. On the other hand, an evil life may dishonour a preacher of solid truth.
This answers the most common defence of a false teacher.
We were often told of people who hold the most detestable doctrines. They deny the Deity of our Lord as well as the atonement. And we were told, "But look at the beautiful lives they live! How gentle and lovely they are! How much good they do! Doesn't their life prove their doctrine is right, and the fruit show that the tree is not bad?" This outward moral appearance and a "sweet" temper belongs only too often to the sheep's clothing. It is one of the devices by which Satan tries to lead many away from the truth and into error.
There is a practical test here: does what you hear feed you?
They bear the character of thorns and thistles. They are harmful rather than productive, and they provide no food for the need of souls. No child of God should be deceived by them. They tickle men's ears and usually appeal to pride of intellect. But they know nothing of the truth that reaches consciences and hearts. Grapes and figs are healthy foods, but they are not available from thorns or thistles.
Why can no amount of care improve a diseased tree?
Then He shows how clearly it is a question of nature. You cannot change the nature.
If nature cannot change, the only hope is a new one.
In the same way, the natural heart is corrupt. It cannot bring forth good fruit, only evil thoughts which lead to evil deeds. But God gives the believer an entirely new disposition. It loves Him and the things which please Him.
Good fruit is never self-produced. It grows where the life of Christ is.
Neither the religious misbeliever nor the profane unbeliever produces good fruits. How could it be? Those who utter false oracles are trees the Father never planted. The worthless tree produces bad fruits, while every good tree produces good fruits. Christ is the true vine, and only those who abide in Him are branches that bear good fruit.
The disciples had fruit to watch. Believers today have more.
They were to know the false prophets by their fruits. But we have the Holy Spirit and the written word to test the spirits and see whether they are of God. The two great tests are the person of Christ and the word of God. If you find anything that lowers the person of Christ, you may be sure it is not of God. The Holy Spirit is here to glorify Christ. If we take this as a picture of men, there is none good, there is none that does good, not one. So if there is any good, it can only come from a new, a divine nature.
- Nature decides. The tree settles the fruit, not the other way round, and the Lord allows no exception to the rule.
- Nature cannot be improved. Care and cultivation cannot change a nature. A corrupt tree stays corrupt.
- Nature must be given. The only way good fruit ever appears is that God gives an entirely new disposition, one that loves Him.
- Nature shows in the fruit. Watch what a teacher feeds you, tested over time. The pleasant manner may be the sheep's clothing itself.
- Nature has its root in Christ. He is the true vine, and only those who remain in Him bear good fruit.
A good tree cannot produce bad fruits, nor a worthless tree produce good fruits.
The Lord has just warned about false prophets dressed as sheep, and here He gives the test that exposes them: fruit. His "cannot" is absolute, which raises two questions: what is this fruit, and can a bad tree ever change?
So what counts as fruit? One writer puts the prophet's message first, ahead of his conduct.
The fruits are first of all the words of the prophets. True prophets of God also may fail in their manner of life and their deeds, while false prophets are often marked by an especially likeable nature. This is why the fruits in this case are not only deeds but particularly the teaching that is brought. By them the disciples of Jesus will recognise whether the Spirit of God or a false spirit is speaking.
Verse 17 states the rule. Verse 18 shuts the door on exceptions, and that is what makes it useful. The older translations quoted here read "good tree" and "corrupt tree" where the ESV has "healthy" and "diseased".
To stress this principle He adds that there are no exceptions. This principle from nature has a spiritual application. It is a simple but clear "either… or" which helps the disciple to discern the spring from which the message he is hearing is coming.
Many assume bad fruit means open scandal. One writer warns that this misses the point: the deceiver's strategy depends on looking good.
If our Lord meant nothing but evil deeds and wickedness, it would be hard indeed to detect these false ones. Satan is not so blind as to spread his lies through wicked people whose lives are marked by open immorality and wickedness. He does it in quite another way. We were often told of people who hold the most detestable doctrines. They deny the Deity of our Lord and the atonement. Yet we hear: "But look at the beautiful lives they live! How meek and lovely they are! How much good they do! Does not their life prove that their doctrine is right? Does not the fruit show that the tree is not bad?" This outward moral appearance and a "sweet" temper is all too often part of the sheep's clothing.
So the test is not how impressive the teaching sounds. It is whether it feeds anyone.
They have the character of thorns and thistles. They harm rather than produce, and they do not supply food for the need of souls. They tickle men's ears. They usually appeal to the pride of intellect, but they know nothing of the truth that reaches consciences and hearts. Grapes and figs are healthy food, but you cannot get them from thorns or thistles.
"Cannot" moves the question from behaviour to nature. William Kelly, commenting on Luke's parallel account, notes what the Lord says here — and what He does not yet say.
Then He shows how clearly it is a question of nature… You cannot change the nature… He simply points out that there are two natures. He does not show them living side by side in the same person, though that is in fact the case even in the real believer.
If the nature settles the fruit, no effort can fix a corrupt tree. A gardener knows the problem well.
Suppose a gardener wants good fruit off a crab apple tree. He knows full well that fertilizers, careful pruning, and every encouragement nature can give will never produce good fruit. The tree will only produce crab apples — sour ones, larger ones, more of them. The gardener realises that the only way to get good fruit from that tree is to impart a new life, a life capable of producing good fruit.
So the verse does more than warn about teachers. It says something about every human being.
Here we have the clearest teaching of the doctrine we may call the A B C of the gospel. Man is totally depraved. Man is utterly ruined. So a new nature must be given to him. The tree is corrupt, the fruit is bad — that which is born of the flesh is flesh. The tree is good and the fruit is good — that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
- Fruit tests the tree. The Lord's illustration is meant for use: fruit is how a disciple tells a true messenger from a false one.
- Fruit means teaching first. What a false prophet says exposes him, since a pleasant manner can be part of the disguise.
- Fruit means food. Grapes and figs feed people. Thorns and thistles only harm, however impressive they look.
- Fruit follows nature. "Cannot" leaves no exceptions. No one can reform a nature into producing what it is not.
- New nature, new fruit. No one cultivates a corrupt tree into a good one. New life comes first, and then good fruit.
Every tree not producing good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire.
Jesus is warning His hearers about false prophets who look like sheep, and He tells them how to spot one: look at the fruit. This verse is the verdict that follows — so what counts as "fruit," and who is standing under this axe?
This is not the first time these words are heard in Matthew. John the Baptist had said the same thing to the crowds at the Jordan, and the repetition is deliberate.
"Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire" (verse 19). John the Baptist had already spoken the same words when he warned the Jews about the coming wrath and called them to repentance (ch. 3:10). This double warning about God's judgment shows how serious the Lord Jesus' words are! The judgment waiting for the false prophets matches the holiness and justice of God. Yet it ought to warn the listeners too, so that eternal destruction does not swallow them up as well.
The verse exposes the deceiver and puts the listener on notice.
Fruit cannot rise above the life that produces it. That is why no amount of pruning saves a bad tree.
"A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a corrupt tree cannot produce good fruit." Take this as a picture of people, and "no one is good"; "no one does good, not even one." So if there is any good, it can only come from a new, a divine, nature. Thorns cannot produce grapes, nor thistles figs, and those who do not produce good fruit have only one end, and that is the fire.
Many readers assume fruit means open scandal. But commentators warn that this would make the test useless. A false teacher seldom looks immoral.
Satan is not so foolish as to peddle his lies through wicked people whose lives carry the stamp of immorality and open wickedness. He does it in quite another way. We are often told of people who hold the most terrible doctrines. They deny the Deity of our Lord and the atonement too. Yet we hear, "But look at the beautiful lives they live! How gentle and lovely they are! How much good they do! Doesn't their life prove their doctrine is right, and doesn't the fruit show the tree is not bad?" This outward moral appearance and a "sweet" temper is only too often part of the sheep's clothing. The soul who looks deeper than outward appearances tests the teaching by the Word, and finds the fruit missing — the glory of Christ, and glorying in Him.
So charm is no proof of truth. The test that works is the Word, and what it looks for is Christ.
The verse leaves only two outcomes. One of them is not correction but removal.
A good tree (a genuine believer) produces good fruit. Its quality may differ in different cases, but the fruit from the tree is not corrupt. As for the corrupt tree, it will be cut down and thrown into the fire of eternal torment, because it bears no good fruit at all.
Good fruit varies in measure. The line falls between a tree with life in it and a tree with none, not between strong believers and weak ones.
In winter, a fruitless tree looks just like the rest. That is what makes the warning urgent.
I saw a man the other day with an axe in his hand, laid at the root of a tree. It was winter, and the tree looked much like the others around it. They were all bare. Nothing on the outside marked any difference, or made a passer-by doubt that when spring came it would burst into leaf like the others. But someone had tested it and found it hollow; it was taking up ground for nothing, and it was cut down ready for the burning! Are you this tree?
John preached these same words first at the Jordan. There he named the one way of escape from the axe.
Notice here that the only good fruit John recognises, as the way of escape, is the sincere confession, through grace, of sin. Only those who make this confession escape the axe. There were really no good trees except those which confessed that they were bad.
- Root. Fruit only reveals the life already inside; a corrupt tree cannot produce good fruit, so any real good "can only come from a new, a divine, nature."
- Fruit. The test is not limited to open immorality — a gentle manner and a good reputation can themselves be part of the sheep's clothing.
- Axe. The warning comes twice, first from John the Baptist and then from Jesus. It lands on the hearers as much as on the false prophets.
- Fire. The fruitless tree is not pruned or replanted. It is cut down and burned — an end commentators call eternal destruction.
- Escape. Only those who admitted they were bad trees ever got past the axe — confession of sin, not improvement, is the way through.
By their fruits then surely ye shall know them.
This closing line ends the Lord's warning about false prophets. It repeats a test He gave four verses earlier: what a person produces shows what that person is. The verse raises practical questions. What counts as "fruit"? How far may we judge others by it? Does the same test apply to us?
The word that opens the verse looks back. The Lord states the same rule twice inside six verses, and commentators note that this repetition is deliberate — it is permission, not just description.
We must judge things as we meet them. We are responsible to the Lord, and for our own sake, to do so. But more than that, the same authority obliges us to judge persons also. "You will recognize them by their fruits" — twice repeated here (verses 16, 20) — is our direct warrant to do so.
But the same chapter opens with "Judge not, that you be not judged." Commentators answer that the two commands cover different things.
Some people say we are not to judge, and Matthew 7:1 is quoted as proof. We reply that the passage simply teaches us, as individuals, not to judge motives. Further on in the chapter, we are told to beware of false prophets. How can we beware, if we are not to judge? "You will recognize them by their fruits." So even as individuals, we are to judge conduct. We are not to judge motives but fruits.
Many readers assume fruit means scandalous behaviour. Commentators warn that this cannot be all. A deceiver who looks plainly wicked deceives nobody.
If our Lord meant nothing but evil deeds and wickedness, it would be hard indeed to detect these false ones. Satan is not so blind as to spread his lies through wicked people whose lives carry the mark of immorality and open wickedness. He does it in quite another way. We are often told of people who hold the most detestable doctrines and deny the Deity of our Lord as well as the atonement. We hear, "But look at the beautiful lives they live! How meek and lovely they are!"… This outward moral appearance and a "sweet" temper is only too often part of the sheep's clothing. … The soul that looks deeper than outward appearances soon finds that the false teacher or spirit is not in the truth. He tests the teaching by the Word, and finds the true fruit missing — the glory of Christ and glorying in Him.
So the first fruit to inspect is what comes out of the mouth — the message itself.
The fruits are first of all the words of the prophets. True prophets of God may also fail in the way they live and in what they do. False prophets, on the other hand, are often marked by a very likeable nature. This is why the fruits here are not only deeds but above all the teaching they bring. By them the disciples of Jesus will recognise whether the Spirit of God or a false spirit is speaking.
The test works because fruit is not an add-on to a life; it is that life reaching its outcome.
They are to be known not by their fine words but by their fruits. Fruit is the result and crowning expression of life. It reveals the character of the life it completes. The false prophet has a false life, which must reveal itself in false fruit.
The disciples hearing these words had only this rule to work with. One writer points out that Christians now have more, and he names what to check.
They were to know the false prophets by their fruits. But we have the Holy Spirit and the written word, so we can "test the spirits to see whether they are from God." The two great tests are the person of Christ, and the word of God. If you find anything that belittles the person of Christ, you may be sure it is not from God. The Holy Spirit is here to glorify Christ. Sheep's clothing is what suits a sheep. These false men look fine on the outside. But by their fruits you will know — or recognise — them.
The rule is not only a filter for teachers. It also shows what a real conversion looks like. But works are never the cause of salvation.
"You will recognize them by their fruits" is a test so obvious that it needs no proving. If a young man or woman professes to be converted, a changed life will certainly show it. It is true that salvation is by grace alone, through faith. It is "not a result of works, so that no one may boast" (Ephesians 2:9). It is equally true that believers "are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10). These works do not earn salvation in the smallest degree. They are the evidence that we are saved.
- Root. Fruit is the crowning expression of a life. A false life must show itself in false fruit. That is why the test never fails.
- Fruit. Fruit is not only behaviour. It is above all teaching. A pleasant character can be part of the sheep's clothing, so weigh the message.
- Recognise. Believers now test the spirits by two things: the person of Christ and the word of God.
- Judge. "Judge not" forbids reading motives. This verse tells us to judge conduct. Otherwise no one could obey the call to beware.
- Self. The same test lands on our own profession: a changed life never buys salvation, but it is the evidence of it.