Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

—Matthew 7:20

Only two of the sermons Jesus gave were ever recorded in the gospels. Matthew wrote down the more well-known of the sermons, the Sermon on the Mount, and Luke wrote down the lesser-known Sermon on the Plain. The two sermons are very similar, though the order and location of what was said are different. While Matthew groups Jesus’ teachings into sets of similar material, the same material is more scattered when found in Luke. The Sermon on the Mount and the shorter Sermon on the Plain occur at the same moment in both Matthew’s and Luke’s narratives. However, both feature Jesus heading up a mountain, except in Matthew he gave the sermon on his way up the mountain, and Luke says he gave the sermon on the way down at a level spot. Some scholars believe that they are the same sermon, while others hold that Jesus frequently preached similar themes in different places. Whichever it is, the two sermons present the core of Christ’s ministry.

I want to focus on two similar passages from both sermons in which Jesus describes two types of people. Both talk about how you can know a good person from an evil person. Matthew 7:16-20 says:

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.”

In Luke 6:43-45, Jesus says:

“For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”

Often we are asked to turn inward and reflect spiritually on ourselves. Any thoughtful and faithful person should look inwardly at our own spirituality. For me, my faith is a deeply personal experience. I believe that if we are true believers, the Bible speaks to us in a way that comforts us. It doesn’t speak to everyone in the same way. Some look for the negatives and fill their hearts with hate, and others look for the positives and fill their hearts with love. 

Even with that said, we do not take our personal journey alone. We are influenced by outside forces and the Christian faith as a whole. If we look at Christianity as an orchard of trees, some of them will bear good fruit and some bad fruit, and Jesus says that we cannot expect good fruit from a tree that has gone bad. If we do not take care of our roots, and our core beliefs, our tree will wither and die. If we do not water our soil, we will perish from malnourishment of our spirit. James 7:15-17 says, “If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” If our branches are withering, we cannot bear good fruit, and if we follow the withering branches, those who preach hate, we will also bear bad fruit.

Currently, I believe that the orchard of Christianity is filled with trees bearing bad fruit. The healthy trees are being pushed aside and poisoned by the bad trees. Look at many of the people who loudly profess their faith, and you will see them bearing only bad fruit. They build great churches, have huge congregations, and pay their ministers huge salaries, but are they feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, or providing shelter to the homeless in these great churches? For the most part, the answer is no, and if they are doing those things, they come with certain expectations. You have to believe the way they do. For a long time, the Salvation Army would only feed, clothe, and shelter the homeless as long as they were not LGBTQ+ and fit their idea of a Christian. They still require those who come to them for help to listen to a sermon instead of giving freely.

The Christian community does not look at itself as a whole in order to see the problems with our religion today. Many instead only look outward to see the problems with the world around them, but they do not look at themselves. In the ancient Persian religion of Zoroastrianism, they believe in a duality of the universe. They believe that there is a universal war between good (Ahura Mazda) and evil (Angra Mainyu). Zoroastrians believe that when the war is won, Ahura Mazda will be the victor for good always will win out over evil. However, as with any war, one side or the other wins the battles along the way. We know the great evil characters in history, and they seemed to win for a time, but in the end, they were defeated by good.  Likewise, those who preach hatefulness seem to be overpowering Christianity, but I believe that one day, the good that is Christianity will win out. We just have to be diligent. 

In war, if you become complacent or become overconfident, you will be defeated. You must conscientiously build and nourish your army. Napoleon Bonaparte is an example of this. When Tsar Alexander I of Russia refused to abide by Napoleon’s policy forbidding trade with Britain, Napoleon began an ill-fated invasion of Russia. He reached Moscow only to find the city abandoned, and a huge fire broke out that same day, destroying the greater part of the town. Since it is impossible to winter in the ruined city, Napoleon begins a retreat in October across the snow-covered plains. The retreat from Moscow is one of the great disasters of military history. Of some 600,000 troops who had set out with Napoleon’s Grand Army in June, fewer than 10,000 men fit for combat remained with his main force by November. A year later, Napoleon’s withered army was defeated at the Battle of Leipzig followed by the loss of Paris and the abdication and imprisonment of Napoleon. Because Napoleon could not provide for his troops, he lost.

The same will be true of those in Christianity who preach hate. Eventually, at least I hope, their congregations will realize that their needs have been ignored by the church. The churches I speak of are bad trees and eventually, people will realize that they are only producing bad fruit. They will realize that their trees have not been nourished and will look for ways to heal themselves. It is at this point that the good trees can nourish the bad trees back to health. With the strength of the good trees, they can help the bad trees once again be healthy and bear good fruit, but it will take time. We have to make sure that we care for not just the fruit or the branches of the trees, but the whole tree and ultimately, the whole orchard.