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In Matt 7:16, Jesus says “By their fruits you shall recognize them.” In my leadership book and training programs on the 3-D Leader, I observe that Fruits are facts, observable outcomes.
There are 3 types of people who do not want their fruit, or observable outcomes inspected;
- People who are wrong, and don’t want to own up to it;
- People who want to hide what they are doing, so no one can expose it as wrong;
- People who want to keep believing what they are doing is right, despite what God’s word says.
All 3 types of people will say, “You can’t judge me.” They are in denial of how Christ tells us in John 5:22 that The Father … has entrusted all judgement to [Him] the Son. This means each of us will stand before Jesus to give an account of our behaviors.
Let’s read what Mathew 7: 1-6 actually says about judging:
1“Judge not, that you be not judged. 2For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
6“Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.
The “hypocrite” includes the people, who don’t want their behavioral fruit judged by God’s word. The word “judge” here is “krino,” which means “to assume the office of a judge to pronounce a sentence of condemnation upon others.”
We observe that Jesus consistently worked with people so they would acknowledge their sins. Christ’s activity was consistent with how John 16:8 says the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, righteousness and judgement. Thus Christ calls us to acknowledge and confess our sin in repentance, so we can have His righteousness imputed to us, and thus avoid God’s final judgment.
The people who expect they can do what they want, and ignore God’s Word, which is what He indeed will judge us by, are those to whom God refers when He says “Do not give dogs what is holy.” The people whom God refers to “as pigs, “trample underfoot the pearls” of wisdom and truth we deliver to them from God’s Word. If they “turn to attack you” for doing so, by saying, “You can’t judge me!” my response is, “I am not judging you. The word of God is doing so for your own benefit.”
For those of us who have bellied up to the Counter of Confessing our Sins Unto Salvation, which means God has taken the log out of our eyes, we indeed can clearly see [and be used of God] to take the speck out of our brother’s eye.
It only is by helping others to see their behavioral fruit in the light of God’s Word will God lift us up in liberty.
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