Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing,
but underneath are ravenous wolves.
We do not live in a world where we can listen to anyone who claims to be a prophet simply on the basis of their self-identification, or even because they project a prophetic image with all the associated accoutrements. What might their disguise of sheep's clothing look like? It could be religious garb, language, or educational background. It could be the way in which they insinuate themselves in our number, pretending to share our concerns at the level of speech. But none of this will ever reach their concrete actions.
By their fruits you will know them.
Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
Is this to say that every tired and grumpy priest is a wolf seeking to devour the flock? Thank God it does not mean that. Even priests and professionally religious people seldom bear only perfect fruit. But when they are grumpy or tired it is something which they try to endure without letting it do harm to the flock. Wolves, by contrast, stand to gain by harming the flock. This might be emotional harm as they build themselves up at the expense of others. It might be spiritual harm as they teach something other than the pure Gospel of Christ. It might even, God forbid, be physical harm. Jesus tells us that we ought to be able to recognize the bad fruit and the lack of good fruit before the wolves have an opportunity to do real damage. We just need to keep our eyes open.
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit,
nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit.
What does this mean about us? Not every piece of our fruit would be easy to sell at a farmer's market. It must mean that we are still in between identities. The old self is still alive in us even though the our primary identity is now the gift of the renewed self given by Jesus (see Ephesians 4:24). We must lean into our new identity, believing what Jesus tells us is true, about ourselves, and the world, and acting accordingly. We must let him prune the branches that do not bear fruit and especially those that bear bad fruit. If we have presented ourselves to others as weeds with thorns and thistles then it may be time to go to confession so we can be fully reinstated into our identity as good trees bearing good fruit.
Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down
and thrown into the fire.
Jesus set up a situation for us in which we would not need to be strong enough to fight wolves, or perfect enough to bear only perfect fruit. He gave us the same principle of discernment to look for the genuine, unfalsifiable good in those who lead us, and in ourselves. In neither case is it meant to be up to us to manifest this goodness out of thin air. Rather, we learn to run to God when we encounter thorns and thistles to seek his protection and his healing. Just as God made a covenant promise to Abram that did not depend first or fundamentally on what Abram did so too are we heirs of God's promise. Our part is simply to rely on that promise, to take it, as it were, all the way to the bank.
It was on that occasion that the LORD made a covenant with Abram,
saying: “To your descendants I give this land,
from the Wadi of Egypt to the Great River the Euphrates.”
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