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Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing,
but underneath are ravenous wolves.
Jesus warned that there would be people who tried to blend in with his flock, but whose motives were not to follow him. These wolves came among the flock still seeking to satisfy a ravenous appetite, rather than learning to let Jesus give them their daily bread. Jesus had food to give which could truly sate the gnawing hunger in the pits of the stomachs of these wolves. Such satiety could have led them to peace, to acting less and less like hostile wolves, and more and more like docile sheep. And perhaps both sheep and some wolves came into the flock for the same reason, that being looking for a way to appease their hunger. But the sheep were the ones who learned to look to Jesus for the fulfillment of their needs and desires. Some wolves were perhaps those who never stopped insisting on doing it themselves, and therefore remaining in a constant state of desperation.
Others might have joined the flock in disguise to prey upon what they perceived to be easy targets, to take what they wanted from those who had apparently been trained not to question, but merely to obey. But whatever were the motives that brought wolves into the flock, Jesus wanted his sheep to know that they were an ongoing danger. It was not safe to assume someone had the best interest of the flock at heart just because he too looked like a sheep. Though he may have been a member of the same flock, and though his life may have in many ways resembled that of any other member, it did not necessarily mean that he was safe or trustworthy. He could go to Church, profess doctrine that seemed correct, and even have a charismatic and appealing personality, all the while having intentions that were in no way aligned with those of Jesus, seeking to get what he could get rather than to learn what he could give.
By their fruits you will know them.
Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
Just so, every good tree bears good fruit,
and a rotten tree bears bad fruit.
What matters most in Christianity is what goes on in the heart. But this is invisible and impossible to test. Yet it is true that bad fruit is still a sign of a bad heart. This is not to say that Christians are perfect and that they are entirely without thorns or thistles. But they are no longer their distinctive characteristics. They may not be perfect, but they want to improve. They regret the ways in which their selfishness harms other and they lament the fact that they never have as much good fruit as they would wish. Rotten trees may make a pretense of such regrets, but without any clear evidence of change, without any real fruit of repentance.
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit,
nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit.
Being a good tree means that we will bear good fruit. And this analogy implies that it is something intrinsic about our identity as followers of Jesus that gives rise to this fruit, as it were, automatically. Our effort is involved, but is not primary. It is predicated on what the Spirit himself is doing within us. The hope for rotten trees is that the Gardener has remedies for them that can change their disposition from bad to good. There is the possibility of redemption for everyone, even trees that seemed headed for destruction, even for hostile and hungry wolves. But this redemption relies on their readiness to change, their willingness to not remain as they are.
Identifying the wolves in our midst is a little trickier than watching to see who makes the most charitable contributions or works the most volunteer hours. Yet these are among the signs of evidence that such sheep are no longer living for themselves alone, but for the Kingdom. We should have some leniency in our discernment for works in progress. But we should have sufficient caution to spot those whose works are mere pretense intended to lull our defenses. Additionally, we should make sure that we ourselves are committed to change, to becoming fully and truly the good trees we are meant to be, so that we too can bear fruit that will remain.
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