Fruit Inspection

On many occasions I have heard Christians say that if someone is truly saved, it will be made evident in the fruit they bear (how they conduct their lives). They believe this
to be true because of what the Lord said in Matthew 7:17-20:

“Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forthgood fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”

Obviously, this is a metaphor wherein the ‘tree’ is a person professing to be one of the faithful, and the ‘fruit’ is the work or works that person produces.

Contrast these verses with 1 Corinthians 3:13-15, which also speaks of God’s judgment of the believer and his works.

“Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.”

What is the difference here? Both judgments involve burning and fire–no difference there–but notice that in the former it is the bad tree (the man himself) that is burned, while in the latter it is his bad fruit (works) that is burned, not the man.

What a difference a few words make! If we believe the Bible is true–all of it–and without error, then how can we explain this obvious dichotomy? By applying the principles of “rightly dividing” found in 2 Tim. 2:15, the apparent contradiction of this falls away.

One of those principles is to distinguish between principle and doctrine (instruction for the obedience of faith). God’s principles never change, they run horizontally through the entire canon of scripture. A good example of a universal principle is, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Lev. 19:18; Matt. 5:43; Rom. 13:9; Gal. 5:14; James 2:8)

Doctrine, on the other hand, is always particular to the dispensation in which it is found. Doctrine for the church, the body of Christ, (1 Cor 12:27) is particular to the “dispensation of the grace of God ” (Eph. 3:2) and “the gospel of Christ” (Rom. 1:16), which are exclusive to the Pauline revelation, Romans through Philemon.

Fruit inspection (observing the fruit of other believers to validate their testimony) was particular to the doctrine of the “gospel of the kingdom” (Matthew 4:23), given to a different group of people in a different dispensation and, therefore, it is a doctrinal error to apply it in the present dispensation (grace). When you attempt to mix the two–as most Christian teaching does, by claiming that both are part of the New Testament, and thus cannot be saying two different things–the result is confusion and the creation of apparent contradictions in the scripture.

At this point, you may be thinking: If we can’t know someone is truly saved by looking at the fruit they bear, then how can we know? You can’t–absolutely speaking. What you can know–absolutely–is that you are saved (Romans 8:16). If you have a testimony of salvation–i.e., you can look back at a time when you knew you were lost, and trusted (believed in your heart) the Lord Jesus Christ to save you, trusting in the fact that what He did on the cross paid for all your sins (Romans 10:9-13; 1 Cor. 15:1-4; Col. 2:13)– then you can be sure that you are sealed (Eph. 1:14; 4:30), and bound to one day be “caught up to..meet the Lord in the air” when he “shall descend from heaven with a shout..” (1 Thess. 4:13–17), and that there is absolutely nothing you can do, or fail to do, that will change this (Rom. 8:28-39). Our works, from the moment we accept Christ to the moment we depart this world, are going to be tested by fire at “the judgment seat of Christ” (Rom. 14:10-12), but this is to determine the level of our reward, not our eternal destination.

This is not to say that saved people should not be concerned about the work they do (or fail to do) for the Lord (Titus 3:8), because this, as it says, will determine the level of their reward. (Col. 3:23,24). It is possible that many will show up at the judgment seat with very little work that is “approved unto God”–which will, indeed, be a sad occasion for them but, because they, at some point in their lives, accepted Jesus Christ and his vicarious atonement for their sins, they will be there. Will you? “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”

Mike Schroeder

Feel free to reprint this article or distribute it via the internet. All Scripture references are taken from the King James Bible.