Be on the watch for the false prophets (Matthew 7:15–23)

Published in

Yomelijah

3 min readMay 20, 2022

“15 Be on the watch for the false prophets that come to you in sheep’s covering, but inside they are ravenous wolves. 16 By their fruits you will recognize them. Never do people gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles, do they? 17 Likewise every good tree produces fine fruit, but every rotten tree produces worthless fruit; 18 a good tree cannot bear worthless fruit, neither can a rotten tree produce fine fruit. 19 Every tree not producing fine fruit gets cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Really, then, by their fruits you will recognize those men.
21 “Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will. 22 Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many powerful works in your name?’ 23 And yet then I will confess to them: I never knew you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness” (Matthew 7:15–23).
Jesus Christ says that the danger of false prophets would be in their ability to seduce, to have a sheep-like appearance. They would therefore not be easily identifiable with their attitude based on mental manipulation to seduce, but with the final result of their bad actions, which would demonstrate in fact that they are rapacious and ruthless wolves who abuse the Christian congregation. Jesus Christ insists on the spirit of observation or insight which will make it possible to clearly understand that something abnormal is happening, in the presence of these false prophets, as if we were seeing grapes on thorns or figs on thistles.
The apostle Paul has been confronted with these seductive false prophets, who posed as super apostles: “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself keeps transforming himself into an angel of light. It is therefore nothing great if his ministers also keep transforming themselves into ministers of righteousness. But their end shall be according to their works” (2 Corinthians 11:13–15).
Jesus Christ simply shows that the criterion of everlasting salvation is to do the will of God: “Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will” (Matthew 7:21).

Choose your preferred language to read the whole article “The Spiritual Maturity”:

English: http://www.yomelyah.com/437426849

French: http://www.yomelijah.com/442444233

Spanish: http://www.yomeliah.com/442444349

Portuguese: http://www.yomelias.com/436041687

Choose your preferred language to read the whole article “Joy in Christian Hope”:

English: http://www.yomelyah.com/435551624

Spanish: http://www.yomeliah.com/435166233

Portuguese: http://www.yomelias.com/435862259

Catalan: http://www.yomeliah.com/441436636

Italian: http://www.yomelyah.com/439476890

French: http://www.yomelijah.com/434579444