September 30, 2015
Matthew 7:15-20
(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)
The title of this blog, Your Faith Will Show You! sounds a bit convoluted. Shouldn’t it be you showing your faith? But these two ideas are just two sides of one coin – faith and works. Here is what Jesus said about it in Matthew 7:15 through 20:
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but
inwardly are ravening wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do
men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so,
every good tree bears good fruit; but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good
tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every
tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
The tree, in this case, is the individual. As the natural tree flows with life in the form of sap which brings life-giving nutrients to the growing layers of its trunk and branches, its leaves and its fruit; so the individual flows with a life-giving force that affects all that life produces – physically, mentally and spiritually. Those three things of life – the physical, the mental, and the spiritual – are closely intertwined and cannot be separated. The point is this: What you believe will determine who you are and how you act! Your faith will show forth in your works – Your Faith Will Show You!
James puts it this way in James 2:18: “Someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” This applies to everyone. What you believe will show in how you live, and how you live will portray what you believe!
Some time ago – on April 17, 2013 – I wrote a blog called Blacklight Christians. It is another take on Your Faith Will Show You! It is based on what Jesus said in Philippians 2:14 &15 and Matthew 6:23 – in that order:
Do all things without murmuring and disputing, that you may become
blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a
crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in
the world….If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is
that darkness!
God forbid that our faith (our belief system) is so twisted and off the mark God has set for us, our witness then (our light) shines out darkly to those around us, leading them away from the Lord instead of drawing them to Him – because Your Faith Will Show You!
So what do you base your faith upon? Is it grounded on something solid and trustworthy? Or is it based on just what you think things ought to be? If it is the latter, be aware of what Jeremiah 17:9 tells us: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” The heart, in ancient Jewish thinking, is the whole inner being of man, including the mind! So if what you believe is based on your own thoughts – what you think is right and wrong – then you have built your belief system on shaky ground indeed! What can result from such a faith – besides it showing forth in your life and affecting others with a false witness concerning life and God? It says in our featured scripture, Matthew 6:19, “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” The end result of a faith built on a false foundation is the eternal fire of hell! (See Revelation 21:8).
The Bible is the revealed mind of God. From Genesis to Revelation it presents Jesus Christ. It is Jesus Christ who testified in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through Me.” We start by putting our faith in Jesus as our personal Savior. He died for us, bearing our sins on the cross, so we could be declared righteous, and be reconciled to God. But that is only the beginning! We are then to build our life-view, our world-view, our faith-view on God’s Word. You see, the Bible speaks on every issue of life. In one way or another – by direct command, by illustration, by example (both good and bad), by inference, by basic principle, and a lot more – there is nothing that can touch your life or mine about which God does not speak through His Word!
So if you want your life (your tree – according to Matthew 7:17 and 18) to produce good fruit and show forth godly faith, then base that faith on Jesus Christ and the Bible! Since Your Faith Will Show You, be sure the You that is shown forth is projected by the truth!