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Discerning the Kingdom

Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brothers’ eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, “Let me remove the speck from your eye”; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. (Matthew 7:1-5)

JESUS teaches us not to be judgmental, that is, not to be prejudiced and condemning. Condemning others is not our job. Loving them is. Everything we do and say needs to be done and said in love because God is love (1 John 4:8). However, this does not mean that we are not supposed to use discernment. Notice what Jesus says in Matthew 7:6:

Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.

To obey this command, we need to be able to discern what is holy, which are the pearls and who are the dogs and the swine. We also need to be able to discern false prophets, as we see a few verses later:

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. (Matthew 7:15-17)

In order to discern the false prophets, we must be able to discern their fruit, whether it is good or bad, whether it comes from the Tree of Life or from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

The author of Hebrews tells us that, “Solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Hebrews 5:14). Proper discernment is a mark of maturity in the Christian faith.

There is even a spiritual manifestation given by the Holy Spirit called “discernment of spirits” (1 Corinthians 12:10). It is the ability to know whether something originates from God, from satan, or simply from the heart of man. The Greek word for “discernment” is diakrino and comes from the word used for “judge” (krino) in Matthew 7:1.

God is light, God is love, God is life. His way will always be about those things that shed light, manifest love and promote life. When we have God at work in us, we have light, love and life at work in us. Because of light, we have the ability to discern; because of love, we are not to condemn. The judgment of discernment promotes life; the judgment of condemnation brings death.

We must always practice discernment, and there are even times when we must declare publicly what we have discerned, but it is never right for us to condemn one another. Before we seek to discern anything else, we must first discern our own heart. For how can we help someone with a tiny speck in their eye if we have a large plank hanging out of our own? But when our heart is clear and operating in the light, love and life of God, then we will be able to see, discern and be of help.

God Gives Good Things

Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 7:7-12)

Our way with God is always to be this: ask, seek, knock. He has already promised that we will receive what we ask, find what we seek, and have the door opened to us. Why? Because God is a good Father who gives His children good things.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down for the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. (James 1:17)

When we go to God, we can always count on Him to give us what is good. Always. For there is no variation or shadow of turning with Him. That is, He does not change.

For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
The LORD will give grace and glory;
No good thing will He withhold
From those who walk uprightly.

(Psalm 84:11)

[He] satisfies your mouth with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

(Psalm 103:5)

God does not deceive, does not compromise, does not hold back. If we ask for bread, He will give us bread. He will not try to trick us with a stone that looks like bread. He won’t try to pass off a serpent for a fish. God may work in mysterious ways, but He doesn’t work in deceitful or stingy ways, and He will never give us a counterfeit.

We who are fathers on earth may be flawed but we still know how to give good gifts to our children. How much more, then, will our Father in heaven, who is perfect in every way, give good things to us when we ask?

Jesus adds something else to the mix: “Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” We know this as the “Golden Rule.” Notice that it is preceded by the word “therefore.” An old saying in Bible interpretation is that, whenever you see a “therefore,” find out what it is there for. “Therefore” connects this to the passage on asking and receiving.

If you want to receive good things, are you willing to give good things? For our receiving comes not only from God, but from men as well. In Luke’s rendering of this sermon (in the same position, following “Judge not”) Jesus says this:

Give and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you give, it will be measured back to you. (Luke 6:38; the KJV has “shall men give into your bosom”)

God is a good Father who gives good things to those who ask. Therefore, ask and expect to receive good things. But remember that it will be measured back to you in proportion to the measure by which you give to others. We can be quite free to do that because we have Jesus’ assurance that we will receive what we ask, find what we are seeking, and that the door will be opened wide before us.

Finding the Narrow Way

Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Matthew 7:13-14)

The world thinks there are many paths that lead to life, that the gate is wide and the way is broad. Truth is relative to them: “Whatever works for you is good for you, and whatever works for me is good for me.” “I’m OK, you’re OK.” Each becomes his own barometer for what is right. “Whatever floats your boat.” “Whatever gets you there.” Now it has been further reduced to a shrug of the shoulders and “Whatever.”

Long ago, Jesus taught us something very different: “Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Many non-Christians and nominal Christians love to quote Jesus when He says, “Judge not, that you be not judged.” They do not want their “many ways” ideology to be disturbed by anyone discerning between right and wrong, truth and error, good and evil. But they the words of Jesus when He says, “Narrow is the gate, and difficult is the way.” G. K. Chesterton, brilliant Christian apologist of the last century, captured this well when he said that many people reject Christianity, not because they tried it and found it lacking, but because they found it difficult and never tried it all.

“Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction.” There are many paths that lead to loss, ruin and misery. They are exceedingly easy to enter and many people pass through them. Not just heroin addicts, alcoholics, gamblers, prostitutes and the sad little lives so often featured on the Jerry Springer show. They pretty much know they are messed up, and the bitterness of their way is very near the surface of their lives. But also politicians, corporate executives, university professors, even church leaders. So many of them have taken destructive paths, but they are able to rationalize their choices, at least for a time. Until one day when their cleverness catches up with them and they find themselves on the broad path that promised pleasure and plenty, but delivered only pain.

Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way that leads to life, and there are few who find it. God gave Adam and Eve the choice between the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Tree of Knowledge seems very appealing, but its fruit is poison. The world spends itself in having intimate knowledge and relationship with good and evil, and the result is always destruction. Broad is the way.

Jesus invites us to partake of the Tree of Life. “Enter by the narrow gate,” He says. In John 14:6, He spells it out clearly, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (another verse the world does not care to quote — too restrictive for politically correct, multicultural diversity).

This little gate is so narrow that you cannot carry anything with you except total dependence upon God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But it is all you will ever need. In fact, without faith, you cannot enter at all. “For without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).

Fruit Doesn’t Lie

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous 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. (Matthew 7:15-20)

Jesus told us to beware of false prophets. How do we recognize them? By their fruit.

• Every good tree bears good fruit.
• Every bad tree bears bad fruit.
• A good tree cannot bear bad fruit.
• A bad tree cannot bear good fruit.

Each tree brings forth what is in it. Fruit is the overflow of the life of the tree. If the fruit is bad, the tree is bad. If the tree is good, the fruit will be good.

What is the fruit of false prophets? The spirit of religion. False prophets always seek to lead us away from trusting in God. They want us to trust in them, in their gods, or in ourselves (our abilities, strength, understanding, works, behavior). Those options always lead to death.

False prophets offer us the fruit from The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It may appear very pleasant, good for food, and the way to life, but it alienates us from God and causes us to lean on our own understanding. Wisdom says,

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.

(Proverbs 3:5-6)

When we set our heart on the Lord and put all our trust in Him, He will direct our paths. We will be operating out of His wisdom and guidance. We will be tuned into life, dialed into prosperity. We will be eating from The Tree of Life. Adam and Eve were deceived by the false prophet — the serpent in the Garden — and disconnected from the life of God.

False prophets are false shepherds. Though they come pretending to care for the sheep, they are actually wolves — thieves who break in to steal, kill and destroy. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, came to give us the abundant life of God (John 10:10).

False shepherds come to sow tares in God’s wheat fields. The thing about tares is that they may look very much like wheat when they are young. But when they come into fruit, their true character is revealed — they are nothing but worthless weeds, destined for destruction (Matthew 13:24-30).

False prophets load us up with rules and regulations. They hit us with accusation, condemnation and rejection, on the one hand, then they offer rationalization and self-justification on the other. It is all bad fruit from a bad tree.

God offers us good fruit, from the good tree — the Tree of Life. It is the fruit of faith, trusting completely in God, and not in ourselves. It is the fruit of forgiveness and acceptance through Jesus Christ. It is the fruit of intimate relationship with Him.

Fruit doesn’t lie. False prophets will never bear good fruit — it will always have a poisonous seed within. Jesus Christ bears only good fruit — it will always lead to abundant life with God. All those who know the Lord Jesus have the Holy Spirit dwelling within them. It is the work of the Spirit to bring forth the fruit of Jesus Christ in our lives: love, joy peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

Doing the Works of God

Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My father in heaven. Many will say to Me, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.” (Matthew 7:21-23)

Jesus is still talking here about false prophets and their fruit. There are many false disciples who will come to Him and say, “Lord, look at all we have done in Your name.” They come presenting themselves to the Lord on the basis of their works and behavior. But they do not really know the Lord — in fact, Jesus declares, “I never knew you.”

They also know nothing of the will of God. That is because they do not will to do His will and have no desire to fulfill His desire. They are into rules and regulations, not intimate relationship with the Father. They are entangled with the spirit of religion. They eat from The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They suppose themselves to be doing good, but the good from that tree is as detrimental as the evil, for it leads them to trust in themselves and not in God. Though they claim to do wonders in His name, Jesus says that they actually practice lawlessness.

Jesus said, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent” (John 6:29). Though these false prophets perform miracles in Jesus’ name, they do not believe in Him, therefore they do not do the works of God. Nor are they pleasing to God because without faith it is impossible to please Him (Hebrews 11:6).

Performance-based religion will never please God because it is totally devoid of faith in Him. It is not good works and better behavior that is required, but a new birth from above. Always and in everything, we must be completely dependent upon God. Then we will be eating from the Tree of Life. This is the will of our Father in heaven.

The Stability of Heaven on Earth

Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall. (Matthew 7:24-27)

Jesus ends The Sermon of Heaven on Earth with these words. They bear a striking similarity to statements made by rabbis in ancient Jewish commentaries. For instance, Adam Clarke offers these quotes in his commentary on this passage:

Rabbi Eleasar said, “The man whose knowledge exceeds his works, to whom is he like? He is like a tree which had many branches, and only a few roots; and, when the stormy winds came, it was plucked up and eradicated. But he whose good works are greater than his knowledge, to what is he like? He is like a tree which had few branches, and many roots; so that all the winds of heaven could not move it from its place.” (Pirke Aboth)

Elisha, the son of Abuja, said, “The man who studies much in the law, and maintains good works, is like to a man who built a house, laying stones at the foundation, and building brick upon them; and, though many waters come against it, they cannot move it from its place. But the man who studies much in the law, and does not maintain good works, is like to a man who, in building his house, put brick at the foundation, and laid stones upon them, so that even gentle waters shall overthrow that house.” (Aboth Rab. Nath)

These rabbis spoke very generally. Their words were good as far as they went, but carried no weight of their own. They lacked authority and spoke no further than the current state of rabbinic interpretation would allow. Jesus, however, spoke with a specificity and sense of authority about His own words, “these sayings of Mine.” There was no dithering to His words. They simply carried great power. So great was the authority inherent in His teaching, the people were amazed.

And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. (Matthew 7:28-29)

The difference, then, between foolishness and wisdom, between shifting sand and a solid foundation, is as simple as the difference between hearing and doing whatever Jesus says. The kingdom of Heaven on Earth is His kingdom, and He is its rightful ruler.

It is only as we hear and do what Jesus says that we will find stability. The difference may not be apparent at first. A house built on sand may look very much like a house built on rock — until the storms come and the floodwaters rise. Then the pressures of life reveal the stability of the foundation.

A life built on hypocrisy, pride, an unexamined heart, stinginess, a critical spirit, worry and fear, and trusting in anything other than God will buckle and fall. But a life established on the foundation of a pure and honest heart, undivided, free of vengeance, full of love and forgiveness, tuned to the heart of the Father and His priorities, and full of faith and godly discernment — all that Jesus taught — will be able to weather any storm. For the kingdom of Heaven on Earth is a kingdom of stability and strength.

© 2008 by Jeff Doles.
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