Therefore, you will fully know them by their fruits.
I encourage you to examine your own fruit and the fruit of others. Don't examine others to judge and criticize them, but simply to determine if they are who they claim to be. This is one way we try or "test the spirits" and stay out of trouble. Most of us have had the painful experience of being hurt by someone who deceived us. We thought we knew the person, but it turned out that he or she was not what they seemed to be. We can learn from these experiences to not be so impressed by what people say, but to watch for the kind of fruit they display. A person can appear to be religious and even quote entire chapters of the Bible, but if they are rude to people, greedy, and selfish then they are not what they appear to be.
Being a genuine Christian is very important to me. I want to bear the fruit of what I claim to be, and I am sure you feel the same way. I like to look at the fruit of my own life every day. There is no point in judging the fruit of other people if I am unwilling to look at my own. Am I being patient? Am I generous? Do I really care about other people and am I willing to sacrifice in order to help them? Am I promptly obedient to the leading of the Holy Spirit?
We can easily deceive ourselves into thinking we are something we are not if we don't take the time to examine the fruit of our lives. David asked God to examine him, and Paul told the Corinthians to examine, test, and evaluate themselves to see whether they were holding to the faith and showing the proper fruit of it (Psalm 26:2, 2 Corinthians 13:5). Let us test and examine our ways and ask God to prune off bad fruit so the entire tree does not become diseased.
Prayer of the Day: Father, I only want to bear good and positive fruit in my life. Please help me to be diligent in examining my own life, as well as when looking at the lives of others and what kind of fruit they are bearing, amen.
