Jesus Christ · The Sermon on the Mount
Known by Their Fruit
“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” Jesus does not tell His disciples to check credentials or weigh eloquence. He gives one test, repeated four times in six verses: “Ye shall know them by their fruits.” Not a single impressive act: a tree's kind, disclosed over time by what it reliably produces.
Gustave Doré, The Sermon on the Mount, 1866. Public domain.
Summary
This page studies Matthew 7:15-20, where Jesus gives one test for false prophets: not their claims but their fruit over time. An Orchard Inspection graphic and commentary from Matthew Henry through John Gill walk the warning, the test, the tree image, and the verdict in turn.
- The difference between a wolf's disguise and a tree's fruit as the two pictures Jesus uses
- Why 'fruit' means the sustained pattern of a life and teaching, not one single act
- How this test works alongside the gift of prophecy Paul treats in 1 Corinthians 12-14
- Galatians 5 and 1 John 4 as the passages that carry the same test forward
The Text
Matthew 7:15–20
Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.The warning: wolves that look like sheep.
By their fruit you will recognize them. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.The test — a tree is known by what it bears, not what it wears.
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, by their fruit you will recognize them.The verdict, and the rule stated a second time.
This is the last warning before the sermon's close. Jesus has just finished the narrow gate (7:13–14); He is about to describe people who called Him “Lord, Lord,” prophesied in His name, and worked wonders in it, and still heard “I never knew you” (7:21–23). Fruit, not gifting, not claimed authority, is the test placed between the two.
The Orchard Inspection
a tree's kind, disclosed over time
THE ORCHARD INSPECTION · MATTHEW 7:15–20
A tree's kind, disclosed by what it bears, not by what it wears
THE IMPOSSIBLE HARVEST · MATTHEW 7:16
grapes of thorns?
figs of thistles?
“Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?”
What He Is Saying
a life's pattern, not a single sign
“Ye shall know them by their fruits” is said twice, and the tree picture runs through all six verses: a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit, and every tree that fails to bear good fruit is cut down. The sheep's clothing is the giveaway that the test cannot be the surface: a wolf can dress like a sheep, but a thornbush cannot grow a fig. Kind shows up over time, in what actually gets produced.
The test and the gift of prophecy1 Cor 12–14
“False prophets” raises a live question for readers of 1 Corinthians 12–14, where Paul treats prophecy as a Spirit-given gift at work in the church. In this site's tradition, Wesleyan-Pentecostal, that gift is still given and still operating. Matthew 7:15–20 supplies the discernment test a church needs for it, because a live gift can be counterfeited.
Paul writes the same instruction into a congregation full of prophecy: “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thess 5:21). John writes it again: “try the spirits, whether they are of God” (1 John 4:1). Jesus supplies the standard those two commands run on. A claimed voice is proved by its sustained fruit, and the same test proves any teacher or preacher, whose life and doctrine are read the way a tree is read, by what it produces.
The Voices on the Warning
the church hears Matthew 7:15
We have need to be very cautious, because their pretences are very fair and plausible, and such as will deceive us, if we be not upon our guard. They come in sheep's clothing, in the habit of prophets, which was plain and coarse, and unwrought; they wear a rough garment to deceive, Zech. xiii. Elijah's mantle the Septuagint calls he melote -- a sheep-skin mantle.
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), Matt 7:15
Beware of false prophets - Who in their preaching describe a broad way to heaven: it is their prophesying, their teaching the broad way, rather than their walking in it themselves, that is here chiefly spoken of. All those are false prophets, who teach any other way than that our Lord hath here marked out.
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755), Matt 7:15
False prophets - The word prophet originally means one who foretells future events. As prophets, however, were commonly regarded as public instructors on the subject of religion, the word came to denote all who were religious teachers. See the notes at Rom 12:6. In this sense it is probably used here. A false prophet is a teacher of incorrect doctrine, or one falsely and unjustly laying claims to divine inspiration. It probably had reference to the false teachers then among the Jews. Who come in sheeps clothing - The sheep is an emblem of innocence, sincerity, and harmlessness.
Albert Barnes · Notes, Explanatory and Practical (1832–1869), Matt 7:15
The Voices on the Test
the church hears Matthew 7:16
The fruit is according to the tree. Men may, in their professions, put a force upon their nature, and contradict their inward principles, but the stream and bent of their practices will agree with them. Christ insists upon this, the agreeableness between the fruit and the tree, which is such as that, (1.) If you know what the tree is, you may know what fruit to expect.
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), Matt 7:16–20
Ye shall know them by their fruits--not their doctrines--as many of the elder interpreters and some later ones explain it--for that corresponds to the tree itself; but the practical effect of their teaching, which is the proper fruit of the tree.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), Matt 7:16
Ye shall know them by their fruits - The Saviour gives the proper test of their character. People do not judge of a tree by its leaves, or bark, or flowers, but by the fruit which it bears. The flowers may be beautiful and fragrant, the foliage thick and green; but these are merely ornamental. It is the fruit that is of chief service to man; and he forms his opinion of the nature and value of the tree by that fruit. So of pretensions to religion. The profession may be fair; but the conduct - the fruit - is to determine the nature of the principles.
Albert Barnes · Notes, Explanatory and Practical (1832–1869), Matt 7:16
The Voices on the Tree
the church hears Matthew 7:17–18
A corrupt tree - The word corrupt here does not signify, as our translation would seem to indicate, that the tree had been good, but had become vitiated; but that it was a tree of a useless character, of a nature that produced nothing beneficial.
Albert Barnes · Notes, Explanatory and Practical (1832–1869), Matt 7:17
A hermit said, 'If a man has words but no works, he is like a tree with leaves but no fruit. Just as a tree laden with fruit is also leafy, the man of good works will also have good words.'
the Desert Fathers · Sayings of the Early Christian Monks (c. 500), on Matt 7:17
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit - Love to God and man is the root of the good tree; and from this principle all its fruit is found. To teach, as some have done, that a state of salvation may be consistent with the greatest crimes, (such as murder and adultery in David), or that the righteous necessarily sin in all their best works, is really to make the good tree bring forth bad fruit, and to give the lie to the Author of eternal truth.
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1832), Matt 7:18
The Voices on the Verdict
the church hears Matthew 7:19–20
Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire - How dreadful then is the condition of that teacher who hath brought no sinners to God!
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755), Matt 7:19
Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. This is the conclusion of the whole, and a repetition of what is before said, the more to fix the rule of judgment upon their minds, and engage them to try men by their doctrines, and their doctrines by the standard of the Scriptures, and not believe every spirit; for with some care and diligence such persons may be detected, and the malignant influence of their ministry be prevented.
John Gill · Exposition of the New Testament (1746–1748), Matt 7:20
Where It Points
the same test, applied across Scripture
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.The fruit of the Spirit: what the good tree actually grows.
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world.“Try the spirits whether they are of God,” the same test named directly.
Galatians 5:22–23 names the fruit a good tree grows (love, joy, peace, and the rest), the positive shape of what Matthew 7 tests for by its absence. 1 John 4:1–3 makes the same instruction explicit for spirits and voices claiming to speak for God. 2 Peter 2 and Jeremiah 23 carry the warning into both testaments: false teachers and false prophets are a standing danger, not a one-time problem, and both are named by their conduct and their message, not their claims.
Closing
Jesus does not ask His disciples to be suspicious of everyone: He asks them to be patient watchers of fruit. A wolf can borrow a sheep's coat for a season; no thornbush has ever, over time, produced a fig. The test is slower than a credential check, and surer than one.
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