Friday after the Second Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on June 14, 2024 by under
Scripture: St. Matthew 7:15-23 (NKJV)
7:15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
21 “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. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”
Devotion
Wolves are beautiful, but their natural activity is not to produce wool for us, but to kill the sheep that do. Plants that produce only thorns and thistles exist to bring pain to humans and livestock, a result of Adam’s sin (Gen. 3:17-18). Pruning thorn bushes will never produce figs and grapes; it’s simply not within their nature.
Adam was created “in the image of God” (Gen. 1:26), meaning “there were embodied in man such wisdom and righteousness as apprehended God, and in which God was reflected, i.e., to man there were given the gifts of the knowledge of God, the fear of God, confidence in God, and the like” (Apology of the Augsburg Confession, II:18). Adam’s fruit (righteous works) would be perfect and abundant. When he sinned, that image was lost. Yet, for those who trust in Christ’s atonement for sin, God’s likeness is being restored (Eph. 5:9, Col. 3:10; Apology II:19-20), as each believer is “a new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17).
Jesus warns us away from those who minimize this re-creation through faith in Him. No matter how showy their works, apart from faith such works are empty, the unhealthy fruit of a bad tree. Christ alone makes us a good tree, one who loves that the Law prunes away dead works and tells us what the works of our re-created nature are, so that we, through faith in Jesus’ merit alone, continue to bear good fruit!
Collect: O Lord, Who never failest to help and govern those whom Thou dost bring up in Thy steadfast fear and love: Make us to have a perpetual fear and love of Thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
