Mathew Chapter 7 continues….3

In the verses 15 to 20 Jesus reminded us about false prophets. Here in theses verses, 21 to 23, also he presents the same truth in a different way.  We don’t misunderstand that false prophets means some people with different doctrines. They are the people with same doctrine with different intentions. Jesus knew it very well from the beginning itself, from that desert. These people give primary importance for material side of life and secondary for spiritual, means spirituality is for material life and its prosperity and material is not for spiritual life. All their spiritual activities are to flourish their material side of life. Otherwise, all their activities are to flourish ‘Kingdom of Matter’ or ‘Kingdom of Material’.

When we look back to the human history we can see one truth that, whatever development human effort has achieved that has never taken him to a point of satiation. The more material development he achieved the more was the greed he maintained for it.  Why? We needn’t carry out a research for the answer. By material development satiation or joy is not possible, that is the fact. The satiation or joy is not a material fact. Means it cannot be achieved by the development of ‘Kingdom of Matter’ or ‘Kingdom of Material’ but by the development of some other Kingdom which is not ‘Matter’ or which is not the matter of Material and which satiation or joy belongs to. Means a Kingdom independent of matter exists where plenitude and prosperity is a non-material affair, where primary consideration is for non material side and secondary for material side of life. This Kingdom is known as ‘Kingdom of heaven’ in this Book, Mathew. Here the material facts do not limit or control the emotional realm which comprises joy, love, compassion etc. Actually this emotional Kingdom is heavenly one, material side of life is controlled or limited by this emotional Kingdom. Without material and material existence, experiencing the ultimate joy for ever is known as salvation. Here in this Kingdom people practice the life of salvation and life for salvation. A man who is in Kingdom of Matter always works for the prosperity and plenitude in terms of material wealth. Means he finds values in processed materials and structures. But the man who belongs to Kingdom of heaven sees material values as the essential for material existence. And he doesn’t find any meaning in hoarding these values, as it in excess will not make life in excess or eternal. So the matter of Kingdom of heaven is not building up material world but building up a non-material world means a realm of material detachment. 

As we see, the Kingdom of heaven can also be defined as an emotional realm where love, compassion and other positive emotions prevail and thereby relations among people become genuine and fast independent of material aspects.  A man in this Kingdom is rich when his emotional relations - means relation based on unconditional love, compassion etc – are widely spread. He is rich when he has love and compassion towards everyone, without self-interest, without vested interests. So the man who inherit Kingdom of Material works for material wealth whether he a believer or not, but one who inherit Kingdom of Heaven works for these kinds of emotional wealth as mentioned above. That’s why Jesus said indicating false ones as follows in verses 21 to 23.

21  “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22  On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23  And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Many are believers but what the motivation behind the belief? These believers pray lengthy prayers and preach lengthy sermons and there is no shortage of miracles. But there is shortage of something. That is the ‘Will Of God’. For, all these people perform everything according to their will, giving importance for their life, self-interested, they are self-centered, and so they belong to Kingdom of Material. On the other hand, some believers perform not much big things. They love people and make relations for nothing. They remind other people the need to love one another. They even travel simply to make such loving relations and to make awareness in people about this loving Doctrine. Often, their lives are like that of nomads. They are not concern about miracles and lengthy blabla sermons full of weighty words but the words they deliver are full of love and compassion, free of cost. An outside ‘Will’, divine love, always motivates them. This ‘Will’ outside them is the ‘Will Of God’ that prevails in non-material Kingdom or in Kingdom of Heaven, because it has no material interest.  So only these kinds of people enter there. Others are workers like any other workers working for their material existence. To that extend we can call them spiritual labors, beyond that nothing else. They  spoil not only themselves but  those who follow them.

Mathew Chapter 7 continues…………….2

By this chapter Jesus was going to conclude the sermon on the mountain. So he took care to mention the dangers that might occur by his doctrines being handled by inappropriate men in inappropriate way. So he provided some ways in his teachings to understand and identify such men. By warning about false prophets he tried to bring forth some facts. One important thing of them is, learning scripture is one thing and make internal change and practice it accordingly is another thing. Second, scripture not only can be used for spiritual welfare of human society but it can be used from the consumerist point of view to exploit common people. Third, how your inner being is so you see the scriptures. So we need a clear mind and heart to see the truths from scripture, means studying scripture may not change lives. But in some cases studying scriptures caused personal changes and the opposite is also true, some persons' study of scriptures have changed the scripture-meaning and usage. Fourth, without the providence of almighty it is not possible to see the truths, meanings, hidden in the scriptures. In 1 Corinthians, it says like this:

10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.⁴  14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

OK, we can continue chapter seven of Mathew.

               

15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

He uses two parables to identify them, the false ones. The first one is an inwardly ferocious wolf who put on an outward attire of sheep. What does it mean? Wolf and sheep! What is the relation between them? Wolf is consumer and sheep is consumable. This is the peculiarity of false prophets. His internal will always be in a consumer mood (exactly it should be the other way according to John 6:48,”I am the bread of life”, but these wolves say “everything and everyone is bread for my life”). He sees everything in terms of consumables. The outer world, whether it is society or it is nature, is to consume not for anything else. Means, everything is for his material benefits. He sees nothing common in his interior and exterior. But he sees a relation between with his interior and exterior, that is a consumer relation. Means he can never maintain a positive emotional relation with his outer world other than consumer greed, a real consumerist. Scripture, teaching and other related things are related to his tummy and his wealth, there is no death and after death issues. As a wolf after sheep-flesh, so these prophets always after people for their material gains. Wolves aim sheep for their material existence not for the welfare of sheep or for sheep’s existence. These prophets don’t care about lives in any situation, whatever the struggles people going through it may be, until and unless they have some sort of benefit that they believe as blessing.  

How can we identify them? Jesus says, from their fruits, from what they produce. That is the second parable for. He says about tree and fruits. What is that? When we read Bible, especially when we come across parables, we have to dissect them part by part and see what is inside, what principle is functioning in it. Here trees and fruits, we can think about the facts and see what divine principle is hidden in it, and then we can understand why Jesus used this particular parable in this particular context. We know that any living being either vegetation or animals absorb energy from their environment in the form of food in order to exist and grow. In the case of plants, when we read botany, we can see that in the process of existence those also absorb energy in the form of food or in the form fertilizer and water. When the food they absorb in excess, they also try to store them up in different forms as fruits and tubers.

What is the purpose of this stored up food? Is it to use up in the future? No. It is used by other living beings as their food. Means what they produced and stored up is not for themselves but for the sake of the existence of other beings. This is a righteousness we see in our natural environment. And every fruit cannot be used by every other being as food. We can use grapes and figs for food as human beings. These fruits have use values for us, no quality then no value.  Now clear, our achievements should be for general welfare not for private welfare; whether these prophets produce fruits to store up for themselves or for others?  From the answer we can recognize them. If it is for them then they maintain that wolf-mentality, they will use everyone for their own purpose and they will consider all their relations like a vineyard or a folk of sheep to consume. True prophets or spiritual people will be good quality vines and shepherds (not wolves) among their people. True prophets or spiritual people are like healthy trees producing healthy fruits which have use value. The true spiritual people never consume their people but they are consumed by their people (“I am the bread of life”). So, observe the mentality, whether it is ‘you are the bread of my life’ or ‘I am the bread of life’. Otherwise a ‘wolf-mentality’ or a ‘plant mentality’?