“For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit . For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.” -Luke 6:43-45; Matthew 7:16-20.

While the Scriptures forbid God’s people to judge one another, they do commend to us another kind of judging. We are not to judge in the sense of condemning, sentencing, etc., those who claim to be honest, sincere, reverential, merely because they differ from what we would expect; God knows their hearts and to his own Master each servant must stand or fall eventually.

While not condemning the heart we are to judge of the outward conduct. The parable which our Lord in this lesson gives respecting the gathering of grapes from bramble bushes illustrates this point. God’s people are likened to the grape-vine, which produces no thorns but luscious clusters of fruit. Mankind in general are likened to bramble bushes, ready to scratch, tear, injure, on the slightest provocation, and are merely self-sustaining, not bringing forth fruitage that would be a blessing to others. We are to distinguish between such characters and God’s people: “By their fruits shall ye know them.”

It is said that at times a bramble bush will be entirely covered by a vine, so that the grapes would appear to be coming from the bush. We are not to be mistaken. A good tree cannot bring forth an evil fruitage, neither can an injurious tree bring forth a good fruitage. The lesson, applied to humanity, is that those who are really God’s people cannot live injurious lives or fruitless lives; they must be fruit-bearing else they are none of hi . Should we find some of the fruits of the spirit commingling with a thorniness of life, an evil, injurious disposition, we are to assume that in some sense of the word the fruitage is merely put on and does not belong to the bramble-bush character.

It is therefore useless for any man to tell us that he has given his heart to the Lord in fullness of consecration and that he has received the sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit and yet find him rejoicing in sin, taking pleasure in iniquity, injustice, selfishness, and a course of life injurious to his neighbors. If his heart be changed the results will be manifest in his daily life because, “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”

R 5029 (1912)