Matthew 7:20

Mat_7:20. Ἄραγε] itaque (Mat_17:26; Act_11:18), pointing to the inference from Mat_7:17-18, and, by way of emphasis, introducing once more that which was already stated in Mat_7:16 as the theme of discourse.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat 7:20 . ἄραγε : final inference, a very lively and forcible composite particle; again with similar effect in Mat 17:26 . The γε should have its full force as singling out for special attention; “at least from their fruits, if by no other means”. It implies that to know the false prophet is hard. Mat 7:22 explains why. He has so much to say, and show, for himself: devils cast out, souls saved, spiritual if not physical miracles done. What other or better “fruit” would you have? What in short is the test? Doctrine, good moral life? Is the false prophet necessarily a false teacher or an immoral man? Not necessarily though not unfrequently. But he is always a self-seeking man. The true prophet is Christ-like, i.e. , cares supremely for truth, righteousness, humanity; not at all for himself, his pocket, his position, his life. None but such can effectively preach Christ. This repetition of the thought in Mat 7:16 is not for mere poetical effect, as Carr (Camb. G. T.), following Jebb ( Sacred Literature , p. 195), seems to think.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them--that is, But the point I now press is not so much the end of such, as the means of detecting them; and this, as already said, is their fruits. The hypocrisy of teachers now leads to a solemn warning against religious hypocrisy in general.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 20. Wherefore by their fruits, &c.] This truth is often repeated, because our eternal interests depend so much upon it. Not to have good fruit is to have evil: there can be no innocent sterility in the invisible tree of the heart. He that brings forth no fruit, and he that brings forth bad fruit, are both only fit for the fire.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(20) Ye shall know them.—As before, in Mat_7:16, the word is one which implies knowledge that is full, clear, decisive—such as that to which St. Paul looks forward in the life to come (1Co_13:12).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Then will I profess unto them,.... Publicly before men and angels, at the day of judgment,

I never knew you; which must be understood consistent with the omniscience of Christ; for as the omniscient God he knew their persons and their works, and that they were workers of iniquity; he knew what they had been doing all their days under the guise of religion; he knew the principles of all their actions, and the views they had in all they did; nothing is hid from him. But, as words of knowledge often carry in them the ideas of affection, and approbation, see Psa 1:6 the meaning of Christ here is, I never had any love, or affection for you; I never esteemed you; I never made any account of you, as mine, as belonging to me; I never approved of you, nor your conduct; I never had any converse, communication, nor society with you, nor you with me. The Persic version reads it, "I have not known you of old", from ancient times, or from everlasting; I never knew you in my Father's choice, and my own, nor in my Father's gift to me, nor in the everlasting covenant of grace; I never knew you as my sheep, for whom, in time, I died, and called by name; I never knew you believe in me, nor love me, or mine; I have seen you in my house, preaching in my name, and at my table administering mine ordinance; but I never knew you exalt my person, blood, righteousness, and sacrifice; you talk of the works you have done, I never knew you do one good work in all your lives, with a single eye to my glory; wherefore, I will neither hear, nor see you; I have nothing to do with you. In this sense the phrase is used in the Talmud (y):

"Bar Kaphra went to visit R. Juda; he says to him, Bar Kaphra, , "I never knew thee".''

The gloss upon it is,

"he intimates, that he would not see him.''

So here, Christ declares, he knew them not; that is, he did not like them; he would not admit them into his presence and glory; but said,

depart from me, ye workers of iniquity. The former of these expressions contains the awful sentence pronounced by Christ, the judge; which is, banishment from his presence, than which nothing is more terrible: for as it is his presence that makes heaven, it is his absence that makes hell; and this supposes a place and state, whither they are banished; which is elsewhere called their "own place, the lake" which burns with fire and brimstone; "everlasting fire", prepared for the devil and his angels. Departure from Christ's presence is the punishment of loss, and being sent to everlasting burnings, is the punishment of sense; and the whole, as it is an instance of strict justice, so a display of Christ's almighty power. The latter expression contains the character of these persons, and in it a reason of their punishment; they were "workers of iniquity": it may be, neither adulterers, nor murderers, nor drunkards, nor extortioners, nor thieves, or any other openly profane sinners; but inasmuch as they did the work of the Lord deceitfully, preached themselves, and not Christ; sought their own things, and not his; what they did, they did with a wicked mind, and not with a view to his glory; they wrought iniquity, whilst they were doing the very things they pleaded on their own behalf, for their admission into the kingdom of heaven. Some copies read, "all the workers of iniquity", as in Psa 6:8 from whence the words are taken.

(y) T. Bab. Moed Katon, fol. 16. 1.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Ver. 20. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them] See Mat 7:16, where the self-same words are used. Lest any, under pretence of danger in hearing false prophets, should refuse to hear any, though they come with never so much evidence of truth, our Saviour wills and commands here, that examination and discretion go before both rejection of errors and receiving of truths. "Try all things; hold fast that which is good," 1Th 5:21. As the mouth tasteth meat, so the ear must try and taste words, Job 12:11; Job 34:3. He is a fool that believeth everything, nay, anything that tends to the cherishing of corruption and carnal liberty, or the advancing of corrupt nature, which is nothing else but a piece of proud flesh, and must be abased to the utmost. {a} Christians should abound in knowledge, and in every sense; so as readily to discern things that differ, Rom 14:5; and not to be wherried and whirled "about with every wind of doctrine," Eph 4:14, as children, nor to be carried away as they are led, as Gentiles, 1Co 12:2. He that will take for true and trusty whatsoever any impostor puts upon him, shall be as foully deceived as Jacob was by Laban. Search and see whereto they tend, and what they drive at. If they would drive us from God, as Moses expresseth it, and draw us from the doctrine of godliness, that is grounded upon the word, to the truth whereof we have found God’s Spirit persuading our hearts, and yielding us comfort in it, Joh 6:45; 1Jn 2:27; abstain (or stand off) from all appearance of any such evil. Shun the familiarity of seducers, that discredit the truth; hear them not, their mouths should be stopped, Tit 1:11; Tit 3:10. See how exceeding earnest the apostle is in this argument, 2Th 2:1-3; he knew well the danger: so Rom 16:17. The Pharisees and false apostles would only have brought in a Jewish rite or two; yet are said to subvert the gospel, Gal 1:7, and the apostle wisheth they were even cut off for it. Hymeneus and Philetus denied not the resurrection, but affirmed it only to be past already, and yet they are said to overthrow the faith of some, 2Ti 2:18. And although we are wont to wonder at the absurdities of a contrary religion, and think a simple man may easily answer them; yet it is certain, the grossest adversaries of the truth are able to urge such reasons, and use such persuasions, as have in them great probability of truth, and may deceive the simple: "Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness." Which to prevent, "Grow," saith the same apostle there, "in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ," 2Pe 3:17-18. Exact of yourselves a growth in every grace, in humility, however growing downward at least, if ye cannot find so comfortable a growth upward. Humility is both a grace and a vessel to receive grace; for God will give grace to the humble, and teach the lowly minded, 1Pe 5:5; Psa 25:9. Grow also in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ; proving by experience in yourselves, what that good, that holy, and acceptable will of God is. Let your knowledge and practice run parallel, and be of equal extent. Study to live rather than to dispute, {b} to act rather than to contemplate: learn and labour to feel in yourselves the sweetness and goodness, the life and power, of what you know. The devil confessed Christ as well as Peter, Mar 5:7; Mat 16:16-17, -but the devil with a common knowledge, swimming in the brain, Peter with a saving knowledge, soaking to the heart root, and working upon the affections, those immediate springs of action. This is that knowledge, not apprehensive only, but affective too, that makes the mind good, full of incitations to good, glad of all occasions to do good, free from the stain and reign of former lusts, inclinable to serve God and our brethren by love, fearing the gospel more than the law, and God’s goodness more than his justice. Now to grow in these graces and in this knowledge, is the ready way to secure ourselves from seducers, to approve ourselves to have been conscionable hearers of a sound ministry, such as are founded upon a rock, and are therefore unmoveable, such as have gotten a knowledge so clean and certain as no heretic can draw from us. And lastly, to save ourselves from that untoward generation, Act 2:40, our Saviour speaketh next of, in the subsequent verses, that have no more to show or say for themselves than Lord, Lord, &c.

{a} Sub laudibus naturae latent inimici gratiae. Aug.

{b} Nos non eloquimur magna, sed vivimus.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(Ver. 16, note.) Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Wherefore (arage). Ver. 16 a is restated, but now in "rigorous logical inference" (Winer, a) from vers. 16 b-18. Since it is a certainty that fruit is the result of inner nature, you shall from these men"s fruits fully learn their true character.

The test of the fruitage.

Whately says, "If you saw in any country the fields carefully ploughed and cleared and sown with wheat, and yet continually sending up a growth of grass and thistles, which choked the wheat whenever they were not weeded out again and again, you would not suppose wheat to be indigenous (that is, to grow wild) in that country, but would conclude that, if the laud had been left to itself, it would have produced grass and thistles, and no wheat at all. So also, when you see men"s natural character so opposite to the pure, and generous, and benevolent, and forgiving character of the gospel, that, even after they have received the gospel, their lives are apt to be quite a contrast to its virtues, you cannot think it likely that such a being as man should have been the inventor of such a religion as the Christian." Our Lord would warn his disciples of the mischievous influence of false teachers. Those cherishing guilelessness and trustfulness would be especially exposed to the power of such teachers. It was necessary to provide a safe test for the trying of all such.

I WHAT IS THIS MODE OF JUDGING MEN? Show that, all through creation, the mature of things is exhibited to us in their forms. Illustrate seeds. Qualities of the tree, or of the bud, or graft, placed in the tree.

Creatures; and man. Everywhere disposition is seen in conduct; and we esteem it fair to judge disposition by conduct.

II BUT IS THIS ALTOGETHER A FAIR MODE OF JUDGING? On the whole, we may say, "Yes, it is." It is our only mode, for we cannot read motive. It is a mode with which we are familiar, in which we ought to be practised and skilful. We never hesitate about testing by it our fellow-men. And yet it can hardly be a perfect test. Men are so often better than their actions. We must endeavour to find what they are trying after. True in the large, it often fails in the minute.

III USE THE TEST TO JUDGE OUR OWN INDIVIDUAL LIFE. Can we safely let the world judge our fruitage as professing Christians? What fruits of holiness, worship, brotherhood, charity, service, do they see? Come searchingly to deal with minute things. Our fruit may be good-looking, but not good; it may be like crab-apples. Our fruit may be actually good not crab-apples, and yet of very inferior value. Our Lord said, "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit;" and that means "much and good. R.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

20. ἀπὸ τῶν καρπῶν κ.τ.λ. Re-echoed by a beautiful poetical figure from Mat 7:16. See Jebb’s Sacred Lit. p. 195–197. The well-known lines of Dryden, ‘What passion cannot music raise and quell’; and those of Southey in a passage beginning and ending ‘How beautiful is night!’ are quoted in illustration.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

20. Therefore from their fruits ye shall recognise them.] Mt. has an application of this saying about trees and their fruit containing sayings parallel to Luk 6:44a and 45 in 12:33-15. He probably found in the Logia after the saying about false prophets, v. 15, the words: ἀπὸ τῶν καρπῶν αὐτῶν ἐπιγνώσεσθε αὐτούς, 16a. This suggested to him the insertion from elsewhere in the Logia of the saying about trees and fruit which he closes by repeating the words, v. 20, which had suggested the insertion. Compare his insertion of a parable 20:1-15 to explain 19:30. Here, too, he closes his interpolated section with the text from which he started, 20:16 Compare also his insertion of parables 24:43-25:12 to explain 24:42. Here, too, he repeats at the end 25:18, the verse from which he started.

(L)

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.