Be very careful you do not have a Secret Garden in your heart – where you carefully tend bad fruits and bad trees, attractive bushes and hedges in your mind, hidden from sight, things that go contrary to His expressed Ways. What are you cultivating?
“There is a way
which seems right
to a man and
appears straight before him,
But its end is the way of death.”
– Proverbs 14:12 Amplified Bible (AMP)
The false believer bears bad fruit. The true follower of Christ works at being more and more like Christ in all ways.
It’s kind of easy to figure-out what the “bad fruits” are, if you are concerned enough to examine yourself thoroughly – as Paul recommends we do periodically. Sometimes however we may deceive our own mind into thinking it is all good – so it’s sometimes good to seek-out the counsel of a good head. Ours might not be as good as we think it is! We all need help occasionally to sort things out.
This passage sort of says it all; puts all the pieces together:
Colossians 1:9-14 …we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the [k]knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, [l]to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and [m]increasing in the [n]knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all power, according to [o]His glorious might, [p]for the attaining of all steadfastness and [q]patience; joyously 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us [r]to share in the inheritance of the [s]saints in Light.
13 [t]For He rescued us from the [u]domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of [v]His beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. – Colossians 1:9-14
Of course, the baddest of the bad is to cultivate unbelief, keeping the throne of your heart for yourself and other gods – instead of following Jesus. How can you follow what is contrary to Jesus’ own teachings — and still think you are also following Him?
Jesus said of Himself,
“I am the [only] Way [to God]
and the [real] Truth
and the [real] Life;
no one comes to the Father
but through Me.”
– John 14:6 Amplified Bible (AMP)
Relevant passages:
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