Matthew 7:15-27

Living Bible

¹⁵ “Beware of false teachers who come disguised as harmless sheep, but are wolves and will tear you apart. ¹⁶ You can detect them by the way they act, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit. You need never confuse grapevines with thorn bushes or figs with thistles. ¹⁷ Different kinds of fruit trees can quickly be identified by examining their fruit. ¹⁸ A variety that produces delicious fruit never produces an inedible kind. And a tree producing an inedible kind can’t produce what is good. ¹⁹ So the trees having the inedible fruit are chopped down and thrown on the fire. ²⁰ Yes, the way to identify a tree or a person^[a] is by the kind of fruit produced.

²¹ “Not all who sound religious are really godly people. They may refer to me as ‘Lord,’ but still won’t get to heaven. For the decisive question is whether they obey my Father in heaven. ²² At the Judgment^[b] many will tell me, ‘Lord, Lord, we told others about you and used your name to cast out demons and to do many other great miracles.’ ²³ But I will reply, ‘You have never been mine.^[c] Go away, for your deeds are evil.’

²⁴ “All who listen to my instructions and follow them are wise, like a man who builds his house on solid rock. ²⁵ Though the rain comes in torrents, and the floods rise and the storm winds beat against his house, it won’t collapse, for it is built on rock.

²⁶ “But those who hear my instructions and ignore them are foolish, like a man who builds his house on sand. ²⁷ For when the rains and floods come, and storm winds beat against his house, it will fall with a mighty crash.”