Fruit inspectors in the faith

You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?

Matthew 7:16, The Bible

Fruit inspectors in the faith,
Guarding who can pass the gate,
Looking for corrupted seed,
Ignoring their own evil deeds.

Most people in the faith are alright. They understand the one thing that binds all Christians: the gospel 🙏.

But there are tares among us. There is a certain group of people that I recently heard can be identified as fruit inspectors.

What is a fruit inspector?

A fruit inspector is a person who believes that Christian believers can recognize someone's spiritual condition by their actions or fruit. If they analyze a person's actions and see that it doesn't align with God, they claim the believer does not believe and is condemned to hell.

It’s not a biblical title, but the concept is loosely based on Jesus’ teaching (Matthew 7:15–20).

In that scripture, Jesus is warning about false prophets, saying their actions and results ( or fruits) reveal their true character — even if they appear godly on the outside.

However, fruit inspectors use the fruits to condemn people as not being fit for heaven.

They are right; none of us are fit for heaven.

This is the whole purpose why Jesus came, to redeem us all. None of us should go if we look at our works because none of us are faithful:

As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.

Romans 3:10, The Bible

Fruit inspectors are gatekeeping the kingdom preventing eligible men and women from going to heaven, whether they know it or not. They ironically become false prophets themselves because they are prophesying that these people will not go to heaven.

So if it's not by their fruits, how would I know them?

It is not wrong to judge people's actions as good or bad in accordance with the Bible. But if we are to judge, we should only judge the action, not the person. We don't know if the person is born again or not.

The only way to know is to recite the gospel and ask if he/she believes. They could be in one of the following situations:

• They have never heard of Christ before.
• They have never believed Christ before.
• They have believed Christ before, but they have fallen away.
• They have believed Christ before, but keep falling away and believing, then falling away...

In any case, if they have believed once, they are saved for eternity! God will keep them until the last day:

27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.

John 10:27–29, The Bible

The evidence is also seen with Abraham, because Abraham lost faith that God would give him Isaac. That's why he laughed when God mentioned it:

Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?

Genesis 17:17, The Bible

And yet, God still kept his promise, despite Abraham's doubt:

And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac.

Genesis 21:3, The Bible

Abraham is still known as the father of faith, despite his shortcoming.¹

Bottom line

In summary, your belief in Christ is not based on your actions. We walk by faith, not by sight. We are going to sin whether we are born again or not. Once we believe the gospel, Jesus saves us from the wages of sin (i.e. death) and gifts us with eternal life that cannot be taken back.

Now that's good news!