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Matthew 7:15-20 "Be on your guard against false prophets; they come to you looking like sheep on the outside, but on the inside they are really like wild wolves. [16] You will know them by what they do. Thorn bushes do not bear grapes, and briers do not bear figs. [17] A healthy tree bears good fruit, but a poor tree bears bad fruit. [18] A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a poor tree cannot bear good fruit. [19] And any tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown in the fire. [20] So then, you will know the false prophets by what they do.
1 John 3:1-10 See how much the Father has loved us! His love is so great that we are called God's children---and so, in fact, we are. This is why the world does not know us: it has not known God. [2] My dear friends, we are now God's children, but it is not yet clear what we shall become. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he really is. [3] Everyone who has this hope in Christ keeps himself pure, just as Christ is pure. [4] Whoever sins is guilty of breaking God's law, because sin is a breaking of the law. [5] You know that Christ appeared in order to take away sins, and that there is no sin in him. [6] So everyone who lives in union with Christ does not continue to sin; but whoever continues to sin has never seen him or known him. [7] Let no one deceive you, my children! Whoever does what is right is righteous, just as Christ is righteous. [8] Whoever continues to sin belongs to the Devil, because the Devil has sinned from the very beginning. The Son of God appeared for this very reason, to destroy what the Devil had done. [9] Those who are children of God do not continue to sin, for God's very nature is in them; and because God is their Father, they cannot continue to sin. [10] Here is the clear difference between God's children and the Devil's children: those who do not do what is right or do not love others are not God's children.
James 3:11-12 No spring of water pours out sweet water and bitter water from the same opening. [12] A fig tree, my friends, cannot bear olives; a grapevine cannot bear figs, nor can a salty spring produce sweet water.
These verses were in my morning reading. They contain some helpful instruction about living in Christ. They also contain some warning information about doing evil.
1 Peter 2:12 Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
[Cambridge]
1 John 3:1-10 See how much the Father has loved us! His love is so great that we are called God's children---and so, in fact, we are. This is why the world does not know us: it has not known God. [2] My dear friends, we are now God's children, but it is not yet clear what we shall become. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he really is. [3] Everyone who has this hope in Christ keeps himself pure, just as Christ is pure. [4] Whoever sins is guilty of breaking God's law, because sin is a breaking of the law. [5] You know that Christ appeared in order to take away sins, and that there is no sin in him. [6] So everyone who lives in union with Christ does not continue to sin; but whoever continues to sin has never seen him or known him. [7] Let no one deceive you, my children! Whoever does what is right is righteous, just as Christ is righteous. [8] Whoever continues to sin belongs to the Devil, because the Devil has sinned from the very beginning. The Son of God appeared for this very reason, to destroy what the Devil had done. [9] Those who are children of God do not continue to sin, for God's very nature is in them; and because God is their Father, they cannot continue to sin. [10] Here is the clear difference between God's children and the Devil's children: those who do not do what is right or do not love others are not God's children.
James 3:11-12 No spring of water pours out sweet water and bitter water from the same opening. [12] A fig tree, my friends, cannot bear olives; a grapevine cannot bear figs, nor can a salty spring produce sweet water.
These verses were in my morning reading. They contain some helpful instruction about living in Christ. They also contain some warning information about doing evil.
1 Peter 2:12 Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
[Cambridge]
1 Peter 2:12
having your conversation honest among the Gentiles] On conversation, see note on chap. 1Pe 1:15. There is perhaps no better equivalent for the Greek word than honest; but it carries with it the thought of a nobler, more honourable, form of goodness than the English adjective. The special stress laid on the conduct of the disciples among the Gentiles confirms the view taken throughout these notes that the Epistle is addressed mainly to those of the Asiatic Churches who were by birth or adoption of the Circumcision.
that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers] It is not without significance that St Peter uses the same word as had been used by the chief priests of our Lord (Joh 18:30). This Epistle (here, and 1Pe 2:14, 1Pe 3:16, 1Pe 4:15) is the only book in the New Testament, with the exception of the passage just referred to, in which the word occurs. The words indicate the growth of a widespread feeling of dislike shewing itself in calumny. So in Act 28:22 the disciples of Christ are described as a sect everywhere spoken against. The chief charge at this time was probably that of turning the world upside down (Act 17:6), i.e. of revolutionary tendencies, and this view is confirmed by the stress laid on obedience to all constituted authority in the next verse. With this were probably connected, as the sequel shews (1Pe 2:18, chap. 1Pe 3:1), the accusations of introducing discord into families, setting slaves against their masters, wives against their husbands. The more monstrous calumnies of worshipping an asss head, of Thyesteian banquets of human flesh, and orgies of foulest license, were probably of later date.
they may by your good works, which they shall behold] The verb which St Peter uses is an unusual one, occurring in the New Testament only here and in chap. 1Pe 3:2. The use of the cognate noun in the eye-witnesses of 2Pe 1:16 may be noted as a coincidence pointing to identity of authorship. The history of the word as applied originally to those who were initiated in the third or highest order of the Eleusinian mysteries is not without interest. If we can suppose the Apostle to have become acquainted with that use of it, or even with the meaning derived from the use, we can imagine him choosing the word rather than the simple verb for seeing to express the thought that the disciples were as a spectacle (1Co 4:9; Heb 10:33) to the world around them, and that those who belonged to that world were looking on with a searching and unfriendly gaze.
glorify God in the day of visitation] The usage of the Old Testament leaves it open whether the day in which God visits men is one of outward blessings as in Job 10:12, Luk 1:43, or of chastisement as in Isa 10:3. The sense in which the term is used by St Peter was probably determined by our Lords use of the time of thy visitation in Luk 19:44. There it is manifestly applied to the accepted time, the season in which God was visiting His people, it might be by chastisements, as well as by the call to repentance and the offer of forgiveness. And this, we can scarcely doubt, is its meaning here also. There is a singular width of charity in St Peters language. He anticipates a day of visitation, a time of calamities, earthquakes, pestilences, famines, wars and rumours of wars, such as his Lord had foretold (Mat 24:6-7), but his hope is not that the slanderers may then be put to shame and perish, but that they may then glorify God by seeing how in the midst of all chaos and disorder, the disciples of Christ were distinguished by works that were nobly good, by calmness, obedience, charity.
that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers] It is not without significance that St Peter uses the same word as had been used by the chief priests of our Lord (Joh 18:30). This Epistle (here, and 1Pe 2:14, 1Pe 3:16, 1Pe 4:15) is the only book in the New Testament, with the exception of the passage just referred to, in which the word occurs. The words indicate the growth of a widespread feeling of dislike shewing itself in calumny. So in Act 28:22 the disciples of Christ are described as a sect everywhere spoken against. The chief charge at this time was probably that of turning the world upside down (Act 17:6), i.e. of revolutionary tendencies, and this view is confirmed by the stress laid on obedience to all constituted authority in the next verse. With this were probably connected, as the sequel shews (1Pe 2:18, chap. 1Pe 3:1), the accusations of introducing discord into families, setting slaves against their masters, wives against their husbands. The more monstrous calumnies of worshipping an asss head, of Thyesteian banquets of human flesh, and orgies of foulest license, were probably of later date.
they may by your good works, which they shall behold] The verb which St Peter uses is an unusual one, occurring in the New Testament only here and in chap. 1Pe 3:2. The use of the cognate noun in the eye-witnesses of 2Pe 1:16 may be noted as a coincidence pointing to identity of authorship. The history of the word as applied originally to those who were initiated in the third or highest order of the Eleusinian mysteries is not without interest. If we can suppose the Apostle to have become acquainted with that use of it, or even with the meaning derived from the use, we can imagine him choosing the word rather than the simple verb for seeing to express the thought that the disciples were as a spectacle (1Co 4:9; Heb 10:33) to the world around them, and that those who belonged to that world were looking on with a searching and unfriendly gaze.
glorify God in the day of visitation] The usage of the Old Testament leaves it open whether the day in which God visits men is one of outward blessings as in Job 10:12, Luk 1:43, or of chastisement as in Isa 10:3. The sense in which the term is used by St Peter was probably determined by our Lords use of the time of thy visitation in Luk 19:44. There it is manifestly applied to the accepted time, the season in which God was visiting His people, it might be by chastisements, as well as by the call to repentance and the offer of forgiveness. And this, we can scarcely doubt, is its meaning here also. There is a singular width of charity in St Peters language. He anticipates a day of visitation, a time of calamities, earthquakes, pestilences, famines, wars and rumours of wars, such as his Lord had foretold (Mat 24:6-7), but his hope is not that the slanderers may then be put to shame and perish, but that they may then glorify God by seeing how in the midst of all chaos and disorder, the disciples of Christ were distinguished by works that were nobly good, by calmness, obedience, charity.
