Representatives of God – with no fruit – Mark 11:12-14
12 On the next day, when they had left Bethany, He became hungry. 13 Seeing from a distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to see if perhaps He would find anything on it; and when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 And He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And His disciples were listening.
This passage is about Israel and our Lord’s judgment on them for not recognizing their Messiah. His hunger represented the hunger that we all have in regards to knowing the Lord and being made fulfilled by Him.
However – I also think that it represents many who “Say” they represent the Lord and may even have degrees that say they do… but do they have the fruit that really helps people to be filled up with the knowledge of Jesus Christ in all things? Is their teaching leading others to find the water of Life? Are they committed to ONLY the word of God and nothing else? Does their teaching say that the word of God is their only source of truth – or do they bring into their teaching “other” things such as philosophy or psychology? Or even worse – do they mix this with scripture and their opinions about what Scripture simply says? If the answer is YES – to any of these – RUN! Your Steadfastness is dependant on the right handling of the Word of God – empowered by the Holy Spirit!
Last night I was sitting by my fire pit in my back yard – listening to the Book of James being read to me on an app… and I recall over and over again how James kept urging his readers to be steadfast. Our Steadfastness is dependant on what you allow your mind to focus on. If you are taking in the teachings of someone who is not committed to the absolute inherency of the Word of God then you are not being fed by the true Fruit of the Word of God and you will stray off into some kind of error. Many good men and women – brothers in Christ even… have and can be deceived into false teaching. Beware of the fruitless teachings of false teachers.