223. A Tree Shall Be Known by Its Fruit

There is no wisdom apart from the cross. The cross is able to stop the corruption that comes from our lusts. When the flesh with its lusts is crucified, the Spirit of wisdom gets the quietness He needs to reveal Himself to a person. What people generally regard as wisdom is nothing more than intellectual Bible knowledge. In spite of all this knowledge, a person’s heart can remain hard and unyielding, and quite often it causes them to become even more hardened.

We see that Job’s friends had much knowledge, yet they did not speak what was right concerning the Lord. We can be sure that God’s enemies who roared in the midst of His sanctuary also had a certain knowledge of God (Psalm 74:4), but they applied their knowledge in the wrong way, and the result was like swinging an axe in the midst of a dense forest. This kind of knowledge is destructive. It sets fire to the Lord’s sanctuary and opposes everything that is called God and holy. Asaph says: “When my heart was bitter, and I was vexed in my mind, I was so foolish and ignorant; I was like a beast before you.” Psalm 73:21-22. A person with a bitter heart can never speak what is right concerning God. The whole law is fulfilled in this one commandment: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” This love possesses the right knowledge. “But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!” This wisdom that devours brothers is of Satan. Gal. 5:14 and 15. “Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening?” James 3:11. Does not every good gift and every perfect gift come from above, from the Father of lights?? If that is true, then it is certain that knowledge that has love is from God, and it edifies the body.

John speaks of some who “went out from us, but they were not of us.” 1 John 2:19. He also writes that it will become apparent that not everyone is of us. This is even more the case today. These people were in contact with God’s people, but they were not of them. In other words, their light was an illusion, a deception that led to lawlessness and perdition. God’s true light leads to obedience to the law, to becoming a bondservant of Christ, and to godliness and brotherly love, whereas false light leads to division, self-seeking, and striving for personal honor. It leads away from God. By their deeds we will know them. The mystery of lawlessness has been active for a long time, and it looks like the only light that is powerful enough to enable us to remain pure and undefiled by this spirit of lawlessness is “the mystery of godliness”—nothing less. Lawless people are even willing to endure the Word of the cross, as long as the power of the cross does not touch them. We live in very evil and perilous times. The corruption and evil of the flesh manifests itself in every possible direction. If Paul was in peril because of false brethren in his time, we are in no less danger in our time since many antichrists (in a spirit of antichrist) have come forth. Therefore, test their works. We must not be fooled by the words they speak because they can use very enticing words. Watch what they are doing. See if all their interests and all their deeds do not revolve around I, me, and mine. Then see if all their words are not aimed in that same direction when you test the counsels of their hearts.