The objective of this lesson: to stress the responsibility of Christians to accept the challenge to allow the characteristics of Jesus and the values of God to determine who they are as people. (Christianity is a whole-life commitment that is designed by God to change who we are as people.)

In many societies and many countries doing things "the right way" is the key to acceptable behavior. In most of these cases, there is a single "right way" and numerous "wrong ways." The "right way" in most societies is based on numerous factors, and the principle factor is "the way it has always been done." In those cases, it seems the older the practice is, the "righter" the practice is. "Rightness" in the thinking of many seems to be a function of age. Hence, the statement, "Everyone knows this is the right way to do that!"

"Tradition" of itself is neither good nor evil. The way "tradition" is used and the purpose "tradition" serves determines if THAT tradition is good or evil. To do things as they always have been done is not "proof" that is the correct or only way the things are to be done. "Tradition" can be a helpful guide, but it is a terrible master. To do a thing as it has been done is not wrong if it does not violate God's teachings or God's values. One of the strengths of Christianity is its flexibility. "Traditions" vary from society to society and from nation to nation. In societies that have little writing available, "tradition" is a non-written way to communicate.

Therefore, to do the "right things" in the "right way" is a matter of procedure, not a matter of motive or daily behavior. Behave any way you wish in daily life. Have any motive you wish for performing or functioning in the correct way at the correct time. Just do "the right thing" at the "right time" and all is okay. If you do it out of peer pressure, or to get someone to stop hassling you (like getting a family member off your back), or to be socially acceptable, or to make a business contact, or for any other self-serving reason, it does not matter. Doing the right thing at the right time in the right place is all that matters.

The most common way "tradition" becomes destructive to God's good is this: to use "tradition" to make procedure supreme and motive of little or no importance. Spiritually, healthful "tradition" stresses both, both orderly procedures and correct motives. Spiritually, Christians must avoid the thought that "what is done is essential," and "why it is done" is unimportant. As has often been emphasized, with God motives matter. Consider Matthew 6:1-18. In Jesus' day, no religious acts were more common (and accepted) than giving alms (benevolence), praying, and fasting. Jesus said those acts were meaningless if the person's motives were not to honor God.

Example: Moses recorded in Deuteronomy 12:1-14 that sacrifices should be offered in one place which God chose. God sought to break a habit produced by centuries of idol worship (Deuteronomy 12:13). Idol-worshipping people designated multiple sites as cultic places existing to honor the gods. Now God, not people, would choose the correct place to offer sacrifices.

Not everything said about acceptable sacrifice was declared in Deuteronomy 12. Those instructions were directed toward the habits of idolatrous worship (a real problem then). More was involved than this: idolatrous worship sacrificed at the wrong places and godly worship sacrificed at the correct place. Place was a problem, but not the only problem.

In time, sacrificing in Israel became more a function of place than of motive. By the time God sent Jeremiah (Jeremiah 7:1-7), God said to tell the people they were deceived if they thought the existence of the temple would protect them. Their ungodly behavior condemned them! (Their behavior was horrible, but they assembled at the "correct" place!) They thought "correct" worship was a matter of place and procedure, not a combination of place, procedure, motive, and daily behavior.

Too often correcting a problem becomes the new problem. When a correction takes the place of the problem, the correction can become the problem. When Israel decided sacrificing was "corrected" by seeing the sacrifice was offered in "the right place," they did not understand there was more than "place" to be considered in offering a godly sacrifice. There was a powerful connection made between godly lives and acceptable worship.

Centuries later, Jesus made the statement in our text. Jesus used two illustrations that an agricultural society (which they were) understood quickly. The first had to do with leaders who looked great outwardly, but inwardly were dangerous. If they were to allow someone to lead them spiritually, examine how their leaders behaved. Go beyond how they looked.

Examine the motives of the lives of leaders, and the results produced by leaders' daily lives. Do not look at outward appearances only. Look at what they are as persons, not just who they are on occasions when they know they are "on display."

The second had to do with place. There was the cultivated tree in the orchard, and the wild tree in the wilderness. They knew the fruit produced by the tree in the wilderness was of little concern, but the fruit of the tree in the orchard was of great concern. If you found horrible fruit in the wilderness, you were not surprised. However, if you found horrible fruit in an orchard tree, you were deeply disappointed. That tree was immediately in danger.

There was an enormous difference in the "wild tree" and the "orchard tree." There were few or no expectations of wilderness trees, but lots of expectations of orchard trees. Christians always need to remember they are orchard trees in God's orchard. We are not a part of God's orchard to deliberately produce the fruits of Satan.

Good trees produce good fruit. Such trees produce good fruit consistently. They produce the anticipated fruit. The trees place in the orchard depended on producing good fruit consistently and meeting the orchard keeper's expectation.

If we are God's orchard tree, we need to live and behave like God's tree. We exist to meet God's expectation in God's orchard.

Do not claim to be God's tree while refusing to produce God's fruit. The fruit your life produces verifies (a) whose tree you are and (b) if you belong in God's orchard.

It is the "fruit" produced by our daily lives that declares to whom we belong.

Belonging to God involved more than doing "the right thing" at "the right time" in "the right place." Being a part of God's kingdom involved more the calling Jesus Lord. It involved more than acceptable religious practices at that time--prophesying, casting out demons, and doing miracles. It involved more than doing those things in Jesus' name.

The Christian's attention is on something deeper than "doing the right thing" at "the right place" at "the right time." It is on being. Belonging to God seven days a week all day makes doing correct things in worship to our Savior and God meaningful.

It involved seeking to do God's will in all of your life. For at least the 20th and 21st centuries, we have victimized ourselves through a horrible misunderstanding. The misunderstanding: there is some mysterious partition between spiritual life and secular life, between spiritual reality and secular reality, between spiritual practices and secular practices. The object of being "spiritual" is to refuse to be "secular" in a physical world. As a result, we label things. This is "spiritual" and that is "secular." Thus the goal is to be "spiritual" by refusing to do the "secular."

The Christian seeks to be God's light in this world every day, all the time.

False! The objective is to use all of life for God all the time (every day, in every place). Surely, there is a godly way and an ungodly way to do everything. That includes being a spouse, being a parent, being a friend, being an employee, being an employer, etc. The objective is to be a representative of godly character in every situation we are in.

Christians do not create artificial problems to justify artificial choices. They live real life in the real world for God all the time. That is who they are--God's people!

Being a Christian contains the ultimate relevance to life! A Christian life seeks to illuminate a dark world with the light of God's character in every situation. The Christian life does not seek to withdraw from the world, but to illuminate the world. We do not seek to hide God's influence on us under a bushel, but to allow our lives to show the value of God's influence on us.

People will see the relevance of living for God by seeing how God changes us as people. Christians commit themselves to seeing the distinction between good and evil by learning God's values. Christians do not live as they do to win other people's approval, but to be true to God by allowing God to form who they are.

In Jesus' last parable, the difference in the house that collapsed and the house that stood was in the foundation. The foundation of life is in hearing Jesus' words and acting upon them. The life that endures is the life that hears and acts on Jesus' teachings. The life that collapses just hears Jesus' teachings. It takes more than Sunday listening. It takes seven days of living.

The spiritual foundation that endures is based on (a) learning God's values (expressed in Jesus) and (b) acting on those values.

For Thought and Discussion

1. In many societies and countries, what is the key to acceptable behavior? What is the principle factor of the "right way?"

   The key is doing things "the right way." The key factor often to "doing the right things" is how those things were done in the past.

    

2. Doing "the right things" in "the right way" is a matter of what, not a matter of what?

   It is a matter of procedure, not a matter of motive or daily behavior.

    

3. What did Moses say about sacrifices in Deuteronomy 12:1-14?

   Sacrifices should be offered in the place God chose, not in every cultic place.

    

4. Centuries later, what did God tell Jeremiah to say in Jeremiah 7:1-7?

   Tell the people they were deceived if they thought the existence of the temple would protect them.

    

5. In our text, what was Jesus' first illustration? What was his second?

   The first was a warning against leaders who looked great outwardly, but they were dangerous inwardly. The second was on place, specifically retaining the place of a cultivated tree in an orchard.

    

6. Contrast a wilderness tree with an orchard tree.

   The wilderness tree had no standards to meet. There were no expectations of consistently good fruit. The orchard tree had standards to meet. There were expectations of good fruit consistently.

    

7. Good trees produce what?

   Good trees produce good fruit.

    

8. The fruit of a person's life verifies what two things?
   1. It verifies whose tree you are.
   2. It verifies that you belong in God's orchard.

       

9. Belonging to God involved more than doing what four things? What does it involve?

   It involved more than calling Jesus Lord, prophesying, casting out demons, and performing miracles. It involved doing God's will in all of life.

    

10. What is the objective of being a Christian?

    The objective is to use all of life for God all the time--every day in every place.

     

11. A Christian's life seeks to do what?

    Illuminate a dark world with God's light. We want to reveal God's character in every situation.

     

12. What is the basic difference in a godly life that endures and the life that collapses?

    The godly life that endures acts on what is learned from the teachings of Jesus and values of God. Those two things serve as the foundation of a godly life.