Matthew 11:18-19
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”
Tag: God's Wisdom will Shine Through
When we read the teaching of Jesus in the Gospels we have to make sure we understand his audience. He has the obvious audience of the disciples. One of the reasons Jesus kept "hiding" Himself from the Pharisees is because He was time for the crucifixion ... He still had things to teach the disciples. The religious leaders were an audience. Jesus had to show these leaders that their version of the truth was not His version of truth. Jesus was also teaching the church. He would know that later His teaching would be part of the Cannon of Scripture and be the marching manual for all believers. What lesson, then, was He trying to teach all three of those groups in the above verses? The lesson is that everything we do will eventually demonstrate and indicate what the ultimate catalyst was for their behavior. The Pharisees were judging John's and Jesus' behavior through a false lens. We do that a lot in our society. We judge the immediate thing we see. That often leads us to a wrong conclusion. Jesus teaching in the above passage for all three groups is that Godly wisdom will produce Godly fruit. Earthly wisdom will produce earthly fruit. "Wisdom" will be "justified" by her "fruits." Your motivations and source of reasons will produced some fruit and that fruit will tell the world what type of wisdom you used to produce the fruit. The world has a hard time with Christianity because of the fruit it produces. The world can't disclaim the changed lives that belief in Christ produces. Psychological wisdom doesn't produce fruit like this. Wisdom is known by its fruit.
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