When Bad Fruit is Enough – Brad Jersak

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When biblical and theological arguments are moot points.

From Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount

Matthew 7

16 “You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? 17 In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will know them by their fruits.”

In context, Jesus warns his immediate audience about false prophets. He coined the phrase “wolves in sheep’s clothing” in the previous verse. Then in the paragraph above, he lays out a simple rubric for who passes or fails the test of credibility: “You will know them by their fruits.”

I’m not interested in pointing fingers at false prophets today. I know all too well Jesus’ warning in this same sermon how we’re judged by the measure with which we judge. This passage does, however, make an important point about the criteria by which we can distinguish healthy teaching from the unhealthy content that should be tossed into the fire. It’s all about the fruit.

Biblical & Theological Debate

Religious movements spend an awesome about of time, energy, and ink trying to sort truth from error in biblical and theological debate. It’s an industry of which I’ve spent much of my life, whether behind pulpits, in classrooms, on social media, or the publishing world. There’s probably something important happening in those conversations (IF they ever get beyond dueling monologues, weaponizing sacred texts, or flexing our factions).

But in this text, Jesus cuts to the chase: just watch the fruit. If the fruit of our teaching, preaching, writing, or theology nurtures or heals or restores, perhaps we’re on the right track. When you can recognize and identify a pattern of damage, I’m not convinced further biblical or theological debate is necessary.

When God is an Abuser

One of our students at St. Stephen’s University saw this clearly. Tabitha Sheeder is an experienced domestic violence advocate with experience in recognizing the signs of abuse in her clients, including the violence of power over and control by abusive partners. Her trauma-informed ministry helps those who’ve suffered to move forward.

As Tabitha researched her M.A. thesis, she became aware of patterns of religious trauma that looked eerily familiar, a pattern of indoctrination in which believers in a particular construct of God showed the same signs she had seen in her clients. The common factor was the notion of divine retribution. Out of those studies, she gathered her findings into capstone thesis titled “When God Is an Abuser: Dismantling the Abusive Gospel of Original Sin, Penal Substitutionary Atonement, and Eternal Conscious Torment.”

The abstract of her essay, which I think needs to published as a book, includes this description:

Rooted in power and control, this retribution-laden theology bears similar markers to the tactics used by domestic violence perpetrators. This thesis will argue that this “gospel” proves to be abusive, and the God behind it is an abuser. While others have argued against these dogmas using biblical, theological, and philosophical grounds, I will demonstrate, using the tools of a domestic violence advocate, that their most potent refutation is their inability to pass the litmus test laid out by Jesus in Matthew 7:15-20: “Good trees cannot bear bad fruit.”

The Moral Community

From there, Tabitha completed her project by describing a healthy alternative—a “moral community” that conveys a liberating counter-narrative and bears the good fruit and restored people we’d associate with a healthy gospel.

Anyway, Tabitha’s point is simple and poignant. Jesus’ model for testing truth from error was not about who could win in a biblical or theological debate. That’s often just a test of one’s rhetorical skills. Watch the fruit. Fear or freedom? Hatred or kindness? Exclusion or hospitality? Withering or flourishing? I guess we’d need to examine what we imagine good fruit looks like, but I found Tabitha’s thesis and Jesus’ point as profound as it is simple.

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