Preacher, You Are Known By Your Fruits, Not By Your Leaves

Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? (Mt. 7:21-22).
Our Scripture verse today makes it quite clear what manner of surprises we are going to get in heaven. I bet the experience is going to be a mesmerizing one. The Lord didn’t mince words saying it.
The message is quite simple: some parading now as men of God (it’s obvious we don’t even have ‘servants of God’ anymore in the Church world today, as men are no longer content with the idea of being merely servants), who claim repository of knowledge of God and His ways, indeed self-acclaimed shakers and pullers of heaven and earth, who claim to be mouthpiece and earpiece of God are going to meet what I refer to as ‘the worst kind of rejection and denial’. Believe it or not, it’s going to be a different ball game all together, as then every man’s work will stand before them and each person’s fruit speak for him. Certainly, there will be no Baba-ijebu game over there.
Actually, the Scripture verse preceding the one above says something quite remarkable. It says, and interestingly it’s the Lord literally speaking, “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. “ And lest I forget, the Lord actually said, prior to this phrase, that a tree is known by its fruit. Thus by your fruits, not even by your leaves, will you be identified.
Although we could say that every believer needs to digest this passage for personal scrutiny, yet we can also deduce the pointer here is directing towards the path of a particular group of people—gospel preachers. And this is regardless of their Church denomination affiliation. Is it not somewhat shocking that the Lord didn’t say we’d know them by their leaves, but by their fruits? The truth is that some plants bear leaves that look alike; but what differentiates them from each other is the fruit they bear.
Bringing this home, I’d say that this truth is also applicable to folks parading as gospel preachers in the Church world today. Amongst them you can’t really easily tell who is who now by their mere appearance; all virtually appear angelic on the face level, taking the Lamb-like form.
Drawing from the Lord’s word, I’d say that each of them could be likened to a plant and the message they preach their leaves. The fruits then are the game changer here, since they make the dividing factor. The fruit with reference to the Lord’s stance on this is one’s character, a preacher’s behavior outside the Church walls. This fruit explains in detail to onlookers the true garment a clergy is putting on, whether the garment of truth or otherwise. You know, one can choose to put on anything s/he wants and parade in them as a shepherd. But such doesn’t make any difference.
Again, it is worthy of note that gone are those days when fake preachers were easily spotted because they couldn’t mention properly the name ‘Jesus’ in their prayers and messages. These days they call it even with reckless abandon; although they know the jesus they are referring to when calling that name. Again, one may not easily tell, among gospel preachers, between who is true and who isn’t by the message we hear them preach. This may be near impossible, as many in the field today are established copycats. They can spend adequate time listening and copying other people they think as being successful in the business, photocopying everything—both their style of movement and tone of voice—to the letters. The Holy Writ to those in this category is but a mere book of formality. Little wonder when any dreamer awakens from his nightmarish slumber and begins to sell to the public the devious content of his warped mind, before long the same would become a doctrine for many handling the microphone in various churches and prayer grounds. And this brings me to my question: when will Christians begin to act like their fellows then at Beroa, whom we are told wouldn’t just buy into anything sold them as gospel, but would flip open their Bibles to confirm the truth for themselves?
What is the message I am trying to convey here? The call is as evident as it is exclusive to many a Nigerian gospel preacher. The madness ongoing in the Nigerian Church today is becoming quite terrifying. The extent of Marmon worship in the Church, deceit, and wickedness against the poor is increasing petrifying, and the outcome of this evil, in the nearest possible future if nothing was done to curtail it, may be everything but positive!
The truth is that Jesus will not recognize the church in Nigeria in the form it exists today. It is a house of commotion and one hanging on the precipice. It is a house filled with hypocrisy, greed, fraud, hate, lies, pretensions, paedophilia, adultery, fornication, consumerism, and everything else that the Lord Jesus Christ preached against. Thieves and rascals are ordained as ministers in various quarters and in turn, the same offer fellow thieves the front seats in church, introduce rascality to the hitherto coolheaded sheep. Recognition is accorded based on the size of one's tithes and offerings; and the sheep are told they would be cursed by God if they are not regular at paying their tithes and giving high currency offerings. The teaching now is that prosperity and well-being are determined by how faithfully members pay their tithes and offerings; and one is not permitted to give such to the poor, the widow, or the orphans around them, but exclusively to the avaricious minister. I wonder where in Scripture they get that.
To make matters worse these same sheep pay thousands of the devalued Naira to gain access to their supposed shepherds; even, the present effect of the Buhari Poverty-generating government does not move these greedy lots to compassion. I wonder whom in the world these scoundrels take after, the same Jesus of the Bible, who out of compassion would often give everything to satiate the hungry sheep, or perhaps there is another Jesus? The trend now is the race to acquire private jets and private universities, and to out-do one another in accumulating worldly possessions; and this is at the expense of their sheep, which skinny looks show how dry they’re being milked. The amount of material possessions that one has is now perceived to be an indicator of God’s approval of the person’s ministry, or one's spiritual health. It was the famous Emma Ukpai who was once quoted in the media as saying that poverty in a minister’s life is an indication that such a one is not called by God. Literally speaking, the man is saying that God didn’t call St. Paul and other apostles who were not owners of private ships in their own time. Well, this big man’s fruit was made evident during the last general elections in the country, as I witnessed one of his baloney shows live here in Onitsha.
The Nigerian church does not represent the poor. In fact, the present crop of preachers in the Nigerian Church of today, especially of the prosperity-preaching kind actively dissociates themselves from poverty and poor people. You do not hear them talk about the poor state of education or healthcare system in Nigeria. You do not see them stand up for human rights or lead protests against policies that punish the masses but reward thieves. Rather than speak truth to power they collude with corrupt politicians to defraud the masses and profit themselves. It would be interesting to know what Jesus thinks of these clerics whose conduct is quite frankly indistinguishable from those of the Pharisees and Sadducees that He described as "brood of vipers" in His days.
The growing level of muck in our Churches is becoming outrageously out of proportion. And for the purpose of clarity, I wish to re-echo again that if nothing was done to curtail these ills ongoing in many a Nigerian Church (please this is without reference to any denomination), then a time will come, and it is very soon, when Christianity would be viewed as a religion of fraud and as a result majority of those professing Christianity today would return right back to worship as God their respective ancestors’ gods. God bless you!