By Their Fruits

A thought experiment

If you met someone who proclaimed their Christian faith loudly, based on the teachings of the gospels you would expect that it would be impossible to miss their: (a) care for the poor¹, (b) love of neighbor², (c) humility³, (d) enemies list⁴, or (e) celebration of their skill at bearing false witness⁵.

1. Care for the poor — Matthew 25:34–40. The sheep and the goats: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Also Luke 12:33 (”Sell your possessions and give to the poor”) and Matthew 19:21, the rich young man.

2. Love of neighbor — Matthew 22:37–39. Jesus, asked for the greatest commandment, gives this as one of them: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” And Luke 10:25–37, the Good Samaritan—Jesus’s answer to the follow-up question “who is my neighbor,” which he answers with a story about a despised foreigner.

3. Humility — Matthew 23:12. “Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted”—delivered in the middle of Jesus’s attack on religious leaders who perform their piety publicly. Also Matthew 6:1: “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.”

4. Enemies list — Matthew 5:43–44. The direct inversion: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” The gospels don’t merely fail to authorize an enemies list. They order its opposite.

5. Bearing false witness — Matthew 19:18. Jesus, listing the commandments for the rich young man, includes it by name: “you shall not give false testimony.” Repeated at Mark 10:19 and Luke 18:20—one of the few commandments Jesus recites verbatim in all three synoptic gospels. He repeated this one three times. And Matthew 15:19–20 puts “false testimony” on the short list of things that defile a person, alongside murder and theft.