Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. The tree-and-fruit image from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:17–18) is applied to the Beelzebul controversy: the fruit of Jesus' ministry (healing the blind, mute, and demon-oppressed) is good fruit. A bad tree cannot produce good fruit. The Pharisees who attribute the good fruit to a bad source (Satan) are making a logical and theological error: they must either acknowledge the tree is good or deny that the fruit is good.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

Publish a note on this verse