Our Lord begins with an imperative: "Watch out." "Beware"—be on your guard, pay attention. This is in the present tense: "Keep watching out for this…." It is an imperative, a command, with no options. This must be a real problem, or the Lord would not warn us of its existence.

Watch out for "false prophets."

"Prophet" signifies one who "speaks forth" under divine influence, as the ambassador of God to men. God's spokesperson.

"False" translates the Greek word "pseudo," one who appears to be genuine but is not. Those who pretended to speak the word of the Lord but did not were a problem all through the Bible. Moses warned his people about them (Deuteronomy 13:5), as did Jeremiah (Jeremiah 23:31). Jesus warned his followers repeatedly that "false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect" (Matthew 24:24). Paul, Barnabas, John, and Peter all met false prophets and condemned their deception (Acts 13:6; 2 Corinthians 11:13; Galatians 1:7; Acts 20:29-32; 2 Peter 2:1-3; 1 John 4:1-3; Revelation 2:20-23).

Such false teachers "come to you"—they take the initiative to attack the people of God.

Their appearances are deceiving in the extreme:

They wear "sheep's clothing"—shepherds wore sheepskins, with the fleece against their skin.

But "inwardly they are ferocious wolves," in places we cannot see with our eyes. Wolves are the deadliest enemies of sheep. Four times the Bible condemns false spokesmen for God as such "wolves" (Ezekiel 22.27; Zephaniah 3:3; Acts 20:29; John 10:12).

So how are we to tell who they are, if appearances cannot be trusted? "By their fruit you will recognize them" (v. 16).

A wolf can disguise himself, but a tree cannot. It must be what it is by nature. An apple tree must grow like one, be the size of one, have the trunk and bark and leaves and roots of one, and produce apples. It cannot help it. The way to tell what someone is by nature is to examine what they do, the results of their way of life.

We bear good fruit through our relationship with Jesus: "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).

Then our character exhibits the "fruit of the Spirit": love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

Our lives lead others to our Lord. We reproduce spiritually by helping people follow Jesus, as a tree reproduces physically through the fruit it bears.

And we glorify God as a result: "This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples" (John 15:8).

Such living evidence is proof of who we really are, in our souls. Thorns don't produce grapes, or thistles figs. A healthy tree must make healthy fruit; a sick or diseased tree cannot. The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

So look past looks. Success is not how we appear, but who we really are. Our communion with God, connected to him as a branch to its vine. Our character as we demonstrate the Spirit at work in our lives. Our ministry and witness, as we produce disciples who follow us to Christ. This is success with God. This is what matters to him, and should to us.