“For John didn’t spend his time eating and drinking, and you say, ‘He’s possessed by a demon.’ The Son of Man, on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, ‘He’s a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’ But wisdom is shown to be right by its results.”
(Matthew 11:18-19 NIV)

We need to be careful of how we label others. We live in a world where people want to assess and judge others quickly, especially political leaders. It is commonplace to fall prey to social media, biased news coverage, and hashtags that lead us down a path of quickly believing hasty opinions and labels.

This is what Jesus addresses in this passage. People were quickly assessing and judging Jesus and John the Baptist in his day, calling them everything from crazy and weird to downright immoral. These labels went viral back then, leading many people to believe them.

But I love the phrase used by Jesus at the end, “Wisdom is shown to be right by its results.” Those same persons who labeled Jesus and John the Baptist did not know the result of what Jesus and John were doing in ministry and the fulfillment of scripture. Fruit trees don’t produce fruit right away, but certainly will in time. There is wisdom in patience; we need to avoid the temptation of quickly passing judgment on a person just because we don’t quite understand their methods and/or their vision. We all need to be patient fruit inspectors so that we can all be best positioned to make wiser, more loving, and more impactful choices in how and what we communicate about others.

We also need to keep in mind that we too are being judged and labeled by others. Let’s treat others the way we want to be treated. Whether it's with people we know, strangers we’ve never met, in person or over social media, let’s be sure that we exhibit every spiritual fruit in all our interactions with each other—showing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Let’s let our fruit prove who we are and what we are all about.

Prayer for the Week

Dear Lord, you endured the evils of being labeled, ultimately leading to your being crucified. Thank you for showing the world that there is wisdom in waiting to see results; you certainly proved that in how you fulfilled your mission and saved us in spite of our sinfulness. Help us, Lord, not to label our fellow neighbors, including those aspiring for political office. We desire to see good fruit in others and in ourselves. It is in your name we pray. Amen.