This is an election year, and unless you’ve been living in a cave somewhere, I didn’t need to tell you that. We are perpetually pelted with political proclamations of how one candidate is the best and the opposing candidate is the worst. You can’t escape it. It’s in your mail box, on your TV, on your social media feeds and even in your text messages! I report all of the texts as junk, even for the candidates I like, as there’s no way to tell the difference between what might be a legitimate message and a scam designed to part you from more than a small donation.

So, how do we know what to believe? That question isn’t limited to politics.  We have so many denominations in part because every little detail of Christian theology has been magnified by some group or other into a pivotal issue that defines who is really Christian or at least faithful and who is not.
Please understand, I believe the truth is knowable and cannot be disputed once established, but I do not suppose that I or anyone else on this earth knows all of it.  Only God is that smart.  He defines what truth is.  We’ll always have disagreements, and probably one of us is right or maybe all of us are wrong. But Jesus did give us a way to help determine who is telling the truth.  It works on profits, preachers, and politicians too!

He said they will be known by their fruit.  Is what they say demonstrably true or false?  Do their words stir up strife or bring peace? Do they inspire good works?  When the spotlights are off, are they the same person?  What about our own lives?  Are we producing good fruit or bad fruit?  By what measure do we judge it?  We will start reading in Matthew 7:15-20 and explore the scripture to answer these questions.