Know The Real Thing!
The Normal Orthodox disciplines train you to know the authentic so completely that no counterfeit can deceive you.
Global advertising spending is projected to exceed $500 billion this year.
That staggering number exists for one simple reason. Advertising works. It shapes perception, creates desire, and moves people to act on what they see and hear rather than on what is actually true.
But what about false advertising? What happens when the product cannot deliver what the packaging promises? We have consumer protection laws precisely because false advertising causes real harm. And if the stakes are high enough when the product is a car or a medication, imagine the eternal consequences of falling for a false prophet.
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”
When I was a police officer, I was trained to spot counterfeit money. The method was not what you might expect. We did not spend hours studying fake bills. We studied the authentic bill so thoroughly that when a counterfeit appeared, the differences jumped out immediately.
You know the false by knowing the real.
Today is the second day of the Apostles’ Fast. The disciplines of this season are not arbitrary. They are training us to know the authentic so thoroughly that the counterfeit cannot deceive us, but ONLY if we purposefully practice them!
Today’s Lesson: Matthew 7:15-21
The Lord said, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? So, every sound tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears evil fruit. A sound tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits. Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
The Lord does not say false prophets might appear. He says they will. (and they have!)
And He says they will not look like wolves. They will look like sheep. The danger is precisely the disguise. A wolf that looks like a wolf is not particularly dangerous to a careful shepherd. The wolf in sheep’s clothing is another matter entirely.
What Can We Take From This?
First, the counterfeit is always designed to look like the authentic, which is why knowing the real thing is the only reliable protection.
Counterfeit money does not announce itself. It is made to pass.
The more skilled the counterfeiter, the more convincingly it mimics the genuine article. And if you have never handled a real bill long enough to know its texture, its weight, its subtle marks, you will not catch the fake.
False prophets work exactly this way. They do not come announcing, “I am here to devour you.” They come with the vocabulary of the Faith, the posture of humility, and the appearance of zeal. They say, “Lord, Lord.” They look like sheep.
Sometimes (many times) they, themselves, are so deceived they think they are sheep!
The only protection is to know the authentic so well that the differences become obvious.
This is why the Normal Orthodox spiritual disciplines call us to immerse ourselves in the real thing. The Scriptures. The Divine Liturgy. The prayers. The Fathers. The lives of the saints. Not as a religious performance, but as the intimacy-building, loving relationship with Christ and His Church that protects us from falsehood.
You cannot spot the counterfeit by studying counterfeits. You can only spot it by knowing the real bill.
Next, fruit does not lie, which means time and patience are among our greatest tools for discernment.
“You will know them by their fruits.”
Not by their words. Not by their appearance. Not by their initial impressions. By their fruits.
And fruit takes time to appear.
This is a deeply practical teaching.
The Lord is not asking us to make instant judgments about everyone we encounter.
He is asking us to be patient, attentive observers who let the evidence accumulate. A sound tree cannot bear evil fruit. A bad tree cannot bear good fruit. The nature of the tree will eventually reveal itself in what it produces. Stay attentive!
The spiritual disciplines cultivate exactly this kind of patient attentiveness.
Fasting slows us down. Prayer opens our eyes. Watchfulness trains us to observe over time rather than react in the moment. The soul that has been formed by these disciplines is not easily dazzled by impressive appearances. It waits. It watches. It asks, “What fruit is this producing in the lives of those who follow it?”
What does this teaching produce in people? Humility or arrogance? Genuine love or tribal loyalty? Repentance or self-justification? Freedom or dependency?
The fruit reveals what the packaging conceals.
Finally, doing the will of the Father is the test that neither words nor appearances can fake indefinitely.
“Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
This is the most sobering line in the passage. It is possible to say all the right things and still be a wolf. The words “Lord, Lord” are not a guarantee of anything. The test is not what we say. The test is what we do and WHO we are!
And this cuts both ways. It is a warning about false prophets. But it is also a mirror held up to each of us, which should lead us to repentance rather than either delusion or despondency.
Am I doing the will of the Father, or am I performing the language of those who do? Am I the authentic bill or the counterfeit? Do the disciplines reveal a soul genuinely oriented toward God, or do they reveal how thin my religious veneer actually is?
These are uncomfortable questions. They are meant to be. The Normal Orthodox life is not meant to be comfortable. It is meant to be revelatory and formative. And what it reveals about us is exactly what we need to see if we are ever going to close the gap between “Lord, Lord” and actually being Orthodox.
St. Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria
Today, we commemorate St. Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria, one of the greatest theologians in the history of the Church. He presided over the Third Ecumenical Council at Ephesus in 431 AD, where the Orthodox Faith was defended against the Nestorian heresy, which denied that the Virgin Mary could rightly be called Theotokos, the Mother of God. St. Cyril’s theological clarity and pastoral courage preserved the truth about the Incarnation for all generations.
St. Cyril understood the warning of today’s Gospel from the inside. He watched false teaching spread through the Church, clothed in the respectable language of theology. He saw how the counterfeit could look convincing to those who had not studied the authentic carefully enough. His response was not simply to attack the false but to articulate the true with such precision and depth that the error became unmistakable by contrast.
He knew the authentic. And that knowledge made the counterfeit visible.
Your Response Today
Today, choose one practice that will help you know the authentic more deeply.
Read a passage of Scripture slowly, not for information but for formation. Sit with the Divine Liturgy’s words during your next attendance and let them sink in. Pick up the life of one of the saints and read it as a study in genuine fruit. Go to confession and let your spiritual father help you know yourself. Or simply spend time in honest prayer, asking the Lord to reveal any place where you have been satisfied with saying “Lord, Lord” without doing the will of the Father.
Then pray simply:
“Lord Jesus Christ, form me so thoroughly in the knowledge of the authentic that no counterfeit can deceive me. Let the fruit of my life reveal a soul genuinely doing Your will, and not merely speaking the language of those who do.”
Being Orthodox on Purpose means knowing the real thing so thoroughly through the disciplines of the Faith that the counterfeit cannot deceive you, and letting your fruit rather than your words be the evidence that you belong to Christ!
P.S. You are a guide of Orthodoxy, a teacher of piety and modesty, a luminary of the world, the God-inspired pride of monastics. O wise Cyril, you have enlightened everyone by your teachings. You are the harp of the Spirit. Intercede to Christ our God for the salvation of our souls.
Fr. Barnabas Powell is the parish priest at Sts. Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene Greek Orthodox Church in Cumming, GA. He is also the founder of Faith Encouraged Ministries and produces the Faith Encouraged Daily Devotional on Substack. Watch the Faith Encouraged YouTube Channel here - https://www.youtube.com/@FaithEncouragedTV
