NOTES for Mat 7:18-20

These words of Jesus are not about some being predestined to good and others to evil. He simply says that our actions, our "fruits," are not something spontaneous and unconditioned by anything, but the expression of our inner orientation either toward sinking into sin or toward coming out of it. No one except God knows what is inside us, but this is not very important, because the "fruits" correspond to the inner state of the "tree," and if they are bad, the whole tree is cut down. Only, for God's sake, let us not think that cutting down "trees" is our task.