“You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad 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. Therefore by their fruits you will know them<\/em>” (Matthew 7:16-20).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Author Unknown via\u00a0Of America, Volume 1 (copyright 1999 Pensacola Christian College), page 224 You tell what you are by the friends you seek, By the manner in which you speak. By the way you employ your leisure time, By the use you make of dollar and dime. You tell what you are by the things…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[1242,418],"class_list":["post-58357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-character","tag-hypocrites"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":29848,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-you-tell-a-lie-to-someone-you-barely-know-will-you-go-to-hell\/","url_meta":{"origin":58357,"position":0},"title":"If you tell a lie to someone you barely know, will you go to hell?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Well, I don't know why, but I said I hated the Bible. Right after I said that I got worried and started to say I didn't mean it! I feel so horrible and scared. The second is that if I lied to someone I barely knew, will God forgive\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":95091,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/pious-pretense-and-treacherous-hearts\/","url_meta":{"origin":58357,"position":1},"title":"Pious Pretense and Treacherous Hearts","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 12, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Allen Malone via\u00a0Sentry Magazine, Vol. 20 No. 4, December 1994 In the early hours of TET (the Vietnamese Lunar New Year), Buddhist pagodas, overflowing with whispered prayers and incense smoke, are the scene of pious treachery. The pagan congregant, convinced that the gods will be more inclined to listen\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31346,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-you-say-one-thing-in-a-joking-manner-but-then-do-the-opposite-is-it-still-a-lie-just-because-the-other-person-missed-the-joke\/","url_meta":{"origin":58357,"position":2},"title":"If you say one thing in a joking manner, but then do the opposite, is it still a lie just because the other person missed the joke?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was wondering about lying. Let's say my wife tells me just want to look at my hobby and my response is no, but I say it in a very playful way -- a way that she knows that I am playing and that I really mean that yes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1644,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-would-you-consider-as-modest-apparel-for-a-woman\/","url_meta":{"origin":58357,"position":3},"title":"What would you consider as modest apparel for a woman?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 1, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: So what would you consider as modest apparel for a woman? Does the Old Testament law pertain to now -- a woman in man's clothing and man in woman's? If so, then what would you consider man's clothing and woman's clothing? All men and woman wore skirts. So why\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17253,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/would-you-please-tell-me-where-i-can-find-all-the-requirements-of-the-new-covenant\/","url_meta":{"origin":58357,"position":4},"title":"Would you please tell me where I can find all the requirements of the new covenant?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Would you please tell me where I can find all the requirements of the new covenant? Answer: It might seem overly simple, but the New Covenant is the New Testament. It is by reading it that you learn what you need to do. \"How that by revelation He made\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18136,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/as-a-non-believer-i-found-parts-of-two-articles-offensive\/","url_meta":{"origin":58357,"position":5},"title":"As a non-believer, I found parts of two articles offensive","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I stumbled across your site whilst randomly browsing the Internet and I was very interested in it. Now I should first mention that I do not believe in God but was raised a Catholic and have many friends of many different faiths and have always thought that all sides\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58357\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}