“Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?” Many hear this as a call to check their lives for enough good works, or to check other people’s. But thorns and thistles are not just a picture of bad behaviour. They have a beginning in the Bible, and that beginning tells us what they are.

Genesis 3:18

“cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.”

Genesis 3:17-18

This is where thorns first appear. They were not in the garden. They came after Adam disobeyed. They are what cursed ground grows: things that hurt and cannot feed anyone.

In the same breath God says, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground” (Genesis 3:19). The thorns and the sweat belong together. Man took for himself the right to decide good and evil, and now he must sweat to make it come out right. He works ground that fights him, and he never finishes. I know that sweat. I have tried to balance my good against my evil, and the thorns always come back.

Matthew 7:16, 19

“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.”

Matthew 7:15-19

Jesus uses the very same two words that the Greek Bible of His day used in Genesis 3:18: thorns and thistles. He is talking about false prophets. They are thorn bushes dressed up as grapevines. That is the sheep’s clothing.

This is not a test of how hard someone is trying. You do not look at a thorn bush to see if it is working hard enough to grow grapes. A thorn bush cannot grow grapes, ever. The root decides the fruit. And Jesus is asking a plain question: can anyone gather food from the cursed ground? The answer is no. The end of the thorn bush is the fire.

These false prophets did many works in His name. Yet Jesus says to them, “I never knew you” (Matthew 7:23). They were never vines that went wrong. They were always thorns.

Hebrews 6:8

“For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.”

Hebrews 6:7-8

The same thorns, the same curse, the same fire. The rain falls on both kinds of ground. The difference is not the rain. It is the ground. Good ground drinks the rain and grows food. Cursed ground drinks the same rain and grows thorns. The problem is the root.

So we have three passages that speak the same way. The curse grows thorns. False prophets are thorns. Thorns are burned.

Galatians 3:13

“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.”

Galatians 3:13

Here the chain ends, and here is the good news. Christ took the curse. On His head the soldiers put a crown of thorns (Matthew 27:29), the very fruit of the cursed ground. In the garden His sweat was “as it were great drops of blood” (Luke 22:44). He carried both signs of the curse, the thorns and the sweat, to the tree.

Those who trust Him are set free from the curse. Those who do not trust Him stay under it, still growing thorns, no matter how religious the thorns look. The false prophets had His name on their lips, but they never trusted Him.

A thorn bush cannot become a grapevine by trying harder. But God can make new ground. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Change the root, and the fruit changes. The root is trust in the One who carried the curse.

What this means

The thorns are mine. Left to myself, the ground of my life grows only what hurts and cannot feed. And I sweat to make it good, and it never is.

Christ wore my thorns and sweat my sweat. Because He carried the curse, I can stop. “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). I do not have to inspect myself or others, wondering if the fruit is good enough. I look to the One who makes new ground. I still work, but now from rest, not to balance a scale He has already balanced for me.

Connected chains

• Javan, the Stoicheia, and the Dove Without Grace
• Lost and Found, One Key for Luke 15
• The Voice of the Blood
• It Is Finished, Creation Completed
• The One Work Is to Believe
• No Root, Still Purged