"You will know them by their fruits."
I think a lot of people think this means they will have the Fruit of the Spirit, but I have also heard that the Fruit is Good Doctrine as well.
Looking for your interpretations of these verses.
I look at this simply. There is a large difference between those with a good loving open heart and those who have found power and influence and are happy to destroy anyone who gets too close.
Put this into simple language. I come to a group to talk about Jesus's love and the way God changes our hearts at all levels. Now the response was I was evil, preaching works salvation, worse than a murderer, using satans words and leading people to hell.
But what I discovered was often these folk were white supremacists, who advocated real violence in difficult situations and were not afraid to lie, deceive and destroy others.
Now they preached salvation through faith in the cross, and free grace, once sealed in Christ, eternally secure no matter what you did afterwards.
To me whatever they believed or thought did not matter, it was their attack on me personally and attempted to destroy my faith, my security, my love, my grace, my patience, my endurance and experience of Jesus. Something in what I represented was too challenging, I had to be wrong.
One member, a lady, a church leader had a natural trait to be straight with someone and put the knife in, in such a way it really hurt. It was something they could do. When I challenged them about their heart and the promise Jesus bring to cleanse and resolve us totally, I was the enemy, their heart was their business, and miracles and signs was the gospel, not love and being nice to folk.
So thorns and thistles in people who claim to know Jesus but have got some things seriously wrong, is what Jesus is pointing to. The truth shall set you free is no idle promise, His love actually does this,
God bless you