Twice dead

Twice dead?  How can something be twice dead?

Jude 12 is a fascinating verse and gives us a clear picture of what not to aspire to.

...These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm--shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted--twice dead. (NIV, my emphasis)

It's a sad thing to see an uprooted tree.  Trees are a living organism and have strived to put down good roots and seek water for nourishment, so to see it overcome by environmental factors and subsequently fail is sad.   Uprooted trees all have a common factor though - their root system is not well established.   A healthy tree's root system tends to reflect the size of its canopy, but an uprooted tree does not have a strong root system.

Mark 4 gives us some insight:

... He was teaching them many things in parables, and was saying to them in His teaching, "Listen to this! Behold, the sower went out to sow; as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up. "Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil. "And after the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. "Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. "Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold." And He was saying, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

"The sower sows the word. "These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them. "In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away. "And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. "And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold." (NASB, my emphasis)

Matt. 7:19 tells of severe consequences for those who do not bear fruit:

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire

Matt. 7:16 and 20 emphasises that we will know false prophets by their fruit.  Matthew states twice in these verses,

By their fruit you will recognise them (NIV)

It's interesting that in Genesis 1 we see God creating each "after their kind".  The extension of this truth is that fruitless trees are of their own kind (in a spiritual context, this takes us directly back to Jude 12).

So the consequence of failing to produce spiritual fruit is uprooting by God who does not tolerate falsity.   Unfruitful and uprooted.   Twice dead.

It is refreshing to read Psalm 1 which contrasts the man of God with the wicked man of Jude 12:

He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.   Whatever he does prospers.

Surely this contrast encourages us to re-evaluate our position in Jesus Christ and our heart-attitude toward bearing fruit.

Photo credit:  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Uprooted_tree_on_Bronkham_Hill_-_geograph.org.uk_-_298170.jpg