It’s amazing where your early morning mind will take you. I began with contemplating Jesus’ words at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. These point to the importance of doing what he says (by implication, doing what you say). It not what you say, but what you do, that counts in the end.
However, the phrase “the proof of the pudding is in the eating” popped into my mind as an analogy. But, I wondered, just what does that phrase mean? Fifteen minutes later, I was in Scotland with pictures of haggis and listening to Robert Burns and the joys of haggis and a dram of Scotch. Then I got thirsty (not hungry, I don’t eat organ meats on purpose). Then I remembered where I was going.
Does your mind ever wander like that when you are reading something Jesus or Paul or Peter or John said? Or when the preacher/pastor is speaking? Or even when your spouse is talking? Oops, I digress again.
Pudding in the old English (actually today, too) sense doesn’t mean a sweet desert. It’s some gross form of sausage. And you wouldn’t know if it was any good–or even going to kill you–until you ate some of it.
I’d really have to stretch to apply this to Matthew 7–except that the proof (test) of whether you are a follower of Jesus has less to do with how much you know and very much to do with how you treated the last person you saw and how you will treat the next person you meet. “Do to others as you would like them to do to you. That is the law and the prophets.”
(See, I didn’t waste all that research, although when I was dishing out my oatmeal for breakfast just now it looked sort of funny to me.)
Faith Venture 
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