By Their Fruit is a theological rebuke of the expanding federal overreach into church governance and conscience. Rooted in Scripture and the Christian tradition, this work confronts the growing attempt by the state to supervise, punish, or suppress the church’s internal acts of correction—an intrusion that stands in direct conflict with the words of Jesus and the historic witness of the church. This book draws a necessary line between vocation and avocation—between the calling of the church and the ambitions of the state. It exposes the unacceptable convergence of these spheres when government actors presume authority over pastoral discipline, public admonishment, or moral witness. At the same time, it names where vocation and avocation may rightly overlap: when Christians, compelled by faith, speak for the vulnerable and act in obedience to Christ without surrendering the church’s authority to Caesar. Engaging contemporary events and naming names, By Their Fruit examines federal enforcement actions by ICE, the Minnesota protests that followed, and the arrest of ordained minister and civil rights advocate Nekima Levy Armstrong after acts of public admonishment within the church. It addresses the role of government officials, including Pam Bondi and federal authorities, in efforts that blur the boundary between civil power and spiritual correction—turning conscience into a prosecutable offense. Measured by Jesus’s standard—“you will know them by their fruit”—this book judges authority by outcomes, not intent or title. Where state power produces fear, coercion, injury, and displacement, the church is called to speak. Silence, in such moments, is not neutrality; it is betrayal. This is not a book about partisanship. It is a theological argument about boundaries, obedience, and faithfulness. When the church corrects its own, it follows Christ. When the state prosecutes that correction, it reveals its fruit. And by that fruit, power is known.