Reading… and Thinking

“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.”

— Luke 6:43-45 (NIV)

How can it be that we’re told in one passage we are not saved by works, but in another that we’ll be judged according to what we have done? (Compare Romans 4:5-6 with Revelation 20:12-13, to give just one example of each.) If God “looks on the heart, not the outward appearance”, then why is He so concerned with our behavior?

We begin to see an answer in these words of Jesus about fruit. God cares about and looks at the heart, certainly. But, as Jesus says, the heart overflows into our behavior. So what we do, and what we say, is a reflection of our heart. And so it is perfectly right for God to judge us according to what we do and say.

(But this does not give us the right to judge others! The difference is that God never misinterprets, always knows the whole story, always knows the motivation in the heart that lies behind the action. And we do not.)

The specific behavior that Jesus brings up in this passage is what comes out of our mouth. James says that “no man can tame the tongue”. (James 3:8) In other words, it will always give us away. So it would be a good idea for us to pay some attention to what comes out of our mouth. In particular, what are the habits or patterns? Jesus says they will be a pretty good gauge of our heart.

So. Do our words build up, or cut down? Is our tone sneering, mocking, belittling, sarcastic? Or is it caring? Do we tell the truth, or lies? Do we brag and talk about ourselves, or do we ask about the other person? Is the content of our speech pure, or does it convey the corruption of the world? Do we refer to God and Christ in ways that convey that we believe in them, or in careless ways that convey that we don’t really believe? (How many times a day do you hear OMG, and how many of those times is the speaker actually calling on God?) Do we talk about others behind their back? Does praise for God come out of our mouth? Does our speech mark us out as separate from the world, or part of the world?

It’s impossible for evil words to come from a good heart—the good tree can’t bear bad fruit. If we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll realize that there’s plenty that comes out of us that reveals thee corrupt human heart we all share. (See Jeremiah 17:9) But we must not excuse ourselves on the ground that everyone is like that. We are born with a corrupt heart, but it is possible for it to be purified. I’ll bet you know some people whose speech is just about always “good fruit”. That can be you, too. If you want to live forever, it must be you.