“For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from brambles. The good person out of the good treasury of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasury produces evil, for his mouth speaks from what fills his heart.”
(NET)
Carrying right on from His point in vv.41-42 (For…) Jesus expands on the truth that we really ought to be careful who we follow in life and therefore what we are filling ourselves with (v.40) because it will reveal more about us than we might think.
Eventually, our words will show who we really are (v.45, James 3.2, 7-12). John A. Martin wrote that
“Just as people know the kind of tree by the fruit it bears,
so people know from what a person says whether he is righteous or not.”
So, is Jesus simply promoting a culture of saying the right things?
Do we just have to say nice things and leave it at that?
I’m not sure that’s what Jesus is saying (and not what He is about to say in the very next verse). You are more than your words. Your choice of words and how you use them is simply a reflection of what is going on inside your heart and mind.
Just think: on a difficult day where nothing has gone right for you, how easy is it to snap or be uncharacteristically rude with someone even if you know they’ve done nothing right?
Or, at the other end of the scale, think how naturally a cheery and positive greeting comes out of your mouth when you’ve been having one of those days where everything seems to be going in your direction.
The point in Luke 6.43-45 is that what comes out of your mouth will show the world around you – to a degree – what is going on inside you. Jesus said that the mouth speaks from what fills [your] heart.
The question for us to think on today then (and the bigger-picture point of this passage) is this:
James Travis 