This might be a short one today. The passage that seems to be the chunk to be dealt with is simple and self-explanatory to me. I don’t mean that to sound arrogant if it doesn’t read as clear to you. If it does, I’m sorry. It wasn’t meant to read that way.
Let’s take a look at the passage for today.
43“For there is no good tree which produces bad fruit, nor, on the other hand, a bad tree which produces good fruit.
44“For each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush.
45“The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.
Luke 6:43–45 (NASB95)
Perhaps it isn’t as simple as it reads at first. However, verse forty-three begins with a simple statement that a good tree doesn’t bear bad fruit. Simple, right? I mean, an apple tree doesn’t produce poisonous apples. Are a small portion of the apples rotten during the harvest? Yes, but something from outside the tree acted upon those rotten apples, or that particular fruit fell from the tree and hit the ground.
On the other hand, have you ever tried to eat a crabapple? I suppose there are recipes for them, but having grown up with a crabapple tree in a neighbor’s yard, the only thing we thought they were good for as kids were throwing at each other or bats. The point is that you don’t get a delicious golden apple off a crabapple tree. A Golden Delicious apple tree produces Golden Delicious apples, and a crabapple tree produces crabapples. That’s how it works.
However, let’s take it another step. A person who is wicked or evil doesn’t do good things for people. A person who is a follower of Christ doesn’t do evil or wicked this to people.
How do we know that? You or I don’t unless we ask. Or, we can trust Jesus that what He said in Luke is the truth. Why is that important?
When you go to church, fundamentally, we look at the people in church around us and assume they are all Christians. We’re in church. They’re in church. I’m a Christian, and I assume you are, too, in church. We are also human beings, in church. When someone does something that offends you, in church, we have to assume, based on what Jesus said, that the thing they did that offends us wasn’t done for evil, wicked, or malicious purposes without hard evidence. We have a process for getting that evidence too.
15“If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother.
16“But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed.
17“If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
Matthew 18:15–17 (NASB95)
Guess what? Yep, red letters. Also, Old Testament Red Letters. Jesus is quoting scripture His audience already knows, especially the Pharisees. Oh, and there is also Old Testament scripture for what to do with someone found to be a false witness against someone.
15“A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin which he has committed; on the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed.
16“If a malicious witness rises up against a man to accuse him of wrongdoing,
17then both the men who have the dispute shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days.
18“The judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and he has accused his brother falsely,
19then you shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.
Deuteronomy 19:15–19 (NASB95)
When these rules were in place, you got what you were trying to get for the other person when you were found to be trying to get someone else in trouble. That’s not the point of the good tree and the good fruit or the process of confronting a brother or sister in Christ. The point is what people instinctively know they should do but which they rarely do. If someone does something that offends you, talk to them one on one first. That means don’t make a big deal about it because they likely never intended to offend you. Even so, consider whether or not it is even something to be offended about in the first place.
Regardless, in context with the scripture for today, the brother or sister in Christ isn’t trying to do something evil or wicked. They are making a mistake and should be corrected gently, so they aren’t lost as a fellow laborer of Christ.
44“For each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush.
Luke 6:44 (NASB95)
“…each tree is known by its own fruit.” That sounds familiar. It should.
3For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
4But each one must examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another.
5For each one will bear his own load.
Galatians 6:3–5 (NASB95)
That’s not an actual load to be carried. That’s the burden of sin on judgment day. We will each be judged on what we did, said, and thought, or didn’t do, didn’t say, and didn’t think. I’m not going to be judged for you, and you aren’t going to be judged for me. We stand on the merits of our own lifetime body of work, and God knows us by our fruit. The question in our lives is, are we a fig tree and a grape fine or a thorn or briar bush?
45“The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.
Luke 6:45 (NASB95)
Here we are back at the heart again. God always seems to come back to the heart of a person. For those who get hung up on the idea that a person's heart doesn’t hold any actual evil or good because it’s an organ designed to pump blood, that’s a little too literal. Let’s look at the Greek word used in the King James to see if they intended to carry some other meaning (they did.)
Greek Strong’s Number: 2588
Greek Word: καρδία
Transliteration: kardia
Phonetic Pronunciation: kar-dee’-ah
Root: prolonged from a primary kar (Latin, cor, “heart”)
Cross Reference: TDNT - 3:605,415
Part of Speech: n f
Vine’s Words: Heart, Heartily
Usage Notes:
English Words used in KJV:
heart 159
broken hearted + <G4937> 1
[Total Count: 160]
prolonged from a primary kar (Latin cor, “heart”); the heart, i.e. (figurative) the thoughts or feelings (mind); also (by analogy) the middle:- (+ broken-) heart (-ed).
James Strong, “Καρδία,” Strong’s Talking Greek and Hebrew Dictionary (WORDsearch, 2020).
The “thoughts, feelings (mind).” Yeah, they meant our motivations, what’s in our mind. It’s more eloquent to say “heart” instead of brain. “…out of the treasure of his heart…” that’s a really great phrase. I wonder if there is red-letter scripture about treasure and my “heart” that can make this absolutely, without any wiggle room, plain? There is, but it’s long. However, it’s worth it.
21“So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
22And He said to His disciples, “For this reason I say to you, do not worry about your life, as to what you will eat; nor for your body, as to what you will put on.
23“For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.
24“Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap; they have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them; how much more valuable you are than the birds!
25“And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life’s span?
26“If then you cannot do even a very little thing, why do you worry about other matters?
27“Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.
28“But if God so clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will He clothe you? You men of little faith!
29“And do not seek what you will eat and what you will drink, and do not keep worrying.
30“For all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek; but your Father knows that you need these things.
31“But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
32“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom.
33“Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys.
34“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Luke 12:21–34 (NASB95)
That’s the lesson about the guy who had so much stuff he needed to build a second barn, and as soon as he had the barn built, he died. The shocking thing (not at all) is that all that stuff he’d amassed over his life didn’t go with him to Heaven. That’s Jesus’ point in the above passage. The things we cling to on Earth do not transcend with us to Heaven. So, what are we supposed to be after that does amass wealth in Heaven? More red-letters. Amazing how Jesus knew this stuff and said it all, isn’t it?
19“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
20“But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;
21for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:19–21 (NASB95)
That doesn’t really tell us concrete stuff to get that is stored up in Heaven, does it? Or does it? Verse twenty-one tells us but in a roundabout way. It doesn’t tell us tangible, individual “things” to pursue. It tells us that we can identify those things that do get stored up for us in Heaven by where those things are when we set them out as goals to be obtained. If that goal is already in Heaven, guess where our treasure is also? If that goal is on Earth, guess what can destroy it; moth and rust. If moth and rust can get to it, it’s not what we’re looking for, so keep looking.
Finally, the last thing in verse forty-five is key; this is how we can identify the people we want around us, and we also get personal insight into our own heart’s position. “…for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.” The words we say on a daily basis reveal where our heart lies. So, what treasure does your mouth speak of? Where does your heart lie? For me, honestly, this last paragraph is more than a little convicting. God bless and Godspeed.