The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. (Luke 6:45)
A couple verses before this Jesus says that good trees bear good fruit and bad trees bear bad fruit. He uses the natural to explain the human state that is unseen, and often denied through pride.
It is plain when Jesus says that what we hold inside, our thoughts, our motives, the abundance – it is the well in which our words come from. No matter how much we try to filter our words, eventually that abundance will overflow outward through our words, we just can’t help it.
And by this, we have a type of testing of fruit – is what your mouth produces good or evil?
By and large, most people will answer that question with good before ever really thinking about it, but we know that no one is good but God. Therefore, if we are not of God, the produce coming from the abundance of our hearts cannot be good.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” (Jeremiah 17:9-10)
By nature, due to our fallen and sinful state, our hearts are deceitful and our go to is to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to. But it’s the Lord who searches our hearts and minds and He knows exactly the kind of fruit we produce. The beauty of our adoption as children into His family when we receive Jesus as our salvation, is that it takes our branches that have produced evil and grafts us into His tree of goodness to produce good as we’re abiding in Him.
Examine your heart by examining your words and take note of the things God shows you that should not be. That old saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” is false. Words can make or break a person, and we want to use our words to share the gospel, encourage, uplift, edify, and stir one another in love. Speaking the truth in love can still sting from conviction, but the truth without love can destroy from condemnation.
Purpose today to abide in Jesus to produce good treasure in your heart and speak from the abundance of God’s goodness within you!