“A good man produces good out of the good storeroom of his heart. An evil man produces evil out of the evil storeroom, for his mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart.”
Luke 6:45 HCSB
Before this verse Jesus teaches that good trees produce good fruit; bad trees produce bad fruit. Jesus said it better than I did:
““A good tree doesn’t produce bad fruit; on the other hand, a bad tree doesn’t produce good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs aren’t gathered from thornbushes, or grapes picked from a bramble bush.”
Luke 6:43-44 HCSB
We’ve all experienced times when we have put our feet right into our mouths. We can each probably even pinpoint one from this week. The remedy for controlling our mouths is clear: clean up the heart. No matter how hard we may try to cover up what’s in our hearts it will eventually be found out. The best remedy is our heart’s connection to God, the greatest Healer. Wounds fester and become infected if they’re not on the pathway to healing. So it is with wounds of the heart. The appropriate place for any ugliness within us is God’s throne. God can take ugly and make it beautiful!
I don’t believe anyone is on a mission to be evil. Evil is a slippery slope that we find ourselves on. One day we wake up wondering how we arrived here. Darth Vader is a good example of this. The huge question we ask as we watch the Star Wars movies is how did Vader become so evil? The answer is one small step at a time until evil defined him.
We must be so careful in the care and maintenance of our hearts and souls. We too can find ourselves somewhere we never intended to be. The great news is that even if we’ve found ourselves there God has provided a way out, change and freedom through transformation. We can be forgiven and set free from ourselves through Jesus Christ.
When we find ourselves saying things we regret a heart examination is in order. Regular self examination is healthy and will make us good trees that bear good fruit. Nobody has any use for bad, smelly rotten fruit, or fruit that grew too bitter or has no use.
Jesus’ question after this is,
“Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do the things I say?”
Luke 6:46 HCSB
Doing and living out the teachings of Jesus is how we make Jesus our Lord. We resolve to live Jesus’ way and not our own and this is how we become good fruit.
Jeni Martin Johnson 