Luke 6:43–45 (ESV)A Tree and Its Fruit
43 "For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, 44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. 45 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.
When you go to the doctor, and something is "wrong" underneath the surface, the first step is usually X-rays.
Having X-ray vision is more than an asset held by the best of our superheroes; it's an old-school medical tool that gives us a picture of what may look healthy above but have brokenness below.
Jesus gives us what I believe can be called spiritual x-rays in Luke chapter 6:43–45.
In this passage, He tells us several things to help us in our spiritual self-diagnosis:
- that it is impossible for good fruit never comes out of bad trees
- that like produces like, so you can't expect godly stuff to come out of ungodly lives
- and that it is easy to see what someone "treasures" by what they produce.
But, for me, the most crucial line is right at the very end, when Jesus says, "… for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks."
In the New Testament era, the heart designated the whole person, the inner man. So when Jesus says "out of the heart", He's talking about "who you are" on the inside. The true picture of a human being, their inner person, revealed by the words that come out of their mouth.
This is startling!
Because many of us envision ourselves far more spiritually healthy than the words coming out of our mouths would indicate.
If this is true (and it is because Jesus said it), then we can consider the very words that come out of our mouths as x-rays of our souls.
Our grow group has spent the last week challenging ourselves to hold our behaviors accountable to one another concerning responses to other people.
It has been a challenge since we know that we are self-reporting any negative interactions, or "words of choice" that escape our lips in the privacy of our car about other drivers who don't use their blinkers, take up multiple parking lot spaces, are generally in the less than intelligent category and should not be allowed to have a license… I better stop there.
So let me challenge each reader, whatever you consider your spiritual health to be, if you used the words that come out of your mouth as an x-ray revealing what was inside, what would that tell you about your true spiritual health?
For most of us, this challenge would not announce great news. But remember that God is the great Physician and the great Healer.
And the reason He brings these things to our attention is not that He would condemn us, remember, in Christ, there is no condemnation. He teaches us, reveals to us, and leads us that we might become good trees, bearing good fruit for the world in which we live.