29  Exposing the Truth  About Man’s Heart  (12:33-37)

Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man out of his good treasure brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings forth what is evil. And I say to you, that every careless word that men shall speak, they shall render account for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned. (12:33-37)

It has been estimated that from the first “Good morning” to the last “Good night,” the average person engages in thirty conversations a day. Each day, his words could make a book of 50-60 pages—the equivalent of more than one hundred books a year of 200 pages each.

Someone in the last century wrote the following about the incessant talker:

He shakes a man by the ear as a dog does a pig, and never loosens his hold till he has tired himself as well as his patient. He is a walking pillory, and punishes more ears than a dozen standing ones. He will hold any argument rather than his tongue, and maintain both sides at his own charge; for he will tell you what you will say, though perhaps he does not intend to give you leave. His tongue is always in motion, though very seldom to the purpose: like a barber’s scissors, which are kept snipping as well when they do not cut as when they do. He is so full of words that they run over, and are thrown away to no purpose; and so empty of things, or sense, that his dryness has made his leaks so wide, whatsoever is put in him runs out immediately. He is so long delivering himself, that those that hear him desire to be delivered too, or dispatched out of their pain.

It is not surprising that, immediately after Jesus excoriated the Pharisees for their unforgivable blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, He then began to speak about the importance of the tongue. The most self-damning words ever spoken had just been uttered by the religious leaders who accused Jesus of casting out demons by the power of Satan (v. 24). Now the Lord gives one of His most sobering warnings, and in the process He exposes the truth about the nature of man’s heart.

THE PARABLE

Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. (12:33)

Jesus initiates the warning with a short parable to illustrate an obvious maxim: a tree and its fruit correspond. A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit (cf. 7:17, 20; Luke 6:43-44).

Poie (to make) is used here in a figurative sense. As in English, the term can refer physically to creating or constructing—as in making a clay pot or a chair. Also as in English, it can refer metaphorically to considering, evaluating, or judging—as in making up one’s mind about something.

Jesus’ general point was: “You must make up your minds about Me and My work. Either I am evil and do evil work, or else I am good and do good work. I cannot be evil and do good work or be good and do evil work. If I do good works, it is by God’s power; and if I do evil works, it is by Satan’s. God empowers nothing evil, and Satan empowers nothing good.”

His specific point was: “Sickness and death are the result of sin, as you yourselves recognize. Demon possession is obviously Satan’s doing and an evil thing. Therefore, healing the sick, raising the dead, and casting out demons could not be other than good things—the deliverance of men from the destructive work of sin. Consequently, My casting out demons must be by God’s power, not Satan’s. Because you accuse Me of doing good by Satan’s power, you attribute to Satan the work of the Holy Spirit, and that is the supreme and unforgivable blasphemy.”

Jesus again trapped the self-righteous Pharisees in their perverted thinking, publicly exposing their hard-heartedness and absurd illogic. As He pointed out to them on other occasions, no matter what they thought of Him personally, His works indisputably testified to His goodness and to His divine power (John 5:36; 10:25, 37-38; 14:11; cf. Matt. 11:4-5).

THE PERSONALIZATION

You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? (12:34a)

Changing the metaphor, Jesus applies the parable of the good and bad trees directly to the Pharisees, saying, in effect, “You are immeasurably worse than a group of bad trees; you are a veritable brood of vipers.” That is the same epithet John the Baptist used of the hypocritical Pharisees and Sadducees who came to him for baptism (3:7) and that Jesus used during His long series of “Woes” against the scribes and Pharisees in the Temple (Matt. 23:33).

Those who preach falsehood or practice immorality are invariably offended when they are exposed; but fear of offending should not keep believers from exposing their evil. When, in the name of love and humility, we fail to expose religions, cults, and philosophies that give men false spiritual hope or we fail to challenge those who promote irreverence and moral filth, we serve neither love nor humility but sin.

Jesus did not shy away from condemning men to their faces, especially when their sin was cruel, hypocritical, self-righteous, or blasphemous. He came to save people from their sin, not help confirm them in it by underplaying its seriousness or their guilt. He was not in a popularity contest, and it was His concern to please His Father, not men. It is never to God’s glory or to man’s good to encourage in any way those who do evil or to minimize their sin.

Calling the Pharisees a brood of vipers was a fierce denunciation that everyone understood. Vipers was a general name for a variety of poisonous snakes common to Palestine and the Mediterranean area. A deadly viper bit Paul on the hand as he gathered firewood on the island of Malta after a shipwreck, and the native islanders were amazed that he did not “swell up or suddenly fall down dead” (Acts 28:3, 6).

Vipers not only are deadly but deceptive. Because most of them blend into surrounding rocks or sticks, they can often attack their victims with total surprise, as the one on Malta did Paul. The mother viper normally lays a large number of eggs, and when they hatch the brood of little potential killers scurry around like insects.

The Pharisees were the epitome of religious and moral corruption and danger. Like a brood of vipers, they traveled from place to place, usually in groups, teaching and promoting their man-made traditions. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,” Jesus later said to them, “because you travel about on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves” (Matt. 23:15). Their unbiblical, legalistic traditions poisoned the minds of fellow Jews against the pure and redeeming truth of God’s Word, and their hypocritical self-righteousness led countless others into that same evil attitude. When someone reached into the woodpile of religion, thinking to pick up a stick of truth, he could be bitten to death by those soul-damning liars.

How can you, Jesus continued, being evil, speak what is good? “In light of your being evil by nature, how could anything but blasphemy and other ungodliness be expected of you? How could you possibly speak what is good?” Being evil expresses the depravity of the natural human heart, which can produce only evil because it is only evil. That is the legacy of fallen man because of Adam’s sin. As Paul explained to the Roman church, “Both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, There is none righteous, not even one; . . . there is none who does good, there is not even one,’. . . for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:9-10, 12, 23). He explained to the Ephesians that every person is “dead in [his] trespasses and sin” until he trusts in Jesus Christ for salvation (Eph. 2:1).

The Old Testament also clearly chronicles the evil heart of man. From the time of Adam’s sin mankind was henceforth characterized by hatred, corruption, murder, lying, and every other form of wickedness. David knew that he inherited a sin nature the moment he was conceived (Ps. 51:5), and Jeremiah declared that the human “heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick” (Jer. 17:9).

THE PRINCIPLE

For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man out of his good treasure brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings forth what is evil. (12:34b-35)

Here is one of the most basic principles of Scripture regarding man: the mouth speaks what is in the heart. What a person is on the inside, his mouth will give evidence of on the outside. In fact, James says that one who did not sin with his mouth would be “a perfect man” (James 3:2). The most immediate illustration of that principle showed that it was the evil hearts of the Pharisees that made them blaspheme the Holy Spirit by accusing Jesus of casting out demons by Satan’s power. They spoke evil because their hearts were filled with evil, and by their own words they condemned themselves as they sought to condemn Jesus.

In Scripture the heart represents the seat of thought and will, rather than the seat of emotions (represented by the bowels, or stomach area, as indicated in the KJV renderings of Song of Sol. 5:4; Jer. 31:20; Phil. 1:8; 2:1; Col. 3:12; Philem. 7, 12, 20; and 1 John 3:17). The heart represents the character of a person, and therefore to say that words reveal what the heart is like is to say they reveal what the person is like. When it speaks, the mouth simply reproduces verbally what is in the heart. Using the same figure, Jesus explained on a later occasion that “the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders” (Matt. 15:18-19).

That which fills translates the Greek noun perisseuma, which means great abundance, fullness, or overflow. It carries the idea of excess, which, in the terms of Jesus’ figure, spills over from the heart and out of the mouth in the form of words. What the heart is full of, will overflow from the mouth.

The person who harbors ill will against someone will eventually express those feelings. The person who is filled with lustful thoughts will eventually express those thoughts in crude or suggestive remarks. The person who is persistently angry and hateful will sooner or later put those feelings into words. In the same way, the person who is genuinely loving, kind, and considerate cannot help expressing those feelings in words as well as actions.

After Elihu waited long and impatiently for three older friends to convince Job of his sin, he could hold back no longer. He had to say what was on his heart. “For I am full of words,” he said; “the spirit within me constrains me. Behold, my belly is like unvented wine, like new wineskins it is about to burst. Let me speak that I may get relief; let me open my lips and answer” (Job 32:18-20).

What the heart, or the mind, dwells on and feeds on is what it is full of; and that which fills the heart it is that which the mouth inevitably speaks. A person may carefully monitor his words most of the time, but the pressure of evil thoughts, anger, stress, pain, or the association with vulgar friends will sometimes force his real thoughts and attitudes to the surface in the form of words.

James understood that principle and gave several powerful warnings about the tongue. “If anyone thinks himself to be religious,” he said, “and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless” (James 1:26). Later in the same letter he said, “But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison” (3:8). In summing up his description of men’s depraved nature, Paul said, “Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving, the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness” (Rom. 3:13-14). The mouth is the ultimate expression of the heart. As the writer of Proverbs declared, “For as [a person] thinks within himself, so he is” (23:7).

Expanding on the principle He has just stated, Jesus then gives the positive and the negative aspects of it. The good man out of his good treasure brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings forth what is evil.

Treasure is from thsauros, which means storehouse or treasury and is the term from which we get the English thesaurus, a treasury of words. A person’s heart is the treasury of his thoughts, ambitions, desires, loves, attitudes, and loyalties. It is the reservoir from which the mouth draws its expressions. It is axiomatic that a good treasure brings forth what is good and an evil treasure brings forth what is evil. “Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water?” James asked (James 3:11).

A common expression in the computer world is GIGO, which stands for “Garbage in, garbage out.” In other words, the quality of data entered determines the quality of the results produced from that data. In exactly the same way, the quality of what is in a person’s heart determines the quality of speech his mouth produces.

THE PUNISHMENT

And I say to you, that every careless word that men shall speak, they shall render account for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned. (12:36-37)

Because men’s words are an accurate gauge of their hearts, they shall render account for their words in the day of judgment. It is by his words that a person is either justified or condemned. Salvation and condemnation are not produced by words or deeds, but they are manifested by them. Words and deeds are objective, observable evidence of a person’s spiritual condition. In the day of judgment, that future general time when the Lord evaluates who belongs in and out of His eternal kingdom, the criteria will include the speech of every person.

The consistent teaching of both Old and New Testaments is that the only way of salvation is by God’s grace working through man’s faith. Jesus’ point is not that words are the basis of salvation or condemnation but that they are reliable evidence of the reality of salvation. The speech of a redeemed person will be different, because it comes from his renewed heart. Pure, wholesome, praising speech shows a new heart.

We are not saved by good works, but we are saved for “good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). In the same way, we are saved for good words. “With the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation” (Rom. 10:10), which, in turn, results in “obedience… by word and deed” (15:18). Salvation will produce good words, and it is for that reason and in that sense that words bring justification or condemnation.

The ungodly will be eternally condemned for their speech. Apart from what they did, what they said is enough evidence of their unregenerate heart to send them to hell. Jesus does not limit this warning to extremes such as blasphemy, but makes explicit that men will render account for every careless word that they speak—whether or not it is immoral, vulgar, cruel, or blasphemous. They will have to render account even for words that are careless.

The basic meaning of argos (careless) is useless, barren, unproductive, or otherwise worthless. Such words include those that are flippant, irresponsible, or in any way inappropriate. Hypocritical words are among the most careless and worthless that men speak and are, unfortunately, among the most common. When men self-consciously keep their vocabulary orthodox, moral, and evangelically acceptable while among fellow Christians—for the sake of impressing them or to keep from embarrassing ourselves—those words are careless and worthless in God’s sight, and He will render them against their account. The calculated hypocrisy of such “holy talk” is a stench in His nostrils.

The Christian’s speech will reflect God’s transforming work in the heart; but because of our unredeemed humanness, it still needs constant care if it is to be increasingly spiritual, wholesome, fitting, kind, sensitive, loving, purposeful, edifying, and truthful. With the Psalmist he should pray, “Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips” (Ps. 141:3).

But for the unbeliever, all the words of his unredeemed heart are worthless as far as spiritual value is concerned. His evil words are obviously worthless. Among the most common evil words are those that express lust (Prov. 5:3-4); deceit (Jer. 9:8); cursing and oppression (Ps. 10:7); lying (Prov. 6:12; 12:22); destruction (Prov. 11:11); vanity (2 Pet. 2:18); flattery (Prov. 26:28); foolishness (Prov. 15:2); verbosity (Eccles. 10:14); falsehood (Titus 1:11); pride (Job 35:12); vulgarity (Col. 3:8); hatred (Ps. 109:3); and gossip (Prov. 26:20).

For the unbeliever, careless and worthless words also include those that are otherwise good. Although his words of love, encouragement, comfort, and kindness may be sincere and greatly helpful to others, they are of no spiritual value to him because they do not come from a redeemed and righteous heart. No spiritually good thing can come from a heart that is spiritually evil—as Jesus has just pointed out.

A person can get a good indication of his spiritual condition by listening to his own words. A Christian can fall into evil words just as he can fall into evil deeds, but his customary speaking will be pure just as his customary activities will be righteous.

Although this passage has application to both the saved and the unsaved—to the “good man” and the “evil man”—Jesus’ thrust here is directed to unbelievers, represented in the extreme by the blaspheming Pharisees.

The day of judgment for unbelievers culminates at the great white throne judgment, the ultimate and eternal judgment at which all unbelievers shall be condemned. Christians’ sins will have all been dealt with at Calvary, dismissed by the atoning blood of Christ applied on behalf of their faith. Every Christian has sinned with his tongue after salvation, but Christ’s sacrifice is sufficient to cover that and every other sin he commits. The evil words and deeds of unbelievers, however, will remain to stand in evidence against them. Like the unfaithful slave in Jesus’ parable, unbelievers will be judged by their own words (Luke 19:22).

In his vision of the great white throne judgment John saw “the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.… And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:12,15). When the record books are scanned, no good deeds will be listed by the names of unbelievers; and when the book of life is scanned, not even their names will appear. The books that report deeds and the book that reports faith will alike testify against them.

Scientists theorize that sound waves are never completely lost but gradually fade beyond detection. With sufficiently sensitive instruments, every word ever spoken in the history of mankind presumably could be retrieved. How much more certain can we be that in God’s infallible records every word and deed of mankind is perfectly preserved for use as evidence in the coming judgment!