Where Do We Stand?

November 4

What Is It With Us?  By Richard T. Ritenbaugh

(33) "Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. (34) Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. (35) A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. (36) But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. (37) For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."   Matthew 12:33-37

 (18) For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: (19) whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things.  Philippians 3:18-19

So, what will it be with us?  What is the abundance of our heart?

The picture here is that the heart is a kind of vessel—a bowl—and things are poured into the heart.  At a certain point, the vessel will overflow, and an abundance will come out of it.  What comes out of our heart—this bowl or vessel—will expose the characteristics of the heart.

When we pour information into our minds, we process it.  For a while, it stays in the bowl, as it were, and becomes mixed with what has been put there before.  Our minds work on it for a while, and over time, it begins to gel into certain ideas.  Once our minds are full, ideas break out in words, plans, and behaviors.  Evil thoughts within, evil speech and/or works without.  Or, we can put it the other way around—godly, kind, Christ-like thoughts within, godly, kind, Christ-like speech and/or works without.

What breaks out of our hearts?  We have to answer that ourselves.  Do we have profane minds that spew out profane speech?  Or is the law of kindness on our tongue as it is admonished to be in Proverbs 31:26?  If it is, it is because behind our tongues are pure and kind hearts.  Our hearts can attain this distinction only through the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ within our hearts.

This is vitally important because "by those words" we will either be justified or condemned.  Our thoughts are just precursors to our speech and action.

So, where do we stand in relation to this line that Jesus Christ our Savior, our High Priest and Judge, has drawn?  Are we a good tree or a bad one?