The Heart Pumps Words That Show Who We Are (Matthew 12:33-37)
One of the obstacles to Christianity is that religion may not be Islam, Hinduism, or ancestral worship, but a kind of pseudo-Christianity with all the religion but none of the relationship which describes so much of religion that I mentioned above. pseudo means false - the opposite of true.
True Christianity is a love for Christ and a following of Christ that takes heed of his word and is lived out (James 1:25). The problem is that religion may look good and convincing on the outside but at the heart lies the unwillingness to submit the heart to God on the inside. Religious devotion can act as a smokescreen of consistent unholiness. This in essence is hypocritical and a kind of self-deception.
Just as the eyes are the window to one's soul - words are the window into our hearts. It has been said that the average man speaks 25 000 words a day, and the average woman speaks 30 000. That is the point that Jesus is driving at the Pharisees in this passage. Verse 37 says, “For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Why is it shocking that Jesus speaks in this way? Let us look and find out why?
In verse 24 of chapter 12, the Pharisees call Jesus satanic. They blaspheme the Lord and Holy Spirit by saying Jesus does miracles by the power of Beelzebub. Jesus, instead of reacting and defending himself he exposes them. He responds in verse 33 saying, “make a tree good and its fruits will be good or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad; for a tree is recognised by its fruit.” Jesus is saying here that the Pharisees can not say that He is satanic, because what He is doing is good. Anything good is contrary to the devil’s nature. The reasoning of the Pharisees was illogical because evil cannot produce good and good cannot produce evil. Would you be happy if you planted an apple tree and it produced good apples one year and bad apples the next?
Jesus gets personal in verse 34, “You brood of vipers! How can you who are evil, say anything good?” The blasphemy from their lips was clear evidence of what was in their hearts. Why can’t they say anything good? Simply because they are hypocrites practising the religion of planned hypocrisy. By all means, they are seeking to make themselves look good by pointing out Jesus as evil. Primarily every unbelieving human being cannot produce good because we all have sinful hearts. Only in Christ can we produce that which is good and pleasing to him, without the need for religious acts. Yet, the Pharisees ignore Jesus and dare to call him evil.
Jeremiah helps us understand this when he said, “The heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.” (Jeremiah 17:9) And that is exactly what Jesus says the problem is here – the heart. Do you see how much the Pharisees needed Jesus and how much we need Him even today?
Verse 34 says, “For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” To us, the heart means emotion, but the idea here is the thinking, or will from which its source is found in the heart. Jesus illustrates this in Matthew 15:18 when he says, “But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them.” In other words, a person is defiled by what comes out of his heart. Verse 19, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.” The mouth can only produce what is in the heart.
Most of us have heard or said this when some hurtful or foul words come out. Not long after, we say I did not really mean that because it is painful in that moment because we say some pretty nasty things sometimes, but Jesus says - do not excuse as those words are a soundbite from the real you.
The heart is the source of everything that comes out of our mouths. We all have that one friend that has “no filter” and gets his/her speech out in the wrong ways with the wrong people. This filter we refer to is basically the same planned hypocrisy that spills out the heart. In stress, anger, impatience, isolation or when you are not with Christians, what is inside your heart will come out in your speech. James 1:26 says, “Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.” And that is why Jesus condemns the Pharisees in verse 36 and 37.
How can we understand this judgement for our words that Jesus is talking about?
Is Jesus saying we are justified by our works or in this case, our words? Well, no He is not. Romans 2 says, “God will render to each man according to his works”. This does not mean that we are not saved by grace. The scriptures are clear that we are saved by grace through faith, that not of works, lest any man should boast in Ephesians 2:8-9. But we often forget verse 10, “for we are God’s handiwork, created by Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do”.
For believers, we are saved by Christ’s work and have been given a new heart that produces good words as Jesus said, “out of the heart, the mouth speaks”.
But every once in a while our mouths start to sound like the old self and that is where we are held accountable to the Lord for what we say. This must drive us to see how much we need Him, through the power of the Spirit, to help us to grow because we will give an account for every idle and careless word we speak. Though we will not lose our salvation, we may be disciplined and even lose rewards.
For the unbeliever, who is the main subject of this passage, Pharisees built their whole religion on planned inconsistency to enjoy sin and to appear holy at the same time this was not an occasional stumble into sin that true believers sometimes struggle with. This was planned hypocrisy.
There might be seemingly nice, kind, gentle, truthful or even wise words being said, but ultimately sooner or later the evil words and deeds come to expose the evil hidden within the heart. An unconverted heart never remains hidden, it will eventually reveal itself. Jesus says that the unbeliever will be condemned for it. This is really sad because instead of turning to Christ who came to die for sinners, so that our evil hearts may be changed and forgiven, and put the life of hypocrisy to an end, the unbeliever instead tries to clean up and keep down evil words from an evil heart rather than go to Christ.
What do your words tell you about your own heart? What do your words reveal about your relationship with Jesus - at the heart?
