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. 34Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35A 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. 36But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. 37For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."
Sometimes I feel a little sorry for these Pharisees. They could not, would not, abandon their ways to Jesus' teaching. I think we find this very difficult too. If all our lives we were taught one thing and felt it to be true, then along came someone else who completely upset everything we believed, wouldn't we have a tough time changing our ways too? How do we recognize which is right and which is wrong?
But Jesus says there is an easy way to tell. A good tree bears good fruit, a bad tree bears bad fruit. What is the fruit of Jesus' teaching? What is the fruit of the Pharisees' claim that Jesus was doing His works by the power of Beelzebub? An evil person cannot speak good things.
A tree is known by its fruit. Jesus says we will also be known by our fruit. What is our fruit? Is it what we treasure in our heart? No, it is what we do with the abundance in our heart: what we do, what we express, what we say. What we say and do comes from the abundance in our heart. Good things come from good treasure, evil things come from evil treasure. Our fruit will most likely match whatever we have the most abundance of in our heart.
All of us have capacity for good and bad. There are times when we may get upset and say something we wish we hadn't. Can we brush that off as not meaning what we said, that we were upset so had no control over it? There are probably other times that we say something we know to be bad because we feel the potential results are worth it, that the end justified the means. Like these Pharisees who brought accusations against Jesus because they were only trying to protect what they thought was right, even though their means may have been somewhat questionable even in their laws.
But Jesus said that you will need to give account for every idle word you speak. It doesn't sound like these are good enough excuses on judgment day. The harshly spoken word had to come from somewhere, and Jesus says it is from whatever treasure you have in abundance in your heart. If you find yourself saying things you wish you hadn't, maybe you need to examine what you have in your heart. For you will be known by your fruit, not necessarily by what you think you have in your heart.
But the good news is that Jesus starts by saying make the tree good or make the tree bad. This is something we have control over. If you feel your "tree" is not good enough, it is still possible to make it good. In Matthew 6:21, Jesus said "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Work on treasuring an abundance of good in your heart and you will not be able to help but only have good come from your heart. And then by your words you will be justified.