Is It True That "Out of the Abundance of the Heart, the Mouth Speaks"?

“A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of” (Luke 6:45).

Have you ever been in a situation where you wanted people to think that you are something that you are not? Perhaps you were trying to fit in to a crowd you weren’t really a part of, and wanted to “say the right things.” Maybe you have stretched the truth a little bit in an interview, or tried to sound more religious than you really are in a church setting. 

Or, conversely, perhaps you have been in a situation where others responded in anger and hatred, but your first response was one of love, peace, and kindness to someone who outwardly didn’t seem to deserve it.

The truth is, we all like to talk, and as humans we can figure out how to say things to create a certain impression. At least we can for a while. But eventually, who we really are and what we really believe will be evidenced by the things we say and how we say them. Whatever fills our heart, good or bad, will eventually pour out through how we communicate. 

What Is the Heart Full Of?

The verse from Luke 6 contains deep truth, and gives us an excellent standard by which we can test ourselves and others. Throughout chapter 6, leading up to this verse, Jesus has been involved in some run-ins with various groups of Pharisees, and it is important to note this as the context.

The Pharisees are generally portrayed as “the bad guys,” but the truth is that in their day, they were the ones who appeared to be doing everything correctly. The Pharisees were observant Jews who believed the right things, did the right things, and most importantly, said the right things and taught other people to do the right things. The issue was not what they did, but why they did it, and what the condition of their hearts were when doing what seemed to be right.

Up to this point in Luke 6, Jesus has been drawing comparisons between Christ-followers and rule-followers. His comparison is startling, and makes very strong distinctions between the two. 

Why Do We Speak out of What Is in Our Hearts? 

The easiest way to live is to simply pick a set of rules, and then work to make ourselves follow those rules. Rule-following is easy, but inward change is not. It is easy to be a bad tree who fakes some good fruit when we need it. Jesus is calling his disciples to an “inside-out” lifestyle, where the good we do comes not from external rules we strive to follow, but a heart that is tuned in to Christ, and by extension produces good fruit by default. 

In Luke 6:43-44 Jesus says, “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers.”

Jesus uses the obvious example of a tree bearing the correct kind of fruit. If I want to pick apples, I am looking for an apple tree. It just makes sense. But the correct kind of tree doesn’t bear the correct fruit just because it wants to or decides to. That decision is not really the tree’s to make. Either it is an apple tree or it isn’t. No matter how badly an apple tree might want to be a banana tree, it will still grow apples. 

How Can We Store Up Good Things in Our Hearts?  

That leads us to ask how we can change or decide what kind of fruit we bear. How can we change what is in our hearts? The answer is that, of ourselves, we can’t. 

Christianity essentially depends not on what we decide to do, or how good we try to be, but who we are in Christ, and what the Spirit is working inside of us. 

We are, by nature, sinful trees with sinful hearts. Yet as Jesus so famously explained to Nicodemus, to be in Christ we must be born again. Of ourselves, we cannot bear good fruit, and the overflow of our hearts will be evil. Yet as we are born again in Christ, we become a new creation, a new tree with a new heart, and we are now not only able, but divinely designed to bear good fruit that will be present in the words that we speak. 

When we are made new in Christ, we will be filled not with evil thoughts, but instead filled with the Spirit. Paul describes the fruit of the Spirit as “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:22-24).  

We store up good things in our heart when we turn our heart over to Christ, for his good and his glory. As we allow the Spirit to fill us with things of the Spirit through prayer, time in the Word, and seeking Christ, our words will reflect that which God is actively doing inside of us. 

Draw Closer to Christ

In those moments when we accidentally let something “slip,” it is not really an accident, but a measure of what is in our heart. This is why the Gospel requires us to seek Christ before anything else that will hinder, and to be slow to speak and quick to listen. 

As we seek to draw closer to Christ daily, our words will begin to resemble his words, and our hearts overflow with words that are good and holy.

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Photo credit: ©Getty Images/MangoStar_Studio

Jason Soroski is a homeschool dad and member of the worship team at matthias lot church in St. Charles, MO. He spends his free time hanging out with his family, exploring new places, and writing about the experiences. Connect on Facebook or at JasonSoroski.net.