(Text and Audio)
Title: What’s in the Basket?
What is Good?
Everyone think of something good. It doesn’t have to be complex. It can be a car, brownies, a person. Think of something good.
(Now ask people to share and ask, “What makes that thing good?”)
Today we pick up from last week, looking at the final three verses of this discussion with the Pharisees about the dangers of what we speak and the effect that has on our relationship with the All Mighty.
- 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.”
Good Man=Good Treasure=Good Things
VS. Evil Man=Evil Treasure=Evil Things
This almost reads like one of Solomon’s proverbs, doesn’t it? The concept is that you can only give from the resources that you have. And the resources that you have are determined by what you produce.
To go back to our example from last week with the apple orchard. If you go to an huge, beautiful, sprawling apple orchard, if you back up your pick up truck, pull out several hundred dollar bills and say to the owner of the attendant, “Money is no object, I want you to fill my truck until it’s overflowing…with oranges!”
That man cannot help you. He can only give you from the abundance of what he produces.
Likewise, what Jesus is teaching here is that an evil man is bound to bring forth evil things. Evil words, evil deeds, evil thoughts…why? Because that’s all he has to give. He has no ability to produce, store, and share good things.
A good man is not bound by these restrictions. Their nature being so changed by the blood of Christ, they now have the ability to bring forth good things from the abundance of their treasure of good things.
Q: How then can a Christian still produce evil? (Take answers.)
A: Our “Goodness” is a work in progress. It is not completed until our sanctification is complete.
Think about your life. Your post-conversion life. Imagine all that you are, all that you’ve done, all that you’ve thought, are items in a basket. Anybody want to tell me this morning that all of those items are good? None of them are evil? Of course not. The hope is that the longer we walk with Christ, the more we realize our new nature and potential for honoring Christ, the more good fruit we produce, the more good fruit we share.
v36 “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgement.”
I’d like to also put a supporting verse from Hebrews into this same mix. It’s one of my favorite verses in scripture, equal parts amazing and terrifying.
Hebrews 4:13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
Both of these verses are telling us the same thing: our baskets will be examined. Every piece of fruit we have ever produced, whether good or evil, will be laid on the table for proper examination.
Q: In this verse, what specific type of fruit is being warned about?
A: Idle words
And what, exactly, are idle words? Well the greek word for idle here is argos and it translates roughly to “free from labor, at leisure.”
So we are talking about carefree, thoughtless words. In other words, what Jesus is saying is that thoughtless words are no less judged than thoughtful words. You will not be able to say, “Oh, Lord, I didn’t really mean that, I was just being silly. You know that’s not really what I think.”
The point is the same as my story from last week in high school. What I said to Sach that day, “Go back to where you came from.” That came from somewhere.
There are no empty words. Mark your tongues carefully!
I am often shocked at the laziness of our tongues. And I will give you one example, and I believe for most of you, it will suffice.
OMG.
It is sad and shocking how texting lingo has somehow, in a few short years found an exception to the 4th commandment! And do you think, or do you know people who would say, “Oh, that’s just slang, I don’t mean anything by it…it’s not really taking the Lord’s name in vain.”
Really??? Because Jesus just told us this very thing, idle words, lazy words, WILL be judged. Christian texting culture needs to wake up. Now.
And why is this? Why do I say this with such urgency? Well, one reason is because of verse 37.
v 37 “For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Q: If verse 37 was isolated, or taken out of context, it would seem to be problematic, theologically speaking. Anyone know why?
Answer: Because it would say that our actions (works) justify or condemn us. And we know that we are justified by faith.
The reason this is not a theological problem is because of the context. Yes, our words will justify us, but we have already learned that our words are are a result of our fruit which is a result of our treasure.
If our treasure is Christ, our fruit is good, our words justify us.
If our treasure is ANYTHING ELSE, our fruit is bad, our words condemn us.