January 5, 2025

Fruit from the Heart

Speaker: Dr. John Clayton Series: The Gospel of Luke Scripture: Luke 6:43–49

For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.” (Luke 6:43–49).[1]

From the manipulative shenanigans of Charles Finney in the Second Great Awakening of the nineteenth century to the evangelistic crusades of Billy Graham in the twentieth century to the uncritiqued claims of public figures in our own day, the last two centuries of American Christianity might make someone think that the Christian faith is merely a matter of words, without any accompanying characteristics of conversion. Such an idea, in recent times, has received the derogatory idiom “easy-believism,” meaning a profession of faith devoid of genuine repentance, lifestyle change, or submission to Christ’s authority. Given the prevalence of “easy-believism” in American Christianity, we may think of it as a relatively modern phenomenon, but as Solomon reminds us, there really is “nothing new under the sun” (Eccles. 1:9). Over 2500 years ago, the prophet Ezekiel condemned the children of Israel for living lives contrary to whom they professed to be.[2] And the apostle James warned the early church not to deceive themselves by being hearers but not doers of the Word.[3] Though the term is new, “easy-believism” has been around for a long time.

It should not surprise us then to hear Jesus confront this idea, in part, at the end of his “Sermon on the Plain.” Having described the counter-cultural blessings of life in the heavenly kingdom and the woes of worldliness, having described the love of God lived out in the lives of those who love him, and having described the necessity of self-examination in exercising discernment, Jesus concludes his sermon describing “the divine laws of spiritual horticulture.”[4] In the event, you don’t spend much time on the farm, Jesus explains something we all should know: “figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush” (6:44). Now you know. It’s such common sense it almost seems pointless to say. But Jesus does, because we’re really that blind.

While contrary to nature, if a thornbush comes to us and says, “I’m really a fig tree,” then we look for figs, and only later are astonished by its thorns. Or, a bramble bush stands upon its platform and declares that it’s a grape vine, and we make plans for an abundant harvest, surprised only later by the scars of its thorns. Jesus is stating the obvious intentionally, teaching us to learn discernment, in examining ourselves first and then others. Why? Because, Jesus says, “no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. ... The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil” (6:43-45). Good bears good, bad bears bad; a good heart yields its good treasure, an evil heart yields its evil treasure. The question is: Who is good, and who is bad?

Faithful Fruit

I would imagine that all of us want to bear good fruit and none of us wants to produce evil, so is Jesus simply encouraging us to be good from the heart so we will do good and not evil? Not according to Jeremiah, whose diagnosis of the human heart presents a problem for being good: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick” (Jer. 17:9). Similarly, the apostle Paul sums up the so-called “good” of humanity this way: “None is righteous, no, not one ... no one does good, not even one. ... all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:10-12, 23). Relative to the worst of humanity, we may look pretty good; relative to the glory of God, we’re evil. If bearing good fruit is based on being good, we’re in big trouble.

And this is why God sent his only Son, not to make good people better but to make evil people good. How did he do this? “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). By living the perfectly righteous life, we could not live, by then dying upon the cross to atone for our sin, God’s only Son became our sin substitute, giving us his righteousness for our sin. And we receive his righteousness not by being good or doing good but by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. As a result, God gives us a heart capable of bearing good fruit, because it is of him and through him and from him, and so it is always good.

What then is this good fruit? It is fruit that comes from the Holy Spirit, who indwells every believer. What does this fruit look like? It looks like loving others more than self. It looks like joy amidst sorrow. It looks like peace in times of trouble. It looks like kindness to the hateful and goodness to the evil. It looks like faithfulness when no one’s watching. It looks like gentleness in the presence of criticism. It looks like self-control when tempted. It looks like “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23). In other words, it looks like Jesus.

Of course, none of us bears this fruit of the Spirit perfectly, but if it is absent from our lives, so is the Spirit. But even we who are indwelled by the Holy Spirit don’t bear the fruit we should. Sometimes the good fruit we are intended to bear is spoiled rotten by the festering presence of our sinful flesh. But what the Holy Spirit’s presence enables, he empowers in us, as we “keep in step with the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25), to bear good fruit again.

Foul Fruit

We often put greater emphasis on deed over word, but Jesus explains that we should not ignore what we or someone else says, because “out of the abundance of the heart [the] mouth speaks” (6:45). Phil Ryken calls the mouth “the sound system of the heart.” He says, “Whatever is in our souls gets amplified whenever we put it into words. Our angry words come from a murderous heart; our salacious words come from an adulterous heart; our complaining words from an envious heart.”[5] What are your words saying about your heart, and the Lord’s work in it? Words not worth repeating in the presence of Christ are not worthy to be present on the Christian’s tongue. We would do well to listen carefully to the words we say, for it is telling of our heart. And what someone else says is telling too, because a “bad tree [cannot] bear good fruit,” and “the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil” (6:43, 45).

This doesn’t mean that an unbeliever can’t do “good” things. God’s common grace gives good gifts through the faithless every day of the week. The heretic can be generous and forgiving, but that doesn’t make him less of a heretic. And despite all the good that may be done by an unbeliever, apart from God’s saving grace even his best deeds cannot make him right with God.

If God is the source of all goodness, and if we cannot be good apart from him, then, as Jesus explained to the Pharisees, the unbeliever’s heart yields not the good fruit of God but the bad fruit of the devil.[6] Jesus could not have said it more plainly: “No one is good except God alone” (Luke 18:19). Goodness then is not relative but absolute, and apart from the perfect righteousness of Christ, there is no goodness in us, no good heart to bear good fruit, no good treasure to share, only foul fruit. J.C. Ryle says it simply comes down to this: “What fruit does a man bring forth? Does he repent? Does he believe with the heart on Jesus? Does he live a holy life? Does he overcome the world? Habits like these are what Scripture calls ‘fruit.’ When these ‘fruits’ are wanting, it is profane to talk of a man having the Spirit of God within him.”[7] What is the fruit of your life telling?

Foundational Fruit

To the pundits of “easy believism,” Jesus asks, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” (6:46). To disconnect faith and works is absurd; it’s also unwise. Obeying Christ is the wisest choice that anyone could make. Jesus describes it this way: “Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built” (6:47-48). It is not simply the one who comes, nor the one who hears, but the one who comes, hears, and does that will endure to the end.

In his first letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul describes the various things upon which people build their lives, “gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw” (1 Cor. 3:12). From precious metals to cattle fodder, and everything in between, it is unwise to build your life on what will perish. Paul says there is only one sure foundation: Jesus Christ.[8] Only a life lived by faith in Christ, evidenced by the fruit of his righteous Spirit, will survive the flood waters of God’s judgment.

What is your life built on? Is it built on your profession, your wealth, your pleasure? Is it built on the blessing of family or the wealth of friends, both good things? Consider carefully the foundation of your life. Whether the foundation of your life is built on what you consider good or evil, unless it is built on Christ, it will not survive.

If you would be wise, build your life on the solid rock of Jesus Christ. Repent of your sins and turn to him in faith. Keep in step with His Spirit, as your life bears his abundant fruit from the heart, pouring out the good treasure of his spiritual blessings. A life lived for Christ is one without regrets, because ...

            Only one life, ’twill soon be past,

Only what’s done for Christ will last.[9]


[1] Unless referenced otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2001).

[2] Ezek. 33:31

[3] Jas. 1:22

[4] Philip Graham Ryken, Luke, Vol. 1 (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2009), 293.

[5] Ibid., 296.

[6] John 8:44-45

[7] J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Luke, Vol. 1 (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2012), 148.

[8] 1 Cor. 3:11

[9] C.T. Studd, “Only One Life, Twill Soon Be Past,” https://reasonsforhopejesus.com/only-one-life-twill-soon-be-past-by-c-t-studd-1860-1931/

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