Sweet Lips, Traitorous Hearts

" 'You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:

"This people honors me with their lips, 

but their heart is far from me; 

in vain do they worship me, 

teaching as doctrines the commandments of men." ' "

Matthew 15:7-9

     I often times love to find verses in scripture that seem to contradict each other and discover how they work together. All of scripture is God breathed, Holy Spirit inspired, and without error. Which means that it can't contradict itself. To paraphrase R.C. Sproul, scripture is without error, and should we find a contradiction the problem lies with us not with scripture. In the book of Matthew, Jesus quotes God (himself) from Isaiah, saying of the Pharisees, "you honor me with your lips, but your hearts are far from me." What about when Jesus, in Luke, says "out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks." Aren't these two verse slightly contradictory?

"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."

Luke 6:45

     So, here's the question that is swimming in the pool of my mind, "how can they honor Him with their lips, but have hearts far from Him when Jesus also says that our mouths speak what is in our hearts?" How can we from an evil treasure, speak good of God?

     The first thing we have to do is put these two passages in context. Despite popular belief, context is quite important. Reading scripture in context is quickly becoming a lost art, so it seems. Don't get me started on Romans 4:17 or Jeremiah 29:11. So, what does the context have to say about these two verses?

     Jesus, in Luke chapter 6, is talking about trees known by their fruit. Basically, he is saying that a Christian will be known by the fruit he produces. What comes out of our mouth is representative of our fruit. An apple tree will not bear oranges, it will bear apples. And so, a Christian, will bear good fruit, including the fruit of our speech.

     My kids love to play outside. My girls love flowers and all three love to build forts and all kinds of things. And this sometimes gets them in trouble. They pick the fruit from the fruit trees, often before they are ripe, and use them in their games. Sometimes these fruits end up perched in the wrong tree or bush. That tree did not produce that fruit, and yet I find that fruit there. Imagine a tree that can move and think. Let's say this tree really admired pear trees but was himself a simple oak tree. One day this tree goes in search of pears and carefully perches them among his branches. Someone may come along and say, "look at that pear tree, simply by looking at the edible fruit." But upon closer inspection, they will notice that the leaves are that of an oak tree, not a pear tree. Eventually, the pears will fall out when a wind comes or the rains fall. So, I can tell a pear tree from the pears it bears, but I need to be sure to check the leaves too.

     With that said, how can we apply that to the verse in Isaiah and reconcile it with what Jesus says in Luke? There is a difference between the fruit we bear and the fruit we carry. Anyone can do the right things at times. A sinner can feed the hungry and care for the least. But that doesn't mean that he is bearing fruit that comes from the vine of Christ. Indeed, a Christian will bear good fruit. But we must also examine our hearts to see if our hearts are indeed intimately connected to Christ.

     There are those in the church today, those proclaimers, who carry around good fruits, but are truthfully incapable of producing them on their own, because they are not connected to the vine of Christ. There are people who, with their mouths proclaim Christ, but in their hearts, they are enemies of the Cross. It is one thing to say we want to change and be like Jesus, yet another to walk with a sincere desire from our hearts for our savior. If my heart is indeed close to Jesus, I will notice changes in my desires. I will no longer desire the things of this word, because scripture tells me that to be a "friend with the world is to be an enemy of God" (James 4:4). I will notice that my sin decreases and my holiness increases (1 John 3:8-9). I will find it easy to be honest with my brothers and sisters, confessing my sins to them in confidence and sharing the weight of my sin with fellow laborers (Galatians 6:1-2). I will see my life begin to look more and more like Jesus (Romans 8:29). We have to learn to examine the whole tree, not just the first visible fruit we see. That fruit might just be stolen, it might just be you or I who stole it.