"O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." (Matt 12.34)

I think too often we fail to note a very important fact brought to our attention by Jesus. We give out of the abundance of our heart. Whatever we put into our heats and our mind, that shall we get out of it. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil things. I would like to make a note of something:

You cannot give something if you don't have it.

You cannot minister to people if you don't have something to give. You can't share the gospel with people if you don't know what the gospel is. You can't encourage people if you are not joyful yourself. You cannot give people advice if you are not wise. You cannot teach people and lead by example if you don't study and you don't live the life.

If you are constantly communing with God, if you are constantly meditating on scripture, if you are constantly putting good things, pure things, noble things into your mind, then those are the things you will get out. If you put in empty stuff, netural stuff, pointless entertainment… then you will bring forth emptiness, neutral cruising, and movie quotes.

Jesus continues his thought by giving an incentive to putting good and noble things into our souls. But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgement. Jesus says that we're going to give account for every little thing that we bring forth on that dreadful day of judgement. Perhaps we ought to be a little concerned, then, about bringing forth good treasure. Perhaps we ought to strive to store wonderful things up so that we can bring them forth to other people.

Today, modern evangelical Protestants are very concerned with the heart. If you're heart is alright, then everythings good. The outside doesn't matter all that much if the heart is right. On the flip side, they say that the outside stuff doesn't do any good if there's no heart behind it.

For example, it would be perhaps a somewhat common saying among the more 'spiritual' (for lack of a better term) Protestants to say that you can read the Bible all you want, but if your heart isn't in it, or if you're forcing yourself, then it's not going to do any good. This leads to an endless amount of second-guessing about our motives. We worry that if our heart isn't in it, then perhaps we shouldn't pray. Or perhaps we should not help this person because it isn't coming naturally and we have to force ourselves.

This brings us to the last verse of the passage: for by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. I would like to note what Jesus did NOT say. He did not say 'by thy thoughts thou shalt be justified, and by thy thoughts thou shall be condemned.' No, he said by thy words.

I hear it commonly said that you cannot help the way you feel, and you cannot help the way you think. You can't change your motives. I don't think that an entirely true statement. It is true, we cannot command ourselves to feel a certain way, and we cannot command ourselves to change our motives. But if we make a mental statement about our motives, if we say the correct words out loud, and force the correct thoughts through our mind, they become more natural. After you say the right words, they begin to become a part of you, and your motives begin to change.

Again I would like to note that Jesus did not say we will be justified by our thoughts, but our words. We should be less concerned, then, I think, with trying to disentangle our convoluted motives and feelings, and more concerned with simply carrying out Jesus' commandments and loving people.

I would like to note one more thing Jesus did not say: he didn't say "by thy abstract faith completely detached and separate from works thou shalt be justified, and by thy lack of abstract faith completely detached and separate from works thou shalt be condemned."

I am only noting what he did not say. I am not stating anything positive, neither am I implying anything. Only noting. Take from it what you will.