Bringing Forth Good Fruit

“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”  Matthew 12: 33-27

We are sometimes a careless people.  We can be careless with our actions towards others.  . We can be careless in our responsibilities and we can be careless with our words in person and in writing. 

We may think no one notices when we are careless especially in writing.  Those faceless beings out there in social media land don't care what we right, do they?  Yes they do and our words can be hurtful. God also notices and cares about our carelessness.  

God is the only one who is truly good and all good things come from Him.  He cannot be evil.  He cannot speak evil or do evil.  He is good and there is only good that comes from Him.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.James 1:17

Our hearts have been made hard by evil and it is difficult for us to be good, but that is what God wants to provide for us through His Holy Spirit.  He knows that we cannot be good on our own so He has provided a way for us.  The Holy Spirit gives us goodness when we ask for it and the more we practice goodness, the easier it will become.  We each received the Holy Spirit when we asked Jesus to come into our hearts so we have this amazing honor to be allowed ask for goodness and receive it. 

We can show God's goodness by our actions and words.  We can think before we speak.  We can truly listen to other's needs.  We can give of our time, money, and prayer.  When we are struggling, we would like to have someone in our lives that shows us goodness and love.  Why, then, do we not do this for others?

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. James 3:13

We are a selfish people, drawn away by our own wants and needs.  We cry out to God for everything under the sun but we forget to ask for the goodness that only comes from Him. This world moves at a fast pace and it is sometimes all we can do to keep up with our daily lives.  How can we find the time to be good?

What is in our hearts is what will create goodness.  Out of what we feel and believe goodness will come.  If we are surrounding ourselves with evil treasure, we will not produce goodness. Having Jesus Christ in our hearts, having a relationship with Him that is close and strong is what will produce goodness to come forth from our mouths and our actions. 

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Romans 12:9

When we allow evil to move be constantly around us, evil will slowly creep into our hearts and out of our hearts will come evil.  A person that surrounds themselves with bad cannot be good.  Humanity is inherently evil and Christians need to fight to keep the old man under submission daily.  


It may seem like a simple thing to be good, but true goodness that comes from a good heart is not simple. We know this because we all fail. Only God is truly good and forgives us when we confess our failures to Him. We need to call upon His Holy Spirit for goodness to dwell in our hearts, so that what comes out of our hearts is the goodness that He deserves.


He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8