Matthew 12:31-36 – “Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come. 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, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.”
Any person that takes the Word of God seriously should tremble at this text of Scripture. The unforgivable sin is to speak against the Holy Spirit. There are differing views of what this means, and it would most likely be more than just a slip of the tongue, but this bring us to notice the power of words. Clearly the text points to the heart because in verse 33 it goes to the issue of whether the tree is good or bad and then in verse 34 it tells us that an evil person cannot speak what is good because the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man speaks from his treasure and the evil man speaks from his treasure and so the heart is expressed in what one speaks. Therefore, every careless word that people speak they will give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.
If this text is looked at from a logical point of view, we are given premises in verses 31-35 and then the conclusion in verse 36. The Holy Spirit through the pen of Matthew is driving us to see the power of words, yet the words are to be seen as an expression of the heart. We cannot imagine how it can be true, but for every careless word that a person speaks they will give an account to God. But if the careless words will be brought into judgment, what about our cruel words? What about our heretical words? What about our blasphemous words? What about our words that take the name of the Lord in vain? Proverbs is a book that speaks a fair amount about the power of words. They can be looked at as a standard for being nice and speaking nice words or they can be looked at as the way the heart expresses itself and is seen for what it is. Proverbs teaches us that the unregenerate heart, whether religious or not, is a heart that expresses itself in ways that can do terrible harm to souls.
Proverbs 10:19 – “When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, But he who restrains his lips is wise.”
Proverbs 16:24 – “Pleasant words are a honeycomb, Sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.”
Proverbs 16:27 – “A worthless man digs up evil, While his words are like scorching fire.”
Proverbs 18:8 – “The words of a whisperer are like dainty morsels, And they go down into the innermost parts of the body.”
Proverbs 26:28 – “A lying tongue hates those it crushes, and a flattering mouth works ruin.”
The heart is not pure so if it is expressed very much, transgression will be expressed. On the one hand pleasant words are sweet to the soul, yet the words of a whisperer or a gossip go to the innermost parts. Pleasant words are sweet to the soul, yet the worthless man’s words are like a scorching fire. A lying tongue crushes and a flattering tongue (which is a nice lie) works ruin. Those are easy verses to memorize and try to stop the outward actions, but the real issue is the heart. In the modern professing church we are told to be careful not to harm a person’s self-esteem, don’t hurt their feelings, always be nice and speak positive things. What we must realize is that in always being positive and nice we can be speaking with a lying tongue and a flattering mouth. If something is not true, though it may be nice and positive, it is a lie and it is flattery. The self-centered, self-focused, and humanistic psychologies that have infiltrated the church do not teach true love, but instead they teach us to lie to people and flatter them in order to be nice and outwardly loving. The reality, however, is that when we have replaced true love with humanistic psychology, we actually hate people, crush them, and work ruin. Only a heart that Christ lives in can speak words of true love, which is not the same thing as being nice. True love speaks truth and desires the true good of human souls. Any other kind of words work ruin to souls and will bring judgment to the speaker.
God Loves... Himself 
November 22, 2008 at 8:41 pm |
While I accept your premise here Mr. Smith, I have been coming to a broader sense now of these things from Matthew’s account and the distinctions Jesus is making about “words” and “words”. Also, in a sense I am seeing something different about good trees and evil fruit from bad trees.
I am not disputing what I just read. I just have come to a different bent now that I understand a little bit more of these things than when I first believed and started reading Scripture with True Apostolic Faith working along side me, as in the “Holy Ghost”, who is giving me discernment between what is good and evil.
Before I lay out my different view let me hasten to post one of the most profound verses in the Scirptures, in my opinion, on the power of the tongue from where I sit:::>
Pro 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.
Pro 18:22 He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD.
Ok?
So some of your distinctions then, you write:
“…The good man speaks from his treasure and the evil man speaks from his treasure and so the heart is expressed in what one speaks. …”.
That idea there takes on a whole “new” meaning to me now. I quite agree that what we are dealing with here is “good” and “evil”.
As a scheme of things here, I would say that what Jesus was going after with these present circumstances was that “new” way these Jews were governing the children of Israel with by showing them “Him” in a “New” Light, as both the Old/New way to come, Him being dead to His flesh and then thereafter, now alive forevermore, the Resurrection and the Life that was soon to come by the hands of godless men. He was there in the beginning. He has come in the flesh and is dealing with this error He is now faced with with these Jews. What would you expect God to do when confronted with such error as their guiding “light”, the Talmud?
They had “made” of no effect, most, if not all the “Word” of God by creating the “Talmud”, which I proffer is what Jesus was touching on with these guys, making the distinctions with His “Word” against their “words”. This effort, the Talmud, was because they simply could not face God because the Holy Ghost was causing His “Word” to come alive and when the Law comes alive we either die to self life or live otherwise. They created the “otherwise” word so they did not have to face the “Word of the Law of Righteousness” inspired by the Holy Spirit and penned by men and die to the flesh’s self life so as to become Living Oracles of God, that gift to them to give to the world sitting in darkness.
What they did, like all of us who have been “born” again do, in their case, they had the oracles of God entrusted to them, is hide from the Truth of the Word. They quickly came to realize this, to quote the famous Astronaut, “houston, we have a problem”. What’s the problem and what’s the purpose of these “chosen children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” creating a “humanistic” Talmud “word”, certainly “devoid” of the Spirit? Because of the adamic nature in their flesh too they replaced the “Laws” of Moses, the writings and the Prophets and the Psalms with a “new” word to define the Word of God full of the Spirit and govern the children of Israel with it instead. Then Jesus shows up, full of His Father’s Faith and being led by the Spirit, confronts them as you show by those verses from Matthew 12.
Well, we have come to see even our own raw flesh with fresh eyes of understanding as in Paul’s writing this:::>
Rom 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.
Rom 7:15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
Rom 7:16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.
Rom 7:17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Rom 7:18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
Rom 7:19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
Rom 7:20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Rom 7:21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
Paul ends this chapter with these stinging words of grief and joy!
Rom 7:25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Then he goes on to write this:::>
Rom 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
The Talmud is the problem they created for the nation Jesus was dealing with. And that created His problem, thankfully, by confronting these Jews who could not come to grips with this reality of the Law of sin and death at work in their flesh too. I couldn’t either and so I hid from God a lot just like my father Adam when the Spirit of Life began pointing out to me similar things Jesus is here in Matthew 12. It is not until the “Spirit” comes alive in my flesh and gives me understanding of what is actual, truthful and present in my flesh all the time, can I have His answer for the problem, shalom/peace with God now and a restored relationship with Him that Adam lost in the Garden. It is this law of sin and death that we all must come to grips with. None of us can do it on our own just as this Chapter of Matthew points to, as Jesus, One of Three Eternal Spirits, in His Adamic flesh came to grips with for us! He is the True Savior!
Now for the good and evil part of what I believe is being said in Matthew 12.
Jesus did say this before verse 31:::>
Mat 12:25 Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand.
Mat 12:26 And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?
Mat 12:27 And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.
Mat 12:28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
Mat 12:29 Or how can someone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house.
Mat 12:30 Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
At verse 27, Jesus asks them this question: “And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out?”
For me that’s the crux of this whole chapter! God by the blood of Jesus’ cross restores us to Sonship and we are made His Priests.
Satan is on the loose. We see that Jesus allows him that liberty.
What I believe we fail to realize is what the “event” is Jesus refers to here:
Mat 12:29 Or how can someone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house.
Mat 12:30 Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
Two things now to be noted. First, the strong man and his house. And second, the question, “who binds the strong man, who enters his house and after binding him begins to plunder his house?”
The strong man is Satan. The One who enters his house is none other than Jesus. The house is the world and the plunder are Adam’s offspring.
When does that occur, the attacking the strong man?
And what does plundering his house look like Scripturally?
If we look at this same story through the eyes of Luke, his account, we might understand a little bit more?
Luke 11:::>
Luk 11:17 But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls.
Luk 11:18 And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul.
Luk 11:19 And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.
Luk 11:20 But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
Luk 11:21 When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe;
Luk 11:22 but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil.
Luk 11:23 Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
In this accounting Luke says things differently. He says, Jesus attacks Satan and “takes away his armor”.
My rhetorical question is, “what is the armor”? My rhetorical answer is, “the Law of Righteousness”.
Why?
Well, ask yourself, “what Law” did Adam break or violate and Satan then after uses now against all humanity? Isn’t it as Paul says in Romans? It was the “Law of the Spirit of Life”, that fruit of the Tree of Life that Adam was banished from partaking of?:::>
Gen 3:22 Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever–”
Gen 3:23 therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.
Gen 3:24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
Where do we see Jesus attacking Satan?
Here:::>
Mat 4:1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
Mat 4:2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
Now, ask yourself this question, doesn’t these verses describe the plundering of the devil’s house?
Mat 4:18 While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.
Mat 4:19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Mat 4:20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him.
Mat 4:21 And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them.
Mat 4:22 Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
Mat 4:23 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.
Mat 4:24 So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them.
Mat 4:25 And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.
Not until now did the Word of God come to Life in the Power of the Holy Ghost, some 430 years later. The “Word” of God was absent from this nation of Israel until the time of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ!
And as Malachi wrote so Jesus began to do and teach the peoples sitting in darkness teaching as a Great Light the nations of the world, even today:::>
Mal 4:1 “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.
Mal 4:2 But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.
Mal 4:3 And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the LORD of hosts.
Mal 4:4 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.
Mal 4:5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.
Mal 4:6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
Let me make one final observation using those verses from Matthew.
“….Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man,….”. That “word” there “word” in the Greek is Logos.
“….But I tell you that every careless word that people speak,….”. That “word” there “word” in the Greek is Rhema.
So in conclusion, what Jesus was doing is confronting the Jews who were using their own man made “word”/rhema to silence God’s Holy Ghost inspired “Word”/Logos by creating the Talmud. He was also going after Satan and exposing him for who he is, a liar of the first order, especially when he handles God’s Word as we can learn from the accounts in the desert after Jesus’ 40 fast.
The attack came and Jesus beat the snot out of the devil, leaving him bruised, beaten, naked, stripped of the only thing he had to use against Adam’s race, the Law of Righteousness. He stoled it from Adam. Jesus came and conquered him and took back what he stoled from Adam and began plundering his house and after His death on the Cross, He could then begin releasing men from Satan’s powers of deception because of His Own great Love for us, by releasing us from our sins and He continues to begin the “training”, the “boot camp” training you might say, the discipleship even still around the world in these days, that making of disciples of all nations, making us a “Kingdom” and Priests to His God and Our Heavenly Father:::>
Rev 1:5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood
Rev 1:6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
It truly is a “fight” to the death, one way or the other. Today, we, by His Grace and Mercy, are able, by the Holy Ghost, to put to death the deeds of the flesh that can only bear bad fruit. And because God is Good, Jesus is Good and the Holy Ghost is Good and now living in us, the only Fruit they can bear in our lives is Good Fruit!
Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Gal 5:23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
It is no longer I who lives, but Christ and His Crucified now lives in and through me.
I take great comfort finally in these “Words” from Peter’s epistle, don’t you?
1Pe 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
1Pe 1:4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,
1Pe 1:5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
1Pe 1:6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,
1Pe 1:7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith–more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire–may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
November 24, 2008 at 7:19 pm |
Michael:
I am quite impressed with the volume of information that you are putting forth. I am just giving a piece of what your wrote below. First, a bit of concern about the “True Apostolic Faith” working alongside of you. While I am firmly convinced of the work of the Holy Spirit enlightening the eyes of the mind and heart, He is also the One who breathed forth the words the first time. In other words, when we read Scripture we are reading the words of the Holy Spirit. The work of the Holy Spirit illuminates what is there now and does not contradict what He previously spoke through the human agents. In other words, when I disagree with you I do not think I am disagreeing with the Holy Spirit because it is the Spirit who breathed forth the text of Scripture.
One reason that I am quite sure that Matthew 12:35 is speaking of the heart is because of the correlating passage in Luke. Here is Matthew 12:35 again: “The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil.” The passage in Luke is from 6:45 and reads like this: “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.”
The context of Luke 6:45 will also be given here: 43 “For there is no good tree which produces bad fruit, nor, on the other hand, a bad tree which produces good fruit. 44 “For each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush. 45 “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart. 46 “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”
The text in Matthew has a similar context but not exact. The context seems to show that the fruit Jesus is speaking of is the life and at times the mouth. He is also showing that our words can be good and yet our hearts not follow after the words. Many do call Jesus “Lord” and yet do not do what He says. Their words are simply words while their actions then show their hearts. The words we speak in some way show our hearts and yet our lives demonstrate our heart as well. When our words contradict our lives that is also something that shows the state of the heart is well. My interpretation here is based on comparing Scripture with Scripture which is what the Holy Spirit wrote in different contexts. I hope this finds you filled with the Spirit whose fruit is to give love for the triune God.
Richard
Your previous comments:
While I accept your premise here Mr. Smith, I have been coming to a broader sense now of these things from Matthew’s account and the distinctions Jesus is making about “words” and “words”. Also, in a sense I am seeing something different about good trees and evil fruit from bad trees.
I am not disputing what I just read. I just have come to a different bent now that I understand a little bit more of these things than when I first believed and started reading Scripture with True Apostolic Faith working along side me, as in the “Holy Ghost”, who is giving me discernment between what is good and evil.
Before I lay out my different view let me hasten to post one of the most profound verses in the Scirptures, in my opinion, on the power of the tongue from where I sit:::>
Pro 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.
Pro 18:22 He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD.
Ok?
So some of your distinctions then, you write:
“…The good man speaks from his treasure and the evil man speaks from his treasure and so the heart is expressed in what one speaks. …”.
That idea there takes on a whole “new” meaning to me now. I quite agree that what we are dealing with here is “good” and “evil”.
As a scheme of things here, I would say that what Jesus was going after with these present circumstances was that “new” way these Jews were governing the children of Israel with by showing them “Him” in a “New” Light, as both the Old/New way to come, Him being dead to His flesh and then thereafter, now alive forevermore, the Resurrection and the Life that was soon to come by the hands of godless men. He was there in the beginning. He has come in the flesh and is dealing with this error He is now faced with with these Jews. What would you expect God to do when confronted with such error as their guiding “light”, the Talmud?