Well…I Didn’t Mean That…

In Matthew 12: Matthew 12 there are so many things that we could talk about. Today, I’ll focus on verses 34-35: 34 Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. These verses are in the same paragraph where Jesus teaches about good fruit and bad fruit. Bad fruit can’t come from a good tree and vice versa. The same is true about words. Jesus says that from what is in the heart, or the inside of a man, the mouth speaks. There is no disconnect between what is truly “inside of us” and what is spoken by us. Sure, we can say things in the heat of the moment and they might not reflect the way we feel about someone in the long term, but in the moment, the words DO reflect how we feel about the person…and we should own that. Obviously, there are times when we are mistaken about a fact but that’s not what I’m referring to. I’m referring to something that I have done far too often. More times than I can count I have said something that I DID mean at the moment, but then tried to cover it up by saying, “I DIDN’T mean that”.   But what was in my heart came out of my mouth. I need to own that, and if I mean it, ask for forgiveness, and then, seek reconciliation. That’s the process.

All of us speak that which comes from the heart. If there is anyone out there like me, I hope you’ll take these verses to heart, whether you tell anyone about it or not. 🙂