Matthew 12:33, commentary and pictures

Spoken to the Pharisees after Jesus healed a blind and dumb possessed man and they charged Him with casting out devils by Beelzebub, the verse requires that tree and fruit agree, for a tree is known by its fruit. It warns that to call the work of the Holy Spirit the work of Satan cuts off the channel by which God reaches the heart, leaving no way for repentance and faith to come, while even speaking against Jesus Himself may be forgiven if the sinner repents and believes and is washed in His blood. The heart is the tree and must be made good and renewed by the new birth before the life can be right, for outward fruit always reveals the inward condition. That renewal is shown not by occasional deeds or by profession, faith, or fine appearance, but by the habitual pattern of words and actions, with a clean fountain sending forth pure streams. Good fruit is truthful, gentle, and righteous speech and conduct that uplifts and blesses others, while corrupt fruit is trifling, false, harsh, dictatorial, and oppressive words and acts that prove the heart is unchanged and under another influence.

Setting and Plain Sense

The saying was addressed to the Pharisees, priests and rulers just after Jesus healed a possessed man who was blind and dumb, the second such healing, when they reiterated the charge that He cast out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devils. It belongs to His plain warning that attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan cuts the soul off from the fountain of blessing. Speaking against Jesus Himself without discerning His divine character may be forgiven, because through the Spirit the person may still be brought to see error and repent, and whatever the sin, if the soul repents and believes the guilt is washed away in His blood. But wilfully rejecting the Spirit and declaring His work to be from Satan cuts off the channel by which God works upon the heart and places the person where repentance and faith cannot come, so that when the Spirit is finally rejected there is nothing more God can do for the soul.

It demands that tree and fruit agree, for the tree is known by his fruit, so that good or corrupt works and words prove whether the heart is good or corrupt. Christ had come with a commission from heaven to speak to those who would hear and to help those who would be helped in relieving the afflicted, but the leaders would not cooperate with Him and kept up bitter opposition to His work. His works gave the Pharisees sufficient evidence of His mission, but they rejected that evidence. Religious leaders' claims to defend truth do not establish that their teaching or conduct is sound, since their response to truth can reveal that they have misread Scripture and are defending mistaken ideas.

Character is known by the habitual pattern of words and actions, just as a tree is known by its fruit, rather than by occasional good or bad deeds. A renewed heart is shown by a clear change in character, habits, and pursuits. The teaching was used to expose the Pharisees' failure in practical godliness, showing that good works reveal a life shaped by God's law.

The saying is associated with judging controversies by their fruits. It applies to controversies in which self seeks supremacy. It applies even when the matters at issue are not vital but have been made important by people.

Renewed Heart Bears Good Fruit

Outward fruit discloses the inward condition, for a sound heart yields sound fruit and a corrupt heart yields corrupt fruit. Wrongdoing can lie concealed in an unrenewed heart until occasion draws it into open action, so the first work must be done within. There the love of Jesus must occupy the emptied place of sin and make the heart sound, that good fruit may follow.

Making the tree good is the only sure way to secure good fruit, because the heart must be renewed before the life can be made right. The tree is the heart itself, which must undergo the new birth spoken of to Nicodemus, receiving a clean heart and a new moral taste so that obedience to the law of God becomes loved. The demands of the word are met only when God is loved with all the heart and the neighbor as self, and keeping His commandments comes through the essential work of His Spirit in those who accept the truth.

Every person is tried by principles rather than by profession, faith, or appearance, since a fine appearance can conceal hidden sins, and God sets the greatest weight on moral rectitude. This standard runs through the books of Moses, the Psalms of David, the Proverbs, the Apostles, and the teachings of Christ. Profession of Christ without inward rectitude is no better than a whited sepulchre, beautiful without but full of corruption within.

Those who are disgusted by the course of half-hearted professors who do not follow Christ should themselves come out decidedly on the Lord's side and show to the half-hearted and to the world a better way.

Doers of Christ's words make the tree good so that its fruit is good, and prosperity is assured to them as workers together with God in uplifting, blessing, and strengthening others, cultivating good impulses and uprooting evil. Only practical piety is of value, for as fruit on a tree accords with its nature by a law prevailing throughout the natural kingdom, so in the spiritual kingdom a decided change from a life of sin to one of purity produces a corresponding change in words and actions. Those who exercise faith dwell in the presence of purity and are one with Christ, and their life is hid with Christ in God. No spurious religionist will enter the kingdom of heaven, while those who are genuine bring forth the fruit found upon the Christian tree.

God asks for the whole heart, given to Him daily, and heart and will must be made good before actions can be good. Walking in the light of God's law with a heart renewed every day and wholly consecrated to God makes the will right, and then good works follow as fruit. True faith does exactly what God commands and produces justice, truth, and mercy, and religion must not be fitful but everything done to the glory of God. When He works the heart the fruit from the lips will be good.

When Christ's character is reproduced in a person the tree is made good for its fruit to be good, with selfishness uprooted and tender sympathy for those who err taking its place, so that obedience to Christ's commandments becomes a delight. Good resolutions alone are not enough if they are not carried out, for the soul must be made clean. When the fountain is cleansed the streams that come from it are pure.

Words flow from the heart like streams from a fountain, so outwardly upright speech cannot hide an unchanged heart. A changed heart bears good fruit in truthful words and just acts, while a heart that cherishes bitterness bears harmful fruit however much a person tries to appear righteous.

Christian profession alone is a small matter, while living a Christian life is sacred, and a merely professed hope without a changed heart has no true foundation and is not genuine conversion. The source must be cleansed for what proceeds from it to be pure, and when the heart is right, words, dress, and actions are right. A truly converted life, including young people truly converted, bears fruit to God's glory. Everyone will be judged by deeds and not by profession or faith, and there is little time to secure the immortal crown and have good acts and fulfilled duties recorded in heaven. Past faithfulness, God's love, or special promises do not excuse sin, for God's promises and blessings depend on obedience.

Words and Deeds as Fruit

Foolish and improper talk grieves the Spirit of the Lord and is evidence of weak piety and little spiritual growth. Trifling, joking, and flattering familiarity are corrupt fruit showing that the source producing them is corrupt, and such actions are moral wrong and can encourage sin.
Every word spoken is a seed that germinates and produces good or bad fruit according to its own character. Nonsense, trifling words, exaggeration, and passionate words sow bad seed and grow a bad crop. Words spoken strengthen the feeling that prompted them, shape the speaker's own character, and act still more powerfully upon the characters of others, so soul purification begins at once by putting away nonsense and restraining trifling speech so that character is formed after the divine likeness with Christ dwelling within as a well of water springing up unto everlasting life. A person is accountable for the influence of false statements, for the seed of false statements will bear a harvest.

Outward words and conduct reveal the condition of the heart and whether Christ is abiding within. Good fruit includes speech and actions that testify to Christ, while evil or useless speech exposes a heart not abiding in Him and makes claims of faith worthless. Unless the root is holy, speech is unsound and does not offer a pleasing fragrance to God.
Harsh, dictatorial, passionate words and unholy temper toward brethren are corrupt fruit proving a person is not walking in the path of truth and righteousness and Christ cannot be glorified by such service. Such fruit is no evidence of the presence of Christ but evidence of the presence of the fallen foe, showing the speaker is not yoked with Christ, is not learning in the school of the Master but in the school where Adam learned disobedience, is out of harmony with God, and does not have the sanctifying Spirit of Christ dwelling in the soul, for the love of God always produces the fruits of His Spirit. Those bearing this fruit need to be taught the first principles of the love of God, for were they admitted to heaven unchanged they would create rebellion if not made supreme ruler, and continuing in strife and contention endangers mind and life.

A man separated from God whose heart is not under the subduing power of the Holy Spirit reveals the attributes of Satan by beginning to oppress fellow men and sending forth an influence contrary to truth and justice and righteousness. This corrupt fruit is manifested in institutions both in the relation of workers to one another and in the desire of one institution to control all others. Men entrusted with weighty responsibilities who have no living connection with God show by this fruit that they do despite to the Holy Spirit and indulge the very same spirit as Korah, Dathan, and Abiram and as the Jews in the days of Christ, even after warnings from God have come to them again and again.
Selfishness, including demanding rewards out of proportion to the work done, produces a spirit unlike Christ and reveals opposition to the gospel. Praising a minister while neglecting righteous conduct shows attachment to the minister rather than conversion to God.

A person's words and daily conduct are the fruit of the inner life: gentle words and considerate behavior grow from religion in the heart, while sour fruit shows that the life is not drawing nourishment from a pure source. A meek and humble character, with affections brought into harmony with Christ, gives evidence of a life hidden with Christ in God. A good heart forbids a hard, unsympathetic spirit and requires those who lead as superintendents, managers, and foremen to have the heart of a father, treating every child as his own child and every fellow worker as God's property of more value than gold or silver or precious stones, because of the price paid for men in the sufferings and death of the only begotten Son of God. When God works the heart, given to Him daily and wholly, the fruit from the lips will be good.
A worker for God is judged by the fruit of service, not by education or worldly standing: consecrated, self-denying workers who trust God may bring souls to Christ and help build up the church. Likewise a belief is known by the effects it produces, as the hope of Christ's soon coming convinced its holders that they were not ready to meet Him, moved them to seek purity and strength and grace from God, and increased their love for Jesus and other Christians, their joy in prayer, and their delight in reading the Bible.