09/27/22

Diagnosing Spiritual Heart Problems

© madelaide | stockfresh.com

© madelaide | stockfresh.com

While classically known in biblical passages like Luke 6:39, the “blind leading the blind” metaphor is also found outside of Scripture. In Horace, it exists as “the blind leader of the blind.” It is also found in the Katha Upanishad, an important Hindu religious text: “Abiding in the midst of ignorance, thinking themselves wise and learned, fools go aimlessly hither and thither, like blind led by the blind.”

In Luke 6:39, Jesus asks two rhetorical questions: “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?” The answer to the first rhetorical question is obviously “No.” The second question directs attention to the consequences of the blind leading the blind: will they not both fall into a pit? Yes, they will.

Then Jesus declares that a disciple is not above his teacher. When he is fully trained he will be like his teacher. There is a dual meaning to the Greek word translated as “lead” in verse 43. It can refer to guiding someone in reaching a destination or to guide someone in acquiring knowledge. So the two seemingly unconnected statements in verses 39 and 40 are joined to say: Just as a physically blind man cannot lead a person to a destination he cannot see, a blind leader cannot impart knowledge he does not have to a disciple.

In order to reinforce this teaching, Jesus moved on to the hyperbolic contrast of the log and the speck in verses 41 and 42. So how can you help someone remove a “speck” from his eye, when you have a “log” in your own? The presence of the log in you eye blinds you and prevents you from effectively helping another person remove the speck from their eye. As Robert Stein said in his commentary, “Luke understood the parable as referring to the danger of being blind to one’s own faults and at the same time judging others. If a disciple has not learned enough to see his or her own faults and yet judges others, how can such a person truly teach or correct others?”

Now, to drive home what he is saying, Jesus makes another metaphorical comparison, saying that people are like trees. “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit.” The conjunction “for” connects the next three verses, Luke 6:43 to 45, with the previous verses, 39 to 42. Paul Tripp said In Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands that within these verses, Jesus is answering the age-old question of human motivation—why we do the things we do. Just as there is an organic relationship between the roots of a tree and its fruit, there is a connection between a person’s heart and their behavior—what they do and say.

For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks (Luke 6:43-45).

The roots of the tree correspond to the heart, while its fruit equals our behavior. “We speak and act the way we do because of what is in our hearts.” And if our heart is the source of our sinful behavior, then lasting personal change must always occurs through the heart. Paul Tripp illustrated this principle with a parable of his own.

He has an apple tree in his back yard that year in and year out produces dry, wrinkled, brown, pulpy apples. After several seasons, his wife suggests that they should cut down the tree if they can’t get good fruit from it. Paul gets an idea of what to do. He returns home with branch cutters, a heavy-duty staple gun, a ladder, and two bushels of apples. He then cuts off all the pulpy, wrinkled, brown apples and staples the shiny red apples to every branch of the tree. “From a distance, our tree looks like it is full of a beautiful harvest. . . . For a while, it may seem like the real thing, but it will prove temporary and cosmetic.”

If a tree produces bad apples year after year, there is something drastically wrong with its system, down to its very roots. I won’t solve the problem by stapling new apples onto the branches. They will also rot because they are not attached to a life-giving root system. And next spring, I will get the same problem again. I will not see a new crop of healthy apples because my solution has not gone to the heart of the problem. If the tree’s roots remain unchanged, it will never produce good apples.

Luke doesn’t say here what makes a heart “good.” But Stein in his commentary pointed back to passages like Luke 3:7-9, which calls people to repent and bear good fruit. Just before the passage discussed here, Jesus described what this “good fruit” might look like: love your enemies; bless those who curse you; give to everyone in need. “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:27-36).

From this illustration of how a tree and its fruit represents the connection between our hearts and what we do and say, Paul Tripp drew three principles:

  • There is an undeniable root and fruit connection between our heart and our behavior. People and situations do not determine our behavior; they provide the occasion where our behavior reveals our hearts.
  • Lasting change always takes place through the pathway of the heart. Fruit change is the results of root change. Any agenda for change must focus on the thoughts and desires of the heart.
  • The heart is the target in personal growth and counseling.

Tied now to the Ezekiel 14:1-11 passage discussed in “Spiritual Heart Problems,” we have a greater understanding of the blinding, distorting action of the stumbling block and the heart idol. The elders who came to Ezekiel were truly blind to the idols in their own hearts. And they would not have been able to understand anything the Lord said to them through Ezekiel as long as the “log” of their sin was lodged in their hearts.

A new heart (Ezekiel 36:25-26) was needed. There must be a radical change at the root level. A good tree bears good fruit. A bad tree, ruled by its heart idols, its gillûlîm, will produce bad fruit. You’ll know what is going on in your heart or that of another person by the fruit of their behavior. How can you tell whether or not it is stapled fruit? Watch the tree. Stapled fruit doesn’t last. It gets brown, pulpy and wrinkled and then falls off the tree.

Originally posted on 8/21/2015

10/29/19

Do They Walk Their Talk?

© Dmitriy Khvan | 123rf.com

Matthew 7:15 cautions us to “Beware of false prophets.” By their external appearance, they look authentic and may even do or say some of the right things. Like wolves in sheep’s clothing, they appear to be the real deal on a superficial level, but inwardly they are vicious and destructive. So how can you tell a true prophet from a false one? The answer is, do they bear good fruit—do they walk their talk?

The concluding section of the Sermon on the Mount makes use of the “Two Ways” tradition of early Christianity and Judaism. In three illustrations, Jesus plainly showed there are only two categories of people in the world—those who enter by the narrow gate rather than the wide gate (vv. 13-14), those who bear good fruit rather than bad (vv. 15-20), and those who build their homes on solid rock rather than shifting sand (vv. 24-27). In his commentary Leon Morris commented, “In each case the first category refers to those who hear, obey, and are saved; the second, to those who only hear and so are destroyed.” In other words, not everyone who says they are a Christian, is a Christian. They have to show it.

15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. (Matthew 7:15-20)

The contrast of the two ways is not found in the other gospels, but it does appear in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 30:19; Psalm 1:6, Jeremiah 21:8); in Jewish writings (2 Esdras 7:6-13); and in early Christian literature, like Didache 1:1: “There are two ways, one of life and one of death, and there is a great difference between the two ways.” Some may verbally affirm that Jesus is Lord, and even preach the gospel, but inwardly are insatiably after their own interests. They are like ravenous wolves. So how can you tell who is a wolf in sheep’s clothing? By their fruits: “Their fruits will in the end betray them.”

Jesus used an illustration from the everyday life of his audience to demonstrate this. Everyone knew that the buckthorn had small black berries that could be mistaken for grapes. And there was a thistle whose flower could be mistaken for a fig, from a distance. However, as D.A. Carson said, “But no one would confuse the buckthorn and the grape once he started to use the fruit to make some wine. No one would be taken in by thistle flowers when it came to eating figs for supper.” The same principle is true of trees—a good tree bears good fruit; a diseased tree bears bad fruit.

Here the thought is that it is not the outward appearance that is important (wolves may be dressed up to look like sheep), but the things the false prophets do, the produce of their manner of thought and life. If the disciples take note of what these false prophets do and refuse to be charmed by their false words, they will recognize them for what they are.

If a tree is healthy, it cannot bear bad fruit. Conversely, a diseased tree cannot bear good fruit. The repetition emphasizes the point. Then Jesus moved to the fate of every diseased trees: “No bad tree is allowed to continue producing its bad fruit.” The consequence is universal; it is cut down and burned.

The burning of a worthless tree removes the possibility that it will infect other trees. But fire is often used of the fire of hell, and this meaning may be not far away. Jesus is making it clear that discipleship means a great deal more than religious activity.

So then, the logical conclusion of Jesus’ teaching here is a repetition of verse 16. “You will recognize them by their fruits.” The good fruit of a person’s life is the evidence of their claim to be a prophet. And since good fruit cannot grow on a diseased tree, you can discern a false prophet by their fruit as well. False prophets, like diseased trees, should be cut down and thrown into the fire.

The Old and New Testaments contain multiple warnings against false prophets. They commit adultery, walk in lies and strengthen the hands of evil doers (Jeremiah 23:14); they are treacherous and do violence to the law (Zephaniah 3:4); they prophesy lies in the name of God, the deceit of their own minds (Jeremiah 14:14). The Bible suggests these false declarations come from their own hearts (Ezekiel 13:2, 4; Jeremiah 23:16, 26). We can suggest that at least one of the ways to uncover a false prophet is to watch and see if they demonstrate their love for God by walking their talk. But what if the false prophet is a wolf in sheep’s clothing—what if they appear good on the outside?

There is a root and fruit connection to our actions (fruit) and our heart (root). A “healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.” The parallel to our Matthew passage in Luke 6:43-45 declared the good person produces good treasure from his heart and the evil person produces evil treasure from his heart, “for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” In Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands, Paul Tripp illustrated this process in his discussion of fruit stapling, where efforts to change behavior ignore the heart behind the actions.

Drawing on the fruit tree metaphor in the Luke passage, he asks us to imagine that he has an apple tree in his backyard. Year after year the apples are dry, wrinkled, brown and pulpy. His wife says it doesn’t make any sense to have an apple tree that doesn’t produce good fruit and suggests that Paul cut down the tree and burn it. Instead, he buys branch cutters, an industrial grade staple gun, a ladder and two bushels of apples. He climbs the ladder, cuts off all the pulpy apples, and staples shiny red apples on every branch of the tree. “From a distance our tree looks like it is full of a beautiful harvest.”

If a tree produces bad apples year after year, there is something drastically wrong with its system, down to its very roots. I won’t solve the problem by stapling new apples on the branches. They also will rot because they are not attached to a life-giving root system. And next spring, I will have the same problem again. I will not see a new crop of healthy apples because my solution had not gone to the heart of the problem. If the tree’s roots remain unchanged, it will never produce good apples.If my heart is the source of my sin problem, then lasting change must always travel through the pathway of my heart. It is not enough to alter my behavior or to change my circumstances. Christ transforms people by radically changing their hearts. If the heart doesn’t change, the person’s words and behavior may change temporarily because of an external pressure or incentive. But when the pressure or incentive is removed, the changes will disappear.

Sooner or later they will show the wolf; a diseased tree always bears bad fruit. They cannot consistently walk the talk because the seemingly “good fruit” does not come from a changed heart.

The root-and-fruit principle applies readily to 12 Step recovery. Several of the sayings used in recovery, such as walking your talk, he’s on a dry drunk, you can’t be clean while living dirty, are illustrations of it. It even applies to judging your spiritual experiences and whether or not you can ever ‘get’ clean.

Bill W. wrote an article originally published in the Grapevine in July of 1962, “Spiritual Experiences.” It was later added to a collection of his Grapevine writings, The Language of the Heart. He said he was the recipient of a tremendous mystic experience in 1934 that was “accompanied by a sense of intense white light, by a sudden gift of faith in the goodness of God, and by a profound conviction of his presence.” He said in retrospect, the only special feature was its electric suddenness and the overwhelming and immediate conviction that it carried to him. “In all other respects, however, I am sure that my own experience was not in the least different from that received by every AA member who has strenuously practiced our recovery program.”

He said when a person approached him to find out how to have a sudden spiritual experience, he tells them that in all probability they have had one just as good, except it was strung out over a longer period of time. If a spiritual transformation over six months had been condensed into six minutes, “well they then might have seen the stars, too!” He failed to see any great difference between the sudden and more gradual experiences; they were certainly all of the same piece. The one sure test of any spiritual experience was, “By their fruits, ye shall know them.”

As Bill Sees It is a collection of selected writings by Bill W. In there was an excerpt from a 1958 letter Bill wrote to a person discouraged over repeated “slips,” lapses back into active drinking. The discouraged individual was thinking of not returning to A.A. because of his lapses. Bill advised him against staying away from A.A. because of feeling of discouraged or shameful of his lapses. “It’s just the place you should be.”

For some reason, Bill said, the Lord seemed to have him on a tougher path. But God was not asking for him to be successfully abstinent, “He is only asking us to try to be.” Here was the key feature in achieving lasting abstinence—a transformed heart; a surrender of your will and life to God after recognizing your powerlessness to do so in your own strength. And whether this spiritual experience was sudden or gradual, the sure test of whether it was real was by its fruit. If there was a true surrender, he would get the program. “It is not always the quantity of good things that you do, it is also the quality that counts.”

This is part of a series of reflections dedicated to the memory of Audrey Conn, whose questions reminded me of my intention to look at the various ways the Sermon on the Mount applies to Alcoholics Anonymous and recovery. If you’re interested in more, look under the category link “Sermon on the Mount.”