The Heart Attitude

The Pharisees had accused Jesus of casting out devils by Satanic power.  Jesus had pointed out that the accusation made no sense, but n Matthew 12:31-33, he warns that if he is truly from God, then their accusations are themselves sin.  “Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.  And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.  Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.” 

God is willing to forgive being falsely accused of doing things that are wrong, and he will forgive those who falsely accuse Jesus of doing something wrong, but he will never forgive those who impugn his essential nature, implying he is essentially evil, like the man who said “either he is not God or he is not good.” James 1: 13 tells us, “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.”  God does not even consider doing evil, and he will never forgive those who accuse him of being evil.   Either a being is essentially good, or he is essentially evil, and it is easy to see which by watching what he does.  If he is evil, sooner or later it will show up.

     

“O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.  A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.” (Matthew 12:34-35)

A person’s heart attitude determines what he says and does.  People with a wicked attitude naturally say and do wicked things because that is their nature.  People with a good attitude naturally say and do good things because that is the kind of things they think about in their heart.  The first place where the attitude shows up is in what people say.  Thus, what people say is an important indicator of what they are really like.  Matthew 12:36-37 warns, “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.  For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”  The thing we say in unguarded moments are the clearest indicator of how we really think, and those are the things that will be used to judge us when we stand before God. 

Unfortunately, most people blow off the things they said on the spur of the moment as being unintentional.  While we may accidentally say something we don’t really mean or think, if it is repeated several times, it is pretty clear that is how we really feel and it is a much harder to forgive.