“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

Some of the best teaching moments are found in God’s creation all around us. In the passage above, Jesus begins with an obvious observation regarding the trees. Everyone in His audience knew where to find figs and grapes and they also knew thornbushes produce mostly thorns and while a type of bramble bush may produce blackberries, it does not produce grapes.

Then He uses those word images to evaluate the fruit of the good person and the bad and I find it interesting that Jesus uses the words of our mouths to note the difference between the good and the bad. In his first epistle, the apostle Peter cites part of Psalm 34 –

“Whoever desires to love life
and see good days,
let him keep his tongue from evil
and his lips from speaking deceit;
let him turn away from evil and do good;
let him seek peace and pursue it.
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
and his ears are open to their prayer.
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

1 Peter 3:10-12

And consider this portion from the book of James –

From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.

James 3:10-12

Is there anything else to say?