Daily Devotional For Friday, November 7, 2025
Good morning Southside. It’s Friday all day. We are making our way through the Gospel of Matthew. Today we come to Matthew 12:33-37:
“A tree is identified by its fruit. If a tree is good, its fruit will be good. If a tree is bad, its fruit will be bad. (34) You brood of snakes! How could evil men like you speak what is good and right? For whatever is in your heart determines what you say. (35) A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. (36) And I tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word you speak. (37) The words you say will either acquit you or condemn you” (NLT).
Jesus starts off talking about fruit. Fruit in Scripture refers to our character (see Matt. 7:16-18). Jesus says you can tell the quality of the fruit by the health of the tree. Good trees produce healthy fruit and diseased trees produce bad fruit. When we come to verse 34, Jesus does not mince words, does He? “Brood of snakes” was a personal attack on the religious leaders' hypocrisy, double-standards, and unfair burdens they put on the people. Two other times Jesus calls the religious leaders this term in Matthew (see Matt. 3:7 and Matt. 23:33).
It is obvious Jesus had not read the book, “How To Win Friends & Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. In calling them snakes, Jesus was saying that the character of the religious leaders was evil. Like a river overflowing its banks, so was the evil in the religious leaders. That is the point of the word translated “determines” in verse 34. It is the Greek New Testament word [περίσσευμα, perisseuma]. This word means great abundance, fullness, or overflow. It carries the idea of excess, which, in the terms of Jesus’ figure, spills over from the heart and out of the mouth in the form of words. What the heart is full of, will overflow from the mouth. They may attempt to hide behind their robes, titles, positions, education and status, but they were still evil.
In verse 37, godly people’s words will acquit them but the ungodly, and in this case, the religious leaders here were ungodly and their words would indict them. The word translated as “idle” or “careless,” depending on your own translation, is the Greek New Testament word [ἀργός, argos]. This word means words we might consider insignificant. This means words that our culture “culturally” deems acceptable. In this case, this might refer to profanity and course language. This word can also refer to words that are flippant, useless, barren and unproductive.
What is in our heart tends to come out of our mouths. The religious leaders spoke evil because their hearts were evil. Jesus reminds us that for every careless word we say, we will give an account for it on the day of Judgment. In addition, the word translated as “careless” or “idle” This refers not to mindless small talk or carefree jokes, but to also broken promises, unkept commitments, and unpaid vows. Our words are an indicator of our heart and soul. We may say something we regret followed by, “Oh, I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to say that.” Jesus says that you did mean to say because it has been growing in your heart.
Assignment: What comes out of your mouth that is in your heart? Is it always godly? Is some of it ungodly? In calling the religious leaders snakes or vipers, Jesus hit a nerve. It was a snake, the devil, that deceived Adam and Eve. Vipers are both poisonous and use stealth and camouflage to hide so they can strike before the victim even knows it is there. When would the Lord say you were like a viper?
Scripture To Meditate On: Proverbs 4:23, “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, please forgive me when my life is like a viper and my mouth spews the venom and poison of words that do not edify, build up and glorify You. Please remind me of James 1:19 and Proverbs 15:1. I love You Lord. Please help my fruit reveal a character that is more and more like Your character. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly