“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.”
My Notes
What Does Luke 6:45 Mean?
"Of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh." Jesus establishes a diagnostic principle: what comes out of your mouth reveals what fills your heart. The words aren't the problem — they're the symptom. The heart is the source. Good hearts produce good words. Evil hearts produce evil words. The mouth is just the spout; the heart is the reservoir.
The word "abundance" (perisseuma) means overflow, surplus, what exceeds capacity. The heart isn't carefully selecting what to release — it's overflowing. What comes out of your mouth isn't your curated output; it's your surplus. The thing you can't contain. The pressure that forces content through the opening.
The treasure metaphor — "good treasure" and "evil treasure" — treats the heart as a vault that's been storing either good or evil over time. The mouth doesn't create content; it withdraws what's been deposited. Your words today are withdrawals from the account your heart has been building for years.
Reflection Questions
- 1.What do your unguarded words reveal about your heart's contents?
- 2.What have you been 'depositing' into your heart that's now showing up in your speech?
- 3.Why is changing your mouth without changing your heart ineffective?
- 4.What would you need to deposit differently to change what overflows?
Devotional
Your mouth speaks from your heart's overflow. Not from your brain's careful selection — from your heart's surplus. What's been accumulating inside eventually forces its way out through your lips. The words are the evidence; the heart is the source.
This verse is the most important diagnostic tool in the New Testament. If you want to know what's in your heart, listen to your mouth. Not your prepared speeches or your careful emails — your unguarded moments. What you say when you're tired. What you say when you're angry. What you say when you're not filtering. That's the overflow. That's the surplus. That's the truth about what's been stored in the vault.
The treasure metaphor is sobering: you've been making deposits into your heart for years. Every thought you entertained. Every influence you absorbed. Every resentment you nursed. Every gratitude you practiced. It all went into the vault. And now, when you open your mouth, you're making withdrawals from that accumulated treasure.
You can't fix your speech without fixing your storage. Monitoring your mouth without changing your heart is like putting a filter on a dirty pipe — the water behind the filter is still contaminated. The solution isn't better filtering. It's a cleaner reservoir.
What's your mouth revealing about your heart's contents? What unguarded words are making unauthorized withdrawals from a vault you didn't realize you'd been filling?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
And why call ye me Lord, Lord,.... Or, "my Lord, my Lord", as the Syriac version renders it; acknowledging, in words,…
See this passage fully illustrated in the sermon on the mount, in Matt. 5–7. Luk 6:21 That hunger now - Matthew has it,…
All these sayings of Christ we had before in Matthew; some of them in ch. 7, others in other places. They were sayings…
of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh "O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things?"…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture