Matthew 12:35 Commentary and Bible Study

How intensely interesting is the Lord’s illustration of the human heart here! The heart is like a treasure store, and the man is like a collector looking for valuable things to store in it. He knows what he likes and recognises it as having value to him. He is like a man who has a house full of treasures and who decides what he will bring out for his neighbours to see. But as usual in the word of God, the world is divided into two types of men and women, and only two. There are good men and there are evil men. Is that too stark? No, it is according to the only real difference between human beings. There are those who are born in their sin and live as fallen human beings, and there are those who have been born again. They have two quite different natures and they live according to those natures. From heaven’s viewpoint that it the only difference that matters. The evil man certainly has treasure, and he keeps it in his heart. He observes the world around him; he studies forms of behaviour, and he copies what he likes, and stores it in his house to be brought out at a convenient time. He ponders strategies for getting what pleases him, and if he likes them and they seem successful, he stores them in his treasure house also. He stores opinions which are consistent with his worldview; he stores ways of looking at the world; he stores emotional responses to situations. But all these things tend to serve his purpose, a purpose which suits a life that is away from God and lived for self. When the heart is full and when the opportunity arises, the heart overflows and words come forth, but they can only come from that treasure within. He cannot instantly invent something new that was not there before. Therefore it is predictable (if you knew his heart) what he will say. In the illustration, bringing forth is the act of speaking. It is a decision to share what is otherwise hidden, a decision over which we have complete control.But the good man has a very different treasure in his house. How did it get there? At conversion all the evil treasure was thrown out and God put something far more wonderful in its place. He put love for him and for his word. He put meekness and poverty of spirit and all the fruit of the spirit. A new nature is created by the Spirit within us and the new nature has no desire for the old treasure. The Spirit causes us to repent and to cast out the old treasure, and to cleanse the storehouse of the heart entirely. The old treasure of pride and boasting and anger and envy is distasteful to the new nature and is no longer regarded as having any value at all, therefore it has no place in our treasure store. More than that, it is regarded as positively objectionable and foul and we want to be rid of it.