Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists Matthew Mark and Luke John Calvin
Matthew 12:33-37
MATTHEW 12:33-37
Matthew 12:33-37
33. Either make the tree good, and its fruit good: or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by the fruit. 34. Offspring of vipers, how can you speak what is good, when you are bad? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. 35. A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth what is good, and a bad man, out of the bad treasure, bringeth forth what is evil. 36. But I say to you, That men will give account, at the day of judgment, for every idle word which they shall have spoken. 37. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
33. Either make the tree good It might look like absurdity, that men should be allowed a choice of being either good or bad; but if we consider what sort of persons
Christ is addressing, the difficulty will be speedily resolved. We know what opinion was generally entertained about the Pharisees; for their pretended sanctity had so blinded the minds of the common people, that no one ventured to pass sentence on their vices. 742 Wishing to remove this mask, Christ desires them to be either good or bad; or, in other words, declares that nothing is more inconsistent with honesty than hypocrisy, and that it is in vain for men to boast of pretensions to righteousness who are not sincere and upright. 743 So then he puts nothing at their disposal, and withdraws no restraint from them, but only reminds them that their empty professions will avail them nothing so long as they are double, because they must be either good or bad
From the expression, make the tree, some foolishly infer, that it is in every man's power to regulate his own life and conduct. It is a rhetorical mode of speaking, by which Christ points out the scribes, dispels—so to speak—the smoke of their hypocrisy, and recalls them to pure and genuine uprightness. He afterwards explains the way and manner in which they may show that they are good or bad trees; 742"Que nul n'osoit parler de leurs vices, et les condamner;" — "that none dared to speak of their vices, or to condemn them."
743"Lesquels ne vont point rondement, et n'ont une affection droite;" — "who do not go straight forward, and have not an upright disposition."