39 He also told them this parable: “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into a pit? 40 The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher. 41 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. 43 “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. 44 Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. 45 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. ~ Luke 6:39-45
The Lord Jesus is teaching the twelve disciples the Sermon on the Mount. In today's portion of it, He is making a distinction between His teaching and the teachings of the religious leaders of Israel. The teaching of the religious leaders produces fear, bondage and death, and His teachings produce hope, trust and life.
In our text today, the Lord Jesus is teaching His disciples four marks of false teachers. The first is found in v.39: "Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into a pit?" The religious leaders were separated from God because they did not have a personal relationship with Him. And, as a result, they lacked true spiritual guidance and direction.
If we follow the teacher who doesn’t know the way to God, we will end up in hell. That’s the pit the Lord Jesus is referencing here in v.39. On the other hand, when we follow the One from God, we will end up with Him in heaven.
Throughout the Bible, blindness is metaphorically used for being void of truth, for not having any spiritual insight. This is caused by being spiritually dead to God. It is our sinfulness that has separated us from God.
In Psalm 82:5 we read, “The wicked do not know, nor do they understand; they walk about in darkness.” In 2 Corinthians 4:4 we read, “The god of this world has blinded their minds.” People who don’t know God are blind to truth and if you follow them, you’re going to end up in Hell.
The Lord Jesus taught of hell often. Thirteen percent of his teachings refer to eternal judgment and hell. Two-thirds of His parables relate to resurrection and judgment. The Lord Jesus wasn’t cruel or capricious, but He was truthful. His honesty stuns us. Had He not spoken truthfully to us, you and I would still be dead to God because our sin would not have been atoned for and we would not be redeemed.
The second mark of false teachers is they are limited by the realm of time. They’re not of God for their sin separates them from a personal relationship with God. In v.40 we read, “The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.” The Lord Jesus has access to eternal life and transcendence. All we can know is what we have been taught by the one we follow. And, we can’t get above the Lord Jesus. The view of the Jewish religious leaders was myopic because they had no connection with and to God.
In v.40, we read, “everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.” If we apply everything our teacher gives us, we’re going to be just like him. That’s the most we can do. We can only know what our teacher tells us. If our teacher doesn’t know the truth, we’re not going to know it, either.
The third mark of false teachers is found in v.41-42, which reads, "41 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye."
The Jewish religious leaders were hypocritical. They could not fix anyone else because they could not fix themselves. They could not solve anyones problem because they had a massive problem of their own. The problem was the large beam in their eyes. This beam was the main beam in a building. These false teachers were blinded by their beam of self-righteousness. These false teachers were trying to deal with the people's sin and they had the most massive of all sins, the carefully crafted beam of self-righteousness, the worst of all sins.
Self righteousness is the sin that the Lord Jesus repeatedly condemned. It is a sin of blindness, it puts a beam in one's eye so that reality can't be seen. It distorts vision of everything real. It tells us that we do not need a Savior. It tells us that we do not need God's grace, because we see not any need for forgiveness.
The fourth mark of the false teacher is they are evil. In v.43 we read, “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.” The fruit of a tree is an unfailing indicator of the health of the tree. If we have good fruit on the tree, we’ve got a good, healthy tree. If we have a bad tree, we’re going to get bad fruit. If the tree is toxic, the fruit is toxic.
The Lord Jesus expands on his analogy in v.44, by saying, “Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers..” If we’re looking for figs, don’t look for a thorn bush. We get thorns from a thorn bush. Trees produce what is normal for their nature. They produce what is good or bad based on their nature.
In v.45, the Lord Jesus concludes this passage by saying, “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”
A good man has a changed heart, and an evil man does not. The good man here, then, represents the one having believed in the Lord Jesus. And because he has been reconnected with God, he brings forth what is good. Anyone is good because of God's presence in him.
On the other hand, the evil man has an evil heart, and so what comes out of him is only evil. Not only out of his mouth but in his conduct. The mouth is just sort of the first place that evil shows up. And, the destiny of those who die in their sin is Hell.
A glimpse into Hell will not brighten our day, but it will enlighten our understanding of the Lord Jesus. He didn’t avoid the discussion. He planted a one-word caution sign between you and hell’s path: perish. “Whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
