Luke 6:45
What does Luke 6:45 mean?
The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings out that which is good, and the evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings out that which is evil, for out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.
The short answer
In Luke 6:45, Jesus offers a simple picture with a sharp point: what comes out of a person reveals what is stored inside. A good person draws good things from the good "treasure" of the heart, and an evil person draws evil from an evil store. Then comes the memorable summary line: "out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks." Our words are not random. They spill from whatever we have been quietly accumulating within.
The word "treasure" is worth pausing on. Jesus is describing the heart as a storehouse — a place where habits, loves, resentments, and convictions pile up over time. We do not usually notice what is in the storehouse until pressure, conflict, or an unguarded moment opens the door. Then out it comes, in speech and in action. The verse is a diagnosis before it is a demand: if you want to know what is really in you, listen to what comes out of you.
This also means Jesus is not primarily asking for better behavior management. Polished words and impressive religious activity can be a kind of performance, a way of appearing devout without any real inner change. Luke 6:45 cuts underneath that. If the source is bad, the output will eventually betray it — and if the source is genuinely reoriented toward God, good speech and good action will follow naturally, the way fruit grows on a healthy tree.
Read this way, the verse is both a warning and an invitation. The warning is against self-deception: we can fool others, and even ourselves, but not for long, because the mouth keeps reporting on the heart. The invitation is to seek a changed source rather than a managed surface — to ask God to renovate the storehouse, not just to help us guard the door.
What scholars say
These excerpts press on the question Luke 6:45 raises: what counts as a genuine response to Jesus? Green argues that eager listening and even right action are insufficient unless they flow from a truly reoriented heart, while Wright warns that visible fruit — not religious status — is what shows repentance is real.
“Even if the language of repentance is absent, the idea of change of heart and life, of a thorough reorientation around God's purpose, is very much present. This is communicated so forcefully and in such variegated ways that it is impossible not to imagine that Jesus' audience is being challenged to take additional steps in their response to him. They have been eager to come and to hear; now they are put on notice that these are not enough. But neither is acting enough, taken on its own; the practices for which Jesus is looking are generated out of the good treasure of the heart of a good person (v 45); they are not the consequence of the posturing of those who want to appear pious but have refused to commit themselves wholeheartedly to following in the way of Jesus.”
“The tree is meant to bear fruit, but if it doesn’t it will be cut down (see Luke 6.43–45). The fruit must show that repentance has been genuine. The warning echoes down the years, and must be taken to heart by all the baptized today. We cannot presume that because we have shared in the great Christian mystery, the new Exodus, coming through the water of baptism with all that it means, God will automatically be happy with us even if we show no signs of serious repentance. Of course, Christian living is far more than simply repentance, but it is not less. All spiritual advance begins with a turning away from what is hindering our obedience. If John were to come down your street with a megaphone, what would he be saying?”
What it means for you
Try treating your own words as evidence. What comes out of you when you are tired, interrupted, or criticized? Those moments are not exceptions to your character; according to Luke 6:45, they are readouts from it. The honest response is not to become a more careful performer, but to bring the storehouse itself to God — naming the resentments, fears, and habits that keep surfacing, and asking for a genuinely changed heart.
Practically, this means paying attention to what you feed the inner treasury: what you dwell on, consume, rehearse, and pray. Fill the storehouse well, and over time your speech will start telling a different story.
Luke 6 in context
Luke 6 gathers much of Jesus' core teaching. After choosing the twelve apostles, Jesus delivers the Sermon on the Plain: blessings and woes, the command to love enemies, and the warning against judging others. Just before verse 45, he asks how a blind person can guide another and insists that a tree is known by its own fruit — good trees do not produce rotten fruit. Verse 45 applies that image to the human heart, and the chapter closes with the parable of two builders, contrasting those who hear Jesus' words with those who actually do them.