Good Tree, Bad Tree, Good Fruit, Bad Fruit

Look at the words of Jesus (below). I'm working backwards in this passage from the previous post, Lord, Lord. First I raised the question, "Does it matter?" Now let's look at the question, "Can we tell?" Jesus says that if we are producing evil...we are evil, but if we are producing good...we are good. We are given the ability to judge based on a person's actions.

Luk 6:43 "For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit,


Luk 6:44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush.

Luk 6:45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

Now here's a tough question. Is anyone ever all bad or all good? If not, then are we still able to judge the quality of the man or woman by his or her actions? How do these thoughts feed back into my initial question, "Does it matter how we live our lives?"

Lord, Lord

Is my question, "Does it matter how we Christians live our lives" a valid, relevant question for today?  Jesus himself asked some very difficult questions along these same lines. Let's take just this one verse and look at it closely for a minute.

Luke 6:46 "Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do what I tell you? (ESV)

This is one question from Jesus that ought to be more than enough to get us thinking. Maybe even a bit worried. After all, if Jesus himself was interested in why people might call him Lord, but not follow his commands, I think there's a better than even chance it is still a valid question. So what are some of his commands? What does it mean to "do" those commands?