Reformation Must Begin At the Heart
R. Cudworth, D. D. Luke 6:43-44 For a good tree brings not forth corrupt fruit; neither does a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.… If we desire a true reformation, let us begin on reforming our hearts and lives, in keeping Christ's commandments. All outward forms and models of reformation, though they be never so good in their kind, yet they are of little worth to us without this inward reformation of the heart. Tin, or lead, or any baser metal, if it be cast into never so good a mould and made up into never so elegant a figure, yet it is but tin or lead still; it is the same metal that it was before. If adulterate silver, that has much alloy or dross in it, have never so current a stamp put upon it, yet it will not pass when the touchstone tries it. We must be reformed within, with a spirit of fire and a spirit of burning, to purge us from the dross and corruption of our hearts, and refine us as gold and silver, and then we shall be reformed truly, and not before. (R. Cudworth, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. WEB: For there is no good tree that brings forth rotten fruit; nor again a rotten tree that brings forth good fruit.