First get your heart right

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. "You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. "So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. - Matthew 23:25-28 NASU

The first thing we do we try to do is save face. We don’t want anyone to know how sinful we are—jealous, envious, or self-righteous. We clean up the mess before anyone takes notice. Pretend it never happened. We talk and reason the obvious away. We clean up and dress up the outside when the heart remains unclean.

We spend all our time disposing of the dead fruit and cutting off dead limbs, but the problem lies with the root of the tree. Until we face that the problem is us and not the circumstance, we will look clean from the outside but be full of dead man’s bones.

Out of the heart, the mouth speaks. Gag or muzzle yourself; your heart will still produce bad fruit. Every bad fruit has a bad root. Own up to the rotten fruit and repent of the root. What benefit is having an orchard of fruit trees but nothing good to harvest? Everyone makes a big deal about your beautiful orchard, but you know how much work it takes every day after dark to clean up the mess so you look good in the morning. You are left hungry for another day and a mess to clean up. But at least you have the applause of man! Woe is that kind of life.