Proverbs 4:23 says, “Watch over your heart with all diligence,
for from it flow the springs of life.” Patrick Buchanan has observed, “The food that enters the mind must be watched as closely
as the food that enters the body” (Reader’s Digest [11/89], p. 203).
Frank Outlaw wrote, “Watch your thoughts, they become your
words; watch your words, they become actions; watch your actions,
they become habits; watch your habits, they become character;
watch your character, for it becomes your destiny” (Reader’s Digest
[date not known]). To obey what Paul is saying, we must exercise
control over our thought life. This involves at least five things:
1.
We need the mind of Christ through conversion.
Before a person knows Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, he
has a depraved mind (Rom. 1:28). He lives in the lusts of his flesh,
indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind (Eph. 2:3). God
must supernaturally raise us from our state of being dead in our
trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1) and impart to us a new nature that is
able to obey Him (Eph. 4:22-24). Paul says that “the mind set on
the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the
law of God, for it is not even able to do so; and those who are in
the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but
in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him”
(Rom. 8:7-9). As he goes on to explain, the Holy Spirit gives us the
power to put to death the deeds of the flesh and to live in obedience to God.
2.
We must clean out and block out sources for sinful thoughts.
We cannot have a pure thought life without first ridding ourselves of things which defile us. It would be like trying to clean
yourself while you’re lying in a mud hole. The first step is to get out
of the mud and get to a source of soap and water. If we allow
things into our lives which promote sensuality, greed, sexual impurity, crude language, violence, hatred, love of self, or anything else
not pleasing to God, we cannot grow in holiness.
I agree with Pastor Kent Hughes, who in his book, Disciplines
of a Godly Man ([Crossway Books], p. 75) writes, “I am aware of the
wise warnings against using words like ‘all,’ ‘every,’ and ‘always’ in
what I say. Absolutizing one’s pronouncements is dangerous. But
7