The Practice of Godliness: Godliness has value for all things (17 page)

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Authors: Jerry Bridges

BOOK: The Practice of Godliness: Godliness has value for all things
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TAKE CAPTIVE EVERY THOUGHT
Paul said, “We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Although the immediate context indicates that he was referring to the thoughts of his opponents at Corinth, it still remains a worthy objective for the control of our own thoughts. Self-control of our thoughts means entertaining in our minds only those thoughts that are acceptable to God.
The best guideline for evaluating the control of our thoughts is that given by Paul in Philippians 4:8: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Self-control of our thoughts, then, is more than just refusing to admit sinful thoughts—such as lust, greed, envy, or selfish ambition—into our minds. Controlling our thoughts also includes focusing our minds on that which is good and pleasing to God.
Solomon warned us, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Proverbs 4:23). The meaning of the Hebrew word for “heart” generally refers to our entire conscious person—understanding, emotions, conscience, and will; the warning is particularly applicable, however, to our thought life. It is in our thought life that our emotions and actions begin, and that sinful desires plant their roots and entice us into sin.
Our minds are mental greenhouses where unlawful thoughts, once planted, are nurtured and watered before being transplanted into the real world of unlawful actions. People seldom fall suddenly into gluttony or immorality. These actions are savored in the mind long before they are enjoyed in reality The thought life, then, is our first line of defense in the battle of self-control.
The gates to our thought lives are primarily our eyes and our ears. What we see or read or hear largely determines what we think. Memory, of course, also plays a big part in what we think, but our memories only store and feed back what originally comes into our minds through our eyes and ears. Guarding our hearts begins with guarding our eyes and ears. We must not allow that which panders to sexual lust, greed (called materialism in our present society), envy, and selfish ambition to enter our minds. We should avoid television programs, magazine or newspaper articles, advertisements, and conversations that arouse such thoughts. We should not only avoid them, but, to use Paul’s words to Timothy, “flee from all this.” It is well worth noting that in both of his letters to Timothy, Paul felt it prudent to warn Timothy to
flee
temptation. Although Timothy was a godly leader, he was not exempt from the necessity of exercising self-control.
Solomon said to
guard
; Paul said to
flee.
Both verbs convey a much stronger reaction to temptation than most Christians practice. Instead of guarding the gates of our minds, we actually open them to the flood of ungodly material coming to us through television, newspapers and magazines, and the world’s conversations that often surround us. Instead of fleeing from temptations, we too often indulge them in our thoughts.
We allow in our minds what we would not allow in our actions, because other people cannot see our thoughts. But God sees them. David said, “You perceive my thoughts from afar,” and “Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord” (Psalm 139:2,4). The Christian who fears God, controls his thoughts—not because of what other people think, but because of what God thinks. He prays, “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in
your
sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer” (Psalm 19:14).
The television and printed media are not the only culprits in leading our thoughts astray. Paul’s checklist for controlled thoughts in Philippians 4:8 includes such requirements as “true” and “noble” as well as “pure.” A Christian may not be particularly bothered with impure thoughts, but may be tempted to entertain those that are not true or noble. Listening to such things as gossip, slander, or criticism about others needs to be rejected just as strongly as the tendency to pass them over our tongues.
It is impossible to listen in a condoning manner to gossip or criticism about someone else and then think only thoughts that are true and noble about that person. And if we guard our thoughts we will more easily guard our tongues, for Jesus said, “For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34).
CURBING OUR EMOTIONS
The emotions that need to be controlled include anger and rage (the so-called “hot temper”), resentment, self-pity, and bitterness. The feelings may be explosive, as in the case of an uncontrolled temper, or they may be only simmering, as in the case of self-pity. But in either case these emotions are displeasing to God and need to be included in our efforts to exercise self-control.
An uncontrolled temper is a contradiction in the life of a person who is seeking to practice godliness. Outbursts of temper are harmful not only because they release our own ungoverned, sinful passions, but more importantly because they wound those who are the recipients of such outbursts. In this respect temper is a unique challenge in the area of self-control. Ungoverned thoughts and other emotions are sins within our own minds; they harm only ourselves, unless of course they lead to sinful words or actions. But an uncontrolled temper damages the self-respect of others, creates bitterness, and destroys relationships.
We are of course talking here about an
uncontrolled
temper. Many believers by temperament have a tendency to lash out at those who incur their displeasure in some way. But the godly person has learned to control this tendency.
Solomon said, “Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city” (Proverbs 16:32). To have a temper that requires control is not a mark of ungodliness; to fail to control it is. To succeed, by God’s grace, in controlling an unruly temper is to demonstrate godly self-control.
Someone has said of Proverbs 16:32, “Note what price the Holy Spirit puts on a curbed temper; it is more to be sought than a decisive victory in war.” Charles Bridges has commented, “The taking of a city is child’s play, compared with this wrestling....That is only the battle of a day. This, the weary, unceasing conflict of a life.”
4
The person who painfully struggles, often with failure, to control his temper should take to heart God’s evaluation of this struggle and be willing to pay the price necessary to succeed in it.
Although not as harmful to others, other uncontrolled emotions such as resentment, bitterness, and self-pity may be more destructive to ourselves and to our relationship to God. Uncontrolled temper is soon dissipated on others. Resentment, bitterness, and self-pity build up inside our hearts and eat away at our spiritual lives like a slowly spreading cancer.
All of these sinful inner emotions have in common a focus on self. They put our disappointments, our wounded pride, or our shattered dreams on the thrones of our hearts, where they become idols to us. We nurture resentment and bitterness, and we wallow in self-pity. Intellectually we know that in all things God works for our good, that nothing can separate us from His love. But in defiance of those God-given promises, we
choose
to think about that which is dishonoring to God and destructive of our own spiritual health.
Just as the apostle Paul beat his body (figuratively speaking, of course), so we must subdue our sinful emotions. We must deal decisively with them at their first appearance in our thoughts. Keeping a tight rein on our emotions is just as necessary to godliness as keeping the appetites and desires of our bodies under control.
BREAKING THE CHAINS OF SELF-INDULGENCE
The emphasis in the struggle for self-control should be on the word
growing
. We will never fully attain self-control in all areas in this life. Furthermore, we must realize that the battle of self-control is different for each of us. One person may have no problem at all with bodily self-control, but he may struggle with thoughts of spiritual pride. Another may never be bothered with impure thoughts but may indulge his emotions in resentment or in self-pity. As we are tempted to judge others for their lack of self-control in areas where we have no problems, let us remember our own areas of struggle and be charitable in our opinions.
Sound judgment is the beginning of self-control, and the Bible is absolutely essential to its exercise. Sound judgment must be based on a thorough knowledge of God’s standard, as revealed in the Scriptures, for our bodies, thoughts, and emotions. Years ago when I first began to grow as a Christian I read the quotation, “God’s word will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from God’s word.” This is not simply a cliché, nor is the Bible some magical wand to wave at temptation. It is sound judgment, growing out of reflection on the word of God, that warns us when the enemy of sinful desire is assailing the citadel of our hearts.
Sound judgment also enables us to form an accurate estimate of our particular needs in the area of self-control. Paul’s admonition, “Think of yourself with sober judgment” (Romans 12:3), is good advice, not only for assessing our spiritual gifts, but also for assessing our spiritual needs. Proverbs 27:12 says, “The prudent see danger and take refuge.” Spiritual prudence requires that we know ourselves—our particular weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Only as we study both the Scriptures and ourselves will we be able to exercise sound judgment.
Next, we must face the issue of whether we are truly willing to give up enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin in return for knowing that our lives are pleasing to God. Kehl points out, “The beginning of self-mastery is to be mastered by Christ, to yield to his lordship. ‘Wouldst thou have thy flesh obey thy spirit?’ Augustine asked. ‘Then let thy spirit obey thy God. Thou must be governed, that thou may’st govern.’”
5
Are you willing to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord of your appetites and desires, of your thoughts and emotions? If self-control begins with sound judgment, it must be carried forward by surrender to the authority of Christ in every area of our lives.
Then we must realize that the battle for self-control is fought primarily within our own minds; it is a battle with our own passions, thoughts, and desires. In those areas where we have failed to curb our appetites and emotions, we seem to have invisible antennae sensitively attuned to the corresponding temptations. The proverbial “chip on his shoulder” describes the person whose antenna is constantly searching for the minor incident that he can magnify into an occasion for losing his temper. The person who habitually yields to some bodily appetite or lust is constantly alert for opportunities to indulge that carnal desire. We must learn to say no to those passions when they first enter our minds.
Above all, we must pray for the inner strength of will necessary to curb our passions and desires. It is God who works in us to will and to act. Our own particular areas of vulnerability must be made the subject of earnest, beseeching prayer for God’s grace to work in our wills. At the same time we must realize that the will is strengthened by obedience. The more we say no to sinful desires, the more we will
be able
to say no. But to experience this, we must persevere through many failures. A large part of learning self-control is breaking bad habits and replacing them with good ones. And this process always involves a certain amount of failure.
Finally, as Kehl points out, “True spiritual self-discipline holds believers in bounds but never in bonds; its effect is to enlarge, expand and liberate.”
6
James describes the word of God as “the perfect law that gives freedom” (1:25). As we grow in the grace of self-control, we will experience the liberation of those who, under the guidance and grace of the Holy Spirit, are freed from the shackles of self-indulgence and are brought into the freedom of true spiritual discipline.
NOTES
1
Charles Bridges,
An Exposition of Proverbs
(1846; rpt. Evansville, Ind.: Sovereign Grace Book Club, 1959), page 483.

 

2
D. G. Kehl,
Control Yourself?
(Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing House, 1982), page 25. This is an excellent book for those who want to pursue the subject of self-control further.
3
Bethune,
The Fruit of the Spirit,
page 179.

 

4
Charles Bridges, page 250.
5
Kehl, page 79.

 

6
Kehl, page 26.
12
Faithfulness
Many a man claims to have unfailing love, but a faithful man who can find ?
Proverbs 20:6

 

Opening my concordance to the word
faithfulness,
I quickly ran my finger down the column and counted more than sixty references in the Bible to the faithfulness of God. It is not surprising that some forty of these instances occur in the book of Psalms, which recounts, more than any other book in the Bible, the struggles of the godly and their total dependence upon God’s faithfulness.
Consider for a moment the absolute necessity of the faithfulness of God. We are dependent upon His faithfulness for our final salvation (1 Corinthians 1:8-9), for deliverance from temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13), for ultimate sanctification (1 Thessalonians 5:23), for the forgiveness of our sins (1 John 1:9), for deliverance through times of suffering (1 Peter 4:19), and for the fulfillment of our ultimate hope of eternal life (Hebrews 10:23). We can easily see that every aspect of the Christian life rests upon the faithfulness of God, and we have the assurance, “The Lord is faithful to all his promises” (Psalm 145:13).
No wonder, then, that the psalmist says, in reflecting upon the faithfulness of God, “with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations. I will declare ... that you established your faithfulness in heaven itself” (Psalm 89:1-2).
Even the prophet Jeremiah, in the midst of his lamentations over the judgment of God upon Judah, could still proclaim of God, “Great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:23).
Actually, even a study of the sixty references to the faithfulness of God couldn’t do justice to the subject: The entire Bible is a treatise on that theme. God’s faithfulness appears in precept or illustration on almost every page. It is impossible to describe the acts of God without in some way touching upon His faithfulness to His own.
In our effort to become like God in our character, we must ensure that the grace of faithfulness is very high in our value system. This is not a natural virtue, as indicated by Solomon’s lament, “Many a man claims to have unfailing love, but a faithful man who can find?” (Proverbs 20:6). Many people will profess faithfulness, but very few will demonstrate it. The virtue of faithfulness is often costly, and few people are willing to pay the price. But for the godly person, faithfulness is an absolutely essential quality of his character, regardless of what it might cost.
What is faithfulness? How do we practice it, and when do we exhibit it in our lives? The biblical word denotes that which is firm and can be counted upon. The dictionary defines
faithful
as “firm in adherence to promises or in observance of duty.”
1
Some common synonyms are “dependable,” “reliable,” “trustworthy,” and “loyal.” The word also has the connotation of absolute honesty or integrity.
The faithful person is one who is dependable, trustworthy, and loyal, who can be depended upon in all of his relationships, and who is absolutely honest and ethical in all of his affairs. It was said of Daniel that his rivals “tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy [faithful] and neither corrupt nor negligent” (Daniel 6:4).
The words
corrupt
and
negligent
help us define, by contrast, what it means to be faithful in our daily affairs. The word
corrupt
is the opposite of “honest” or “ethical,” and the word
negligent
is an antonym of such words as “careful,” “thoughtful,” and “considerate.”

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