PT-1 "Keeping a Pure Mind"

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/12/2025 7:39 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                 Focus:  PT-1 “Keeping a Pure Mind”

 

            For the next few days my Spiritual Diaries will be a bit different as I mentioned in my last SD that I wanted to begin quoting from a booklet that I received in the mail from the ministry of John MacArthur.  He wrote this booklet “Keeping a Pure Mind” and it goes along with what I have been learning from my studies in 2 Timothy 2:23 and so I have decided to quote from this booklet until I am through it, quoting the entire booklet.

 

“Seeing that sin is so sinful, it is evil even to be a thinking sinner, or a sinner through only in thought.  It is too commonly said that thoughts are free.  They are indeed free in respect of men, who cannot judge us for them, but God can and will.  Many people who seem to be modest and sparing as to evil words and deeds will still make bold with thoughts and, as the saying is, pay it with thinking.  Such are speculative, contemplative sinners” (Ralph Venning, The Sinfulness of Sin (1669; repr., Edinburg: Banner of Truth, 1965), 224.

 

            “No sin is more subtle than the sin that takes place in the arena of the mind.  After all, who but God and the sinner every knows about those sins?  ‘Who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?’ (1 Cor. 2:11).  Many people who will not do evil deeds are nevertheless boldly evil in their thoughts.  A man who abstains from fornication for fear of getting caught might convince himself it is all right to indulge in salacious fantasies because he thinks no one else will ever discover such a private sin.  The sins he deliberately entertains in his mind may be a thousand times more evil than anything he would ever think of doing before others.  Scripture says his guilt is the same as if he acted out his fantasies.

 

            To indulge in sins of thought, therefore, is to molest the conscience directly.  Those who thoughts are impure cannot have pure consciences; the guilt is inherent in the evil thought.  When the thoughts are defiled, the conscience immediately is, too.  That is why nothing is more characteristic of unbelief than an impure mind combined with a defiled conscience:  ‘To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled’ (Titus 1:15, emphasis added).  In fact, nothing damages the conscience more than the habit of indulgent in evil thoughts.  Unfortunately, once begun, the practice becomes all too easy. This is a sin that does not have to wait for an opportunity; the mind can sin anytime, anywhere, under any circumstances.  So the habit is quickly and easily established.

 

THE DANGER OF A SINFUL THOUGHT LIFE

 

            “By engaging the inner faculties—mind, emotions, desire, memory, and imagination—even thought-sins work directly on the soul to bias it toward evil.  Sow a thought, reap an act.  Sow an act, reap a habit.  Sow a habit, reap a character.  Sow a character, reap a destiny.  Evil thoughts thus underlie and lay the groundwork for all other sins.

 

            “No one ever ‘falls’ into adultery.  The adulterer’s heart is always shaped and prepared by lustful thoughts before the actual deed occurs.  Likewise, the heart of the thief is ben by covetousness.  A murder is the product of anger and hatred.  All sin is first incubated in the mind.

 

            “Jesus taught this truth to his disciples:  ‘The things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man.  For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witness, slanders.  These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man’ (Matt. 15:18-20, emphasis added).

 

            “Jesus was teaching that the real point of the Mosaic law was the moral truth embodied in the external ceremonial requirements.  He downplayed the symbolic aspect of washing and abstaining from what is legally declared unclean.  Instead, He emphasized the law’s moral requirement.  Defilement, He suggested, is not primarily a ceremonial or external problem; what is truly defiling in the spiritual sense is the wicked ness that emanates from the heart.  In the New Testament, the heart is the seat of the whole person-mind, imagination, affections, conscience, and will; ‘heart’ is often used as a synonym for ‘mind.’ In these verses, therefore, our Lord was condemning the wickedness of an impure thought life.

 

            “Again and again, Christ rebuked the Pharisees for their fastidious observance of the external, ceremonial law and their wanton neglect of the law’s moral requirements.  They were utterly preoccupied with appearing to be righteous.  Yet they were willing to tolerate the grossest sins of the heart.  They thought no one else could ever discover that what was really inside them.  But our Lord knew what was in their hearts (Matt. 9:4); 12:25).  He compared them to elegant crypts, beautiful on the outside but full of defilement and death on the inside: 

 

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. 24 “You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! 25 “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. 26 “You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also. 27 “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. 28 “So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Matt. 23:25-28).

 

            I will work on finishing this section in the next SD and then begin the next one, Lord willing.

 

            Spiritual Meaning for my Life Today:  I desire to keep a pure mind, in order to bring glory to my Lord.

 

            My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord with all the difficult times that are going on in the life of my wife.  I pray for wisdom for her as she goes to the doctor this afternoon.

3/12/2025 8:25 AM