Hear David's words, "Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you
teach me wisdom in the inmost place." David is recognizing a new
awareness. He is acknowledging a new sightedness. He understands what
God is working on.
You and I will only ever be holy by God's definition if we put the moral fences where God puts them.
We tend to put the fences at the boundary of behavior. For example,
rather than telling our children the importance of a respectful heart
and the issues of heart that cause us to not respect others as we
should, we instruct our children to use titles of respect when they're
relating to others. Now there's nothing wrong with this as far as it
goes. The problem is that enforcing certain behaviors won't create a
spirit of respectfulness. A child, who's mad at his teacher for an
assignment she's given may say, "Whatever you say Mrs. Smith!" in a tone
that's anything but respectful. The teacher immediately knows that the
child has used a title of respect to tell her that he doesn't respect
her at all, but to tell her that in a way that won't get him into
trouble!
This is where Christ's teaching, from the "Sermon on the Mount," is so
helpful. Christ draws the fences in much closer. He calls for us to
fence our hearts because he knows that it's only when we fence the heart
that we'll willingly and successfully stay inside God-appointed
behavioral fences. So he says, "You have heard that it was said, "You
shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a
woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in
his heart." (Matthew 5:27)
Consider the importance of what Christ does here. He isn't adding to
the Seventh Commandment. No, he's interpreting it for us. He's telling
us what the intention and extent of the command has always been. The
commandments all address fundamental issues of the heart, or as David
says, "the inmost place." The commandments not only depict God's claim
over our behavior, but more fundamentally God's ownership over our
hearts. But there's something else of importance here. God knows what
lust lusts for. Lust doesn't lust for more lust. Lust lusts for the
physical experience of the thing that's the object of the lust. A heart
controlled by sexual lust won't be satisfied with better and more
graphic fantasies. No, a lustful heart craves the actual experience and
will only be satisfied when it's actually experienced the thing for
which it lusts. This is why it never works to put the fences at the
boundary of behavior. Even if I've placed clear fences there, I'll cut
through them or climb over them if I haven't first fenced my heart.
Now again David speaks for all of us and his words are so echoed by
Christ that it almost appears as if Christ was thinking of David and Bathsheba when he spoke these words.
Have you fenced your heart? Have you tried to stay inside of behavioral
boundaries only to have climbed over them again and again? Go and read
the wisdom of the "Sermon on the Mount" (found in Matthew 5:1)
and ask God to "teach you wisdom in the inmost place." By God's grace,
determine to fight the battle of thought and desire, knowing full well
that it's only when you win this battle that you can be successful in
the battle of behavior. And rest assured that when you fight this battle
you aren't fighting alone, but your Lord wages war on your behalf."
No comments:
Post a Comment