With All Vigilance – The Kingdom Curriculum XI (3)

With All Vigilance

“You shall not commit adultery.” Exodus 20:14; Deuteronomy 5:18

“None of you shall approach any one of his close relatives to uncover nakedness. I am the LORD.” Leviticus 18:6

Keep a Close Watch on Your Heart

So since adultery begins in the heart, where approaching another person with illicit sexual interest–lust–takes place, and since the heart is so powerful in determining who we are and how we will relate to God and His Law, we’d better find some ways of exercising vigilance over our hearts. Solomon agrees, and he should know. In Proverbs 4:20-27 he is exhorting his son to a careful self-watch, and writes, “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (v. 23). Our greatest vigilance must be over our hearts. How can we do this in a way that keeps the darkness of sin from entering or occupying our hearts?

Listen for the Spirit to convict you of any wicked thought or way in your heart (Ps. 139:23; Jn. 16:8-11). This will require some time in silence, reading over the Word of God and waiting for any prompting or convicting nudge from the Spirit. We must not be afraid to have our sins found out, for there is no condemnation, but only healing, for those who confess and repent (Rom. 8:1; 1 Jn. 1:8-10). Be quick to confess sin at this deepest level, at the fountainhead of disobedience, agreeing with the Spirit’s assessment and declaring your intention to be made new. Then seek the Lord for just those affections and attitudes of the heart that will allow you to love Him and your neighbor according to the holy, righteous, and good Law of God.

From there you can begin to determine a course of true repentance. Wherever you find something in your soul that is contrary to the holy and righteous and good Law of God, wait on the Lord to show you corrective measures, contrary to your sinful ways, that will enable you to overcome evil with good (Rom. 14:21; Ps. 119:59, 60). Concerning this, the spiritual discipline of penance, the old Celtic saints used to say, “contraries are by contraries cured.” Let God expose anything contrary to His Law or the demands of Christian faith, then seek Him for the contrary behavior that will restore you to the path of righteousness in the fear of God (2 Cor. 7:1).

How can we use the Law of God to make wise ethical choices? Order your copy of The Ground for Christian Ethics today. Go to www.MyParuchia.com, point your browser to “Publications,” then click on the drop-down option, “Waxed Tablet Publications.”

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore.

T.M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001,2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.