Man loves what he ought to hate

Posted : 28 Jun, 2013 02:14 AM

Psalm 119:113 I hate vain thoughts, but Your law do I love.





The fall of man has misplaced his affections. Love was

originally made for God and His law;-hatred, for sin. Now man

loves what he ought to hate, and hates what he ought to love.

The work of Divine grace is to restore the disordered

affections to their proper center, and to bestow them on their

right object;-hating vain thoughts, and loving the law of God.

Few think of the responsibility of their thoughts; as if they were

too trifling to be connected with any solemn account. The

enlightened soul, however, learns to make a conscience of his

thoughts. Here is the seminal principle of sin. How must a

radical remedy be applied?

Vain thoughts are the natural produce of the unrenewed heart,

and of the yet unrenewed part of the believer's heart. Who

that "knows the plague of his own heart," and the spirituality of

the Christian walk with God, does not constantly complain of

their baneful influence? The child of God longs that his "every

thought may be brought into captivity to the obedience of

Christ." But he "sees another law in his members, warring

against the law of his mind;" so that "when he would do good,

evil is present with him." When he would "attend upon the

Lord without distraction;" many times, even in a single

exercise, does he forget his sacred employment. Sin seems to

enter into every pore of his soul; and a cloud of vain thoughts

darkens every avenue to communion with God. He would

gladly say, "My heart is fixed, my heart is fixed;" but he finds

his affections wandering, as "the eyes of the fool, in the ends

of the earth," as if there were no object of Divine attraction to

his soul. We do not hear the worldling, or indeed the servant

of God in his worldly employments, complaining of this

burden. He can bring to deep, important, and anxious

concerns of this world, all that intensity and fixedness of attention which the emergency may demand. Indeed, the wily

adversary would rather assist than hinder this concentration of

mind, as diverting the soul from the far more momentous and

interesting subjects of eternity. But never do the "sons of God

come to present themselves before the Lord," except "Satan

comes also among them."

Vain thoughts are his ceaseless hindrances to our spiritual

communion with God. Are we aware of the subtlety, and

therefore the peculiar danger, of this temptation? We should

instinctively start from an enticement to open transgression.

The incursion of defiling or blasphemous thoughts would be

such a burden, that we should "have no rest in our spirit,"

while they remain undisturbed within us. But perhaps neither

of these temptations are so formidable as the crowd of

thoughts of every kind, incessantly running to and fro in the

mind; the indulgence of which, though not actually sinful in

itself, yet as effectually restrains the soul from communion

with God, as the most hateful injections. These are "the little

foxes, that spoil the tender grapes." No-the thoughts may be

even spiritual in their nature, and yet vain in their tendency;

because unsuitable to the present frame, and calculated, and

indeed intended by the great enemy, to divert the mind from

some positive duty. Who has not felt a serious thought upon

an unseasonable subject, and an unseasonable time, to be in

its consequences a vain thought-the secret impulse of the

false "angel of light," dividing the attention between two

things, so that neither of them may be wholly done, done to

any purpose, done at all? If at any time "iniquity has been

regarded in the heart;" if the world in any of its thousand forms

has regained a temporary ascendancy; or if lusting

imaginations are not constantly "held in" as "with bit and

bridle;" these vain thoughts, ever ready to force their entrance,

will at such seasons "get an advantage of us." Restless in

their workings, they keep no sabbaths: and can only be

successfully met by a watchful and unceasing warfare. It may indeed be sometimes difficult, in the midst of this

continual trial, to maintain a clear sense of adoption. But this

is the distinctive mark of Christian sincerity:-Do we cordially

hate them, as exceedingly sinful in the sight of God, hurtful to

our own souls and contrary to our new nature? If we cannot

altogether prevent their entrance, or eject them from their

settlement, are we careful not to invite them, not to entertain

them, not to suffer them to "lodge within us?" This active

hatred is a satisfactory proof that they are not so much the

natural suggestion of the heart, as the injections of the enemy

of our peace. They are at least so directly opposed to our

better will and dominant bias, that we may say, "If I do that I

would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me."

Our affliction and conflict with them prove that they dwell with

us-not as welcome guests, or as the family of the house-but

as "thieves and robbers." Their indulgence constitutes our sin.

Their indwelling may be considered only as our temptation.

They supply, indeed, continual matter for watchfulness,

humiliation, and resistance; yet so far as they are abhorred

and resisted, they are rather our infirmities than our iniquities,

and leave no stain of actual guilt upon the conscience. An

increasing sense of the sinfulness of sin, and of the extent of

duty, will indeed show their deeper aggravations and more

persevering opposition. Still, however, even while we groan

under their defiling, distracting influence, in our best services,

we may assure our confidence in Him, who "spares us, as a

man spares his own son that serves him," and who will gather

up the broken parts of our prayers with merciful acceptance.

But the subjugation of this evil-even though we be secured

from its condemnation-is a matter of the deepest concern.

Forget not-oh, may the impression be indelible!-that it was for

these vain thoughts that the Savior was nailed to the cross.

Here lies the ground of self-loathing-the quickening principle

of conflict and exertion. Let the heart-the seat of this evil disease- be continually washed in the cleansing blood of

Calvary; for until the corrupt fountain be cleansed, it must ever

"send forth bitter waters." Let it be diligently "kept," and

carefully filled, so that it may be a "good treasure bringing

forth good things." Let there be the continued exercise of that

"watchfulness" "which is unto prayer," combined with an

unflinching adherence to plain and obvious duty. Let the

temptation to desist awhile from services so polluted, that they

appear rather to mock God than to worship Him, be met on

the onset with the most determined opposition. Once admit

this suggestion, and our active enemy will pour in successive

incursions of vain thoughts into our perplexed and yielding

minds, to turn us back step by step in our attempts to

approach God. If, therefore, we cannot advance as we could

wish, let us advance as we can. If a connected train of thought

or expression fails us, let us only change-not surrender-our

posture of resistance; substituting sighs, desires, tears, and

"groanings"-for words, and casting ourselves upon our God in

the simple confidence of faith, "Lord, all my desire is before

You, and my groaning is not hid from You. You tell my

wanderings: put my tears into Your bottle: are they not in Your

book?" It is far better to wander in duty than from it. For if any

duty be neglected on account of the defilement that is mingled

with it, for the same reason we must neglect every other duty,

and, as the final consequence, the worship of God would be

abolished from the earth.

Much of our successful warfare, however, depends upon an

accurate and well-digested acquaintance with our own heartsupon a discovery of the bias of the mind in our unoccupied

moments, and of the peculiar seasons and circumstances that

give most power to temptation. This once known, set a double

watch against those doors, by which the enemy has been

accustomed to find his most convenient and unobstructed

entrance. But we must not forget the effective means suggested by

David's experience- the love of God's law. Here rises the

native enmity against God-not as the Creator, but the Lawgiver-and therefore against His law as the dictate of His will.

Here, then, is the power of grace subduing this enmity. Not

only I fear, and therefore through fear I keep, but I love Your

law. And 'He who loves a holy law'-remarks an excellent old

writer-'cannot but hate a vain thought.' For if the law be the

transcript of the image of God, the thoughts affectionately

drawn out towards him must naturally fix the image of the

beloved friend upon the mind, and by a sweet constraint

fasten down the thoughts to Divine contemplation. Are we

then ever winged with an elevating love to the Savior? And do

we not find our hearts start out from their worldly

employments with frequent glances and flights towards the

object of our desire? And will not this communion of love

gradually mold the soul into a fixed delight, exciting our

hatred, and strengthening our resistance of every sinful

affection? Thus, as love to the law stirs up the powers of the

renewed man, "spiritual wickedness" will be abhorred,

conflicted with, and overcome.

Yet these defilements will remain to die with the last

breathings of the old man; which, though crucified indeed and

expiring, will struggle with fearful strength and unabated

enmity to the end. And let them remain, as humbling

mementos of our unclean nature, "shaped in iniquity, and

conceived in sin;" and as enlivening our anticipations of that

blessed place, where "shall in no wise enter anything that

defiles;" where vain thoughts, and whatever beside might

"separate between us and our God," will be unknown forever.

Meanwhile let them endear to us the free justification of the

Gospel; let them lead us daily and hourly to "the fountain

opened for sin and for uncleanness;" and enhance in our view

that heavenly intercession, which provides for the perfect

cleansing and accepting of services even such as ours. Blessed contemplation! Jesus prays not for us, as we do for

ourselves. His intercession is without distraction-without

interruption. If we are then so dead, that we cannot, and so

guilty, that we dare not, pray, and so wandering in our vain

thoughts, that our prayers appear to be scattered to the winds,

rather than to ascend to heaven-if on these accounts

combined, we "are so troubled, that we cannot speak:" yet

always is there One to speak for us, of whom "a voice from

heaven" testified for our encouragement, "saying-This is My

beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." With such hopes,

motives, and encouragements, let us "continue instant in

prayer," until we pray, and that we may pray. Let us supplicate

our Lord with restless importunity, that His omnipotent love

would take hold of these hearts, which every moment sin and

Satan seem ready to seize. At the same time, conscious of

our hatred of every interruption to His service, and of the

simplicity of our affection to His holy law, let us hold fast that

confidence before Him, which will issue in perfect peace and

established consolation.



by

Charles Bridges

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