Our Walk in Christ – Part four

a man thinketh in his heart, so is he”

In the past articles we have been thinking about an attitude of mind defined as Meekness. We have suggested that we can determine the extent of our meekness by how Merciful we are; and that the test of mercy is our willingness to Forgive. We have tried to emphasize that the only rule to be followed in the event that we cannot forgive, or in the event another cannot forgive us, is that there must be a meeting “face to face”.

A problem Brother – or Sister

Quite often there is no specific occasion when a brother or sister offends us: there is no specific occasion when we have offended another, and so there is no need to meet face to face. However, if we are honest we have to confess that there are brethren and sisters who get on our nerves. We are not compatible with them (or rather, they are not compatible with us!). We just do not click! In moments of weakness we say to ourselves: “If it wasn’t for the Truth that’s the kind of person I would has e nothing to do with. I could get along very well without having to mix with him or her at all.”

The feeling of indifference is heightened, and in fact becomes antagonistic when that brother or sister continues to irritate us by things said or done. Our minds tend to dwell on these things and a feeling of mutual dislike develops. We become hyper-critical of them, we are quick to blame them when things in the ecclesia do not go as we would like them to. At this stage simply a word or two spoken by the other person can immediately breed hostility in us. We are on the threshold of bitterness! When suddenly, without warning, at an A B. meeting, or an ecclesial quarterly, or a Sunday School meeting, or even a sisters’ class or a study group, that word is spoken and we flare up with inner anger.

If we are quick enough in our realization that it is un-Christlike to let fly, we clamp our mouths shut, tighten down on the pressure and go away steaming But we cannot get that person, or what he said, out of our mind. When we go to bed at night. when we wake up in the morning, at odd moments at work, while driving to and fro, while reading or relaxing: into our mind pops that person and we begin, for the umpteenth time, to mentally chew him or her out. Around and around our thoughts go: what he said, what we should have replied, what we are going to say next time we see him, how he ought to be straightened out . . . and so on ad infinitum.

We would be the last to admit our thoughts are malicious. Probably within ourselves we feel tilled with righteous indignation! The heart being the deceitful thing that Jeremiah said it was, in our own thinking we simply twist principles around backwards so that it always ends up that we are in the right and it is the other person who needs straightening out. It is the other person who h the trouble-maker; certainly not us’

The Danger

To continue in that frame of mind, in varying degrees of hostility, is obvisously not consistent with our Walk in Christ in the Ecclesia. It is not consistent with our walk in Truth. That state of mind alienates us from God. It makes us unworthy of participation in the breaking of bread meeting. How can we be in fellowship with God, when we are
not in fellowship with our brother or sister for whom Christ died? In “The Teaching of the Master,” Bro. Sargent writes: -It is the angry mind which comes under judgment; and Jesus assumes that the anger is of a kind which in behave the absence of love and therefore the presence of hate. There may be a righteous anger consistent with love; but whether it is so may be determined by one test: however stern its expression, it will aim at restoring the sinner instead of repelling him by one’s own self-righteousness. But for Jesus there is no neutral state the absence of love is hate (note that, brethren: the absence of love is mate!) .. and hate is murder in embryo…

The state of mind we have described verging on bitterness- -cuts us off from the Kingdom of God. It must not be allowed to continue. We must do something not about the other chap (his makeup and our makeup is such that we ever really will be compatible). We must do something about ourselves.

Both outside and within the field of religion many books have been written on this subject. some of them becoming best-sellers. Ones that readily come to mind are: “How to Wm Friends and Influence People, The Power of Positive Thinking”, and recently: “Psycho-Cybernetics”. Writers of these kinds of books all have e something in common: They take a fundamental Scriptural principle blow it up into a volume of words, dress it up in all kinds of fancy phrases and speech, embellish it with illustrations galore, set a high price on it and then sit back and watch the greenbacks flow in!

They are all based on one simple, various Scriptural principle:

Prob. 23: “As he thinkth in his heart so is he“. Rotherham translates: “just as he has thought in his own mind so is he”. What does this mean?

In relation to our subject it means this: If we think unkind thoughts, and allow our minds to dwell on them, we become unkind people. If we think critical thoughts, and allow our minds to dwell on them, we become critical people. If we think bitter thoughts, and allow our minds to dwell on them, we become bitter people. If we think unloving thoughts and allow our minds to dwell on them, we become unloving people . . .

The Solution

We can change our thinking. It is possible. In fact, it must be done. But first there is one requirement: We must to Someone has written: “In character we only become what we constantly and strongly desire to be, and the becoming starts right now.”

No doubt if a group of brethren were asked to raise their hands if any jogged, or walked, or ran, or swam, or cycled in order to keep fit, there would be a goodly proportion of hands go up. This is because we are concerned about our physical health. Ought we not to be just as concerned, in fact more so, about our mental–our spiritual health? The kind of mental health we have to maintain in order to gain the Kingdom? Let us not kid ourselves: we shall not gain the Kingdom if we maintain a state of mind which can only be described as critical of others –as unlovely. We have got to change but first of all we have got to ehayge. -Strive to enter in at the straight gate- said Jesus, -for many shall seek to enter in and shall not be able”. “Strive” in the original meant to agonize’ Jesus required Ins disciples to recognize after the manner of those who competed in the- Olympic Games casting off everything that hinders, calling forth all their powers in eoncentrated effort. If we to change our thinking we can. When a man knows of a simple means for gaining strength and does not use it, it surely indicates that he has no real desire to be strong. Islip Coilyer tells the delightful little story of the boy who was forbidden to go swimming on Sunday afternoon. He transgressed, but protested he had really meant to obey. “But” said his mother, “if you really meant to obey, why did you take your swimming trunks and towel with you when you went out -Oh well” he stammered:  “I took them in case I might be tempted !

The apostle Paul writes: “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not Provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof”. If we make provision we shall soon find occasion for use. If we want to change our unkind thoughts about our brethren and sisters we can. If we do not make the effort it is because we don’t really want to. Thought comes first: as with every other kind of growth, the younger it is the easier it is to guide. If we allow unkind thoughts to grow in our minds regarding our brethren and sisters we shall find it most difficult to eradicate them. If we have a genuine desire to live Christ-like lives, we must begin with Christ-like thoughts.

“As a man thinketh in his heart so is he”. There is nothing mysterious about this — there is no magic formula for changing our thinking. It requires discipline. It is very easy to tell you what to do—it is very difficult to put it into practice. Unkind thoughts are negative. A brother speaking at a Bible School on the sacrifices under the law emphasized every day in his talks that “nothing negative was ever put upon the altar”. Negative, unkind thoughts must be replaced by positive, kind thoughts.

The solution is something like a tourniquet: it must be applied immediately to be of any avail. The moment an unkind–critical unloving bitter thought comes into your mind (fit it off! Immediately! And then think something positive about the other person. If you can’t do that, then force your thoughts upon someone, or something, else. It can be done! May we repeat: It can be done It  is not requires but we must form the habit.

In I Peter 1:13 we read: “Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hone to the end.” In the ”Guiding Light” the author comments: “Girding up the loins of the mind implies a gathering together of all parts of the mentality, a concentration of forces, a use of the lower part of the brain to establish the final object of the will. Well-trained habits become most helpful servants; illtrained habits become tyrant masters. In the most literal sense it is true that as a man thinketh so shall he be. Undesirable thoughts must be inhibited, idle thoughts dismissed, good thoughts and feelings encouraged and developed. We are aware that many thoughts flit into the conscious mind unbidden and perhaps even undesired. They may be presented to us through the senses, or they may be thrown up from the great stores of memory. We cannot prevent this fleeting presentation even of evil thoughts. nut we are perfectly conscious that we are able to make our selection of which thoughts to encourage and which to reject. We can at any moment call for a halt in the idle stream of consciousness and fix the spotlight of attention upon something that is worthy. We can call forth other thoughts and seek for new knowledge to nourish the chosen idea, thus making, it grow and effectively crowding out the undesirable.”

‘Thought precedes and causes action, and it remains after the- action is over. A man may indulge in an evil thought, supposing that it is only a thought and of no importance. It may be only a thought but in the final issue, it man himself. The true Christian realizes his responsibility. He knows that ample provision has been made for him to develop his character and that the selection of the right daily exercise, and the right daily thought is relatively easy. ‘Gird un the loins of your mind; be sober, and hope unto the end’ is more definitely expressed by the apostle Paul: ‘Bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ’ “.