"A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh."
Luke 6:45
This is true, and instructive, and a little scary. How often do we say things that aren't nice, or kind, or motivated by good? Does that mean that we are evil? At least partly, right? If we were all good, we'd speak all good. And what does this mean? That we really have to work to get *ourselves* under control. That we need to spend some time worried about our own evil before we worry about anyone else's evil. And also that a pretty good measure of our level of evil at any time is what comes out of our mouths.
Today, let's be very aware of what is in our hearts, and what, from that source, gets filtered out into the world. How are we talking about other people? How are we talking about God? I think it is kind of scary, personally, that whatever comes out of our mouths is a product of what is in our hearts... not that I don't see the truth in that. It is just scary because I think we have a lot of work to do to cleanse our hearts, and to retrain ourselves if we are still thinking that we say bad things because someone ELSE is bad... when it is actually ourselves and our hearts that we need to worry about.
Luke 6:45
This is true, and instructive, and a little scary. How often do we say things that aren't nice, or kind, or motivated by good? Does that mean that we are evil? At least partly, right? If we were all good, we'd speak all good. And what does this mean? That we really have to work to get *ourselves* under control. That we need to spend some time worried about our own evil before we worry about anyone else's evil. And also that a pretty good measure of our level of evil at any time is what comes out of our mouths.
Today, let's be very aware of what is in our hearts, and what, from that source, gets filtered out into the world. How are we talking about other people? How are we talking about God? I think it is kind of scary, personally, that whatever comes out of our mouths is a product of what is in our hearts... not that I don't see the truth in that. It is just scary because I think we have a lot of work to do to cleanse our hearts, and to retrain ourselves if we are still thinking that we say bad things because someone ELSE is bad... when it is actually ourselves and our hearts that we need to worry about.
Reminds me of a cellphone conversation overheard while Nancy and I were in line ... a man (older) was trying to convince a woman (younger) to invite her high school friends and meet up for a party with a bunch of his friends. The evil intent was thick in the air. We need more people that are pure in heart so that the world wont be a scary place. Fortunately, as far as I can tell, all of my children and grandchildren are being raised to know righteousness and do loving works (so hopefully the evil power of persuasion will never take them off the path (it's those evil-hearted people that I worry about, and politely try to stay away from)).
ReplyDeleteGood point. We need to be careful, and choose wisely who we interact with and are influenced by.
ReplyDeleteI think we also need to be careful of the evil in our own hearts. Hopefully we aren't like that guy you overheard, but it is still so easy to say things that we'll regret later or pass on gossip, or other things that aren't good.