Blessed Hope Bible-Presbyterian Church
500 Upper Bukit Timah Rd, Singapore 678106
A “Morality in the Media” booklet states, in part, “The traffic in pornography and obscenity has reached frightening proportions in this country. The smallest cities and towns have been invaded by it… It pours in through the mails, TV, the Internet.” This is “America, the good,” whose Presidents still refer to God and the Bible as its foundation!
Chapters 5 through 7 are a warning against adultery (except 6:1-19). Matthew Henry say some take these verses figuratively as referring to spiritual adultery, that is, false doctrine, which corrupts men’s minds and affections. The primary scope, however, is to warn against ‘seventh-commandment’ sins, to which both youth and adults are so prone. These temptations are so violent, so many, and so destructive to the soul. We would gladly skip these verses, but it would be to our loss and peril. Let us not forget, as Martin Luther puts it, that “there is no estate to which Satan is more opposed to as marriage.”
You recall, we are to keep the heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life (v.23). Either, out of your heart a poisonous stream is flowing (Mt. 15:19), or rivers of living (life-giving) waters (Jn. 7:38). From this Citadel flows the springs of life or death.
Keep thy heart with all diligence! Here is a paradox! We are commanded to do what we cannot, for no one can keep his own heart. “The greatest difficulty in conversion is to win the heart to God, and after conversion to keep it with Him” (Flavel). It is God’s work, but “our efforts are His instrumentality. He implants an active principle, and sustains the unceasing exercise” (Bridges). We know thoughts shape our character and conduct. Paul’s appeal in Romans 12:1-2 is to every faithful soldier on the Bulwarks.
In these verses that follow, there is, what Derek Kidner calls “a kind of medical inspection symbolised by the heart, mouth, eyes and feet,” but we prefer to treat it as a battle for the heart and soul of man.
Behind this familiar appeal sounds the echoing voice of God. Obviously we are dealing with more than human Wisdom here. This is nothing but the Voice of Heaven.
One cannot miss the stark contrast between verses 18 and 19, between a path of shining light and another of deepest darkness, between expanding joy or advancing danger (Matt. 6:22-23)! The word darkness used here is the same as in Exodus 10:22 to describe the supernatural darkness of God’s judgment. While it may not be entirely correct to suggest that the Devil is an ass, it is assuredly true of the dupes who follow him! Sin is a dark path, even darkness itself, and carries with it the idea of evil and misery. Sin is, after all, a fatal attraction.
The perfect day, and what a day of rejoicing that will be! “As the sun climbs the heavens, shining brighter and brighter, from the first faint glimmer of dawn till he reaches his meridian height and appears to stand there firm and motionless; so is the path of the righteous. His sun standeth still at last in the heavens, and hasteth not to go down for the whole everlasting day” (Perowne). Then shalt the righteous (the just) shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father (Mt. 13:43; Rev. 21:23-27). What a truly glorious culmination for the just!
Here is one of those precious gems in our Authorised Version. It is God’s path, not the path of the just, that is here compared to the sun’s movement across the heavens. Arnot makes the vital distinction, that the sun is a figure, not of the justified but of the Justifier. This grandest object is used to describe the Highest in all His glory. Christ is the Light, and Christians are but the reflectors. “The just,” says Arnot, “are those whom the Sun of Righteousness shines upon. They who were once darkenss are light not, but it is ‘in the Lord.’” What a blessing to know that one is walking by the Light of the World!
We now must take a closer look at the path of the wicked and those who travel it. The wicked have their path. It is very broad and very winding. It is popular today to reject negative virtue, but there can be no positive virtue without it. “Negative virtue is not good enough; we must do good” (William S. Plumer). How can the guilt-ridden love themselves unless and until they face the reasons for their anger and hate? Wisdom sounds a fervent warning here declaring that “virtue is the only true nobility”.