Ezekiel 11:5; Jeremiah 4:14
I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them.
Wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): “How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?” is the inquiry of the prophet Jeremiah. And Paul hath set it down as a truth perfectly incontrovertible, that “the carnal mind is enmity against God; that it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be; and they that are in the flesh cannot please God, ” Romans 8:7,8.
JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Carnal hearts are stews of unclean thoughts, shambles of cruel and bloody thoughts, exchanges and shops of vain thoughts, a very forge and mint of false, political, undermining thoughts, yea, often a little hell of confused and black imaginations, as one well describeth them.
ROBERT HAWKER: And although the mind be renewed by grace, still “in my flesh dwelleth no good thing,” Romans 7:18. The man who thinks otherwise, only manifests that he is a stranger to his own corruptions, and Paul’s experience.
THOMAS SCOTT (1747-1821): By nature we love vain thoughts, and hate the law of God. But in a renewed mind the case is altered; its delight is in the law of God; and therefore it cannot bear vain thoughts, which are contrary to that law, and exalt themselves against it, Psalm 119:113.
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): They who “regard iniquity in their hearts,” are in a state of desperate delusion. God, who searcheth the heart, and trieth the reins, “will bring every secret thing into judgment,” and acquit or condemn, according as He sees the prevailing bent of the heart. If then our “thoughts be not so far captivated to the obedience of Christ” that we cherish those that are holy, and mortify all that are corrupt, we may perceive beyond a doubt that we are in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity.
THOMAS SCOTT: Thoughts are often said to be free from human censure―they are, but not from the cognizance and judgment of the Omniscient.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): How solemn is this fact: nothing can be concealed from God!
JOHN FLAVEL (1630-1691): Thy thoughts are vocal to God.
WILLIAM SECKER (died 1681): Vain thoughts defile the heart as well as vile thoughts.
JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): Evil thoughts as unavoidably arise from an evil nature, as steam arises from a boiling tea kettle. Every cause will have its effect, and a sinful nature will have sinful effects. You can no more keep such thoughts out of your mind than you can stop the course of the clouds. But though we cannot prevent evil thoughts from rising in our minds, we should endeavour to combat and suppress them.
CHARLES SIMEON: We are well aware that the best of men may have sinful thoughts rushing into their minds; but will they harbour them? No: every true Christian may say as in the presence of God, “I hate vain thoughts.”
JOHN TRAPP: In the midst of thee, in the very heart of thee, creep in they will, but why should they lodge there?
THOMAS SCOTT: The spiritual mind recoils at them; such thoughts will intrude from time to time, but they are unwelcome and distressing, and are immediately thrust out…There is no better test of our true character, than the habitual effect of “vain thoughts” upon our minds―whether we love and indulge them, or abhor, and watch and pray against them.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The moralist is quite content to look after his actions, but the Christian is never happy until his thoughts are sanctified―vain thoughts nailed his Saviour to the tree.
THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): Follow men all the day long, and take account of their thoughts. Oh! what madness and folly are in all the musings they are conscious of―if we did judge as God judges, all the thoughts, reasonings, discourses of the mind, if they were set down in a table, we might write at the bottom, Here is the sum and total account of all: nothing but vanity.
STEPHEN CHARNOCK (1628-1680): What a mass of vanity should we find in our minds, if we could bring our thoughts in the space of one day, even only one hour, to account? How many foolish thoughts with our wisdom, ignorant thoughts with our knowledge, worldly thoughts with our heavenliness, hypocritical thoughts with our religion, and proud thoughts with our humiliations? Our hearts would be like a grotto, furnished with monstrous and ridiculous pictures; or as the wall in Ezekiel’s vision portrayed with every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, Ezekiel 8:10-12.
J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): What are our own thoughts at this moment? What have they been this very day, while we have been reading this? Would they bear public examination? Should we like others to know all that passes in our inner man? These are serious questions, and deserve serious answers. Whatever we may think of them, it is a certain fact that Jesus Christ is hourly reading our hearts.
CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): Behold the Great King sitteth on the throne of judgment, and challenging every child of Adam—“Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee; and answer thou me,” Job 38:3. The answer humbles us in the dust, Proverbs 20:9—“Who can say”—truly say—“I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?” A sinner in his self-delusion may conceive himself to be a saint. But that a saint should ever believe that he made himself so, is impossible. What! no vain thoughts, no sinful imaginations, lodging within! No ignorance, pride, wandering, coldness, worldliness, unbelief indulged! The more we search the heart, the more will its impurity open upon us. “Turn thou yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations,” Ezekiel 8:13, evils hitherto unsuspected. Vain boasters there are, who proclaim their good hearts. But the boast proves, not their goodness, but their blindness; that man is so depraved, that he cannot understand his own depravity.
J. C. RYLE: Truly we ought to humble ourselves before Him, and cry daily, “Who can tell how oft he offendeth?”—“Cleanse thou me from secret faults.”—“God be merciful to me a sinner!”
JOHN TRAPP: Behold a little the body of thy Saviour, hanging upon the cross. See Him afflicted from top to toe. See Him wounded in the head, to heal our vain imaginations. See Him wounded in the hands, to heal our evil actions. See Him wounded in the heart, to cure our vain thoughts. See His eyes shut up, that did enlighten the world; see them shut, that thine might be turned from seeing vanity. See that countenance so goodly to behold, spit upon and buffeted, that thy face might shine glorious as the angels in heaven,
ISAAC WATTS (1674-1748): With thoughts of Christ and things divine,
Fill up this foolish heart of mine.
