A Clean Heart

We Christians like to go to great measures to help us prevent sins. And it's actually biblical. Jesus went so far as to recommend, "If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away" (Matt 18:8), by which we understand Him to say, "Do whatever is necessary to avoid sinning." Paul tells the Corinthian Christians, "Flee from sexual immorality" (1 Cor 6:18) and "Flee from idolatry" (1 Cor 10:14). He tells Timothy, "Flee youthful passions" (2 Tim 2:22). We are, indeed, supposed to take measures to avoid sin. Here's the problem. These measures are useful and even commanded, but they are not sufficient or effective ... on their own. Look, we can make all the laws we want on matters of morality and it won't make anyone a better person. Something more is required.

Psalm 51 is David's famous repentance psalm for his sin with Bathsheba. In it, he says things like "Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight" (Psa 51:4) and "I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Psa 51:5). At one point he writes, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me" (Psa 51:10). Ah! There's something important. Jesus told His disciples, "What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander" (Matt 15:18-19). So while we pray, "Lead us not into temptation" (Matt 6:13), the truth is we can find it very well on our own. The truth is that our sin problem is a heart problem before it ever becomes a problem of actions.

Thus, David's prayer. If we want to get anywhere in our struggle with sin, we will certainly need to use means. We might employ software and accountability relationships to battle a desire for pornography. We might have a rule for ourselves to never be alone with a member of the opposite sex without our spouse. We might use tricks and methods, eliminate bad influences and try to engage with people and devices to get us to do good. But the absolutely essential beginning and ongoing part to make any of those effectual will be to receive that clean heart. Probably on an ongoing basis. Without fail. As a matter of practice. Because out of the heart comes all manner of sin, so scrubbing up the outside won't really clean up the problem, will it? And, interestingly, the only means of obtaining that clean heart is from God ... who then gets the credit ... as it should be.