The Thought Life: Every Thought Captive

By Roy R Reeves

Did you know that your private thoughts are crucial to your spiritual walk? Many Christians do not consider unsuitable thoughts as sin and believe their thoughts are unseen and harmless. But what Jesus said does not agree with this at all. He clearly taught that God knows all our hidden thoughts and that entertaining a thought is equal to perfor

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Oct 14, 2020
• ISBN: 9781647734213

Book preview

Roy R. Reeves

THE

THOUGHT

LIFE

Every

Thought

Captive

Our Mind Is At War

2 Corinthians 10:5

We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

2 Corinthians 10:5

Table of Contents

PREFACE 9

1: DO OUR THOUGHTS REALLY NEED TO BE PURE? 11

2: THOUGHT IN EVERYDAY LIFE 21

3: THE NATURAL THOUGHT LIFE 27

4: THE INWARD VERSUS THE OUTWARD 35

5: HE KNOWS OUR THOUGHTS 43

6: THE SHEMA 49

7: MORE ON WHAT HE DESIRES OF OUR THOUGHTS 53

8: ASPECTS OF THE THOUGHT LIFE WE MIGHT NOT RECOGNIZE AS SIN 61

9: THE REWARDS OF A PURE THOUGHT LIFE 69

10: WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN IN US 75

11: THE BATTLE FOR THE MIND 81

12: CAN THE DEVIL INFLUENCE OUR THOUGHTS? 97

13: IT’S NOT A MATTER OF CONTROLLING OUR THOUGHTS, BUT OUR HEART 103

14: KEEPING OUR THOUGHTS PURE 111

15: CONSIDERING OTHER ASPECTS OF THOUGHT LIFE AND HOLINESS 131

16: WHAT WE THINK REALLY MATTERS 135

17: CONCLUDING THOUGHTS 141

A PRAYER FOR PURITY OF THOUGHT 151

Footnotes 153

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 155

PREFACE

Many Christians in today’s fallen world do not consider having unsuitable thoughts to be a sin. They believe their thoughts are their own, personal secret, seen by no one and largely harmless. But what Jesus said does not agree with these views at all. God knows all our thoughts, even the deepest and most hidden. Jesus clearly showed in Matthew chapter 5 that entertaining a thought is equal to performing the outward deed that thought entails. Throughout scripture, believers are commanded to have a pure thought life.

Unfortunately, sins of the thought life are the easiest to commit and the easiest of sins to conceal. A person does not have to have any resources or any special opportunities to have a sinful thought. And when a sinful thought occurs, generally, at least initially, it does not seem to have any effect on the person thinking it, or on anyone else. So it is easy for us to forget how important our thought life is to our spiritual walk.

Additionally, Christians are surrounded by all kinds of temptations and stimuli to entertain sinful thoughts, from television, to literature, to the general attitudes and morals of society as a whole. Yet such thoughts are sin before a holy God and must be dealt with if we are to have fellowship with Him. The modern church often does not address this issue, focusing more on outward observable sins. Thus this pertinent issue is very much overlooked or ignored.

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 that we war using divinely powerful weapons. A major purpose of that warfare involves mental issues: speculations and taking every thought captive. If this warfare is so concerned with our thought life, then we should be also. In this book, we will consider the nature of the heart of man and of man’s thoughts, and the dangers of sins of the thought life. We will see this is an issue that is truly vital to our walk with the Lord and discuss how we may achieve and maintain a thought life pleasing to Him.

1

DO OUR THOUGHTS REALLY NEED TO BE PURE?

Several years ago while reading The Pursuit of Holiness, by Jerry Bridges, I was particularly struck by a comment he made. He was discussing how habitual patterns of sin must be broken and quoted 1 John 2:1 which says:

My little children I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.

He went on to elaborate that what John was saying is, Make it your aim not to sin. He noted that he had made a discovery about himself while studying this passage:

One day as I was studying this chapter I realized that my personal life’s objective regarding that of holiness was less than John’s. He was saying in effect, Make it your aim not to sin. As I thought about this I realized that deep within my heart my real aim was not to sin very much. I found it difficult to say, Yes, Lord, from here on I will make it my aim not to sin. I realized God was calling me that day to a deeper level of commitment to holiness than I had previously been willing to make.¹

As I read the comments he made, I became sorely convicted that I also had not been willing to make that deeper level of commitment that he was referring to. I realized that the concept that, my real aim was not to sin very much, unfortunately applied to me and many of my friends. We didn’t want to commit any significant sins, but were not really giving attention to what we, at some level, believed were lesser sins. Most of what we considered lesser sins were nothing anyone could see, but were primarily sins in our minds, that is, sins in our thoughts or in our thought life. I realized we must not only abstain from the gross sins of the body that are outward and observable, but we also must abstain from, and purify ourselves of, the more acceptable sins of our inner thoughts. I also realized that this is a subject about which teaching is very much needed in the church today. However, it is rarely, if ever, mentioned. Those realizations led to this study of the nature of man’s thought life, and what the Lord requires of that thought life.

Almost everyone seems to think that his or her thought life is without fault and meets the acceptable standards of their friends and society. For the most part we are not even concerned about God’s opinion of our thoughts. We seem to think that unclean thoughts are not truly sins, and even if they are, they are trivial because no one can see them and no one is harmed by what we think. In essence, we all tend to believe the things we think are right for whatever reason.

Every man’s way is right in his own eyes,

But the Lord weighs the hearts.

Proverbs 21:2

To maintain the erroneous belief that our ways are right, our attitude regarding our thoughts often involves significant rationalization on our part. We may not even be cognizant of these rationalizations and compromises we tend to make within our hearts. We somehow do not generally recognize the depravity of our thoughts and how such thoughts might offend God.

One reason for this is that we seem to some degree to assume that no one else knows our thoughts, so it is fine to think whatever we want so long as there are no outward inappropriate actions. There is a tendency in fleshly man to unconsciously, or even possibly consciously, assume that God is invisible, far away, and somehow not really aware of our secret sins or thoughts. Like some individuals portrayed in scripture we seem to conclude regarding our thought life:

Is not God in the height of heaven?

Look also at the distant stars, how high they are!

You say, "What does God know?

Can He judge through the thick darkness?

Clouds are a hiding place for Him, so that He cannot see…"

Job 22:12-14 (emphasis added)

They say, "How does God know?

And is there knowledge with the Most High?"

Psalm 73:11

Some sins (e.g., murder) are much more obvious than others (e.g., covetousness).