By Kevin Harris, pastor of the Illawarra Community Baptist Church in Wollongong, NSW
The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath.
Proverbs 15:24
Last week I took a course on asbestos removal. Let me tell you, it’s a serious business! Extreme care is promoted so that those dangerous tiny contaminants don’t get into our lungs.
As bad as physical contamination is, think about the moral contamination that abounds in our world. Sitting in that room of asbestos removal students who consider asbestos to be highly dangerous, I heard FAR more dangerous language coming from their mouths.
There are three entities which combine to pull me down. They are my own sin nature, the world and the devil.
Mankind lurks in the gutter of moral filth. This includes nudity on screens and crude profanity in conversations. Our ears and our eyes are constantly contaminated.
But praise the Lord for today’s proverb. In the midst of a world wallowing in moral sewage, Jesus Christ lifts me higher. He converts me to set my affections on things above.
Two verses later we read this Proverb: ‘The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the LORD: but the words of the pure are pleasant words.’ Since our Saviour taught us that ‘out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh,’ this verse makes a clear distinction between the thoughts of the wicked and the pure.
Wickedness moves a person to debase the dignity of God’s image; Jesus Christ exalts us to the highest attainments of God’s image possible to mankind.
Think about which of these two describe entertainment in our day. Do they exalt wickedness or Jesus Christ; filth or purity? With this in mind, consider whether it glorifies the Lord for Christians to immerse ourselves in the world’s entertainment.
Instead, a man who immerses himself in the Word of God is not only cleansed from sin’s filth (Psalm 119:9), but he is saturated with the excellencies of God. He doesn’t have time for sin’s pollution because he’s breathing celestial air.
A man rejoicing in purity has no appetite to entertain filth.
Father, ‘Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it’ (Psalm 119:140). Help me to love it more. Thank You for the Lord Jesus Christ, who lifts my thoughts to pure thoughts and my desires to exalted truths. Keep me hating sin’s debasing ways, and loving Your higher ways. I ask this in the Name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.
This article was written by Kevin Harris Dapto pastor of Illawarra Community Baptist Church.