Title: Take Care of Yourself
Contents
♡♥♡ Take care of yourself. / About 1:19-21
***Introduction
What is the most difficult thing for you? Are you making money? Are you raising children? Are you expressing your will? Is it interpersonal? Is it a religious life? There is something underlying all of this. It is your own mind.
People have a hard time controlling themselves. There is a saying unanimously by many sage soldiers in the East and the West who have flickered until now. Although there are some differences in expression, it is said that ‘controlling one’s mind is the most difficult’. So they teach that knowing yourself and taking good care of yourself is the secret to a successful life.
In the Sun Tzu Warfare Law, it is said that “If you fight after knowing the enemy’s situation and knowing the true situation of your allies, you will never be in danger even after a hundred battles.” On the other hand, it was said, ‘Once one has honed one’s conduct and governed the family, one can rule the country and pacify the world.’ It was said that ‘the Sushin system is governed by the kingdom of peace and under the rule of the heavens (修身齊家 治國平天下)’. Even ‘philosophy’, which is called the flower of learning, starts with knowing oneself. There is a famous saying in ‘Socrates’, “Know thyself”, and psychologists said that ‘the most fearful psychological elements that destroy humans are hatred and anger’.
The Bible says in Proverbs 16:32, “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his heart is better than he who takes a city.” This is representative of how difficult it is for a person to control their emotions.
According to a study by Dr. Wolf from the United States, when you feel anger, the mucous membrane of the stomach becomes congested, movement increases, and gastric acid secretion increases, which eventually leads to stomach and intestinal bleeding and ulcers. It has been reported that 96% of colitis is caused by anger. In addition, it is said that anger increases the risk of cerebral hemorrhage as it causes blood vessels to constrict abruptly, raising blood pressure.
There was a famous physiologist named John Hunter. He was well aware of the effect of anger on the heart. One day, when his doctrine was attacked at a conference, he was so angry that he tried to counterattack, but fell on the spot and died. The cause of death was cardiovascular circulatory failure due to anger.
Anger makes people sick. Moreover, hidden anger dries up human bones. It is really painful to hate others. The object of hatred may rather sleep and eat well, but the person who hates it is not. Since the person you hate is in your heart, they follow you to bed and make you unable to sleep, and they follow you to the table and take away your appetite. This suppressed hate and anger can also cause mental illness. That is why our old mothers sometimes got sick with ‘heartburn’.
If you think about it, it wouldn't be such a huge loss. That is why Jesus tells us not to take revenge, but to forgive, and rather to pray for our enemies. Romans 12:19. “My beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but leave it to wrath. It is written, 'Vengeance is mine, and I will repay,' says the Lord.” In Matthew 5:44, Jesus said, “I tell you, I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Do it,” he said.
In other words, love and forgiveness are the surest remedy for anger. But it is really difficult to put it into practice. Proverbs 18:19 says, “It is more difficult to be reconciled with a brother to anger than to take a fortified city; such quarrels are like the bars of a stronghold.” So, in today's text, the secret of controlling one's heart is taught.
1. To control your mind, you need to control the speed of entering and leaving your mind.
The reason you need to take good care of your heart is that the most important thing other than the above is the source of life. In Proverbs 4:23, “Guard your heart above all else. For it is the wellspring of life.” Guarding your heart here means maintaining a harmonious relationship with God. A relationship with God presupposes a harmonious relationship with man. For these relationships, you need to properly control everything that goes in and out of your mind.
1) There is something that needs to be done quickly.
It is 'listening'. The word ‘listen’ means ‘to obey’ or ‘to understand’. In other words, it does not simply mean listening with the ears, but also the actions that include hearing with the ears, understanding with the heart, and obeying with the body.
This is because the saints have ears to hear and can hear the word well, but they are slow to obey. God saw King Saul's lack of obedience and rebuked him through the prophet Samuel. 1 Samuel 15:22-23. “Samuel said to him, “Does the LORD take delight in burnt offerings and other sacrifices, as does the obedience of his voice? Obedience is better than sacrifice, and hearing is better than the fat of rams, for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as the sin of worshiping an idol. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, the LORD has also rejected you, so that you cannot become king.”
As such, in order to obey God's Word, we must be zealous in listening to God's Word. For you cannot believe in things you have not heard, and faith itself comes from hearing. In Romans 10:17, it says, “Therefore faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”
And the word of God does not end with listening, but must lead to obedience. To listen and not act is to deceive yourself. This is James 1:22. “Be ye doers of the way, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” And in verse 25, “He who is looking into the complete law of liberty is not the one who hears and forgets, but the one who does it. You will be blessed in what you do.” Therefore, the word of God is manifested in power through obedience that is heard and put into practice. This is the power of God to control your own mind.
2) There are things you need to do slowly.
There are two things that you have to do slowly, ‘talk’ and ‘get angry’. These two are a means of expressing one's feelings. In other words, accepting should be done quickly, while giving up should be prudent.
To speak means to present one's own subjective thoughts or opinions. In other words, being careful with what you say means not asserting too much of your personal feelings or wills in the community. To be angry is to envy, to hate, and to get revenge. Too much is lost by being angry. So anger makes you fail to become Christlike. In verse 20, it says that anger does not fulfill the righteousness of God. That's why the Apostle Paul said in 1 Timothy 2:8, "Therefore, I want men everywhere to pray, with holy hands raised, without anger or contention."
When we restrain and control our own mind in this way, our disposition gradually changes and becomes more like the disposition of God.
2. If you want to control your heart, you need to be clear about what to give up and what to receive.
1) There are things to throw away.
In the text, we are told to throw away ‘every uncleanness’ and ‘abounding evil’. ‘Dirty things’ (hrupos) means ‘dirty things’ or ‘earwax’. In other words, it refers to the time when the ears are blocked from hearing the word of God. It is worldly and selfish desires that keep us from hearing the word of God. In the parable of sowing a seed, it is a heart like a ‘field of thorns’. That's why people get angry over trivial things when they deviate from their interests. Our adversary, Satan, is aiming for this. And ‘abundant evil (khakias)’ means ‘hypocrisy,’ ‘relentless’, and ‘fallen’.
2) There is something to be received.
If you arm yourself with the spirituality of Christ in this way, you will be able to control your heart thoroughly with faith. This is the power of life. Perhaps the world of the future will have more things that will upset us as saints, make us suffer, and make us give up. The only way to protect one's life from the winds of this world is to arm oneself with Christ and guard one's heart.
I pray that you will be able to become more powerful people of God that the world cannot handle by properly controlling your mind so as not to confuse your mind.