Don Bassett
08/12/10
“Now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified” (Acts 20:32).
Generally speaking, what people accomplish in their lives is not so much a matter of what they try to do as it is a byproduct of what they are.
For instance, people trying to break bad habits are being told by counselors these days that they will have little success until they visualize themselves as drug-free, or alcohol-free, or cigarette-free. What these counselors are trying to do is bring about a change in one’s image of himself or herself, a change in the inner man.
They know that the imagination of man is far more efficient in the alteration of behavior than is the will. I do not say that the will is totally inefficient, but I do say that if a man does not believe that he can play par golf, if he cannot accept the mental image of himself doing so, he will probably never do it, no matter how hard he tries.
That is why the Bible tells us to fill our minds with what is “true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous and praiseworthy” (Phil 4:8). We tend to actualize in our conduct and speech that which we have planted in our subconscious minds through incessant repetition.
Of course, the same principle works destructively in our lives and conduct if we fill our minds with what is ungodly. So the wise man says, in Proverbs, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life” (Prov. 4:23).
The same idea is presented under the figure of the looking glass in the New Testament. Paul says we are “transformed” into the very likeness of the Lord when we behold his glory “as in a glass” (2 Cor. 3:18). The idea is that we are supposed to continue looking at the image of the Lord that the Scriptures convey to us until the characteristics of Jesus become part of our inner man.
This concept works in reverse, James tells us, when we look into a glass and see our faults, then go away and forget what we have seen (Jas. 1:23-24). We just go right on, making no real effort at self-improvement, because we do not let what we have seen really take root in our minds.
Now the point of all this is that if we want to be what the Lord wants us to be, we will have to undergo a transformation, wrought by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:18b). We will have to become people who are led by the Spirit. “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh…But if ye are led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law” (Gal. 5:16, 18).
There is a difference between the person who is bound and determined to do the right thing, but those inner affections are dominated by “uncleanness…wrath…envy, etc.” (Gal. 5:18-20), and the person, on the other hand, who seems to find delight in doing what is right. The one always seems to be miserable in his struggle to do the exact opposite of what his inner man craves. The other seems to be at peace and finds joy in doing the Lord’s will. This is because his inner man is not at odds with his outward conduct.
This is the difference between bearing fruit and building fruit. It is easier for a vine to bear fruit than it is for a man to manufacture synthetic grapes. The vine does what it does because of what it is. The man is trying to do what he intends in spite of what he is not. To bear “fruit of the Spirit” (Gal. 5:22) we must become branches of the Vine and abide in Jesus (Jn. 15:4-5).
By Don Bassett