“Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” (Matthew 15:11)
While living in this world, we feel very much like our life is our own and our thoughts and feelings begin within ourselves. But that feeling is deceptive. These feelings are not inappropriate, but are gifts from the Lord that allow us to experience all of the delights of life as existing within us as well. There is a use, however, in acknowledging that all of these things we experience are not really within us at all, but flow into our minds from the spiritual world—good thoughts and feelings from the Lord through heaven, evil thoughts and feelings from the hells—by means of the spirits that accompany us all the time. This is most important to remember when we undergo temptation. The desire to do something we know is wrong does not originate within us. It is put into us by evil spirits. We cannot control the thoughts and feelings that the evil spirits put into our minds, only our response to them. As the Lord said, what goes into a person does not defile him, but what comes out of him. We have little control over what comes into our minds and should not mistake them for who we are. Instead, who we are is determined by what comes out of our minds and into our bodies to become words and actions. The thoughts and feelings that pop into our minds in response to situations or people are not “us” and can be shunned simply by putting them aside and making the decision to act on other feelings and thoughts that agree with who we want to be.
To see that this is true, read Genesis 32:3-8; Matthew 15:1-20; and Arcana Caelestia 4249.
(This is a synopsis of the sermon preached by the Rev. Amos Glenn at Pittsburgh New Church at 11:00am on August 13, 2006.)
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