#141 Keep thy heart with all diligence

From Meditations on the Epistles of John, by Samuel Froehlich

A child of God in whom God’s seed remains, can then bring forth no evil because God (the Only One Who is good) dwells in him and not the devil (the evil one), and no sin, nothing evil comes forth from God

James 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

but always from the devil, and because the devil no longer dwells in the children of God, anything evil can make itself felt in the heart only by temptation. However, if it is not harbored—nourished—but is instantly suppressed at its very beginning, as soon as the Spirit testifies: "Be careful, that is not from the Father but from the world; the serpent lies hidden there!" a secret, sinful impulse cannot become a deed. For all the evil that one does must first have risen up in the heart and have been nourished (unless one were suddenly and unexpectedly provoked to it), and then if it is a sin unto death one dies because of it.

Therefore, the rule of the children of God is “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life (Proverbs 4: 23)." The great difference lies herein: in God’s work in man and in the work produced according to the law. For when one is awakened from the sleep of sin, he, of himself, desires to do righteousness and so builds God a temple, with his own hands, to be worshipped in, as did Solomon; but when Christ comes and breaks through with His real joys of life, this temple of the law is then so completely demolished that not one stone is left upon another, and in its place Christ builds a new temple of the Spirit, in the heart of man, in which God resides, reveals His glory, and is worshipped in spirit and in truth for merchants, thieves and murderers reside in the temple of the law as they always have done heretofore.