Feb. 16/25 -- Proverbs 16:2 -- Purity of motives and God's weigh scale

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All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes,
but the LORD weighs the spirit.
Proverbs 16:2 ESV
 
This proverb is proved true every time you approach a man and tell him his faults. He will prevaricate. He will evade. He will lie. He will make up excuses to cover his own offense. He considers his own ways as pure, or justifiable. It is possible he has not even considered his actions because they flow out of habit that has become false truth.
 
In Matthew 6:22 Jesus said the eye is the lamp of the body. If you look at yourself and don’t see the underlying motives of evil, or impurity, or self-justification, then your whole body is dark. The eye either lets in the light of God’s truth, or the pupil dilates, and darkness is all around. Now you understand why many churches include confession in the worship service. It is not natural for a man to see his own sin. Interesting, isn’t it, how believers can be so blind to their own sins. Ask a family member, or close friend, he’ll know the sin that man doesn’t see.
 
The LORD, that is the covenant-making, promise-keeping, self-designation of our God, He is God. In Him is life, truth, purity, and love. He full-well knows the sins and motives to sin which afflict every human heart and mind. He sees and knows the sins you have not even yet seen in yourself. He knows the sins you will commit.
 
He is the LORD. He has made the way open for sinners to turn to Him. The Spirit breaks down a man’s stubborn resistance to the truth of the evil which lurks in the heart. The work of Jesus, at the cross, is a great exchange. Read on, “he [Jesus, the suffering servant] was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace” (Isaiah 53:5 ESV). He was punished for your sins, and for mine. Sins that are known to you and those unknown to you. He was crushed for the iniquities of the heart. Iniquities point to the fact that your heart and your motives are out of alignment with God’s own purposes. God doesn’t turn a blind eye to your sins, no, He has crushed His own Son in your place and given to you the purity of motives, the purity of life and the excellence of actions which are the sum total of Jesus’s earthly walk. He, the LORD, decided to do so before you could ever have decided for Him. Had He not extended the love and mercy allowing you  to fall under His protection, you would have died, appropriately and fittingly, for all the evil that lurks in your heart.
 
Having acknowledged your sin, you begin to hate it. The Spirit stirs you to confess it. You deliberately turn away from it. Being accountable to a dear fellow Christian means every time the habit that leads you back to that temptation to sin, you and your fellow Christian pray, fight it, and look to Jesus. You begin a new pattern of living, that is, yielding obedience to the Word of God so that your words, motives and spirit please the LORD. You gather with God’s people, aware that you are not the freak the vomitously wicked people of the world think you are. You are in Christ, and you are united with other believers who long to be whole. By the steadfast love and faithfulness of Jesus, your iniquity and sin have been atoned for and now, with fellow believers, you walk in the fear of the LORD, turning away from evil (perhaps you’ll recognize this is a paraphrase of Proverbs 16:6).
 
Father in heaven, today I commit my life and my work to You, so that my plans will be established according to Your great mercy in Christ and the Spirit’s leading. Amen.
(Prayer adapted from Proverbs 16:3)
 
https://youtu.be/bVWOV8_PPCk?si=oWMFkgPA7ss8kfWj Whiter Than Snow
 

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