Do Not Follow “Your Hearts and Your Eyes” The second dangerous influence we will discuss is an internal one. We might illustrate it this way: If you were taking a journey to a particular destination, can you imagine deciding to cast aside your map and simply follow your impulses—perhaps turning onto every road that seemed to offer pretty views? Clearly, giving in to such impulses would keep you from reaching your goal. In this regard, consider another of Jehovah’s laws to ancient Israel. Many today might find a law about putting fringes and blue threads on their garments hard to understand. (Read Numbers 15:37-39.) Do you see the relevance, though? Obeying such a law helped God’s people to keep themselves distinct and separate from the pagan nations around them. That was vital if they were to gain and maintain Jehovah’s approval. (Lev. 18:24, 25) However, that law also reveals a dangerous internal influence that might lead us away from our destination of everlasting life. How so? Note what Jehovah gave his people as a reason behind this law: “You must not go about following your hearts and your eyes, which you are following in immoral intercourse.” Jehovah has profound insight into human nature. He well knows how easily our heart, or inner self, is seduced by what we take in through our eyes. The Bible thus warns us: “The heart is more treacherous than anything else and is desperate. Who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9) Do you see, then, just how fitting was Jehovah’s warning to the Israelites? He well knew that they would be inclined to look at the pagan peoples around them and be seduced by what they saw. They might be tempted to look like those unbelievers and then to think, feel, and act like them.—Prov. 13:20. In our own day, it is even easier for our treacherous heart to be seduced by our physical senses. We live in a world that is geared toward appealing to fleshly inclinations. So how can we apply the principle behind Numbers 15:39? Consider: If those around you at school, at the workplace, or in your community are dressing more and more provocatively, might you be affected? Might you be tempted to ‘follow your heart and eyes’ and be seduced by what you see? Then might you be tempted to lower your own standards by dressing in a similar manner?—Rom. 12:1, 2. We urgently need to cultivate self-control. If our eyes tend to wander where they should not, let us recall the firm resolve of faithful Job, who made a formal agreement with his own eyes—a firm decision not to give romantic attention to a woman not his own wife. (Job 31:1) Similarly, King David resolved: “I shall not set in front of my eyes any good-for-nothing thing.” (Ps. 101:3) Whatever might damage our clean conscience and our relationship with Jehovah is for us a “good-for-nothing thing.” That would include any temptation that appeals to our eyes and threatens to seduce our heart into wrongdoing. On the other hand, we certainly would never want to become, in a sense, a “good-for-nothing thing” to others by tempting them to contemplate wrongdoing. We therefore take seriously the Bible’s inspired counsel to wear well-arranged and modest clothing. (1 Tim. 2:9) Modesty is not something we can simply define in a way that suits us. We need to take into account the consciences and sensitivities of those around us, putting their peace of mind and welfare ahead of our own preferences. (Rom. 15:1, 2) The Christian congregation is blessed with many thousands of young people who set sterling examples in this regard. How proud they make us as they refuse to ‘follow their hearts and their eyes,’ choosing instead to please Jehovah in all that they do—even in the way they dress!
Posted on: Fri, 05 Jul 2013 11:32:51 +0000
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