Inside Out, Never Outside In!

Mike Hosey, Elder

The Bible teaches us that out of the overflow of one’s heart, the mouth speaks (Matthew 12:34-37, Luke 6:45). And that’s a simple truth that most of us immediately accept. For instance, be honest with yourself and think of the times you’ve said something that came from a heart of unrighteous anger. This occurred because the center of your being was corrupt, even if it was only temporary, and that corrupt center produced a corrupt speech – either in the form of an ill-placed profanity, or more likely, in the form of meanness or negativity.

But the truth contained in those verses is much broader than just our speech.  Our inside spiritual lives shape with profound effect our outside condition – and never the other way around. Take another look at that passage in Matthew.  It teaches us that a good man produces good from his treasure of good, and an evil man produces evil from his treasure of evil.

Peter bears this truth out for us in Galatians 2:11-14. In that passage Paul tells us how he had to publicly rebuke his fellow apostle, Peter, because Peter chose to eat with Jewish Christians, and to shun Gentile Christians when certain Jews were present. This had the effect of potentially debasing the gospel by adding legalistic requirements to it. In his heart, Peter feared what those Jews might think of him, and he acted on that fear, rather than on what he claimed to believe.  It can be argued that Peter believed that the opinions of those Jews were greater than the weight of the truth he’d already been taught. Peter was placing his faith in the approval of men, rather than in the approval of God.  And his faith produced a temporarily corrupted heart, and a definably corrupted behavior. It’s true. Faith produces behavioral results, and where we place that faith has measurable effects on our inner spiritual health, which in turn, has measurable effects on our outward life.  In Peter’s case, that outward life was manifested by fear rather than in spiritual disciplines like prayer, fasting and obedience.

If we place our faith in God, he will send us the Holy Spirit (John 14:26) to teach us. He will give us a spiritual life, and that life will produce behavioral results like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22). So get your inside right, and your outside will follow.