Watch Over Your Own Heart

Ministers of the gospel are told to “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in these things, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers” (1 Tim. 4:16). This verse could just as easily apply to any Christian, especially the phrase “keep a close watch on yourself.” Knowing that our hearts are prone to wander after idols and worldly ambitions, we must guard our hearts with all diligence. William Wilberforce, well known Christian abolitionist in Britain, notes that we must be aware of our own depravity, which will mark us with a humility and conscience that will keep us continually fleeing from sin and pursuing righteousness. May we be a circumspect people who continually preach the gospel to ourselves as we pursue repentance and righteousness in all things.

“Let him then, who would be indeed a Christian, watch over his ways and over his heart with unceasing circumspection. Let him endeavour to learn, both from men and books, particularly from the lives of eminent Christians, what methods have been actually found most effectual for the conquest of every particular vice, and for improvement in every branch of holiness. Thus studying his own character, and observing the most secret workings of his own mind, and of our common nature; the knowledge which he will acquire of the human heart in general, and especially of his own, will be of the highest utility, in enabling him to avoid or to guard against the occasions of evil: and it will also tend, above all things, to the growth of humility, and to the maintenance of that sobriety of spirit and tenderness of conscience, which are eminently characteristic of the true Christian.”

Jeremy Kimble (PhD, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary) is Assistant Professor of Theological Studies at Cedarville University. He is an editor for Credo Magazine as well as the author of That His Spirit May Be Saved: Church Discipline as a Means to Repentance and Perseverance and numerous book reviews. He is married to Rachel and has two children, Hannah and Jonathan.