Let me warn you that such a holy life as the text enjoins, is impossible to all but those who are on their guard against the beginnings of evil. Take alarm at an evil thought, wish, or desire! These are the germs of sin, the floating seeds which drop into the heart, and finding in our natural corruption a fat and favorable soil, spring up into actual transgressions. These, like the rattle of the snake, or the hiss of the serpent, reveal the presence and nearness of danger!
The experience of all holy men proves that sin is most easily crushed in the bud and that it is safer to flee from temptation than to fight it. Fight like a man when you cannot avoid the battle but rather flee than fight.
Be afraid of temptation, avoid it, abhor it!
[Thomas Guthrie]
Genesis 39:9 ... There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?
Genesis 39:12 ... And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me: and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out.
Romans 12:9 ... Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
James 4:7 ... Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.❤
