In other words the Natural Man follows or obeys the natural inclinations of his heart.
The centre that controls all his inclinations is referred to as the heart.
Of this heart, Christ had a lot to say. He taught that the mouth is a channel through which the abundance or overflow of the heart is released.
Matt 15:18-19
But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.
I once used to think that for this scripture to make any sense, it must mean that the mouth has to speak out murders, adulteries, fornications...I could identify with speaking out evil thoughts, but the other things on the list seemed to be a little farfetched...why would I go around speaking adulteries, fornications and murders?
So I began to do some research on what it means for "those things that proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart".
Pro 16:23 The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth, and addeth learning to his lips.
This was a scripture written in an era when the Natural Man held full sway over the lives of men...as yet the only alternative to the natural or outward man (ie the Inward Man - born again spirit); had not yet been provided.
In the above scripture, this same natural heart may be a wise one as the scripture indicates...if so, it teaches the mouth and adds learning to the lips.
This probably refers to the heart teaching the mouth what to say and what not to say...in other words there is an exercise in self restraint that the heart teaches the mouth.
In addition to this, the scripture says that the heart adds learning to the lips...meaning that it is from the heart that the mouth gains knowledge.
Thus when we compare both scriptures, we may infer that the adulteries, fornications, murders, etc that proceed out of the mouth are taught by the heart...proving that the heart is indeed a spring from which flows all manner of iniquity...
Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
The heart can be described as a bottomless well that keeps spawning an inexhaustible supply of resources such as lusts, adulteries, murders and so forth.
That was when I discovered that the mouth does not merely speak words...it speaks UNSEEN THINGS!
Ps 8:2 Out of the MOUTH of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained STRENGTH because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
In the above scripture, we find STRENGTH coming out of the mouth of babes...in an earlier scripture we saw that the THINGS...(not words); that proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart.
Some of those things were listed as adulteries and murders...they are not mere words or even fantasies uttered by the mouth...they are THINGS... unseen spiritual thing or forces that have been dredged out of the heart and released into the life of that person...
Pro 4:23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
How do the issues of life come out of the heart? Through the mouth...so we now know from Christ's teaching about the contents of the heart that in a Natural Man it consists of adulteries, fornications, murders, etc...these are the matters of the heart...they are released through the mouth through the instrumentality of words...words that carry UNSEEN THINGS...
Man doesn't know that words are not mere audible sounds, hence the scriptures say that we shall give account of every IDLE WORD we speak...that is because we have inadvertently released UNSEEN THINGS that must be accounted for...
TO BE CONTINUED...
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