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The Christian life is a warfare, and there are several common mistakes made thereupon. For example —

I. WHEN IT IS SUPPOSED THAT THE ENEMIES TO BE FOUGHT AGAINST ARE ALL EXTERNAL FOES. This is a very prevalent error. Where conversion is believed to be always a sudden change, and not a matter of growth, there converts are cautioned against dangers that lie without, while left in ignorance of the greater dangers that are still within. There are external foes, but these are not all. There are inward foes, such as —

(1)  Evil tempers;

(2)  passionate and ungovernable wills;

(3)  covetousness;

(4)  selfishness;

(5)  pride;

(6)  anger, &c.

II. IT IS ALSO A MISTAKE TO SUPPOSE THAT THE ENEMIES TO BE FOUGHT AGAINST ARE CHIEFLY EXTERNAL ONES. With all his warnings against surrounding foes, Joshua was most emphatic in his exhortation to watchfulness over one's own heart, "Take good heed therefore unto yourselves." In this sense a man's enemies are they of his own house. The greatest temptations arise from that inner tendency to corruption, but for which the outward influences would be well-nigh powerless. Many a man has been his own tempter (James 1:14).

III. IT IS A GREAT CHRISTIAN DUTY, THEREFORE, FOR EVERY MAN TO BRING HIS OWN HEART INTO SUBJECTION.

1. This cannot be done except by the exercise of constant watchfulness.

2. Self-cultivation also is necessary. When will men learn that religion is no dreamy sentimentalism, but a stern and living reality? "The grace of God in the heart of man is a tender plant in a strange, unkindly soil, and, therefore, cannot well prosper and grow without much care and pains, and that of a skilful hand." Let us, then, "take heed to ourselves." Let us keep the fortress of our own heart. Let us do battle with the foes of our own household. Thus shall we be "more than conquerors"; for "he that ruleth his own spirit is better than he that taketh a city."

(Frederic Wagstaff.)

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KJV: Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the LORD your God.

WEB: Take good heed therefore to yourselves, that you love Yahweh your God.