In chapter ten of Indwelling Sin in Believers, John Owen said he had not yet finished with showing how the deceit of sin draws the mind away from the discharge of its duties. Because of its importance, if the mind is weakened or turned aside from attending to the Word, the whole soul, will and emotions are certain to be entangled and drawn into sin. We need to be particularly alert for this, as the author of Hebrews said: “Therefore, we must pay attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it” (Hebrews 2:1). There is no other way to prevent this drifting except by giving our most earnest attention to the things we have heard in the Word, which expresses the whole duty of God to our minds.
First Owen said he would consider what is required in the mind of a believer with regard to particular duties we should attend to. Second, he would show the way the deceit of sin works so that attending to the Word may be removed from where it had attached.
It is not enough that we perform just any duty, rather that it must be universally squared and fitted to the task. This is the main responsibility of the mind, namely to assess the administration of spiritual duties and to see that all their matters are in order. Progress in obedience is like building a house. It does no good for a man to gather wood and stones, heaped up together without order. “They must be hewed and squared, and fitted by line and rule, if we intend to build.”
There is no advantage to our edification in faith and obedience if we multiply duties, but don’t order them according to the rule of the Word. God expressly rejects a multitude of duties if they are not suited to that rule: “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord. . . They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them” (Isaiah 1:11, 14). As letters in the alphabet signify nothing unless they are disposed in their proper order, so it is with our duties. As Paul said in Ephesians 5:15, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but wise.” Owen concluded his thought on what was required with regard to particular duties by saying, “We walk in duties, but we walk circumspectly in the attention of the mind.”
There are certain things the rule of the Word directs us to, so that our mind would pay attention to every duty. First the duty should be full and complete. Under the law, no beast was permitted to be sacrificed if it had any defect, as when they were lame or blind. Saul, because he spared Agag and the fattest cattle (1 Samuel 15:3, 9), rendered the destruction of all the rest useless. “Thus, when men give alms, or perform other services, but not to the proportion that the rule requires, and which the mind by diligent attention to it, might discover, the whole duty is vitiated [corrupted].”
Your duty is to be done in faith, so that it is an actual derivation of the strength of Christ, without whom we can do nothing (John 15:5). It is not enough that the person is a believer, although that is necessary for every good work. Faith must be active in every duty, for our entire obedience is “the obedience of faith” (Romans 1:5). That is what the doctrine of faith requires, “and which the grace of faith bears or brings forth.”
As in natural life, no vital act can be performed except by the actual principle of life itself, so it is in spiritual life. “No spiritually vital act, that is, no duty acceptable to God, can be performed, but by the actual working of Christ, who is our life.” There is no other way open to us but faith. Christ now lives in me; and as Paul said in Galatians 2:20, “The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God.” Therefore, a believer ought to ensure that everything he does for God, is done in the strength if Christ.
There are three things which a believer ought to attend to with regard to the manner of the performance of any duty. First, it should be done in the way and by the means that God has prescribed. This is particularly important in duties of worship. If this is not attended to, the entire duty is vitiated. Owen spoke this not to individuals who worship God according to their own imagination, but to those who did not “diligently attend to the rule, to make the authority of God to be the sole cause and reason, both of what they do, and of the manner of the performance of it.” This was why God so often called on his people to consider diligently and wisely that they do everything according to his commands.
Second, the affections of heart and mind belong to the performance of duties. A sacrifice without heart, without salt or fire, what good is it? God requires special affections to accompany certain duties. For example, “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7). No longer are duties to be done without spiritual affections. If they are not attended to like this, the whole is lost.
Third, the mind is to attend to the end point of our duties, principally, the glory of God in Christ. There are several other endings that sin and self try to impose upon our duties, especially these two. The first is the satisfaction of convictions and the second is the praise of men. Self-righteousness and ostentation are the main ends of men who have departed from God in all moral duties whatsoever. “In their sins they endeavor to satisfy their lusts; in their duties, their convictions and their pride.” The mind of a believer should diligently guard against these.
Here there lies in no small part, the deceit of sin: it attempts to draw the mind away from keeping the watch and charge of the Lord. If it can do so, that is strip our duties of all the excellancies the mind is to attend to, it will not trouble itself—or us—about the duties themselves. And here is how it will try to do this.
First, it persuades the mind to be content with generalities and to stop attending to things in particular instances. It will persuade the soul to be satisfied in a general aim of doing things for the glory of God, without considering how every particular duty should have that tendency. Saul thought he had fulfilled his whole duty and done the will of God in his war against Amalek. But because he did not pay attention to every particular duty in that service, he dishonored God and ruined himself. If the soul contents itself with a general notion of advancing the glory of God instead of fixing the mind by faith upon its task, it has already been diverted and drawn off from its charge by the deceitfulness of sin.
He who satisfies himself with this general purpose, without acting it in every special duty, will not long retain that purpose. It does the same work upon the mind, in reference to the principle of our duties, as it does to the end. Their principle is, that they be done in faith, in the strength of Christ; but if men content themselves that they are believers, that they have faith, and do not labour in every particular duty to act faith, to lead their spiritual lives, in all the acts of them, “by the faith of the Son of God,” the mind is drawn off from its duty. It is in particular actions where we express and exercise our faith and obedience; and what we are in them, that we are, and no more.
Second, the minds of men have been doctrinally and practically diverted from the punishment appointed for the deceit of sin in the law. This has been an inlet to all kinds of abominations. As Romans 1:32 says, they knew the judgment of God is that those who do those things deserve to die, yet they not only continued in them, but encouraged others to practice them. “What hope is there for such persons?” There is indeed relief for humbled believing souls in the blood of Christ.
Thirdly, the deceit of sin will attempt to turn the mind aside from attending to the love and kindness of God, against whom every sin is committed. This is a prevailing consideration, if rightly and graciously managed in the soul. The receipt of the promises ought to be effectual, stirring us up to all holiness, “so to work and effect an abstinence from all sin.”
And what promises are these? Namely, that God will be “a Father unto us, and will receive us,” 2 Cor. vi. 17, 18, which comprises the whole of all the love of God towards us, here and to eternity. If there be any spiritual ingenuity in the soul, whilst the mind is attentive to this consideration, there can be no prevailing attempt made upon it by the power of sin.
Owen has more to say on the deceitfulness of indwelling sin as it attempts to turn the mind away from the discharge of its duties. But you will have to turn to his discussion of how it uses inadvertency, an unwillingness to take any notice of warnings, as well as weak and ineffectual attempts to reclaim its attention to duty. He concluded his thoughts in chapter ten by saying the whole effect of the working of the deceitfulness of sin can be reduced to three tasks.
First, the lessening of a universally watchful frame of spirit towards every duty, and against all, even the most hidden sin.
Second, the exclusion of particular attending to such duties as have a special respect to the weakening and ruin of the whole of the law of sin, and the prevention of its deceitfulness.
Third, Spiritual sloth with regard to all the particular attention of duties and sins.
