Pro 14:30 | KingComments | STEP | A tranquil heart is a heart in which lusts do not rule, but in which Christ rules. Peter says to us: “Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts” ( ). When Christ is given the place of Lord in our hearts, it means that we have put Him in charge of our whole life. This has a healthy effect on the body. He who lives with Christ does not do things that endanger the health of his body. We should not draw the conclusion from this that those who are sick have not given Christ authority over their lives. If we do, we are like Job’s friends who saw Job’s sickness as evidence of hidden sins. This is about what is generally true without saying that it is always true. What is always true, is that “passion [or envy] is rottenness of the bones”. Passion to get what someone else has, envy of one’s neighbor’s prosperity, of another’s happiness, eats away the strength from the bones (cf. ). It is the primal sin of satan and of man. It has brought man into the greatest misery from which he cannot free himself. The bones, which should give stability to his walk, lack strength. Nothing in his life is to the glory of God. It begins with ingratitude or dissatisfaction, the dissatisfaction with one’s own possessions or qualities. Then there arises an unhealthy attention to the possessions or qualities of others, with the passion to possess them. The result is that the stability of existence in a grateful attitude before the Lord is completely destroyed. One’s existence is determined by what others have.

‏ Proverbs 14:30

A Tranquil Heart or Passion

A tranquil heart is a heart in which lusts do not rule, but in which Christ rules. Peter says to us: “Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts” (1Pet 3:15). When Christ is given the place of Lord in our hearts, it means that we have put Him in charge of our whole life. This has a healthy effect on the body. He who lives with Christ does not do things that endanger the health of his body.

We should not draw the conclusion from this that those who are sick have not given Christ authority over their lives. If we do, we are like Job’s friends who saw Job’s sickness as evidence of hidden sins. This is about what is generally true without saying that it is always true.

What is always true, is that “passion [or envy] is rottenness of the bones”. Passion to get what someone else has, envy of one’s neighbor’s prosperity, of another’s happiness, eats away the strength from the bones (cf. Psa 112:10). It is the primal sin of satan and of man. It has brought man into the greatest misery from which he cannot free himself. The bones, which should give stability to his walk, lack strength. Nothing in his life is to the glory of God.

It begins with ingratitude or dissatisfaction, the dissatisfaction with one’s own possessions or qualities. Then there arises an unhealthy attention to the possessions or qualities of others, with the passion to possess them. The result is that the stability of existence in a grateful attitude before the Lord is completely destroyed. One’s existence is determined by what others have.