And there are three parts of this steadfastness of the mind:
(1) full purpose of cleaving to God in all things;
(2) a daily renovation and quickening of the heart unto a discharge of this purpose;
(3) resolutions against all dalliances or parleys about negligence in that discharge…
- John Owen, The Power and Efficacy of Indwelling Sin
The steadfastness of our minds abiding in their duty is the cause of all our unmovableness and fruitfulness in obedience; and so Peter tells us that those who are by any means led away or enticed “fall from their own steadfastness” (2 Pet. 3:17). And the great blame that is laid upon backsliders is that they are not steadfast: “Their heart was not steadfast” (Ps. 78:37). For if the soul be safe, unless the mind be drawn off from its duty, the soundness and steadfastness of the mind is its great preservative.
- John Owen, The Power and Efficacy of Indwelling Sin
But if in anything we take more upon us than we have time well to perform it in, without robbing God of that which is due to him and our own souls, this God calls not unto, this he blesses us not in. It is more tolerable that our duties of holiness and regard to God should entrench upon the duties of our calling and employments in this world than on the contrary; and yet neither does God require this at our hands, in an ordinary manner or course.
- John Owen, The Power and Efficacy of Indwelling Sin
What does it mean to fear the Lord? Here is John Owen’s answer:
To fear sin is to fear the Lord; so the holy man tells us that they are the same: “The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil, that is understanding” (Job 28:28)
- John Owen, The Power and Efficacy of Indwelling Sin
“Know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter [thing], that you have forsaken the Lord your God” (Jer. 2:19). Every sin is a forsaking of the Lord our God. If the heart know not, if it consider not, that it is an evil thing and a bitter [thing] – evil in itself, bitter in its effects, fruit, and event – it will never be secured against it.
- John Owen, The Power and Efficacy of Indwelling Sin
In ch. 8 of his The Power and Efficacy of Indwelling Sin, John Owen elaborates on Hebrews 3:13 (“Take heed that you be not hardened by the deceitfulness of sin”) and discusses the role of the mind in the deceitfulness of sin:
Deceit properly affects the mind; it is the mind that is deceived… But where the mind is tainted, the prevalency must be great; for the mind or understanding is the leading faculty of the soul, and what that fixes on the will and affections rush after, being capable of no consideration but what that presents to them. Hence it is, that though the entanglements of the affections unto sin be oftentimes most troublesome, yet the deceit of the mind is always most dangerous, and that because of the place that it possesses in the soul as unto all its operations.
The great wisdom and security of the soul in dealing with indwelling sin is to put a violent stop unto its beginnings, its first motions and actings. Venture all on the first attempt. Die rather than yield one step unto it.
John Owen, Overcoming Sin and Temptation, p. 289
