Let it be a settled principle again in our religion, that when a person’s general conversation is ungodly, their heart is graceless and unconverted. Let us not give way to the vulgar notion, that no one can know anything of the state of another’s heart, and that although people are living wickedly, they have got good hearts at the bottom.
Such notions are flatly contradictory to our Lord’s teaching. Is the general tone of a person’s communication carnal, worldly, irreligious, godless, or profane? Then let us understand that this is the state of their heart. When a person’s tongue is extensively wrong, it is absurd, no less than unscriptural, to say that their heart is right.
Such notions are flatly contradictory to our Lord’s teaching. Is the general tone of a person’s communication carnal, worldly, irreligious, godless, or profane? Then let us understand that this is the state of their heart. When a person’s tongue is extensively wrong, it is absurd, no less than unscriptural, to say that their heart is right.
~ J.C. Ryle
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke volume 1, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1986], 192, 193.
