Thoughts wandering from God

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With regard to the former, all our thoughts are naturally of this kind. For they are continually wandering from God: we think nothing about him. God is not in all our thoughts (Psalm 10:4); we are, one and all, as the apostle observes, without God in the world (Ephesians 2:12). We think of what we love, but we do not love God; therefore we think not of him. Or if we are now and then constrained to think of him for a time, yet as we have no pleasure in it, nay rather, as these thoughts are not only insipid but distasteful and irksome to us, we drive them out as soon as we can, and return to what we love to think of. So that the world and the things of the world, what we shall eat, what we shall drink, what we shall put on (Matthew 6:31); what we shall see, what we shall hear, what we shall gain; how we shall please our senses or our imagination, takes up all our time and engrosses all our thought. So long therefore as we love the world (1 John 2:15), that is, so long as we are in our natural state, all our thoughts, from morning to evening and from evening to morning, are no other than wandering thoughts.

1771 text

2. With regard to the former, all our thoughts are naturally of this kind. For they are continually wandering from God: we think nothing about him. God is not in all our thoughts: we are, one and all, as the apostle observes, without God in the world. We think of what we love: but we do not love God: therefore we think not of him. Or if we are now and then constrained to think of him for a time, yet as we have no pleasure therein, nay rather, as these thoughts are not only insipid, but distasteful and irksome to us, we drive them out as soon as we can, and return to what we love to think of. So that the world and the things of the world, what we shall eat, what we shall drink, what we shall put on: what we shall see, what we shall hear, what we shall gain: how we shall please our senses or our imagination, takes up all our time, and engrosses all our thought. So long therefore as we love the world, that is, so long as we are in our natural state, all our thoughts, from morning to evening, and from evening to morning, are no other than wandering thoughts.

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About this text

On 2 Corinthians 10:5: which wandering thoughts are sinful, which are not, and which we may hope to be free from.

EditionPrinted in Wesley's 1771 Works, which do not say when he preached it

Wesley's own sermon in updated English wording. The 1771 panel is the text of the Works Wesley himself had printed in 1771. It is public domain.

Reference

Sermon 41 in the 1771 Works. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5.

We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We put this English text into updated wording with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open the 1771 text under any part to compare.

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