‘Spiritual Poverty’ is a Prerequisite to Discipleship
Our call to discipleship is founded in the Great Commission given to us by Jesus before he ascended in glory: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:16-20). The ongoing work of discipleship is to teach and demonstrate obedience to the commandments of Jesus, and the most concentrated collection of commandments we've received from him can be found in Matthew 5, 6, and 7—the Sermon on the Mount.
THE BEATITUDES AS INVITATION
The sermon begins with a collection of statements known as the Beatitudes, each beginning with the phrase, "Blessed are they . . ." Most Christians are so familiar with the Beatitudes that we forget how profoundly counterintuitive they are. Each assertion calls into question basic assumptions we hold about happiness, society, and even common sense.
It is helpful to look at the Beatitudes not as isolated statements, but as a progression of thought. It’s as if Jesus is giving us a whirlwind tour, a sneak preview, of the Kingdom of Heaven. Each beatitude represents a landmark, a step deeper into the Kingdom. We can see this because each beatitude begins with the phrase, "Blessed are they," except the final one, which starts this way: "Blessed are you." Jesus suddenly turns his eyes toward us and asks, "Are you in?"
The beatitudes are an invitation, a demonstration of what God's kingdom looks like on earth so we can decide in advance whether we are willing to accept the practical instructions—that is, commandments—given in the sermon that follows.
Take, for example, the first beatitude: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:3). We may not know what "poor in spirit" means, exactly, but nobody looks at the word "poor" and sees something positive. Poverty is always regarded as negative, and reasonably so.
WHAT, EXACTLY, DOES ‘POOR IN SPIRIT’ MEAN?
As the first beatitude, we can understand spiritual poverty as being the key that opens the gate to the kingdom of heaven, which is what Jesus says. Whatever spiritual poverty is, the observation of it is the first step to being a disciple and to making disciples. And if we are to teach others to observe spiritual poverty, we must understand and demonstrate it ourselves.
Fortunately, the lesson is not as cryptic as it might seem. In my experience, we tend to look at the word "poor" and say something like, "Well, I know being poor is bad, so when Jesus uses that word, he must mean something different than actually being poor." Misguided as that is, if we say that Jesus is not merely talking about physical poverty, we can at least pat ourselves on the back for being half-right.
Something that is spiritual can be understood as being, for lack of a better word, deeper than something that is physical. For example, I can force myself to show physical kindness toward someone without actually feeling kind toward him or her in my heart. But I can't feel kindness toward someone and then treat him or her with outward, physical contempt. The spiritual attitude is deeper than the physical expression.
So when we talk about spiritual poverty, we are talking about a form of poverty that is deeper than physical poverty. What, then, is poverty?
Poverty is characterized by obvious signs: hunger, exposure, uncertainty, vulnerability. The basic defining factor of poverty is lack of choice. For example, if I have $50 in my pocket, my options for lunch are far less limited than they would be if I had $1. Or, if I wanted to travel from New York to San Francisco, a $1,000 budget would afford me far more options than a $100 budget. The defining attribute of wealth is the freedom to choose. Interestingly, this is also the fundamental privilege on which our society is based. "So," Jesus seems to say, "let's tackle that first."
Imagine a malnourished child in a third-world country, holding his hands out to passing tourists. Why does he spend his time this way? Because he has no choice. Hunger and deprivation are his hell on earth, and each pastel shirt that passes is, in that moment, his possible savior.
Imagine a single mother who works three jobs. Why does she do this? Because the deprivation of her children is her personal hell, and a little bit of overtime pay is the only salvation she can see.
WHAT SPIRITUAL POVERTY MEANS FOR FOLLOWING JESUS
In the same way that those who experience physical poverty desperately seek after physical salvation, those who experience spiritual poverty are desperate for spiritual salvation. And when we recognize the source of that salvation, we are totally committed to obtaining it. What else can we do? How else should we spend our time?
In his gospel, the apostle John recounts the story of another sermon Jesus gave; a sermon so difficult in nature that the large crowd that had been following him scattered, discouraged, to their homes. When Jesus turned to ask his apostles whether they intended to leave as well, Peter replied, "Lord, to whom else shall we go?" (John 6:68).
Jesus demonstrates right away with his first beatitude that following him won't be easy or glamorous. Like a beggar desperate for food, each of us must come to Jesus with a spirit of poverty, knowing that salvation is what we need and that Jesus is the only one who offers it. If we could somehow fabricate salvation ourselves or obtain it through our own efforts, we wouldn't need Jesus—we could make our own rules, choose our own way. But sleepless nights and hours spent under the operating scalpel of Scripture have taught us that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one finds salvation except through him.
3 WAYS SPIRITUAL POVERTY INFORMS DISCIPLESHIP
This sense of personal spiritual poverty offers us three crucial insights for discipleship. First, it makes us sensitive to God's mercy. Unless God first extended his hand to us through his blessed Son, we would be lost to our Creator with no hope of reconciliation (Rom. 5:8). This keeps us humble and thankful, able to recognize God's continual grace in the midst of our circumstances.
Second, spiritual poverty leads us to keep our eyes open for those who are also desperate for salvation. We know what it's like to be spiritually destitute, and our hearts break for those who, in all the complexities of life, are experiencing a similar crisis (Matt. 11:28-30).
Finally, our poverty of spirit reminds us to have compassion for the lost rather than contempt. "There but for the grace of God go I." We all are found by God in the same condition, hopelessly wallowing in sin and helpless to save ourselves (see Ezekiel 16:1-8). We are keenly aware of how empty handed we were—we are—when coming to Jesus. What, indeed, did I have to offer him? My fear? My pride? My brokenness? I came to him with hands full of bloody rags, as do we all.
ARE YOU READY TO ADMIT YOUR POVERTY?
Spiritual poverty reminds us that the deep bonds of sin and darkness that hold the world captive are one arrogant thought away from claiming us as well. Without Jesus, there is simply no telling where my self-will, insecurity, and perversion might have taken me, and might still take me if God's mercies weren't new every morning. How, then, can we show contempt for anyone lost in sin?
With each beatitude, Jesus reveals more of the Kingdom of Heaven—that very present reality in which God's kingdom comes as His will is done on earth as it is in heaven. Spiritual poverty is the key that opens the gate to that kingdom, placed in our empty and trembling hands by a Savior who wants us not only to enter, but to share the key with others as well.
Are you in?
Elliot Toman lives with his wife and four children in Kingston, New York, where he is an aspiring church planter. He spends his spare time studying the Bible, publishing comics and occasionally writing about the church and Christian life.
The Gospel Implications of The Golden Rule
"So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets" (Matt. 7:12).
This is arguably the most famous passage from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, and it is perhaps the only Bible verse you can still quote in a political or social setting without rejection or repercussion. Often called the “Golden Rule,” it is one of the few teachings of Jesus with which almost everyone agrees—at least on the surface.
Most would agree today that we should be thoughtful and considerate of others, maybe even practice “random acts of kindness” toward strangers. Tolerance—for every religion, lifestyle, and moral persuasion—is the god of our culture, and this verse is frequently quoted in order to encourage us to worship at her shrine.
Sadly, this widespread, warm-and-fuzzy reception to Jesus’ command is owed to how broadly it is misunderstood and misapplied. Consider at least three aspects of the Golden Rule that we often don’t bother to notice or to remember.
THE GOLDEN RULE IS BASED ON GOD’S CHARACTER
Matthew 7:12 begins with the word “So,” which points us back to the previous eleven verses and the motivation for this command. Jesus connects the Golden Rule with what comes before it, a two-fold lesson concerning the character of God. We are to practice the Golden Rule because God’s divine judgment teaches forbearance (vv. 1-6) and because God’s goodness teaches kindness (vv. 7-11).
In Matthew 7:1, Jesus instructs us to “Judge not, that you be not judged.” Clearly then, God’s divine and righteous judgment should lead us to honest self-examination and a realization of our own failures and faults. Whether or not you and I recognize the planks in our own eyes, God sees and will judge “impartially according to each one’s deeds” (1 Pet. 1:17).
Paul uses this same motivation when he instructs masters not to threaten their servants, “knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him” (Eph. 6:9). Christians—because we trust that we are forgiven through grace, and not our own merit—should be characterized by an acute awareness of own failings, not the failings of others.
Yet this lesson is a double-edged sword for any person wishing to wield it because it is forged in the fiery reality of God’s judgment, perhaps the single most offensive subject to any unbeliever.
It is true we should be willing to forbear, love and forgive others. But the reason we are to do this, Jesus intimates, is that God’s judgment will come on those who do not consider and act in accordance with his righteous character.
Then Jesus tells us to persevere in prayer rather than in faultfinding by continually asking, seeking, and knocking at the throne room of God. But what are we to be asking, seeking, and knocking for?
The parallel passage in Luke’s gospel shows the spiritual nature of God’s promise: “How much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13). God promises God to those who ask! And so God—not bank accounts, promotions or even physical health—is to be the great object of our prayers.
Once you revamp the priorities of your prayer life according to that promise, the obvious question is: How will you apply the Golden Rule in your newly-renovated prayer life? Surely you will not be content any longer, in your prayers for others, to merely ask for financial success or personal happiness, when the Holy Spirit himself is promised to those who ask for him. No, the Golden Rule clearly corners you into spiritual prayers on behalf of others, as well as for yourself.
Be assured that the surest, fastest way to learn to love your aggravating spouse, wandering teenager, or persistent enemy is to pray for their spiritual well being! But it first requires the recognition that they need the moving of the triune God on their behalf in order to help them out of their current state.
This is not what most people think of when they say, “Do to others what you would have them do to you.” But in context, this is clearly what Jesus means.
Ultimately, Jesus is saying the second commandment hangs on the first. We are to love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind—humbled by his righteous judgment and looking to him for our every need—and thus we will discover the strength, motivation, and conviction to love others selflessly and sacrificially. And part of loving them like that will mean loving them enough to pray for their spiritual welfare. We will pray for them to be drawn irresistibly to God by his grace, and thereby transformed from unbelief to faith.
THE GOLDEN RULE IS POSITIVE AND COMPREHENSIVE
Jesus’ statement of the Golden Rule is positive, not merely negative: “Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them.” Confucius stated the negative version of this rule—don’t do to others what you don’t want them to do to you—and we often mistake this for Jesus’ words. But the negative version is much easier than Jesus’ command. Jesus tells us to actively be engaged in the lives of others for their welfare—which is why the same Jesus would then send his disciples out to the Great Commission.
If Jesus is indeed God, and if God is the one great object, center, and satisfaction to be found in the universe, then the Golden Rule demands we preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to others no matter their religious background or personal perspective.
This is why Jesus’ statement is not only positive, but also comprehensive: “Whatever (literally, “everything”) you wish that others would do to you, do also to them.” There is nothing you should be willing to pray for yourself, but not for others. There is no great and liberating truth you should embrace, but not share with others. It is in perfect accord, then, with the Golden Rule that Paul would say to a great assembly of pagans and idolaters, “I would to God that not only you but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am—except for these chains” (Acts 26:29).
The Golden Rule does not prohibit us from the offense of the gospel. Rather, the Golden Rule mandates personal evangelism, praying for and striving for the spiritual good of others, according to the reality that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
THE GOLDEN RULE IS LAW
The third aspect of the Golden Rule we miss so often is that it is Law. Jesus says himself in this verse: “This is the Law.” James would likewise affirm, “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing well” (Jas. 2:8). Paul pronounces that “the one who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Rom. 13:8).
The Golden Rule is not a mere motto by which to live; it is a bedrock reality built into the cosmos, firmly grounded in the foundational reality that this universe has a Maker, that he is the God of the Bible, and that he has given us laws by which we are to live.
John Stott appropriately reminds us that “The symbol of the religion of Jesus is the cross, not the scales.” If we are saved, it isn’t because our good works outweigh our bad works. We are saved because Jesus fulfilled the demands of the law on our behalf.
The grace of the cross, then, should be displayed in the way we deal with and interact with others, as the Golden Rule reminds us. Our relationships, like our religion, should be symbolized by the cross (unconditional forgiveness), not the scales (carefully weighing and criticizing the misdeeds of others).
Yet the cross also reminds us that the only way to salvation is Jesus Christ. The Golden Rule—itself a part of the righteous law of God—points us to the reality that we can never save ourselves; that the only hope the world will ever have to escape God’s righteous judgment is the person and work of Christ on the cross.
Our very inability to truly love others as ourselves should drive us to Christ for strength, forgiveness, and healing—and to share this good news with others in direct proportion to the joy we ourselves have found in it.
Justin Huffman has pastored in the States for over 15 years, authored the “Daily Devotion” app (iTunes/Android) which now has over half a million downloads, and recently published a book with Day One: Grow: the Command to Ever-Expanding Joy. He has also written articles for For the Church, Servants of Grace, and Fathom Magazine. He blogs at justinhuffman.org.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ and Sex
The fact is that many Christians are in the midst of some kind of personal sexual struggle or dysfunction. They know theologically that Jesus died for their sins and that embedded in his death are the promises of forgiveness and freedom, but they simply do not know how to get from where they are to where they need to be. They know that the hope of defeating sin is the reason Jesus came, but sexual immorality isn’t just sin—you know, like lying or cheating. It’s different. It’s private. It’s shame-inducing. It’s just not something you talk about. In reality they stare at the empty cross of Jesus, and for them it seems that’s exactly what it is—empty. It’s empty of hope and help for them, so they live in silence. They minimize the depth of their struggle, and they determine that tomorrow they’ll do better. Or they’ve already given up and given in, and they hope that in the end Jesus will forgive them.
In a world that has gone sexually insane, we have to do better. We have to quit being silent. We have to help one another connect the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to sex and to sexual sin and struggle. The silence must be broken. Biblical hope must be given. People need to be called out of hiding. People need to believe and act as if change really is possible. More of us need to experience the forgiveness, freedom, hope, and courage of the gospel.
So let’s look at sex and sexual struggle through the hope-stimulating lens of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
1. YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE ASHAMED THAT YOU'RE A SEXUAL BEING
We have to start here. The cross teaches us that sex is not a problem; it is a gift. Jesus didn’t suffer and die to free you from sex but to free you from sexual sin. You must never give way to cursing your sexuality, because the same One who wisely created your sexuality came to be your Savior. He didn’t come to fill you with guilt because you are sexual but to free you from your bondage to and guilt from sexual sin. Your sexuality points to his glory as Creator and to the amazing creature you are. It is something that the cross allows you to celebrate, because it is the grace of the cross that gives you the power to keep sex in its proper place in your heart and in your life.
Your problem and mine is not primarily that we are sexual beings; it’s primarily that we tend to love the creation more than the Creator so that we use God’s good gifts in ways they were not created to be used. Sexual sin and struggle are not first a matter of what we do with our body but a matter of what we do with our heart. The struggle for sexual purity is not so much a struggle with sex but with the proneness of our hearts to wander, that is, with the tendency of every sinner to look for fulfillment of heart where it cannot be found. As long as you are looking for life in the creation, you won’t be seeking it in the Creator. Sex is a good and beautiful thing, but desire for this good thing becomes a bad and dangerous thing when it becomes a heart-controlling thing. The idolatry of the sinful heart is the problem. So when you ask sex to satisfy you, you have to go back again and again because the satisfaction of sex is powerful but frighteningly short-lived. Remember that asking the creation to be your savior always ends in addiction of some kind.
You don’t have to be ashamed of your sexuality, but you must guard your heart as you live out your sexuality.
2. YOU DON'T HAVE TO DENY THAT YOU'RE A SINNER
So much of what propels personal and cultural sexual insanity is active, regular, long-term self-denial. Self-righteousness is simply insane itself, but it’s there in all of us. The grace of the cross of Jesus Christ means we don’t have to deny reality anymore. We don’t have to work to make ourselves and others think we are righteous. Grace means we do not have to be afraid of what will be uncovered or exposed about us, because whatever is revealed has already been fully covered by the blood of Jesus.
Facing the depth of your sexual struggle is possible because you do not face that struggle alone; your Savior is ever with you. You and I must remember that self-denial is never a doorway to personal change. The grace of Jesus Christ welcomes you to live in the courage of honesty, knowing that there is grace for every dark and dangerous thing that will be exposed. The way you deal with your struggle for sexual purity changes when you embrace the fact that grace means you don’t have to deny your struggle anymore. But there is one more point to be made here. The Bible never presents sexual sin as being of a different nature than other sins. Sexual sin may have different social and interpersonal consequences, but it is sin, no more no less. In Romans 1 sexual sin is listed along with envy, gossip, and deceit, even with something as mundane as disobedience to parents. That is why this is important. If you begin to think that sexual sin is sin of a different kind or nature, it is logical then to wonder if the same biblical promises, hopes, and provisions apply to it.
3. YOU DON'T HAVE TO HIDE IN GUILT AND FEAR
Hiding from someone whom you say you love is never a good sign. Hiding because of guilt and fear is a red flag that something has gone very wrong. Hiding a problem seldom leads to a solution for the problem. The cross of Jesus Christ welcomes you out of hiding, because on the cross Jesus endured your punishment, he carried your guilt, he bore your shame, and he endured your rejection. He did all this so that you wouldn’t have to hide from God. He did all this so that in your sin, weakness, and failure you could run toward a holy God and not away from him. He did all this so that you could live in the light and not lurk around in the darkness. He did all this so that you would find mercy and grace in your time of need. So step out of hiding and reach out for help. Your Savior endured the rejection you and I should have received so that even in our failure, we will never see God turn and walk away from us. Now, that’s grace!
4. YOU DON'T HAVE TO FIGHT YOUR BATTLE ALONE
The dark secrecy of sexual sin can make you feel alienated, misunderstood, rejected, and alone. You can fall into thinking that no one will ever understand, that no one will ever want to be near you or help you. If you are God’s child, it is impossible for you to be alone. Let me make this distinction: it’s not impossible for you to feel alone, but it is impossible for you to be alone. You and I must distinguish between the power of what we feel and the realities that should shape the way we act and respond.
Here’s where the message of Scripture is so incredibly encouraging. God’s greatest gift to us is the gift of himself. What changes the whole ball game is his presence. The wisdom principles of Scripture wouldn’t be worth the paper they are printed on if it weren’t for the powerful rescuing and transforming presence of the Redeemer. Without him with us, for us, and in us, we wouldn’t understand the principles, we wouldn’t desire to live inside them, and we wouldn’t have the power to do so if we wanted to. Our hope for change is a person, the Lord Almighty.
God has also placed us in his church because he knows that our journey to sexual purity is a community project. We were not designed to know ourselves clearly, to identify the places where change is needed, and to fight for that change by ourselves. If you want to be sexually pure, you need people to help you see yourself in ways that sin blinds you to. If you want to gain ground, you need people who will confront you when you are rebelling and encourage you when you are weak. And most of all, you need people who will remind you again and again of the powerful presence of your Redeemer and the lavish provisions of his grace.
5. YOU DON'T HAVE TO QUESTION GOD'S PATIENT LOVE
Could there be any greater encouragement for us as we are confronted with the fickleness of our hearts, our weakness in the face of temptations, the rebellion that causes us to do what is wrong even when we know it is wrong, and the arrogance of thinking we know better than God, than the gospel declaration that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus? God’s love is yours forever, not because you will be faithful but because he is. God’s love is constant, not because you earned it in your righteousness but because God knew it was the only hope for you in your unrighteousness. God’s love never wanes even when your allegiance to him does, because it is not based on your performance but on his character.
If you think that God’s love is at stake, that he will withdraw it when you mess up, then in your moment of failure you will run from him and not to him. But if you really believe in your deepest moment of sexual foolishness, weakness, failure, or rebellion that when you run to him, he will greet you with arms of redemptive love, then it makes no sense to hide from him or to separate yourself from his care. Ultimately, in your struggle with sex, your love for God is never your hope. Hope is to be found only ever in his love for you. Since he loves you, he wants what’s best for you and will work to defeat the enemies of your soul until the last enemy has been defeated and your struggle is no more.
You see, only the gospel of Jesus has the power to bring sanity to sexuality in a world gone crazy and, within this power, the potential for real, lasting, personal transformation. Yes, you can live a God-honoring sexual life in a world gone crazy. Yes, you really can.
Content taken from Sex in a Broken World: How Christ Redeems What Sin Distorts by Paul David Tripp, ©2018. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, Il 60187, www.crossway.org.
Paul David Tripp is the president of Paul Tripp Ministries, a nonprofit organization. He has been married for many years to Luella and they have four grown children. For more information and resources visit paultrippministries.org.
The Surprising Antidote to Your Doubt
Editor’s note: This month at GCD you will be seeing articles from our team of Staff Writers and other contributors on a handful of topics that Jonathan Edwards introduced in his own Resolutions. The aim of this series is to help you see how a gospel-formed resolution can help you flourish in your love for Christ and for others next year. Click here to see all articles in this series.
If you ever wonder how to get a bad rap with posterity, you need look no further than Jonathan Edwards, one of modernity’s favorite Puritan whipping boys. An 18th Century pastor, theologian, and missionary, Edwards has gained a negative reputation as the foremost of hellfire-and-brimstone preachers and the paragon of everything our culture finds faulty with religion. If it’s considered anathema today—like a repressive puritanical morality, an overemphasis on sin, guilt, and judgment, or a sadistic glorification of divine violence—it’s probably been pinned on Jonathan Edwards at some point.
SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD?
My first exposure to Edwards came in high school literature with the assigned reading of his famous sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Tackling the sermon as a read-aloud, our teacher prodded the class to preach with zeal: “Read it with passion! With fury in your eyes and fire in your belly!” His appeal to dramatic flair was mostly lost on a languid group of hormonal juniors, none of whom were eager to stand out amongst their peers. But the bias against Edwards—and the old-fashioned, bigoted, puritanical religion he represented—was clear.
In recent years, a popular backlash against “angry God” Christianity has risen not only from secular quarters but also from within the walls of the church. Consider a recent title from Brian Zahnd entitled Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God, one in a long line of attempts to correct what is believed to be a backward and destructive theology and replace it with a non-violent, singularly loving, atonement-free gospel.[1]
For many of us, the appeal of a gratuitously loving God in the face of Edwards’ seemingly angry and bloodthirsty deity is irresistible. The angry, severe, cold god we grew up with has left us harboring neuroses too various to number. The god many of us have pictured from childhood was more like a domineering or demanding father than a gentle and loving friend. He reigned with an iron fist, rode on a heavenly cloud, and longed for a chance to exact vengeance on sinners and saints alike. This is a god whose stratospheric expectations left us cowering in fear, hopeless victims of his capricious anger and violent wrath.
But this portrayal of God is a gross caricature of Edwards and his theology. In contrast to this popular depiction, we might consider one of his seventy “Resolutions”:
“25. Resolved, to examine carefully, and constantly, what that one thing in me is, which causes me in the least to doubt of the love of God; and to direct all my forces against it."
We get a glimpse here of a young man—about 19 years old at the time of writing—enraptured by and devoted to God’s love. This might surprise anyone whose truncated impressions of Edwards have been informed by critics rather than a fair hearing of one of America’s greatest (and most warm-hearted) thinkers.
At root, Edwards had a comprehension of God’s love far richer and deeper than our modern understanding. The kind of love we expect and demand from God is lacking in anything negative, unattractive, or displeasurable. We desire a God who requires nothing of us, corrects nothing in us, and gives us everything we want. However, when we begin with ourselves and measure God by our own desires, we have a tendency to force him into a mold of our own making. We want a god that fits in our pocket—one we can take out when we want him, and put back when we’re through.
GOD’S WRATH MAKES HIS LOVE MORE BEAUTIFUL
But the God of Edwards—and, I would argue, of the Bible—doesn’t fit in our pocket. He neither exists nor acts primarily for our self-esteem. He acts for his own glory. And sin is, ultimately, an affront to that glory. The God with whom we have to deal is nothing like us. He is completely holy and requires absolute obedience. This is the God Edwards found in the Scriptures—the God who caused him to tremble and who is not to be trifled with.
It is only against the backdrop of the fierce wrath of God that divine love poured out on God’s enemies makes sense. Indeed, the central paradox of “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is that “God hath had it on his heart to show to angels and men, both how excellent his love is, and also how terrible his wrath is.”[2] This theme of God’s patient kindness and love—a kindness that leads to repentance (Rom 2:4)—motivates and animates the entire sermon with Gospel power.
C.S. Lewis elucidated the relationship between wrath and love along a similar vein:
“I quite agree that the Christian religion is, in the long run, a thing of unspeakable comfort. But it does not begin in comfort; it begins in the dismay I have been describing, and it is no use at all trying to go on to that comfort without first going through that dismay.”
THE SURPRISING ANTIDOTE TO DOUBT
In my own life, I have often struggled to accept God’s love for me. I've questioned how he could possibly love me, given my unworthiness and constant failure. I assume God foregoes actual affection for me and settles for mere tolerance. I feel like I'll end up sitting at the kids’ table at the Wedding Supper of the Lamb.
All of this self-abnegation, of course, seems humble, but it's actually a false kind of humility undergirded by a pride that says: “God’s grace is not big enough for me. His love is not expansive enough to fully include me.” I think my sin—as heinous and wrath-deserving as it is—is more powerful than God’s justifying grace. But this kind of passive pride actually degrades the work of Christ and undermines a biblical understanding of grace.
And this is where Edwards’ twenty-fifth resolution helps me. When I doubt God’s love—a weakness the 19-year-old Edwards apparently shared with me—the place I am directed to look is to the wrath of God. Why? Because when I truly understand the wrath of God against his enemies, then I am able to truly understand my desperate place without God’s merciful intervention. It is only God’s unmerited favor and gracious pleasure—that is, his free and inscrutable love towards me—which is able to save.
And what does it save me from? According to the Scriptures, God’s love saves me from God’s wrath: “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God” (Rom 5:8-9).
HOW TO CONQUER DOUBT
Here is a profound and freeing truth: the love of God saves us from the wrath of God through the death of the Son of God. God’s love is excellent in itself, but it becomes exceptional and incomprehensible to human sinners in light of the wrath from which we are saved.
When you are prone to question God’s wrath or doubt his love, the antidote for both is to look to the cross, not as a place where God affirms your infinite worthiness, but as a place where he displays his infinite wrath against sin in concert with his infinite love for his fallen creation.
Whenever you doubt the love of God, look to the cross. For the cross is where God’s wrath is appeased, his love is displayed, and his enemies become his children.
[1] Derek Rishmawy offers a helpful (but long) review of Zahnd’s book here.
[2] Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” July 8, 1741.
Mike Phay serves as Lead Pastor at FBC Prineville (Oregon) and as an Affiliate Professor at Kilns College in Bend, OR. He has been married to Keri for 20 years and they have five amazing kids (Emma, Caleb, Halle, Maggie, and Daisy). He loves books and coffee, preferably at the same time.
What it Means to Invest in Eternity
Editor’s note: This month at GCD you will be seeing articles from our team of Staff Writers and other contributors on a handful of topics that Jonathan Edwards introduced in his own Resolutions. The aim of this series is to help you see how a gospel-formed resolution can help you flourish in your love for Christ and for others next year. Click here to see all articles in this series.
Before my husband was a pastor, he worked through seminary as a financial advisor in the mutual funds industry. In the early days of our marriage, he took a phone call that left a deep impression on us both.
A World War II veteran called to discuss his retirement funds. The caller hadn’t experienced an extraordinary career and had never made much money. What he had done was put away $25 every single month from the time he was eighteen. He shared with my husband that no matter what—even when times were lean and he had trouble making ends meet—he put away $25, and not one penny more.
Over time, that monthly $25 deposit grew and the interest increased exponentially, accumulating to well over a million dollars. At the time, as a man in his seventies, he was enjoying retirement in the late 1990s. He had no worries because he had been faithfully investing in his future for decades.
This veteran had an understanding few other investors have: he knew he had one chance to save for the future. He understood that if he was going to enjoy his old age without financial worry, he had a limited window to prepare.
INVESTING IN ETERNITY
The same can be said of our time. We all have limited time to invest in our future, and, just as the veteran knew he had one chance invest in his future, Christians have a limited window to invest in eternity.
The writer of Hebrews says, “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Heb. 9:27). We have one life and one chance to prepare for life after death.
Paul tells us in Galatians that we are all heading toward a season of harvest: “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up” (Gal. 6:9).
In other words, we are sowing now but we'll reap soon. How do we appropriately prepare? If retirement calls for careful planning, how much more diligent should we be with eternity?
RESOLVING TO INVEST IN THE DISTANT FUTURE
Jonathan Edwards is a remarkable example of someone who wanted to be ready for eternity. Edwards strove to live well that he might bring glory to God and stand ready to meet him. Of the 70 resolutions he penned before the age of twenty, Resolution 22 speaks to Edwards’ desire to be ready for the life after this one:
Resolved, to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness, in the other world, as I possibly can, with all the power; might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.
“Happiness in the other world” was so important to Edwards that he resolved to pursue it with all his power and capability, and in any way that he could think of. But what is happiness in the other world? Rewards in heaven.
FULL VESSELS, VARYING CAPACITIES
Edwards, John Bunyan, and Charles Spurgeon all compared our happiness in the other world to full vessels. While every believer in Christ will be completely full of joy in heaven—like a vessel full to the brim—some vessels will be larger. Christians will have varying capacities for joy depending on how much our vessels were stretched in this life.
We know our good works in this life are not the grounds for our salvation. We could never obey our Lord enough to justify ourselves. Indeed, our bedrock is grace: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
Eternity in heaven is a free gift, while our good works on earth are a confirmation of that gift. We desire to serve and please our Lord when we are inwardly changed. And the works we do in this lifetime will be rewarded accordingly in the next.
It is so easy to forget that each of our actions matter for eternity. But Jesus said, “I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works” (Rev. 2:23).
How quickly we drift from one distraction to another, serving ourselves, rather than the Lord or his people. Even in Edwards’ day, with arguably fewer distractions, he knew this.
Edwards recognized that Scripture is replete with the teaching that every person will “appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Cor. 5:10, see also 1 Cor. 4:5, Rom. 14:10-12, and 1 Cor. 3:12-15).
He heeded the warnings that while this life is temporal, the next one is eternal. Wisely, Edwards resolved to invest his efforts more in the distant future than in gratifying his immediate desires.
STRETCHING OUR VESSELS
While Christ is our primary treasure, he instructs us to seek treasure in heaven as well. Our good works are done by his grace and for his glory (1 Cor. 15:10). Therefore, it is for his glory and our own good that we pursue rewards in the life to come. The Bible tells us how we can do that:
- Deny ourselves (Matt. 16:24-27)
- Have compassion for the poor, crippled, lame, and blind (Luke 14:13-14)
- Love our enemies (Luke 6:35)
- Practice faithful and productive stewardship (1 Cor. 4:1-5, Matt. 25:14-23)
- Give sacrificially to the poor (Matt. 19:21)
- Have compassion on those in prison and endure trials (Heb. 10:34-36)
- Persevere under persecution for righteousness’ sake (Matt. 5:10-12)
- Do good works (Rom. 2:6-10)
- Work as to the Lord (Eph. 6:6-8)
THE FRUITS OF INVESTING IN ETERNITY
Knowing that “the other world” is forever and that there God will “repay man according to his work” (Proverbs 24:12), may we resolve with Edwards to endeavor to obtain for ourselves as much happiness there as we possibly can. May we exert all the power, might, vigor, and vehemence we are capable of, in any way that we can think of.
Let’s consider how God’s gifts in our lives may be used in service to him, for his glory and our good, both in this lifetime and in the one to come.
Just like that wise World War II veteran, we must be diligent in our pursuit of the future. We must invest now to enjoy the payoff later.
We are in a season of sowing and God urges us to consider how we might reap a bountiful harvest later. This lifetime is our only chance to reap happiness in the one to come. May we not waste it. May we resolve to carefully, consistently store away all that we can with all that we have.
Jen Oshman is a wife and mom to four daughters and has served as a missionary for 17 years on three continents. She currently resides in Colorado where she and her husband serve with Pioneers International, and she encourages her church-planting husband at Redemption Parker. Her passion is leading women into a deeper faith and fostering a biblical worldview. She writes at www.jenoshman.com.
The Importance of Enough
Our failure to fast from crass consumerism stems from our failure to say “Enough.” For those hooked on the drugs of materialism and consumption, there is no such thing as enough. Instead, our mantra is “More,” a command that by definition cannot be satisfied. Fasting from anything is a sign that we are denying “more” and saying “enough.”
But the reason we have trouble saying “enough” in the first place is because of the appetites of our flesh and desires of our heart: our spiritual senses. Just because we fast from things that do not satisfy our spiritual senses does not mean we have tamed our senses or that they somehow go into hibernation. In order to truly say “enough” we have to experience satisfaction of our spiritual senses. And the only satisfaction that truly satisfies is Jesus Christ himself.
In the middle of the Beatitudes we find this central tenet of the kingdom: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
This means that only God’s kingdom is broadcasting on the frequency to which our spiritual senses are tuned. Nothing else satisfies our inward groaning for righteousness. Psalm 42:1 speaks to this perfect fit, as David cries:
As a deer longs for streams of water, so I long for You, God.
We take that longing, however, and instead of seeing satisfaction in the living water of God, try out the toxic sludge of whatever is offered outside the kingdom. We see that verse and don’t see our means to assassinating idols but something nice to slap on a coffee mug below a picture of a deer and sell for $9.95 at the Christian bookstore.
This hunger and thirst for righteousness, this panting of our soul for water, is the seeking of our spiritual senses for a larger sense, for the completion of our longing, for the great metronome that has set the tick-tock of our insidest insides. In short, we are a spiritual instrument aching from artificial rhythms, aching for true Spiritual rhythms.
Fasting is one of these rhythms, a crucial one in fact, because it involves repenting from the weight of all that slows us down. Fasting is a rhythm in the same way not fasting is a rhythm. It is the way we live in service to something outside of ourselves. As we saw above, the big house isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but orienting your life around paying for, building, and maintaining a big house can be very often. We make sacrifices already, we are just making them for stuff. The rhythms of our life already portray our willingness to go without things like wise financial management, time to rest, anonymity, and even our health in order to get what we want. And those sacrifices are silly! All the rhythm of fasting asks us to do is sacrifice for better, permanent, more fulfilling things.
The late comedian George Carlin was an angry guy who mocked the very idea of God, but even he understood the superficial fulfillment of consumerism. One of his most famous routines involved the relation of the American dream to “stuff.” Carlin mused that we buy a home so that our stuff will fit in it, but then proceed to “need” a bigger home because our accumulation of stuff doesn’t end. “That’s all a house is,” he says, “a place to keep your stuff while you’re out getting more stuff.” Even the biggest house is not big enough to contain the fruit of conspicuous consumption.
Meanwhile Jesus draws near and—ready to rebuke materialism (Luke 12:33) and rescue the weary (Matthew 11:28)—he stands over us with arms outstretched, and to all of us moving to the rhythm of “more” he shouts, “Enough!”
FALSE FASTING
The temptation we face in reading the Beatitudes and the rest of the Sermon on the Mount is to put on the behavioral expectations like a costume and play a religious part without undergoing any heart change at all, which is frankly how millions of Christians live their lives. Jesus himself calls us out on this when he speaks specifically on fasting in the Sermon:
And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. (Matthew 6:16-18)
Jesus warns against the behavioral alignment with the kingdom that lacks heart alignment. To act humble is not necessarily to be humble.
This is a powerful truth. When we skim it, it seems reasonable enough. None of us likes hypocritical people. None of us likes people who pretend to be something they’re not. And none of us wants to be those people. But the way Jesus commands humble fasting cuts right to the heart of pretense. He actually encourages “keeping up appearances” as a means of not keeping up appearances. Jesus tells those who fast to clean themselves up a bit. Fix your hair, shave, put on some deodorant. Why?
Because trying to look like you’re fasting is as fake as trying to look like you have it all together. The difference is not appearances but attitudes. The different is the heart.
If following Jesus is all an exercise for you in looking more spiritual, you will have missed the point. The whole point of abiding in Christ according to the rhythms of the kingdom is that life is found outside of your efforts and that the rhythms do not originate with you. You can study your Bible, pray, fast, give to charity, and go to church all you want, but if it is not the work of a heart for God, the prophet Isaiah calls it “filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6 NIV).
The New Testament church at various times had to ward off the infiltration of a group of heretics called ascetics. (Paul’s letter to the Colossians, for instance, offers instruction in response to the threat of self-righteous asceticism.) Ascetics were those who abstained from certain food or drink, who disengaged from the wider culture, and who adopted rigorous religious disciplines in pursuit of transcendence, enlightenment, or holiness. The bottom line is that for these guys, fasting was the end, not a means to the end. Ascetics trusted their own works to merit salvation.
Joyful fasting is not about asceticism or performance, either to impress God or to impress others. Fasting is a posture. It is a posture of denial we take toward the consumer offerings of the world and of submission toward the loving care and provision of God.
TRUE FASTING
This kingdom rhythm is called “joyful fasting” because the true posture of self-denial is joy. If we are weaning ourselves off of the wares of the world, what do we draw worth from? Where do we place our hopes? What entertains our heart? If it’s not movies, television, the Web, food, drink, or shopping, I mean.
True fasting is joyful fasting for one primary reason: because it is worship of God.
One of the reasons we are tempted to let everyone know we’re fasting, to broadcast from the rooftops that we don’t have cable or that we only buy from Goodwill, is because we aren’t worshiping God so much as the religious admiration of others. False fasting stems even from pleasant hypocrisy and polite self-righteousness; it doesn’t have to be “mean” like the Pharisees’. But looking for the strength to fast from others’ admiration or approval or even our own good feeling and self-satisfaction over jobs well done will not work out. That well dries up. But a heart tuned to God, drawing strength from him, will have ample supply from which to self-deny. When fasting is an act of worship, practiced as a regular rhythm of life in Christ’s kingdom, the Spirit of worship sustains us, a peace that is beyond understanding overcomes us, and a joy unspeakable flows from us.
We do not live in a world where self-denial is encouraged. I have heard maturity defined as “the ability to delay gratification.” If this is true, consumer culture is itself immature and is designed to cultivate immaturity. A daily perusal of Twitter and Facebook updates reveals to me the complaints of friends and family (and myself) when the drive-thru line is long, when the lady in front of us at the checkout is digging in her purse for her billfold at the last second, when the airline doesn’t serve a meal on a lunchtime flight, when the DVR cut off the end of our favorite show. In none of these petty irritations over invented problems that don’t mean anything in the economy of eternity is there the pure joy found inside the “enough-ness” of the kingdom.
It is in this world of imaginary problems and required self-service that the cross of Christ is foolishness. Because the cross is the very emblem of self-denial, self-emptying, self-sacrifice. The cross is the polar opposite of heartfelt wrath felt over someone’s taking our parking space.
But the cross—the place of death and, thereby, life—is the symbol of kingdom fasting, of joyful fasting. The author of Hebrews frames it this way:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2)
This passage tells us that Jesus endured the cross “for the joy that was set before him.” He did not see the sort of gratification in the cross many of us see in the golden arches or the little green mermaid (or whatever it is Starbucks has in their logo). He saw the gratification of joy beyond the cross, seeing the cross as the means to the gratification of renewed intimacy with the Father (“at the right hand of the throne of God”).
You will not be able to say “no thanks” to everything that belongs to the world if you are not already full, as Jesus was filled with the joy of communion with God. And to commune with God is to listen to him You will find it easier to fast joyfully if you are feasting on the revelation of his word.
Content taken from Supernatural Power for Everyday People: Experiencing God's Extraordinary Spirit in Your Ordinary Life by Jared Wilson, 
2018.
Jared C. Wilson is the Director of Content Strategy for Midwestern Seminary, managing editor of For The Church, and author of more than ten books, including Gospel Wakefulness, The Pastor’s Justification, and The Prodigal Church. You can follow him on Twitter.
The CSB Disciple’s Study Bible: A One-Stop Shop for All Things Discipleship
I had a radical conversion experience in the summer of 2002. Boy, was I jazzed about Jesus. I couldn’t wait to tell everyone the news—I was a Jesus-follower now! The problem was, outside of my salvation experience, I didn’t know much about Jesus or what it meant to be his disciple. To that point in my life, I knew more about following Rachel from Friends than Jesus of Nazareth. I didn’t need a little “tweaking” after conversion—I needed a whole new worldview. So I set out to rebuild my life from scratch, which was incredibly overwhelming.
Today, fifteen years later, I’ve grown a lot as a disciple (of Jesus that is, not Rachel Green). Yet I’ve often wished there had been a single resource handed to me after conversion to jumpstart my discipleship journey. This resource would be a simple guide on how to read, interpret, and apply the Bible, how to understand my story in light of God’s big story, and how to live out the habits of grace.
If only . . .
ENTER THE CSB DISCIPLE’S STUDY BIBLE
With the new CSB Disciple’s Study Bible, my hopes have come to fruition. This is a study Bible I’d happily hand to newly converted, “jazzed-for-Jesus-but-have-no-idea-what-it-means-to-be-a-disciple” Whitney.
Published by Holman Bible Publishers in 2017, the Disciple’s Study Bible is a one-stop shop for all things discipleship. It takes a fresh, reliable translation and pairs it with a wealth of discipleship resources to guide you on your discipleship journey, as well as equipping you with tools to disciple others.
Whether you’re a new believer who wants to rebuild your worldview or a mature Christian who actively disciples others, this Bible should be on your bookshelf. Here are six reasons why.
6 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD GET THE CSB DISCIPLE’S STUDY BIBLE
1. Faithful Bible Translation
The basis for a good study Bible has to be a clear, faithful translation of the text. No amount of resources, marketing, or cool graphics can (or should!) replace the text itself. The Disciple’s Study Bible features the Christian Standard Bible (CSB), a highly reliable and readable translation developed by 100+ scholars and published by Holman Bible Publishers. It uses optimal equivalence as its translation philosophy, translating the original text word-for-word when its meaning is clear, but opting for a more dynamic translation when meaning might be obscured for modern readers. It blends fidelity to the original text with readability for a modern world, making it an excellent translation choice for new and maturing disciples.
2. Achievable Reading Plan
Once you have a good translation, you need a plan to read it. There are fantastic reading plans available, but not everyone knows this. I didn’t. The beauty of the Disciple’s Study Bible is that a reading plan is built into the Bible itself, taking out any guesswork for new or busy readers. The Foundations 260 (or F260) Plan walks you through the big story of the Bible in 260 days worth of reading rather than covering every chapter of the Bible, lest you fall behind, get discouraged, and give up. It’s like a “best of” highlights reel that hits all the major points of redemptive history, giving you a sense of God’s redemptive narrative and where/how you fit into that storyline. This achievable “big picture” plan is perfect for new believers seeking to be shaped by God’s story instead of their past stories.
3. Simple Interpretative Method
This is my favorite piece. For every assigned reading, there’s a corresponding H.E.A.R. section that walks you through basic interpretive questions (e.g., who was the book originally written to, how does the text fit with the verses before and after it, what does it mean, in what ways does it call you to action, etc.). You highlight the verses that speak to you, explain what the passage means, apply what God’s saying, respond to what you’ve read, and—poof!—you’ve just done Bible interpretation without stressing over words like “hermeneutics.” The H.E.A.R. method teaches solid interpretative habits that will serve you well for the rest of your life. I didn’t learn this stuff until I went to Bible school; now, you can access it now in your personal devotions.
4. Accessible Book Introductions
Each book of the Bible features a short, accessible introduction; no academic or biblical background necessary. The introductions provide the circumstances of writing, contribution to the Bible, structure, and outline in a page or so. It also features a timeline for each book, placing the redemptive-historical events (boldface black print) within contemporary world events at the time (light gray print). It’s enough to get your bearings before you jump in, but not so much that you lose yourself in scholarly debates about Pauline authorship or the age of the earth. That stuff is important and fascinating to me now, but it would have turned me off as a new believer, undermining the whole purpose of getting into the Word.
5. Solid Study Notes
The study notes are arranged by key doctrines of the Christian faith. As you read commentary on a passage, you’ll encounter categories like creation, revelation, sin, evil, and salvation, thus offering you categories, or “buckets,” into which you can put your new biblical insight. These study notes also familiarize you with historic Christian beliefs and begin exposing you to systematic theology, an important discipline for all Christians. Don’t worry though, it doesn’t read like a stiff textbook. The emphasis is on discipleship and personal transformation. Additionally, the study notes make some of the key Christ-centered connections between the Old and New Testaments, showing how the Scriptures are all about Jesus. It comments on common messianic passages like Isaiah 53 and Ezekiel 36, but also on more obscure passages like Job 9:2.
6. Discipleship-Themed Articles
At the end, you’ll encounter a load of discipleship-themed resources from the team at Replicate Ministries, led by Robby Gallaty. These articles cover everything from how to pray and evangelize to how to establish a D-group (discipleship group). Of course, there are varying names for Christian practices like spiritual disciplines and small groups, but the core idea is the same—we want to make, mature, and multiply disciples of Jesus. These articles can help you towards that end. If you want to know more about Bible interpretation, turn to page 2034. If you need help sharing your story, turn to page 2041. If you’re considering starting a discipleship group, check out the article on page 2046. Even if you disagree on finer points in the articles, they’re a great resource to get you moving towards a life of discipleship. Again, I would have loved to have this in my hands right after conversion.
IS THIS BIBLE ONLY FOR NEW BELIEVERS?
The CSB Disciple’s Study Bible is great for new believers, but it’s also a fantastic resource for believers at every stage of the Christian life. I’m (obviously) excited about the value it has for new believers because I longed for something like this when I got saved. But don’t let my personal passion mislead you. If you want to grow as a disciple of Jesus, then this Bible is for you.
You could use it as your primary devotional Bible with the built-in reading plan, journaling, and memory work. It could also work well in small group settings; the H.E.A.R. method offers easy steps and questions everyone can follow. Some churches are even using it as a whole-church initiative to read the Word together and talk about it throughout the week. You’ve got options! It really is a full-orbed discipleship Bible.
Personally, I’ll be using it in the future as my “go-to” resource when I walk a new believer through the Bible. Just as I use different translations for different kinds of study, I find great value in having various study Bibles on hand for specific purposes. And, after reading and reviewing it, the CSB Disciple’s Study Bible just became my discipleship Bible.
WIN A FREE COPY
Our friends at LifeWay are generously giving away 5 free copies of the CSB Disciple's Study Bible. The giveaway will close next Wednesday, January 31 at 12:00 midnight EST. Winners will be contacted via email by Saturday, January 26, 2018. Enter below for your chance to win.
Whitney Woollard is a writer, speaker, and Bible teacher. She serves as a staff writer at Gospel-Centered Discipleship and contributes to various ministries, including YouVersion, 9Marks, and the Bible Project. She holds her M.A. in biblical and theological studies from Western Seminary and loves sharing her passion for the Word with others. She has been married to Neal for over ten years and together they serve Jesus at Hinson Baptist Church in Portland, Oregon. You can contact her at whitneywoollard.com.
The Bored Believer
It always amazes me when I get bored. After all, there is a great, big world out there and ninety-five percent of it remains unexplored by me. There are at least a hundred books waiting to be read on my bookshelf. My to-do list is never-ending. There are movies I haven’t seen, songs I haven’t listened to, people I haven’t visited, foods I haven’t tasted, and on and on. And yet, I get bored. With unlimited possibilities of ways to fill my time, how can I be bored? When I am bored, I do things that I don’t really want to do. I overeat, binge-watch TV, aimlessly scroll through social media, devour fiction on my kindle, and sleep too much. I get lazy and unmotivated. As a believer, I should make wise choices with the time I have. My time on earth is short, and I was created for a purpose (Jer. 29:11). God doesn’t intend for me to get bored.
Boredom is the state of being weary or restless due to lack of interest. As I think about what occupies my time, I wonder, Could it be that the things I’m interested in were not meant to hold my attention? Is this why I tire of them so easily? If I were interested in better things, would I find that I don’t get weary or restless?
BOREDOM LEADS TO WEARINESS
One result of boredom is that we get very tired. In seasons of prolonged work or long waiting, it’s easy to grow bored. The longer something takes to come to pass, the more susceptible we are to becoming disengaged.
Before his crucifixion, in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus tells his disciples, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me” (Matt. 26:38). He separated himself from them to pray for a while, and found them sleeping when he returned. He admonished them for falling asleep and asked them to pray again. He left to pray alone and returned to find them sleeping again.
Despite the desperation of Christ’s words, “I’m sorrowful, even to death,” his followers were too tired to watch and pray with him. Perhaps they grew bored while waiting on Jesus to return and became sleepy.
God tells us to take courage when we wait for him (see Ps. 27:14). Why would he tell us we need courage to persevere as we wait? Because he knows, “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt. 26:41). He knows we get bored when we wait and that boredom leads to weariness.
BOREDOM LEADS TO RESTLESSNESS
Another result of boredom is that we can get antsy. In the wait for a situation to be resolved, our boredom gives way to restlessness. We don’t know how to rest in Christ and wait for him. Instead, we pursue things to entertain or distract us to fill the time. We chase temporal pleasures.
When Moses went up the mountain to talk to the Lord, the people down below grew restless. “When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, ‘Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him’ ” (Ex. 32:1).
Moses took too long to come down from the mountain, so the Israelites decided to find other gods to worship. They grew bored and needed something to occupy their time. So, in their restlessness, they made a golden calf to worship.
Our agitation can also lead to us pursuing quick fixes. Consider the childless Abraham and Sarah. God told Abraham (Gen. 15:4) that his very own son would be his heir. But as the years pass with no heir, they grew restless and took matters into their own hands. Sarah convinced Abraham to conceive a child with her servant, Hagar, and they would raise that child as their heir (Gen. 16:1-4).
We grow bored when God’s timeline differs from ours. We don’t like the feeling of helplessness as we wait for God. The more restless we become, the greater the temptation to try and fix the situation ourselves. Quick fixes are easy; they feed our self-sufficiency. It’s harder to trust and wait on God’s provision.
INTERESTS THAT WILL NEVER BORE US
We are fickle people with short attention spans. What we find interesting or exciting today may not even cross our minds tomorrow. We need better interests. A golden calf or an Ishmael will not hold our attention or our affections for long. On the contrary, Colossians 3:2 tells us, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”
In The Weight of Glory, C. S. Lewis says,
“We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
God invites us into his family and there is nothing boring about being a child of the King! We are heirs of the kingdom (Rom. 8:17). As image bearers (Gen. 1:27), what interests our Father interests us. Russell Moore says in Onward, “If we are united with Christ, then his priorities become ours.”
This leads us to ask: What are our Father’s interests? What are his priorities? Believer, we must engage in the mission of making disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:19). We must care for orphans and widows (James 1:27). We must welcome refugees (Lev. 19:34). After all, we are kingdom ambassadors (2 Cor. 5:20).
Remember who you belong to and your eternal purpose. We were created for more. Resist the temptation to grow bored by taking courage. God doesn’t want us to be weary and restless. We can endure as we look to Jesus. He gives us the energy to do our work and helps us to rest in the work he’s already done.
RUN AN INTERESTING RACE
The next time you get bored, take an inventory of your emotions. Are you restless or antsy? Pray for the Lord to direct your interests to the things that are meant to fulfill you for all eternity. Be engaged in those things with passion and intentionality. Look to Jesus for support and as an example.
“Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross…” (Heb. 12:1-2). Let’s run an interesting race.
Christy Britton is a wife, homeschool mom of four biological sons, and soon-to-be mom of an adopted Ugandan daughter. She is an orphan advocate for 127 Worldwide. Her family is covenant members at Imago Dei Church in Raleigh, N.C. She loves reading, discipleship, spending time in Africa, hospitality, and LSU football. She writes for various blogs including her own, www.beneedywell.com.
Even in Your Pain, the Church Needs You
For the body of Christ to be healthy we must depend on each part of the body. The church at Corinth seems to have demoralized those members whom they assumed were less gifted or hurting. Perhaps some of those struggling wondered whether they should even be regarded as part of the church body. Those of us who are hurting are reassured that the body has need of every part. Every part must play its role, or the body won’t function as well as it could. It would be ridiculous if our whole body were one nose. Not only would it be gross but it also couldn’t walk or talk. Every one of us is different, and that’s a good thing. We are not all good at the same things. In the sport of cricket, the best bowlers are not any more valuable than the best batsman. In baseball you need both hitters and pitchers to have a successful team. In both sports the elders have to play well. All have a part to play.
This is why we continue being in community with God’s people all the days of our lives. When one part of the body leaves the body, the whole body hurts. The church needs you! Individual members cannot contract out the work; they must do their role for the good of the body. Romans 12:5 says, “In Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” Christianity is not a spectator sport. We don’t stay in the seats and watch other Christians get in the match. I recently watched all-time tennis greats Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal play in the Australian Open final. It may be the last time these two greats play one another in a major championship. It was incredible to watch these two rivals. But nothing compares with actually playing the game yourself. Watching is fun, but nothing beats getting out on the court and playing your best.
You may feel as if you have nothing to give others—you are in so much pain, your trial is tremendous. You get exhausted by just getting yourself ready in the morning. But one of the best things you can do as you struggle in your trials is to serve others. This is what you were made to do. God made you to play your part. You were not an accident. In 1 Corinthians 12:18, we see that “God arranged the members of the body.” He put them together. God makes no mistakes; he created you just the way he wanted to. There was no casualty in creation. You may not feel as if you can serve in the way you would like to, but you are important to the health of the church. Sam Allberry gives this illustration in his book on the church:
"Take a pen, a piece of paper and a timer. How many times can you write your name in 30 seconds? Now try the same exercise but without using your hands. You can put the pen between your toes or hold it in your mouth. My guess is, you didn’t do so well the second time round. Once you remove certain parts of the body, even simple tasks get harder. It reminds us of how much those with disability deserve our admiration. And it also reminds us of what our church misses out on when we are not there—part of the body is missing. Your church needs you."
When you reject Christ’s body, the whole church loses something. We need each other, and the wonderful fact is that the Lord has uniquely made you and can use you not in spite of your circumstances but because of your circumstances. This is a wonderful truth!
I’ve noticed that my nerve pain has given me a unique experience with chronic pain and disability that has allowed me to speak into people’s lives in profound ways. I had very little sympathy for others before I myself needed sympathy. Now I understand (at least a little bit more than I used to) the physical and emotional pain that comes with failing health. But what if I steered clear of the rest of Christ’s body? What if I saw my trial as a parenthesis or break in my church involvement and distanced myself from God’s people for a time? I would miss out on God using me. Hurting friend, God can use you in extraordinary ways. God has sovereignly ordained to use hurting people to comfort other hurting people. Paul writes:
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God" (2 Cor. 1:3–4).
Being unhealthy or struggling with some trial shouldn’t cause you to stop your church involvement. You shouldn’t think that you’ll get involved once you’re healthy. The church needs you now. I love seeing how one of our church members, Sneha, deals with extreme physical pain and yet works hard to join us for corporate worship even when she doesn’t feel well. Sneha understands that she needs the church now more than ever. And she’s a blessing to us. Even when she’s writhing in pain in her apartment, she will call church members to encourage and pray for them. Ladies will come to her apartment so that she can teach them the Bible. That’s what Paul is talking about when he says God comforts us so we can comfort others. The reassuring thing for those who are hurting is that God doesn’t cast us aside in our trials, but he is actually preparing us to be used in ways beyond what we could even imagine. Paul continues:
"The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you,' nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.' On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together" (1 Cor. 12:21–26).
This is great news! Even when we are hurting and we may be weaker than the other parts, God uses us. Even when we may feel like we have nothing to give, what does Paul say to us? He says all parts are indispensable. Hurting friend, you are indispensable in the plan of God! The word weaker in this context actually has the idea of being sick. The meaning emphasizes the complete unimportance of the member. But Paul says, “We need those members!” The body of Christ can’t do without them. Paul writes that those parts actually deserve greater honor. It seems counterintuitive, but in God’s grand design, your trial might be the moment of your most significant ministry. Could that be the case in your life right now?
Content taken from Kiss the Wave: Embracing God in Your Trials by Dave Furman, ©2018. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, Il 60187, www.crossway.org.
Start Planning Your Own Funeral
Editor’s note: This month at GCD you will be seeing articles from our team of Staff Writers and other contributors on a handful of topics that Jonathan Edwards introduced in his own Resolutions. The aim of this series is to help you see how a gospel-formed resolution can help you flourish in your love for Christ and for others next year. Click here to see all articles in this series.
Marilyn Johnson starts every morning the same way. She arranges her cup of tea, props up her slippers, shakes out the pages of The New York Times, and reads the obituaries.
Why the obituaries? “Obituaries, as anyone who reads or writes obituaries will tell you, are really not about death,” she says.
While obituaries explain the circumstances of a person’s death, they spend much more time explaining how they lived, making them a fantastic way to learn about life.
Another daily obit reader, artist Maira Kalman, muses, “[When I read obituaries,] I’m trying to figure out two very simple things: how to live, and how to die.”
These artists, as well as many others throughout history, have stumbled on one of the most ancient practices of obtaining wisdom for life—thinking about death.
TEACH US TO NUMBER OUR DAYS
Moses, the towering Old Testament figure, is perhaps most famous for the Exodus—the episode recording his faithful obedience to God, who commissioned Moses to lead his people out of slavery in Egypt.
Moses’ 120 years of life (see Deut. 34:7) included an unbelievable range of experiences: being raised in Pharaoh’s house, killing a man, running away from his people and living in hiding, coming back to lead God’s people out of slavery, seeing the Red Sea part before his eyes, almost making it to the Promised Land, being forced to wander around the desert for 40 years, then being prevented from entering that Promised Land.
People who have lived long lives are worth learning from, if for no other reason than they have simply experienced more than we have. In Moses’ case, his faithful example and leadership make him even more interesting to study, which is why we should take seriously his prayer for wisdom recorded in Psalm 90 (we should pay even closer attention when considering his words were inspired by the Spirit of God).
In verse 12, Moses voices a collective prayer for the people of God, saying, “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”
According to Moses, the key to a heart of wisdom is in learning to number our days. Put another way, the key to wisdom for life is thinking about death. As we consider how few our days are, we begin to develop a heart of wisdom.
GO TO THE HOUSE OF MOURNING
Moses is really saying the same thing as the rest of Scripture. In some of the oddest-sounding sections of the Bible, Solomon writes, “It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart" (Eccles. 7:2).
Yes, Solomon said it is better to go to a funeral than a wedding. Why? Because the house of mourning is the end of all mankind—it’s where each of us is headed—and those who recognize this fact will reflect on how they spend their days. Funerals aren’t better than weddings in general; Solomon is saying that funerals are better than weddings for obtaining wisdom.
He then clarifies, saying, “The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth” (Eccles. 7:4). Solomon—the wisest man to ever live (see 1 Kings 3:12)—tells us that wisdom for life is found in pondering death.
We shouldn’t move on from death too quickly, going from the house of mourning to the house of mirth, either, because thinking about the brevity of life is the key to finding wisdom. Most of us are ready to go parties or receptions after someone’s funeral, but perhaps we would be better off to sit at the graveside a bit longer.
OUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED
How exactly does thinking about death make us better at living? Let’s turn to David, another psalmist worth learning from.
David struggled with how to live a life that honored God while being surrounded by those who denounced and demeaned him. How could he live for God when the wicked seemed to receive nothing but good fortune for their evil? How could he make sense of it all?
By thinking about the brevity of life.
Out of his turmoil, David wrote, “O LORD, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!” (Ps. 39:4).
The way out of his thinking about the futility of life was in seeing his life in light of eternity. To live each day well, he had to reflect on how few of those days he had left.
David, Solomon, and Moses all realized that thinking about death helps us make better decisions for life. Similarly, Francis Chan writes:
“[We] make wiser decisions after our hearts spend time in the house of mourning. I tend to make good decisions at funerals and poor ones in restaurants. I have made wise financial decisions while surrounded by starving children, and poor decisions from the suburbs. We need to keep our hearts close to the house of mourning to avoid decisions we will regret. As difficult as it is, we need to be mindful of death. We must make decisions with our day of death in mind.”
START PLANNING YOUR FUNERAL
Jonathan Edwards is known for his famous resolutions—short promises he made to help keep himself on the path of righteousness. His ninth resolution reads, “Resolved, To think much, on all occasions, of my dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death.”
He was resolved to think about his death and the normal circumstances it would bring. That means Edwards was resolved to plan his own funeral in his mind.
His example is one we can follow. Try this short exercise: for 10 minutes today, think through the reality that you will die. Reflect on all that thought brings, from death certificates to funeral plans and coffin choices.
Remind yourself that in Christ “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28); that your next breath comes only if he allows it. Imagine you will die tomorrow, next week, or next year.
Then, ask yourself questions like, “If I were about to die…”
“What would I do differently? What would I start doing? What would I stop doing?”
“Would I keep living the way I am—living where I live, doing the things I do, working the job I have?”
“What would I be ashamed of not attempting for God?”
“Who would I spend more time with?”
Surely, God will bring some things into focus, namely that we should live today like we’ll die tomorrow.
Resolve to think about your death more often. Resolve to plan your own funeral every now and then, at least in your mind.
WHY THINKING ABOUT DEATH SHOULDN’T SCARE YOU
Thinking about your own death sounds a bit morbid, at first (certainly, planning your own funeral does!). But what Edwards and others have seen is that in ruminating over our death we obtain wisdom for our life.
Are men and women who think about death more emotionally robust than the rest of us? Are they of some strange, macabre mold?
Perhaps, but I doubt it. Instead, they seem to understand what Paul put so memorably, that “to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). As believers, we have the opportunity to live for Christ today.
We get to love his church, love his people, and tell others the greatest news ever heard. Our eternal, heavenly life informs our ephemeral, worldly life. That heavenly life is an eternal one alongside Christ himself!
Death might frighten us because it’s unknown—but it doesn’t have to. If we think about death often, and realize that to live is Christ and to die truly is gain, then we can live lives full of wisdom and godliness. We get to live for Christ today, and we gain him even more if we die tomorrow.
Each of us will stand before God one day to give an account of our lives (2 Cor. 5:10). Don’t let that day be the first you’ve thought about death.
Grayson Pope is a husband and father of three, as well the Managing Web Editor at GCD. He serves as a writer and editor with Prison Fellowship and has earneda MACS at The Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. For more of his writing check out his website, or follow him on Twitter.
The Outlandish Joy of Obeying Jesus
Where does your resolve come from? For Jonathan Edwards, it came from God. He did not look first to himself—what he wanted to do or to become. He looked first to God, and that made all the difference. Edwards wasn’t always the pastor and theologian we know today; God grew him into that role. He started out like the rest of us, wrestling with who he was and who he wanted to be. But God gripped him and set him apart to himself. He granted Edwards a vision of life that dimmed the spotlight on the man and brightened it on God.
Edwards’ 62nd resolution is but one example:
"Resolved, never to do anything but duty; and then according to Eph. 6:6-8, do it willingly and cheerfully as unto the Lord, and not to man; “knowing that whatever good thing any man doth, the same shall he receive of the Lord."
Could God use a man who resolved such a thing? Could he use anyone who didn’t?
Doing our duty before the Lord is the greatest life we could ever live, but it’s the thing our flesh wants most not to do. Add in the resolution to do it willingly and cheerfully and one has the makings of a frustrating life. This resolution is not for the faint of heart. It is a promise to oneself to remove the “I” of life and replace it with the glorious God of the universe—a God who was the true master of his life, the only one who knew who he should be and do.
Edwards was not a perfect man; only Jesus was. But his resolve to follow Jesus for who he is calls us to consider the remarkable life of the Christian. Everything we do is under the sight of God, the guidance of God, and the love of God. Our lives are not meaningless, and the sooner we realize that the sooner we’ll begin to live as we should.
To realize our lives aren’t meaningless is, at the risk of sounding contradictory, to realize that we aren’t all that important. We are not nothing, to be sure, but we are not everything we tend to think, either.
So who are we? We’re unworthy servants willingly and cheerfully serving Jesus.
WE ARE UNWORTHY SERVANTS
In Luke 17, Jesus is talking to his apostles. After a hard teaching about temptation, they said to him, “Increase our faith!” Jesus tells them about a mustard seed of faith strong enough to move mountains. Then, for some reason, he shifts to duty.
“Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’” – Luke 17:6-10
We all want increased faith, but for what purpose? If our request for increased faith is merely to see mountains move, we’re asking God to grant faith for an end that is not him. In our “God-dreams,” we must be careful not to use God’s name in vain. We must be sure our desires match his. Faith in Christ doesn’t make us miracle workers, it directs us to the Miracle Worker.
We are all tempted to spiritual pride. So Jesus sets us in our place, reminding us of who we are: unworthy servants. We’re free in Christ, but we’re slaves to him. And when a slave has done his duty to his master, he does not expect any gain in return. He has not given anything to his master he does not already have. He will not receive a reward for doing what he’s commanded.
Is this offensive to you? It is to me.
But it wasn’t to Edwards. He resolved never to do anything but duty. Like the Apostle Paul, he identified himself as a “bondservant” of Christ (Eph. 6:6). His idea of life began and ended with the Word of God; what he commanded was his duty to obey. Is that a dull life? Well, that depends on your master, doesn’t it?
NEVER TO DO ANYTHING BUT DUTY
What did Edwards mean by “never to do anything but duty?” He meant a life not of dull service but a life of intimate following. To follow a hard master is a wearisome task, but Jesus is no ordinary master. Instead of demanding harder work and higher yields, Jesus says,
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” – Matt. 11:28-30
What is the work of Jesus Christ in the world? He came to save his people from their sins, redeem all things, restore all that’s lost, and mend all that’s broken. He came to destroy the power of sin. He came to give sight to the blind and to raise the dead. He came to set the captives free, to rescue the oppressed. He came to live the perfect life, die the guilty death, and rise again in glory. He came to bring man to God and God to man.
Jesus is the life-giving master. He’s the only master who, if we follow him, will give us tasks of glory and, when we fail him, will forgive us completely. He calls us into his work, things no less significant than the spread of the gospel for the salvation of the world. He asks us to do our duty, as unworthy servants, because that’s who we are. We have no righteousness of our own that compels him to us.
We cannot carry out his commands apart from his grace. We have no claim to make on our Maker and Savior. We are unworthy in every sense of the world—but it is for the unworthy that he came!
OUR DUTY IS OUR YES TO GOD
Doing our duty increases our faith. As we obey, we see God at work. What then is our duty? In one sense, it is nothing less than our immediate and constant yes to God. It is not a yes to the things we want to do but a yes to all the things he calls us to do, even if our yes’s are to seemingly small requests:
- “Yes, Lord, I will pray right now for this suffering man.”
- “Yes, Lord, I will turn my eyes from her so as not to lust.”
- “Yes, Lord, I will obey your call to work hard today.”
- “Yes, Lord, I will be gentle with my wayward child."
- “Yes, Lord, I will love this person I just can’t get along with.”
- “Yes, Lord, I will suffer quietly, enduring false accusations because you know my heart.”
- “Yes, Lord, I will deny myself because in Christ I have all things.”
We don’t do our duty before Jesus under the shadow of the law, we do it under the Son of Righteousness. Paul explains in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
The joy Jesus had for his servants led him to the cross. How much more should his joy lead us into his work?
THE OUTLANDISH JOY OF OBEDIENCE TO JESUS
Christ gives his people his Spirit—all the internal will and cheer we will ever need—if we seek him and search for his voice. Jesus’ wish is our command. In the remarkable grace of God, our moment by moment yes brings heaven’s work to earth.
And our work is not apart from his watchful eye. What we do for him will yield rewards in the end. He will remember our service to the saints (Heb. 6:10). He will return all the good we did (Eph. 6:8). We are unworthy servants, yes. We’re bondservants of Christ, it’s true. But we’re doing the works of God (John 14:12)! We cannot claim our seat at his table, but one day our Master will seat us at his marriage supper of the Lamb.
Being a servant of Christ is a lowly thing until you see how high a thing it truly is.
David McLemore is the Director of Teaching Ministries at Refuge Church in Franklin, Tennessee. He also works for a large healthcare corporation where he manages an application development department. He is married to Sarah, and they have three sons.
Never Lose One Moment of Time
Editor’s note: This month at GCD you will be seeing articles from our team of Staff Writers and other contributors on a handful of topics that Jonathan Edwards introduced in his own Resolutions. The aim of this series is to help you see how a gospel-formed resolution can help you flourish in your love for Christ and for others next year. Click here to see all articles in this series.
There is no lack of content on the topic of time in pop culture. From Cher’s “If I Could Turn Back Time” to Jim Croce’s “Time in a Bottle,” there is an oft-repeated chorus of lament that once a minute is lived it cannot be relived.
Science fiction explores the would-be-worlds in which time travel exists in stories like H.G. Wells’ Time Machine, Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone, or the more lighthearted Back to the Future. Oh, what we would change if only the possibility to return to past moments existed!
The reality is that the past stays in the past, and a minute wasted can never be reinvested. The old adage “time is money” is a half-truth when applied to our vocations, but the equation falls desperately short in terms of currency. It is possible for one to waste an entire fortune and somehow regain their riches, but each hour of our lives wasted is lost forever.
In a recent film called In Time, the audience is cast into a world where the currency of the day is time added to one’s life. The characters in this alternate universe are genetically engineered to expire after their twenty-fifth birthday but are able to cheat this fate as their employers pay them in minutes added to their lifespan. The depravity is all-too-real as the vast disparity between the virtually immortal rich and the poor who are literally living paycheck-to-paycheck.
How would we live differently if we knew exactly how many minutes we had until we died?
NEVER LOSE ONE MOMENT
This brings me to a resolution of Jonathan Edwards that the 21st-century human may find most convicting:
"#5 - Resolved, never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way I possibly can."
At first glance, this resolution appears to come from another voice in the stream of productivity gurus. Time is juxtaposed with profit, so we’re tempted to only think in terms of maximizing efficiency.
But Edwards didn’t desire to live his life in a way where he makes the most money. Instead, he aimed to make much of his Messiah. If we start working overtime in our careers or doubling down in the stock market, it is not God’s kingdom we’re seeking, but mammon’s.
Time well spent has nothing to do with Wall Street and everything to do with worship.
THIS IS THE DAY THAT THE LORD HAS MADE
Anyone who has ever mourned time wasted by mindlessly scrolling through social media knows that there are more noble tasks with which to spend our time. Christians have long been noted for their frivolity when it comes to financial generosity and their prudence when it comes to sexual desire. In the 21st century, what if they also became known for their insistence on making the most of their time?
Returning to the world of science fiction, one of the most gut-wrenching glimpses into the priceless nature of our finite time is in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar. Upon arriving back on their ship after a stint where time passes differently, the main characters learn that twenty-three years have passed. From their perspective, they were gone for only a handful of hours. There is a palpable sense of grief in the characters that the viewer experiences as well; grief over the loss of time and the life that could have been lived.
To the outside world, time spent reading and re-reading Scripture, praying to our unseen Creator, and seeking silence and solitude to commune with our Savior should speak volumes. But I fear that many Christians have syncretized biblical faith with 21st-century self-worship. When taking selfies is a higher priority than taking a Sabbath from our self-absorbed lives, little distinction can be made between the Church and the surrounding culture. Edwards’ resolution hits the self-absorbed Christian (myself included) right in the gut.
What a blessing from God that every moment spent seeking him is a moment well spent. No one on his or her deathbed will regret one nanosecond spent in Word or worship. Mark Twain brilliantly quipped on our deaths, “We’ll be mourned for a day, and forgotten for a lifetime.” Yet we still feel that pull to post one more selfie.
No one can rob us of time pursuing our Creator, that is, no one but ourselves. Those in prison and torture camps can be deprived of everything, but not their ability to pray and commune with God. In God’s economy, one can even see the deprivation of all material comforts as a blessing that forces one to pursue God undistracted.
LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE
Our hearts sink when we hear stories of men and women serving forty years of a life sentence only to be freed when new forensic breakthroughs reveal they were innocent all along. But there are worse things than the innocent rotting away in a jail cell.
Richard Wurmbrand, the founder of Voice of the Martyrs, chronicles the torture he experienced while imprisoned for his faith in communist Romania. While reading of his experience, one is overcome by the evidence of Christ’s work in Wurmbrand’s life. It would be all too easy for the careless onlooker to classify his time spent in confinement as the brutal robbery of a decade and a half of his life. But because of his intense affections for God and love for his neighbor—including his savage communist jailers—he never lost hope that God would redeem his lost time for a greater purpose. In his own words:
“A total of fourteen years in prison passed for me. During all this time I never saw a Bible or any other book. I had forgotten how to write. Because of the great hunger, doping and tortures, I had forgotten the Holy Scriptures. But on the day that I fulfilled fourteen years, out of oblivion came into my mind the verse: ‘Jacob worked for Rachel fourteen years and it seemed to him a little time because he loved her.’ ”[1]
Wurmbrand’s life is a testament to one who takes Jesus’ commands seriously. In picking up his cross daily, he considered the lives of his jailers more important than his own. He was all too willing to give up his life, and he did—fourteen whole years of it—in order that others might see the all-surpassing glory of his savior.
A PRISON OF OUR OWN MAKING
There is a parody of Wurmbrand’s imprisonment that is taking place in millions of households across the world. There, people are enslaved, not by brutal guards, but by the backlit screen of their smartphones. The sun rises and sets in the backdrop and another day fades away like smoke. The real tragedy is that the enslavement is a welcome one.
How I wish I was immune to this phenomenon. I’m all too familiar with the dopamine hit that mindlessly unlocking my iPhone brings. I need Jesus’ grace and the indwelling Spirit to reorient my life around things of ultimate importance.
Worldly values, committed to the kingdom of self, see Wurmbrand’s imprisonment and willing use of his life to support the persecuted Church, as a waste. But the follower of Christ knows better. Not one minute of torture will go wasted in the coming kingdom; God will redeem it. I suspect Wurmbrand himself does not know just how many guards were moved by his selfless love and witness in the rat-infested hole he was kept in. As we get glimpses of the already-but-not-yet kingdom, we see a different economy of time where worship and self-denial are the wisest uses of it.
I pray God would give me the grace to begin making that my reality now!
How about you?
This world is passing away and will soon be eclipsed by the realization of Christ’s kingdom. Those who enter into it will see things for what they truly are: every moment dedicated to self will be burned away, but every moment spent pursuing the King is a moment invested in eternity.
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil (Ephesians 5:15-16).
[1] Wurmbrand, Richard. Tortured for Christ, 1967. pg. 53
Sean Nolan (B.S. and M.A., Clarks Summit University) is the Family Life Pastor at Christ Fellowship Church in Forest Hill, Maryland. Prior to that, he served at a church plant in Troy, New York for seven years and taught Hermeneutics to ninth and tenth graders. He is married to Hannah and is raising an army of toddlers. He blogs at Family Life Pastor. You can read all of Sean’s articles here.
Speak No Evil—Unless It's the Right Thing To Do
Editor’s note: This month at GCD you will be seeing articles from our team of Staff Writers and other contributors on a handful of topics that Jonathan Edwards introduced in his own Resolutions. The aim of this series is to help you see how a gospel-formed resolution can help you flourish in your love for Christ and for others next year. Click here to see all articles in this series.
On December 19, 1722, the supply preacher of a small Presbyterian church in New York City made a second journal entry in his new endeavor: “Resolved, never to speak evil of any, except I have some particular good call for it.”
This entry eventually became known as number thirty-six of Jonathan Edwards' "Resolutions." Edwards, the supply preacher, would become well known for these resolutions in the years to come. To him, the “Resolutions” were a collection of matter-of-fact statements he sought to live by. These were not the kinds of resolutions culturally associated with New Year’s Day.
As biographer George Claghorn observes, “For Edwards, [the Resolutions] were neither pious hopes, romantic dreams, nor legalistic rules. They were instructions for life, maxims to be followed in all respects. Edwards depended on the sustaining strength of his omnipotent Deity to enable him to live up to them.”
And certainly, God help any man trying to live according to that second entry, known as Resolution #36: “Resolved, never to speak evil of any, except I have some particular good call for it.” Talk about a pious hope, a romantic dream, a legalistic rule if you've ever heard of one!
SPEAK NO EVIL
In our own day, speaking evil is far from taboo. It’s a practice most of us engage in to some degree, whether subtle or explicit, private or public (more on that in a moment).
Edwards didn’t provide any comments regarding his resolutions; after all, part of their charm is their brevity. So here I am, nearly 300 years later, left wondering what exactly motivated such a statement. Why did Edwards feel the need to make this resolution? And how can we apply it to our own 2018 context?
One of the greatest cultural lies about our words is that while “sticks and stones may break my bones, words may never hurt me.” Words, culturally speaking, are treated as inconsequential. They carry little weight. We hardly flinch at spoken evil, because they are just words.
I believe one of the driving forces behind Resolution #36 is Edwards’ acute sense of the power of the tongue. No doubt Edwards knew his Bible, and in a season of preaching on the words of Jesus, James, Paul, Solomon, and the prophets, there is no doubt that he was aware of what all these men taught about the tongue. Take James’ words, perhaps some of the most blunt, on the power of the tongue:
“The tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” – James 3:6-8
THE POWER OF THE TONGUE
Other biblical authors agreed with James’ observations of the tongue’s power, the weightiness of words. Solomon remarked that “death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Prov. 18:21).
Near its end, Romans 1, a passage often consulted as a condemnation of the practice of homosexuality, actually makes even more frequent mention to the sins of gossip, slander, boasting, spreading evil, and ruthlessness, noting that even the approval of such sins is contemptible (Rom. 1:28-32).
Jesus once strikingly warned, “On the day of judgment people will have to account for every careless word they speak. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matt. 12:36-37, emphasis added).
STICKS AND STONES . . .
Sticks and stones may break bones, but words have the potential to break one’s soul.
“Speaking evil of any” then, for the biblical authors and for Edwards, was any form of speech toward or about another that was destructive, harmful, negative, unrighteous, or unforgiving. Every careless word will be taken note of.
It’s that last attribute I want to focus on now: “careless.” All evil speech is careless. In one sense, it is careless because it is absent of care for the one of whom it speaks.
As Christians, all created in the image of God, related linearly to one another, we have been called to let our speech be full of grace and seasoned with salt (Col. 4:6). Paul wrote that our speech should have the same kind of preserving quality that salt has; it is not to be acidic and to break down, but to build up.
If we are truly, as Paul said, “ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us” (2 Cor. 5:20), our speech must be perceived as the same “words of life” that Christ spoke in the world (John 6:63, 68).
WHEN SPEAKING EVIL IS GOOD
But there’s another important part of Edwards’ resolution that needs to be discussed, and that’s the qualifier of his first statement: “Resolved, never to speak evil of any, except I have some particular good call for it.”
Is there ever a moment, as Christians, when “speaking evil” is the right thing to do? Yes, according to Edwards. Hang with me a moment.
If I’m reading Edwards right, it seems there are times in life where we reprove, we denounce, we break down, we refuse to preserve, we spread the word of rebuke over another because it’s the biblical thing to do.
When would this ever be the case? We need “some particular good call for it.”
That is important because if such a call exists, our words are no longer careless in nature—indeed, there is purpose and intention instead of absentmindedness or recklessness. What we find in Scripture is that our words can—and should—be used not only to build one another up, but also to tear down what is evil in the world.
Paul calls us to “expose” the fruitless deeds of darkness (Eph. 5:11-12), to “reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Tim. 4:2). For the one who persists in sin, “rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear” (1 Tim. 5:20).
Paul, and Edwards, knew there would certainly be moments in which we are compelled by the gospel to speak out, and that might require hard words, even public rebuke.
So the solution is not simply to “Judge not!” We should judge “with righteous judgment” (John 7:24). We should do so because we care.
WORDS MATTER
The end goal ultimately must be the proclamation of the words of life. We all participate in the preaching of the gospel by our using words because they are necessary.
Christians today experience the power of the tongue in a way Jonathan Edwards never did. Edwards never had to live in a day where online trolling was seen as a sport, putting notches in belts of the anonymous for “sick burns.”
Speaking evil is part and parcel of how our culture communicates. And every careless word, whether posted to Twitter or written in a diary, will be included in what Leif Enger called “The Great Ledger of our recorded decisions.”
But our place in time is not necessarily a bad thing. We actually have a brilliant opportunity to leverage our moment, our words in these days, for the glory of God. We have an amazing opportunity and unprecedented access to denounce evil in the name of Christ, to speak the gospel’s refining fire into the world, and use words that demonstrate our utter care.
Like the rest of Edwards’ resolutions, we can only bring our words into submission of Christ by the power of the Spirit in us. We will say things we regret. We will put our feet in our mouths sometimes.
But with Christ's help, and for his glory, we can resolve with Edwards to put away careless speech, to practice speaking with care, only “speaking evil” when the gospel compels us to do so.
Zach Barnhart currently serves as Student Pastor of Northlake Church in Lago Vista, TX. He holds a Bachelor of Science from Middle Tennessee State University and is currently studying at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, seeking a Master of Theological Studies degree. He is married to his wife, Hannah. You can follow Zach on Twitter @zachbarnhart or check out his personal blog, Cultivated.
Don't Let the Fire Go Out
Editor’s note: This month at GCD you will be seeing articles from our team of Staff Writers and other contributors on a handful of topics that Jonathan Edwards introduced in his own Resolutions. The aim of this series is to help you see how a gospel-formed resolution can help you flourish in your love for Christ and for others next year. Click here to see all articles in this series.
I could feel my eyes glazing over as she talked about how sick her dog was.
She was devastated, and I was really tired. I could feel my mind pulsing with each and every heartbeat. I was empty and dry, and at this point, any expectations of conversation would be like wringing out a dry towel. I knew my weariness was getting in the way of my attention at this benefit dinner.
I was still standing in this fancy dress and uncomfortable shoes only because I knew it was expected of me. On the inside, I was calculating every single moment in a process until I could leave and be in the comfort of my own home. I had nothing left.
When my car finally pulled into the driveway, I escaped to the haven of my room and turned on my floor fan, letting the cool air kiss my face. I turned on music to fill the empty space in my head. The air and lyrics filled my dry lungs with breath. Over the past few months, my eyes had become tired, drifting from the secure place of Jesus, and refocusing on my responsibilities. I was not dried out by momentary exhaustion, but exhaustion of the heart.
Can you identify with this kind of exhaustion? It’s when your own health and well-being becomes secondary to everything else. It’s the feeling that we have to sprint to even keep up, and breathing itself becomes a task.
The words “spirit” and “breath” are known to be interchangeable in Scripture. That’s fitting, because when we’re spending ourselves beyond our limit, typically we are not depending on the work of the Spirit. We’re short of breath and feel the need to anxiously count each one we take. We are limited when we’re not relying on the endless supply of the Spirit.
GIVE ME OIL
Throughout Exodus, God intricately instructs his people on how the tabernacle should be built. Every word has meaning, and every meaning has great purpose in pointing to Jesus.
One piece of furniture you’re probably familiar with is the golden lampstand (Ex. 25:31). I have heard about the lampstand, read about it, and seen photos of it. However, I was completely unaware of how much spiritual significance went into it.
When God talks about the creation of this beautiful source of light, he makes it clear that candles aren’t sufficient. Candles are wax, and wax burns itself. At the end of the day, a candle will burn its wax down until there is nothing left. The flame will go out.
In instructions found later in the Old Testament, God says “do not let the fire go out” countless times (Lev. 6:9-13). The symbolic flame found in this intimate meeting place was never to lose its light. It had to burn continuously.
Therefore, God asks for an oil-burning lampstand. An oil-burning flame doesn’t burn itself, but burns from an external source. An endless supply of anointed oil.
Similar to our source found in the Holy Spirit, God’s Word through this lamp echoes his everlasting sustenance given by the Spirit. His supply is our supply, and it is sustained only by intimate connection to his original source.
FUEL FOR YOUR STORY
God’s work in you is extraordinarily important. He created you with intention and detail. The working together of your history, your gifting, and his purpose becomes a beautiful thing called your story. It’s one of the most powerful tools used for salvation (Rev. 12:11) because it draws people in to listen to the sound of God’s marvelous grace.
However, we have to know how to steward these things. Our history typically holds some degree of brokenness and requires our willingness to stop, search, and be restored from past hurt or anger. Our gifting requires discipleship as we walk into situations and relationships where we’re asked to use these gifts to help someone else. Last, God’s fulfilled purpose requires both our patience and our trust. We have to walk willingly on a journey that is uncomfortable and unpredictable.
If you don’t lean into the strength and power of God for each of these things, you will burn out. Without the filling of the Holy Spirit, you are susceptible to resent your past, neglect your gifting, and ultimately miss God’s true purpose for you. You’ll lean into your own self-sufficient energy and burn yourself down. You’ll lose the brightness of your light, perhaps causing you and those around you to stumble.
3 WAYS TO CONNECT TO THE SOURCE
We don’t have to run ourselves into the ground, though. We can remember the source of our light through prayer, through biblical accountability, and the psalms.
We have to press into prayer, constantly checking our hearts. Is the gospel informing the way you live? Are you worried about things beyond your control? Does your life have margin for rest? Praying these questions and listening for God’s guidance can lead us towards deeper dependence on God, and less dependence on ourselves.
Biblical accountability is simply living along with people who can lovingly speak the truth when we need to hear it. If we’re walking in sin, it’s usually seen and felt by the people closest to us. Sin is easy enough to notice, whether it is rebellion, codependency, or self-sufficiency. But we need people around us who are willing to tell us they see it.
The Psalms have a way of speaking gentle conviction to our hearts, often saying the very things only our hearts know. The poetic crying out for rescue reminds us of our own need. I recognize what’s happening inside of me most when I read the Psalms.
We are called to have a light that burns in the darkest place, and that flame should continuously burn. If we are the fuel to the light we give off, we will burn down like candles and our light will go out. This makes us helpless to others and all ministry opportunities.
However, our flames will not lose their light if we are burning the inner fuel of the Spirit of God. This oil doesn’t run dry, and it radiates the most magnificent light.
Chelsea Vaughn (@chelsea725) is currently living in Nashville but has spent time in Texas, Thailand, and Australia. Obviously, travel is a passion, along with hours in the kitchen or across the table from good friends. She does freelance writing, editing, and speaking for various organizations and non-profits. She hopes to spend her life using her gift for communication to reach culture and communities with the love of Jesus.
The Power of Gospel-Formed Resolutions
Editor's note: This next month at GCD you will be seeing articles from our team of Staff Writers and other contributors on a handful of topics that Jonathan Edwards introduced in his own Resolutions. The aim of this series is to help you see how a gospel-formed resolution can help you flourish in your love for Christ and for others next year. Click here to see all articles in this series.
January 1 is a great day for introspection if you allow for it. Regardless of how you spent your final evening of last year, the clock has moved and today is a new start, a new year, a fresh beginning. In some South American contexts, the celebration of New Year’s gives a startling depiction of this transition. Life-sized models are stuffed with hay, newspaper, and an assortment of fireworks and other combustibles to be burned in effigy at the stroke of midnight. Often, masks representing particular political or cultural celebrities are placed on the doll to personify the year left behind. It’s a way of cleansing—burning away the previous year with its trials and difficulties and making room for a new, more hopeful year.
As the New Year comes into reality, there can be a sense of concern about the year ahead. What will the next 365 days hold for us? Will they be profitable? Will they be well spent? Will they hold joy and happiness, or despair and difficulty? Add to that concern a layer of shame that takes form in our hearts when we consider the missed opportunities, lack of progress, or downright failures we experienced in the year prior. I didn’t lose the weight I said I would, nor did I complete reading the Bible in its entirety. I didn’t pray. I didn’t give as much as wanted to. I didn’t defeat that habitual sin that has plagued my character.
Expressions like these squirm their way into my heart and mind every year. Usually, somewhere around mid-to-late December, I begin strategizing to tackle the year ahead differently. I develop a battle plan for things like personal Bible engagement and prayer. I stand on the scales and consider my overall hearth, and make a few dedications to drop the weight this year and exercise. I’ll even clean out my smartphone from all the excess applications and distractions so that I can be more focused and productive. I am willing to guess that many of us do similar activities. It has been a cultural phenomenon for years to make “New Year’s Resolutions.”
THE LAW OF THE RESOLUTION
I’ve wavered back and forth on the helpfulness of things like New Year’s Resolutions in my life. In some ways, we know they can be helpful and even formational for us as they give some definition and boundary to our lives. On the other hand, our resolutions can be disastrous when we fail to keep them. Those lingering feelings of guilt and shame are leftovers from last year’s failed resolutions. An even greater danger lurks in the heart of someone who has kept and accomplished their resolution—prideful self-righteousness.
Resolutions, some would argue, are essentially another form of legalism. They compile a list of “dos” and “don’ts” that limit the life of a follower of Jesus. Resolutions can become boundaries that limit the freedom of life in Christ with all its delights. The person who resolves to lose weight becomes a slave to food choices, exercise, and culinary asceticism. Those who resolve to undertake a spiritual discipline immediately become subject to the rituals of that discipline and sacrifice their freedom to appease the demands of the spiritual. Within the culture of any community, even the church, a group of practitioners or non-practitioners of any given resolution can quickly devolve into tribal gangs opposed to one another over such things as who does eat something, and who does not.
If this were the case, it would seem inherent to the freedom of human responsibility that resolutions should be left alone because they create an unnecessary legalism and separation. Even the danger of a legalistic following of a resolution can, within the church, destroy the bonds of unity and peace that the Spirit of God gives to his people. Resolutions, seen in this way, can be disastrous and therefore should be dismissed altogether.
JONATHAN EDWARDS’ RESOLUTIONS
But what if these types of resolutions were shaped and informed by the gospel? Could they then become some sort of meaningful and formative enterprise into which the Christian can find true growth and freedom? Could they be a means of development and joy, even grace, among a people of God? I believe so—as long as one understands and approaches resolutions from a posture of humility informed by the gospel.
Jonathan Edwards is a classic example of this sort of humble, gospel-centered resolving. Before he hit the age of twenty, Edwards found it important to create a set of governing principles to shape his character, practice, and piety. While one could imagine that Edwards’ resolutions were the product of a young and ambitious mind that never saw the light of practical day, it seems that these resolutions were foundational anchors to Edwards’ everyday life. His life exhibited growth in grace, temperance, and passion for the Lord.
But how did Edwards walk with these resolutions throughout his life? Was his resolve a product of mere white-knuckled willpower and obedience to a law he created? The evidence seems to point as far away from this perspective as possible. Edwards own introduction to his resolutions demonstrated the posture of his heart in achieving these resolutions:
“Being sensible that I am unable to do any thing without God’s help, I do humbly entreat him, by his grace, to enable me to keep these Resolutions, so far as they are agreeable to his will, for Christ’s sake”.[1]
Edwards’ ability to live out his resolutions was not a result of an extraordinary capacity towards regimented and obedient life. They were birthed by a greater ambition that had come to him through the gospel. For Edwards, his life was all about living to the glory of God in all things. The very first resolution he makes states, “Resolved, That I will do whatsoever I think to be most to the glory of God.”[2] Or, to say it another way, Edwards’ life was to be lived for “Christ’s sake.”
And yet, living for the sake of Christ and the glory of God fully required something deeper of Edwards: a clear understanding of his incapability of living that life apart from the supernatural enablement of the Spirit of God through the grace of God in Christ Jesus. He declared, “I am unable to do anything without God’s help.” It was clear in Edwards’ head that these resolutions were unattainable as goals for life apart from the power of God. Living to the glory of God, as desirable an end as that is, is unreachable because of our sin apart from God’s kindness towards sinners, which he displayed in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.
GOSPEL-FORMED RESOLUTIONS
This is where our own resolutions can be informed. I want to better glorify God in my own life this year. I know there are areas of my heart, mind, and body that need to come under the transforming power of the gospel. I know I am accepted by God because of the perfect life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and that I am gifted with the Holy Spirit as both a guarantee and down payment of my redemption. He indwells me in order to craft and cultivate character within my life that glorifies Christ. Therefore, I can resolve to practice—or not practice—certain things, not in an effort to earn my right standing before God, but so that I can be more in tune with and shaped by the holiness of God to be more like Christ.
I can say with Edwards, “Resolved, Never to do any thing out of revenge[3]” and know that, if I do well in that regard this year, I am growing in Christ-likeness because I’ve tasted the goodness of God. I can also rest assured that if I fail (more like, when I fail) in this, I am still loved and accepted by the Father, and can confess and repent and resolve again with the power of God enabling me to get up and keep going.
In light of the gospel, these resolutions become tools by which we “make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness…” (2 Pet. 1:5). These resolutions are the vehicles that aim the trajectory of our lives to “strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). They give tangible, personal particulars to the call to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12).
Gospel-formed resolutions can be a helpful means putting to death the old person so that we can put on the new person of Christ-likeness and grow into godliness. Perhaps the first resolution we should adopt is to make a stuffed mannequin of ourselves, burn them at the stroke of midnight, and resolve to embrace the gospel and all its hope and security for the year ahead. We could resolve with great ambition to live for the sake of Christ under the power and influence of the Holy Spirit all our days. How the world would change.
[1] Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 1 (Banner of Truth Trust, 1974), lxii.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid., lxiii.
Jeremy Writebol is the Executive Director of GCD. He is the husband of Stephanie and father of Allison and Ethan. He serves as the lead campus pastor of Woodside Bible Church in Plymouth, MI. He is also an author and contributor to several GCD Books including everPresent and Make, Mature, Multiply. He writes personally at jwritebol.net. You can read all of Jeremy’s articles for GCD here.
GCD’s Top Articles of 2017
Quantity doesn’t always correspond to quality, especially on the Internet. The prolific nature of click-bait posts and listicles swirling around the blogosphere make deep, quality articles quite rare. Yet, sometimes, articles that have a broad readership indicate that a powerful idea or formative truth has been shared. As I surveyed the last year’s worth of articles for GCD, it has been apparent to me that the most-viewed and most-read articles have been pieces of exceptional quality that have helped to shape and inform the lives of thousands. More than merely discussing the latest theological trends or how-to’s of specific methods, the top articles at GCD this year reflect the need for resources that are thoughtful, emotional, and practical for Christ-centered formation.
They reflect our ambition to produce resources to make, mature, and multiply disciples of Jesus.
Several of these articles came from our excellent team of Staff Writers. A handful are excerpts from recent publications by various publishers released in 2017. We’ve also included a list of our own publications in 2017 and invite you to pick them up if you have not had an opportunity.
On behalf of the GCD Team, thank you for a great 2017, and we look forward to bringing you another year full of gospel-centered resources.
TOP 10 ARTICLES OF 2017
#10. Ask Him For Joy by Mike Phay
#9. The Problem of Unity in The Church by Matt Rogers
#8. Following Christ in an Age of Authenticity by Trevin Wax
#7. Do You Love Your Friends Enough to Hurt Them? by James Williams
#6. Small Towns Need Missionaries by Aaron Morrow
#5. Here I Raise My Ebenezer by Rachael Starke
#4. The Baffling Call of God by Jeremy Writebol
#3. 10 Family Worship Ideas for Busy Families by Mathew Sims
#2. Why You Don’t Read Your Bible (and How to Start) by Grayson Pope
#1. Let’s Get Real About Women’s Discipleship by Rachelle Cox
GCD BOOKS PUBLISHED IN 2017
Renew by Jim Hudson
A Guide For Holy Week by GCD Contributors
Sent Together (Second Edition) by Brad Watson
Gospel Glories A to Z by Kelly Havrilla
That Word Above All Earthly Powers by GCD Contributors
Endure Today for the Joy of Tomorrow
Seth Godin recently wrote:
“For the creator who seeks to make something new, something better, something important, everywhere you look is something unsatisfying.
The dissatisfaction is fuel. Knowing you can improve it, realizing that you can and will make things better—the side effect is that today isn't what it could be.
You can't ignore the dissatisfaction, can't pretend the situation doesn't exist, not if you want to improve things.
Living in dissatisfaction today is the price we pay for the obligation to improve things tomorrow.”
But there’s a problem, isn’t there? If living in dissatisfaction today is the price we pay for the obligation to improve things tomorrow, how many “tomorrow’s" do we have to face before improvement comes? Improvement hardly ever comes on our own timetable.
Just walking through the halls of our churches, it’s easy to grow discouraged over the things we want to change. Each Thursday when I plan my following week, it seems I never have enough time to work on the growing list of “long-term vision” items I want to pray through and work towards.
THE SLOW MARCH TOWARD THE FUTURE
Take solace in the reality that we aren’t alone in our slow march towards the future. Growing takes time.
A technology curator recently said, when commemorating the 10-year anniversary of the iPhone:
“Anything that is going to become a billion dollar industry in the next 10 years is already 10 years old. . . . That completely changes how we should approach innovation. There is no invention out of the blue, but prospecting, mining, refining and then goldsmithing to create something that's worth more than its weight in gold.”
We forget what existence was like before the iPhone, and, even then, we probably take its advent for granted. Think about your everyday usage of a smartphone. Whether you’re scrolling through a feed, posting a photo, or using an app, so much of your daily life has been shaped by this invention. Even though we live in the world shaped by the iPhone, we rarely stop to think about the decades of research, innovation, and failure that had to occur to make the iPhone’s world-changing release possible.
Just like the iPhone and other innovations, our churches won’t change overnight. Yet we so often think this is how change will (or should) happen. This leads us to make some unwise decisions. For example, we see things as we want them to be instead of as they are, and expect our people to do the same; we think our people will receive change with joy; we think we’ll refine and processes and introduce new procedures with instantaneous success.
Why do we expect these kinds of results with so little time and friction? We are so unwilling to be dissatisfied that we’ve fooled ourselves into thinking that change will be easy and painless.
The real issue is our endurance and perseverance; our inability to live in dissatisfaction today so we can see satisfaction tomorrow. Instead of seeing dissatisfaction as fuel for a change we pray is coming, we see it as a frustration that warrants complaining.
So how do we endure? How do we continue to recast the vision, continue to garner support, and stay positive through it all? We look to Jesus.
JESUS’ ENDURANCE AND TENACITY
In Jesus, we find a model of endurance and tenacity. One of the most striking examples of this is found in John’s account of Jesus before Pilate. Jesus appears so resolute, so firm. There’s not even a hint of doubt or uncertainty.
John 18:33-35 explains,
“So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ Jesus answered, ‘Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?’ Pilate answered, ‘Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?’”
Jesus’ answers are so tenacious that he threatens to put Pilate on the defensive. Jesus is steadfast in his resolve to endure the cross. What fuels his steadfastness and resolve?
John 18:36-37 continues,
“Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.’ Then Pilate said to him, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king.’”
Here we see the key to Jesus’ endurance and tenacity: Jesus kept his eyes on the Kingdom and the will of the Father instead of the present opposition. In his exchange with Pontius Pilate, Jesus stands firm. He sternly responds, declaring the audacious claims of his other-worldly kingdom. Knowing the cost. Knowing Pilate’s defense. Knowing the coming verdict from the crowd.
Yet he does so with joy.
ENDURANCE TODAY LEADS TO JOY TOMORROW
Hebrews 12:2 tells us we are “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
When we look to Jesus, we see he was resolute before Pilate—before the cross—for the joy set before him. Jesus endured the cross for the joy that was to come.
What was the content of that joy? After verse 2, we read “Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted” (Heb. 12:3). The joy set before Jesus—the joy for which he endured hostility and the cross—was that you and I might not grow weary or fainthearted.
Jesus’ joy in enduring the cross is an example encouraging us to endure: “Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed” (Heb. 12:12-13).
Jesus was pleased to endure the cross to lift our drooping hands, strengthen our weak knees, and make our paths straight.
THE PLEASURE OF ENDURANCE
Jesus was pleased to endure the cross to strengthen our hands for the work of ministry—so work with patience, with fervor, with tenacity, and with perspective.
Jesus was pleased to endure the cross to strengthen our knees to continue praying—so pray with patience, with intensity, and with great expectation
Jesus was pleased to endure the cross to make the paths of our feet straight—so establish plans, processes, and procedures within your church, and trust the Lord to bear fruit.
Hebrews 2:13-14 appears to allude to Isaiah 35:3-4: “Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, ‘Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.’”
Trust that as you work, as you pray, and as you plan, the Lord will respond with graciousness and favor.
What was the joy set before Jesus? The joy for which he endured the cross? Our perseverance. Our ability to endure. Our ability to press on; not growing faint or weary; not having drooping hands or weak knees or walking crooked paths.
Jesus’ willingly endured the cross for the joy of helping us endure and persevere, work patiently, wait for his timing, and seeing us live beyond worldly satisfaction.
Chris DiVietro is husband to Liz and daddy to Aletheia, Judah, and Evangeline. Chris is senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Reading, Pa and has a PhD in Organizational Leadership. Chris is happy to be back living in the north after five hot years in South Carolina.
The Marvelous Condescension of Christmas
“Yes,” said Queen Lucy. “In our world too, a stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world.”
These words from Narnian adventurer Lucy Pevensie in C.S. Lewis’ The Last Battle articulate well the irony and majesty of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. Only the wisdom of the Creator and Lord of the universe could turn our notions of normal on their ear in such a profound way, revealing to us a manger whose “inside is bigger than its outside.” It seems he delights in astounding his creatures with his infinite ability to exceed and confound their expectations.
No doubt the news of Christ’s birth came as a jaw-dropping, thrill-inducing revelation to those shepherds so long ago: “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). The very God whom Solomon had described as uncontainable, even by the heavens, confined himself to the womb of a woman? How could it be?
But, while the physical wonder of what God accomplished in the Incarnation is colossal in its display of power and wisdom, that is not even the point of the angel’s announcement to the shepherds—it is simply the paper on which an even more marvelous proclamation is embossed forever.
UNTO YOU IS BORN
If I put myself in the sandals of the shepherds, I cannot help but notice that there is a special message, a stunning declaration embedded in this announcement. It is “unto me” that a Savior has been born! Unto me? Surely there must be some mistake. Why would God go through all that trouble just for me? Surely there is some greater person for whom this announcement is meant. Did the angel take a wrong turn on his way to the king’s palace or the temple in Jerusalem?
I’m a nobody. How could this historic pronouncement be meant for me? Yet there the light is, and now the whole choir of angels is singing. It must be true!
And, indeed, it is true. For our sake, not only does the God of the universe wield kingdoms, topple obstacles, and overcome adversaries—he sacrifices his very best, his very dearest. God sent his only begotten Son into the world to die for little, unimportant, who’s-ever-heard-of-them individuals. As a result, whosoever believes in him will not perish but will have everlasting life.
It is “unto you” that a Savior was sent, that a baby was born, that the Christ was crucified.
A SAVIOR WHO IS CHRIST THE LORD
When most of us see a manger scene, our response to the reminder of what God became for us is limited to a placid, “Oh, isn’t the little baby Jesus sweet! How precious that Jesus was once an infant, so weak and helpless.” While it is appropriate to marvel at the smallness of the parcel into which God packed our Redeemer, let us not get the wrong idea about this child. He is Lord.
Paul tells us in Colossians 1:17 that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was “before all things,” and in him “all things hold together.” One of the greatest wonders of the Incarnation is that somehow the very baby that Mary held was at the same time holding her together, along with the rest of the universe.
The hand that rocks this cradle doesn’t rule the world—but the baby in the cradle does! The little finger that held hers was also holding the Roman Empire, guiding the Arctic Tern in its migration from Africa to Antarctica, and keeping Mars in its orbit around the Sun.
Just because Jesus became an infant human doesn’t mean he ever gave up being Lord. This is the clear implication of the angel’s announcement: “unto you is born a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Jesus Christ—the Alpha and Omega, the same yesterday and today and forever—ruled and sustained the universe from his cradle. No wonder the magi who would later come to see him would fall down and worship him—they knew they were in the presence of the Majesty, even when he was cloaked in familiarity.
LYING IN A MANGER
If we pretend we have never heard the story of the Incarnation, doubtless this is among the most shocking statements in all of the Bible. The fact that angels would herald the birth of the God-man is no great surprise—surely he deserved that and more. That others would come to worship him is also to be expected—certainly, the Christ is worthy and demanding of such reverence. But here is the rest of the royal birth announcement: “you will find the baby”—where?—“lying in a cattle trough” (Luke 2:12).
A cattle trough? As if the humiliation of becoming human and living among sinners was not enough! Surely he deserves to be born into one of the palaces he has sustained, or even just a nice, middle-class apartment.
But no. The Son of God was born into the world and had only a trough for his cradle.
MARVELLOUS CONDESCENSION
What marvelous condescension we see in Christmas! Condescension to come at all, condescension to become a human, and condescension to live his life in abject poverty and rejection. Surely such a Savior is to be praised; such a Christ is to be followed.
How can we who take his name on ourselves as Christians and expect a life of lavender and rose petals? Surely to follow this Lord means following him in all his glorious and voluntary humiliation, suffering, and sacrifice for the glory of God.
The shepherds who heard the angels’ doxology responded by saying to one another, “Let us go … and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” What is your response? Do you want to look further into this matter of God becoming a man? Is your appetite whetted for more of this exalted Lord who humiliates himself for our sake?
Let’s hurry into his presence and beg for a greater glimpse of him this Christmas season.
Justin Huffman has pastored in the States for over 15 years, authored the “Daily Devotion” app (iTunes/Android) which now has over half a million downloads, and recently published a book with Day One: Grow: the Command to Ever-Expanding Joy. He has also written articles for For the Church, Servants of Grace, and Fathom Magazine. He blogs at justinhuffman.org.
God Says to the Daisies, ‘Do It Again’: An Interview with Erik Guzman
I was given a copy of Erik Guzman’s The Seed: A True Myth, this summer by Greg Dutcher from These Go To Eleven (we do, after all, share an office). While I generally don’t read much fiction, I was captivated by the description of the story Erik was trying to tell. The subtitle hinted that he was aspiring to do what the greats like Lewis and Tolkien do so well: pull us into the gospel narrative of redemption through a work of epic fiction. His book moved me the way the classic “true myths” should. I hope it, too, will one day be a classic. After I left Erik a favorable review on Amazon he reached out to thank me, so I asked if he’d be willing to share with us at GCD more about the process leading up to The Seed. Here is an abridged version of that conversation.
Erik Guzman, tell us a little about yourself:
My title is VP of communication/executive producer for Key Life. I started here 20 years ago as the talk show producer for Steve Brown. I would describe myself as a struggling believer. I’d describe the ministry of Key Life as one of grace to struggling believers. My role within that ministry is a support role to Steve as well as the other figures of Key Life. More recently I’ve made the foray into writing with both my book The Seed, as well as a mini book, The Gift of Addiction (both books published by New Growth Press in 2016).
I’ve been married for 23 years and together we have 3 children: two daughters (17 and 15) and one son (12).
Can you clarify what you mean by “struggling believer?”
Maybe a good entry point into what I mean is found in a recent article I wrote called, “I Suck at Not Believing in God." Sometimes I find myself thinking life would be easier if I didn’t believe in God. Things matter when you believe in God; people that bear his image matter. That can be traumatic and painful when you’re in relationship with others. Your life matters, you will leave a legacy, for better or for worse.
If life was just snuffed out like a candle, if we all died in a supernova and nothing mattered in eternity, I’d live my life free of the burden of caring about God and others. But the fact is, I can’t shake believing in God. I believe in Jesus, and the Orthodox Christian faith found in the Bible. I think the summary of that belief is that Jesus came to offer grace to struggling believers such as me.
That gives me hope in all my struggles. At the end of the day, it’s not about my performance, but his performance on my behalf. I’m not in control, but he is. When things go wrong, my hope is in the ultimate redemption and reconciliation of creation. I’ve found freedom in living transparently with struggle, whether that be an addiction, mental disorder, or the need to take medication to stabilize my mood.
What has your experience been with sharing your struggles so openly?
Before I found my place in the ministry at Key Life, I really struggled to fit into church culture. I worked hard at it. But now I’m really a product of Steve’s teaching and also find a security in my sense of identity as a son of God. And also a sense of security in my job. I feel free to be myself and not lose my job.
I also struggle with a sense of calling. I don’t know if it’s right or wrong. I have a sense that I’m called to be an open screw-up so I can point to Jesus and his love. Not in some trivial way that glorifies it, but in which the darkness in my own life can point to the light of Christ. If someone can look at me and say, “This guy doesn’t have it together, and he’s found hope in Christ? Maybe Jesus is worth looking into,” I consider it a win. I struggle with this at times, though maybe I’m just making a fool out of myself.
At times I think I get away with a lot because I’m not ordained; because people don’t expect that I should know better. We put pastors up on pedestals too often, and that’s a trap for them and for us.
So, tell us about your book, The Seed.
It took me about 8 years of on-and-off writing and frequent revisions to write The Seed. It’s based on this idea of the “love fractal.”
Fractals are everywhere, all through nature. And at some point, it occurred to me that they could be used as a metaphor or an image for the body of Christ and the life of God in the world. The way he creates us in his image and there’s this reproduction, much like in a fractal, it just clicked for me. I thought it a useful metaphor for what we are a part of. If we see them all throughout the world, perhaps God has a sort of “fractal mind” as he is the one who designed everything.
Originally, this idea started as an illustration that was going to be in Steve Brown’s book Three Free Sins. The big point there was that self-righteousness is the mark of the fall. Wherever you find it, whether it be self-love, or self-indulgence that rejects the companionship and input of others. Since everyone knew Steve but not me, they ended up publishing the book without my part but Steve loved the idea and kept encouraging me to work on it. That’s how The Seed was born.
Who are your influences as a writer?
I love C.S. Lewis’ science fiction trilogy, particularly Perelandra, but growing up I didn’t read a lot. The first book I ever really read was Cujo by Stephen King. During the weirder phase of my life, I was reading Carlos Castaneda, Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, and a lot of New Age drug trip stuff like Hunter S. Thompson.
Later in life, I got into Tolkien, Kurt Vonnegut, and Aldous Huxley. Currently, I’m reading King’s Dark Tower series and particularly love The Gunslinger.
My book also had a lot of musical influence in Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.” It was the soundtrack of my adolescence and hung on even as I got older. Building your own prison is a theme in the book, and also in my life.
When I read The Seed, the thing I love is that it is a retelling of the gospel as a story. Do you see this as a tool for discipleship in drawing others into the story of God?
That was really my hope from the beginning. For believers, that they’d see the gospel anew in a fresh way that would impact their hearts in ways it maybe hadn’t before.
I was also hoping to draw in unbelievers who might normally dismiss Christianity, thinking they know what it is only to read this and then ask them if they’d ever thought of the Christian message in this sort of way. I was hoping to wake people up with my words.
Propositional truths might reach our heads, but an engaging story has the power to stir our hearts to worship when it’s seasoned with the truth about God. I wanted more than mental assent, but to tweak people’s hearts to respond to God’s love.
What would you say to someone critical of the way you portray God in the book, in particular, someone charging the depiction of his love as too feminine?
I think if you take a look at what the Bible says marriage symbolizes, and even more the way Jesus prays for his church to be one, and for us to be in him and him in us, it seems the Bible goes even farther than I did. Some might try to sexualize that, but I wouldn’t do that. Even more, we can go farther and say it’s not just God and his people, but eventually all of creation that will be reunited with him.
We’ve been given the message of reconciliation; there is no barrier between man and God, if man is willing to enter into that relationship through Jesus. The gospel is an invitation into a relationship with the Trinity. The Christian is filled with the Spirit of God, is a member of the body of Christ, and looks upon the Father who gazes upon him in acceptance and union.
The critic of this is not thinking too much of this, but too little. He’s probably been influenced more by culture’s view of sex than the Bible’s and doesn’t see the beauty of the gospel. It’s more than a sum of body parts. I don’t want to trivialize the meaning of man being reconciled to God in that way.
I wish more people would talk about the mind-blowing truth of man being reconciled to God. It’s so much more than simply being forgiven. While that’s a part of it, it’s certainly more than that. The Christian aim should be to become more and more one with his creator, and I think authors should be giving more attention to that aim.
Another thing I loved from the book was the laughter you depict between the person of God. What was your thought process for including laughter in the divine persona?
I love to laugh, and something about laughter brings you outside of yourself. Anne Lamott called it “carbonated holiness.” There’s something transcendent about laughter. You can often rise above darkness or tragedy by laughing about it. I grew up watching comedians attempt to do that.
I once saw Charlie Jones (of Peculiar People), do this bit as G.K. Chesterton, and I remember this line:
“Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, ‘Do it again’; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”
It makes me wonder: Have we all grown tired and weary from the fall and lost our sense of humor? But God, as a fountain of life, does he take joy and laughter in his creation? I tend to think so. That’s the kind of God I wanted to depict in my work. He enjoys his creation and delights in their laughter and laughs with them.
Any future writing projects?
I sometimes say the biggest problem with my book is that everyone hasn’t read it. It’s been discouraging at times. When writing it, everything was so palpable in terms of the creativity of God and the enormity of his plan for reconciling the world. I was convinced I’d change the world. But it hasn’t made the splash I would’ve hoped for. So when I’ve tried to write more I’ve been burdened by the self-doubt.
I have been dabbling with the idea of a sort of sequel to The Seed, but with such a twist that it wouldn’t even be discernible until a long way in. The idea there being that maybe The Seed hasn’t caught on because it’s so niche that it doesn’t appeal to a secular audience.
Steve Brown has encouraged me by saying, “If you never do anything else after this, this is enough.” Which has been really good to hear.
Would you rather have legs as long as your fingers? Or fingers as long as your legs?
Probably legs as long as my fingers. Because I’d miss having the use of my fingers, but could do without reasonably sized legs.
Erik Guzman, thank you for your time and for your labor in writing a book that truly is a “true myth” and draws us into the story that God is telling.
You can find out more about Erik and Key Life at their website where you can also purchase his books.
Sean Nolan (B.S. and M.A., Clarks Summit University) is the Family Life Pastor at Christ Fellowship Church in Forest Hill, Maryland. Prior to that, he served at a church plant in Troy, New York for seven years and taught Hermeneutics to ninth and tenth graders. He is married to Hannah and is raising an army of toddlers. He blogs at Family Life Pastor.
Do You Love Your Friends Enough to Hurt Them?
Most of us know the popular slogan "Friends don't let friends drive drunk." It's a simple phrase that's been around since the early 80s.
With just a few words, the phrase carries much meaning. The subject, "friends," shows that we’re talking about people who care. What do these friends do? They don't let their friends drive drunk. Why would they step in to stop this behavior? Is it because they're hateful and arrogant? Is it because they're judgmental people who need to mind their own business? Are they controlling people who want everyone to act like them? No.
True friends stop their friends because driving drunk can be destructive and life-ending. A friend who truly cares will do what they can to stop this from happening.
When we think of using our words in our friendships with believers, we often think of Ephesians 4:29: "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear." What are words that build up? Does that mean we only speak "positive" words? Does that mean we only say things that will be well received and make the person feel good?
Tucked away in the midst of many wise sayings, Proverbs 27:5-6 gives us some insight: "Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy."
OPEN REBUKE IS BETTER THAN HIDDEN LOVE
In our culture, someone who speaks against a person's behavior is seen as hateful, while the one who keeps his words to himself is praised as a loving person. Unfortunately, this understanding has crept into the church as well. Our individualism has set up walls that even our Christian friends dare not cross.
Asking someone how their job is going is acceptable, even praiseworthy. But asking someone about a sin in their life is considered "crossing the line," and the solution is to "mind your own business."
God's Word teaches that open rebuke is better than hidden love, though. James 5:29 states, "Let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins." We are told in the first verse of Galatians 6: "Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness."
Admonishing others is difficult, and we can easily talk ourselves out of doing it. We tell ourselves that it won't work or that what they are doing is "not that bad." At times, we're guilty of underestimating the destructive power of sin.
The Destructiveness of Sin
Sin is a destructive cancer. It kills and destroys. It takes good relationships and tears them apart. It takes peaceful situations and makes them divisive and chaotic. It takes individuals made in the image of God and leads them down a path of everlasting destruction.
If we don't understand the destructiveness of sin, we'll never see the need to lovingly rebuke our friends. If we think they are just "choosing a different path," we might keep quiet, but if we see they are on a path to destruction, perhaps that will motivate us to speak up. Someone who doesn't believe drunk driving is that dangerous might let their friend do it, but someone who recognizes the danger will try to stop them at all costs.
As believers, if we don’t see the destructive nature of sin, we might not speak words of truth our friend needs to hear.
Faithful are the Wounds of a Friend
Nobody likes to be called out. It doesn't feel good; it wounds. Scripture doesn't shy away from this reality or try to sugar-coat it. This is why many interpret correction as harmful or hateful. But, if done in love with the goal of repentance and healing, it can be a most loving act. Wounds from a friend can be trusted.
Proverbs warns us against rebuking everybody (Prov. 9:8), but true friends are a means of grace the Lord uses to bless, encourage, and even rebuke us. True friends are those who are willing to wound us in order to help us see our sin and point us to Christ.
I’ll never forget receiving a call from a church member who was broken-hearted after finding out his wife was having an affair. As a twenty-two-year-old pastor, I had no prior experience handling such a situation. It would have been much easier to step back and do nothing. However, by the Lord’s grace, that’s not what happened. We set up a meeting with the wife, told her we loved her, and reminded her of the mercy and grace of the gospel of Christ. Though she already knew, we told her that she was in sin and needed to confess and repent before the Lord.
These types of meeting don’t always go well, but in this case, the Spirit worked powerfully. She was convicted of her sin and immediately took the proper steps toward repentance with many sisters in Christ at her side, and her marriage was restored!
I’ve also been on the receiving end of such rebuke. While blinded to my own sin, I’ve had brothers in Christ hold me accountable and love me enough to confront me. While I didn’t like it at the time, I look back and am grateful to God for their boldness and love toward me.
True Friends Love Enough to Wound
Since most of us don't like confrontation, having to speak out at the risk of being rejected or losing a friend makes it even more horrifying. So, what would possess us to do something we hate when there's so much to lose?
Love.
If my friend is in sin, and I truly believe that their sin is destroying them, stealing their joy, and robbing God of his glory, then I am willing to face my fears of rejection and awkward conversation to address this issue.
To lay down our preferences for the good of others is love . . . and only those who are truly our friends are willing to do it.
If we are going to have a culture of speaking truth to one another in this way, then we must be willing and ready to receive it. Since we're all sinners, there will come a time where we are the ones in sin. If our friends confront us, it will hurt, but we must be willing to trust the wounding of our friends. We may not agree or understand at first, but we must fight to be receptive and willing to learn. Being defensive and attacking does not encourage a culture of openness with our friends.
PROFUSE ARE THE KISSES OF AN ENEMY
True friends love us enough to wound us, but what do our enemies do? They flatter us.
They tell us what we want to hear and make us feel good about it. They aren't concerned about our good and they will only speak with their best interests in mind. They know well the old adage “flattery will get you everywhere,” and they use it to their advantage. In the Old Testament, we read about false prophets who told the king the message he wanted to hear (2 Chron. 18:4-7). The New Testament also warns us to beware such people: “For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naïve” (Rom.16:18).
It's easy to understand how we can get confused as to who our true friends are. It's counterintuitive to say the one who wounds might be the true friend while the one who flatters could be the enemy.
THE GREATEST FRIEND
Friendships are a gift from the Lord and a means of grace, but there is one friend who truly sticks closer than a brother. Jesus, the lover of our soul, knows exactly what we need. He willingly laid down his life for our sin, thus showing there’s nothing he won’t spare for his children. He's able to provide encouragement at just the right time, and he loves us enough to wound us when we need to be rebuked. We know that the Lord disciplines those whom he loves (Heb. 12), and this is done out of care and concern for our soul to train us in righteousness, thus, we can trust him.
Sometimes, he might provide a needed correction through the words of a faithful friend who's willing to speak the truth. Other times, he might be doing that very thing through us in the life of someone else.
Are we willing to be used by the Lord this way? We speak often of encouraging one another, but are we just as willing to be used when "building up" our brother or sister means giving a loving rebuke?
For the good of our friends and the glory of God, let us be willing to encourage and admonish one another with our words. As one commentator has said, "Flattery kisses and slays; friendship wounds and saves."
“As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” (Prov. 27:17).
James Williams has served as an Associate Pastor at FBC Atlanta, TX for four years. He is married to Jenny and they currently have four children in their home (three biological, one in foster care). He is in the dissertation stage of a PhD in Systematic Theology. You can follow James on Twitter or his church’s blog where he writes regularly.