I wanted to remind you that Truth for Life is featuring Seasons of Sorrow this month. You can purchase it for just $7 or get it free with a donation of any amount.

My thanks goes to BJU for sponsoring the blog this week to tell you about Killing Sin Habits.

There are some more Kindle deals today (as, indeed, is usually the case).

(Yesterday on the blog: Short of Glory)

Where Did Baptism Come From?

We all know what baptism is, but do we know how it came about? “How does Christian baptism relate to Old Testament practices? Where did the idea of baptism come from? After overviewing the meaning of Christian baptism, this article seeks to briefly explore the connections between baptism and Old Testament ritual washings.”

Is Paedocommunion Biblical?

If the last article is primarily for Baptists, this one is primarily for those who practice infant baptism.

Our Missions Approach Is Too Western

Elliot Clark is “convinced current missiological strategies can still be deeply Western in potentially harmful ways.” He lays out his case (and some corrections) here.

But if Not, How to Face Our Fiery Trials with Faith

“If you’re not facing a furnace of affliction now, chances are, you will again soon.” Cara offers some encouragement for such times.

Dear Pastor … You’re a Shepherd, Not an Entrepreneur

“We are pressed on every side—danger from without in the schemes of the devil and danger from within with the passions of the flesh. To be sure, we are also in danger from without in the ways we are so tempted to conform to the patterns of the world (Rom. 12:2). One of those patterns we are tempted to conform to as pastors is to see ourselves, or our work, as entrepreneurs.”

Why I can’t love my neighbour

“But just because a parable is well known doesn’t mean it’s well understood. Would it surprise you if I said I don’t think the parable is meant to teach us to love our neighbour?” Ian Carmichael explains.

Flashback: We Cannot Be Faultless (But May Still Be Blameless)

Even our best work falls far short of perfect execution. But we may well be blameless before the Lord when we do our work to the best of our ability and when we do our utmost to cleanse our hearts and purify our motives.

When Jesus is our stability—our consistent friend and refuge—we are freed to truly love others and love them sacrificially.

—Kelly Needham

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This sponsored posted was written by Matthew J. Hall the dean of Boyce College, the undergraduate school of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (and, as it happens, the college my son attends). Boyce is committed to providing a biblical worldview for every student in every degree program. They’re expanding their degree offerings and just announced a new BS in Communication. To learn more about Boyce College, consider attending Preview Day on March 22. Use code Challies and they’ll waive your registration fee.

What should you look for in a Christian college? Common sense suggests you should know what kind of person you are, or aspire to be and look for the school that aligns with that. But I fear too many students are asking the question in the wrong way and they are looking at the wrong criteria when forming their assessments.

Instead, I suggest you look at your experience in a campus community as a symbiotic relationship, one where you should not only expect to receive but to give. That’s a profoundly Christian vision, not just for college, but for life. Are you actively looking for opportunities where you will be able to serve, to give of yourself for others? Those opportunities are everywhere if you know where to look and are asking the right questions.

Thankfully, there are many excellent options out there for young Christians who want to find a distinctly Christian college or university. Let me suggest three distinctives you should look for in measuring how seriously Christian an institution is.

1 – The Formation of a Biblical Worldview

Every school, including a Christian college, will rightly aim for academic rigor. And every school should understand that education is more than a commodity to be bought and sold, more than the mere transfer of information. But a Christian vision for education frames that aspiration within the broader formation of a Christian worldview.

A Christian college should be shaped by its confessional identity, mobilize its curriculum, faculty, and programming to help students develop the skill of thinking critically according to God’s revelation.

Your worldview includes your conscious intellectual commitments; those propositions you believe to be true. But it also extends much more broadly into your heart and mind, encompassing those deep beliefs and assumptions you carry about yourself, others, the world, and the God who made it all. You’re likely aware of many of these beliefs, but there are many others you carry around of which you may not always be aware. And to be human means you also carry around a contradicting mix of these in your worldview.

So the question isn’t whether you have a worldview, but whether it’s true. And while many colleges and universities would be reluctant to assert that there can be any singularly authoritatively true worldview, a Christian college should be driven to ensure that the entire institution teaches God’s truth and upholds the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture.

This affects what happens in the classroom, for sure. But it shapes what happens in chapel. It informs the structuring of the curriculum and the hiring of faculty. It means that every major helps students understand how biblical truth collides with the values and systems of this world and calls them to be transformed by the renewing of their minds (Rom 12:2). At Boyce College, this shapes every degree program we launch and the substance of our core curriculum. It’s why our new program in Communication looks the way it does, with a classical theological core of classes as well as courses that introduce students to the most current scholarship in the field.

2 – The Pursuit of a Life of Discipleship

While a Christian worldview is essential, it isn’t enough. A Christian college isn’t about less than your worldview, but it should aim for far more.

Let me explain. The Christian life is not fundamentally about getting the “right worldview.” It’s about loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind and loving your neighbor as yourself. It’s about living in a manner worthy of the gospel (Philippians 1).

Being a disciple of Jesus involves daily picking up our cross and following him. That means we call ourselves, and one another, to repent of our sins and to lay claim by grace to the promises of the gospel every single day. It calls on us to be peacemakers in our relationships, to kill the pride that distorts our own hearts and lives, and to pursue purity and holiness in our public and private lives. And a Christian college campus should be a wonderful place to do this.

You can discern something about how a Christian college approaches this by how they speak of and relate to the local church. God did not design your Christian college to be a church. In his perfect wisdom, the community he has ordained to be the human instrument in your growth as a disciple is the local church. So if a college presents itself as a one-stop-shop for your Christian life, run the other way. You need a church family, which you not only attend but where you are a covenant member. You need a church where you not only fill up a seat on Sundays, but you give of yourself in service. You need a church where you not only go to be fed God’s Word, but you are mobilized to reach out to your community with the saving news of the gospel. And you need this during your college years!

3 – The Call to the Nations

A Christian whose worldview is reshaped and conformed to biblical truth will, by the grace of God and the work of the Holy Spirit, grow in their discipleship and devotion to Jesus Christ. And when that happens, they will grow passionate about the things that matter most to God.

From the Bible, we understand that God’s great mission in the world is to magnify his glory among all peoples as men and women from every tribe are reconciled to him through the saving work of Jesus Christ.

That means that every single degree program, every major, must be leveraged for the Great Commission (Matt 28:28). You will either be called to go, or you will be called to stay, send, and support. Every single Christian has a part to play in this global cause.

So if at a Christian college global missions is only talked about in one major, if the urgency of getting the gospel to unreached people groups is only felt in one department, if the universal calling we all share to participate in God’s mission in the world is only articulated in one corner of campus, then we are missing it.

So What To Do?

Without question, the best way for you to assess the culture and commitments of a Christian college or university is by visiting the campus. You can learn a lot by reputation and word of mouth. You can gather immensely useful information from the school’s web site. But there’s no substitute for being on the campus, seeing firsthand what they are all about, sitting in on classes, meeting faculty and staff, and getting a small taste of the community. Schools like mine regularly host Preview Days for this very purpose. Make attending one a priority.

The college decision can feel overwhelming at times. So pray about it. Seek wise counsel. Ask yourself what values and aspirations are shaping your decision and then test those by God’s Word. But if you’re a Christian, you can also rest in the assurance that your Heavenly Father’s providential care for you is trustworthy and good. He has wonderful plans for you, including where you’ll spend your college years.

Today’s Kindle deals include at least a couple of books that may appeal.

(Yesterday on the blog: Spirit and Sacrament: An Invitation to Eucharismatic Worship)

Orphans, Adoption and the African Extended Family

I found this fascinating and instructive: “In my travels and conversations in the Western world I have seen the excitement in a growing number of families about adopting African children. However, what I have often found rather surprising is the lack of knowledge and appreciation of the African extended family system as it relates to Orphans and Adoption. Whereas to the Western mind, an orphan, having lost both father and mother, is destined to either be adopted or spend the rest of his or her childhood days in an orphanage, to an African mind, the child still has many fathers and mothers, and consequently many homes to live in. Please allow me to explain.”

Should Christians Practice Mindfulness?

I’m sure you’ve encountered the mindfulness trend. “What should Christians make of the mindfulness trend? Should we jump on the bandwagon? Should we be suspicious and hold it at arm’s length? Or is there another way?”

Don’t Look Away

“Over and over again as I shared this video with friends, they responded by saying they couldn’t watch the whole thing because they were too disgusted and disturbed. But, I would urge all of us: don’t look away. Watch and listen and show your kids and talk about it with them. Know what they are seeing on YouTube and Netflix. Know which websites they are frequenting. Follow Teen Vogue and see all of the ways that they are encouraging your kids to sin.” That is wisdom for parents.

Why Christian Movies Are So Terrible

Jared Wilson: “Throughout both trailers — which we saw on two different days before two different movies — the audience was audibly laughing. I was cringing. The paint-by-numbers aesthetic of the new wave of Christian movies persists in making the faith appear trite, inauthentic, corny, and — worst of all, as far as the culture goes — uncool. Why despite all the gains made in technology and budgeting can’t Christians make good movies?”

Refreshed In Chains

“The Bible is far from barren prose on ancient parchment. Instead it ripples with life, it rises and falls with the breath of God, it ebbs and flows as the Spirit wields it with surgical precision.”

RefNet App (Sponsored Link)

RefNet is streaming trustworthy teaching committed to the biblical truths recovered during the Reformation. Tune in 24/7 for preaching, Scripture reading, audiobooks, news, music, and more. Download the five-star app at RefNet.fm/app and see why it’s become a go-to for Christian internet radio.

When “Thy Will Be Done” Becomes Self-Protection

“Praying for things we desire comes naturally for many people but for me, it’s a struggle. I fear my heart’s quick reaction to such prayers—how it turns my requests into idols. I don’t want to desire the created thing more than the Creator, so I don’t ask. But in not taking my supplications to him, I keep back a part of my heart from him, and therefore, provide fresh soil for the roots of another idol to deepen.”

Romans 12:2 with Tim Challies

I was recently a guest on a new podcast with a neat format and purpose.

Flashback: Big Sins Little Sins

We can, should, and must be grateful for each deliverance, for each person who finds victory over pornography. It is right and good to celebrate with them. But then we must roll up our sleeves together, knowing there are more battles to come in this great and terrible war.

The problem of cultural Christianity is that the culture always predominates over the Christianity.

—Albert Mohler

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This sponsored post by Wayne Grudem is correlated with the release of his new book Christian Ethics: An Introduction to Biblical Moral Reasoning, in which Grudem distills over forty years of teaching experience into a single volume aimed at helping readers apply a biblical worldview to difficult ethical issues, including wealth and poverty, marriage and divorce, birth control, abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, business practices, environmental stewardship, telling the truth, knowing God’s will, understanding Old Testament laws, and more.

1. Christian ethics teaches us how to live.

Christian ethics asks what the whole Bible teaches us about which acts, attitudes, and personal character traits receive God’s approval, and which ones do not.

This means that Christian ethics teaches us how to live. It is important to study Christian ethics so that we can better know God’s will, and so that each day we can “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him” (Col. 1:10).

2. The ultimate basis for Christian ethics is the moral character of God.

God delights in his own moral character, which is supremely good, unchanging, and eternal. His moral standards for human beings flow from his moral character, and therefore they apply to all people in all cultures for all of history. (But the Bible also contains many temporary commands intended only for specific people at a specific time.)

God is love, so he commands us to love (1 John 4:19). He is holy, and he commands us to be holy (1 Peter 1:15). He is merciful and he commands us to be merciful (Luke 6:36). He is truthful and he commands us not to bear false witness (Titus 1:2; Exodus 20:16). God’s moral character and the historical fact that he has given us moral commands provide the basis for a Christian answer to the question of how we can move from “is” statements to “ought” statements in ethics.

3. Christian ethics is based on the Bible.

One of the purposes of the Bible is to teach us how to live a life that is pleasing to God (Col. 1:9–10; 1 Thess. 4:1; 2 Tim. 3:17). Because it is the Word of God, the Bible is a higher authority in ethics than tradition, reason, experience, expected results, or subjective perceptions of guidance. While these other factors can never override the teaching of Scripture, they can still be helpful for us in making a wise decision.

4. Christian ethics is essential to the proclamation of the gospel.

Some Christian speakers today downplay or omit any call for unbelievers to repent of their sins, but evangelism in the New Testament clearly included a call to repentance. Just before he returned to heaven, Jesus told his disciples “that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47). Similarly, Paul proclaimed the need for repentance to pagan Greek philosophers in Athens, warning them that the final judgment was coming: “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:30-31; see also Acts 2:38; 3:19; 5:31; 11:18; Hebrews 6:1). “Repentance” in the New Testament is not merely a “change of mind” but includes both sorrow for one’s sins and a sincere inward resolve to turn away from sin and to turn to Christ in faith (Hebrews 6:1; Acts 16:31).

But how can unbelievers repent of their sins if they do not even know what God’s moral standards are? I do not believe that widespread revival will come to any nation apart from widespread, heartfelt repentance for sin. Therefore Gospel proclamation today must include an element of teaching about God’s moral standards, which means teaching about Christian ethics.

5. Christian ethics teaches us how to live for the glory of God.

The goal of ethics is to lead a life that glorifies God (“do all to the glory of God,” 1 Cor. 10:31). Such a life will have (1) a character that glorifies God (a Christ-like character), (2) results that glorify God (a life that bears abundant fruit for God’s kingdom), and (3) behavior that glorifies God (a life of obedience to God, lived in personal relationship with God).

Although we are justified by faith in Christ alone and not by works, extensive New Testament teachings about living the Christian life show that our day-by-day obedience as justified Christians is an important part of the Christian life. Understanding obedience correctly requires that we avoid the opposite errors of legalism and antinomianism.

6. Obeying God brings numerous blessings to our daily lives.

The New Testament teaches at least seventeen specific kinds of blessings that come to us in connection with living in obedience to God’s commands in Scripture. These blessings include the joy of deeper fellowship with God (John 15:10); the joy of pleasing God (2 Corinthians 5:9; Colossians 1:10); the joy of becoming a vessel for “honorable use” by God (2 Timothy 2:20-21); the joy of being an effective witness to unbelievers (1 Peter 2:12; 3:1); the joy of increased answers to our prayers (1 Peter 3:10-12; James 5:16; 1 John 3:21-22)); the joy of closer fellowship with other Christians (1 John 1:7); the joy of a clear conscience (1 Timothy 1:5, 19), and several other blessings.

God intended that obedience to him would not be burdensome (1 John 5:3) but would bring us great joy. For this reason, when Christians are not “conformed to this world” we discover that following the will of God is a path of life that is for us “good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2).

7. Willful sin brings several harmful consequences to our daily lives.

It is not too popular to talk about sin today, but it is a huge topic in the Bible. A search on the English word “sin” (and other words with the same root such as “sins” or “sinner”) shows that it occurs 440 times in the New Testament alone. And my copy of the Bible in the English Standard Version (ESV) has 235 pages in the New Testament. This means that the topic of sin is mentioned in one way or another, on average, nearly two times per page through the entire New Testament. We would neglect such an important topic at our peril.

The New Testament mentions several harmful consequences that come from willful sin in the life of a Christian. These consequences include a disruption of our daily fellowship with God (Ephesians 4:30; 1 John 3:21), the awareness of God’s fatherly displeasure and the possible experience of his fatherly discipline (1 Cor. 11:30; Hebrews 12:5-11; see also Ephesians 4:30; Revelation 3:19), and a loss of fruitfulness in our ministries and in our Christian lives (John 15:4-5).

Christians should pray daily for forgiveness of sins (Matthew 6:12; 1 John 1:9), not to gain justification again and again, but to restore our personal fellowship with God that has been hindered by sin.

8. Christian ethics teaches us to consider four dimensions of any action and nine possible sources of information.

Christian ethics is not concerned only with our right and wrong actions. We are complex people, and life itself is complex. Therefore, in studying Christian ethics, God wants us to consider not only (1) the action itself but also (2) a person’s attitudes about the action, (3) the person’s motives for doing the action, and (4) the results of the action.

In seeking to know God’s will, sometimes we must make a decision instantly, with no time to ponder the situation (see the story of Joseph in Genesis 39:12). But at other times, we are able to ponder a decision at some length.

When we have more time to ponder a decision, we can consider as many as nine possible sources of information and guidance: (1) the Bible, (2) knowledge of the facts of the situation, (3) knowledge about ourselves, (4) advice from others, (5) changed circumstances, (6) our consciences, (7) our hearts, (8) our human spirits, and (9) guidance from the Holy Spirit. We need wisdom from God in order to evaluate these factors rightly in making a decision.

9. We should never think that God wants us to choose a “lesser sin.”

Although several evangelical ethics books claim that, from time to time, we face situations of “impossible moral conflict” where all our choices are sinful and we must simply choose to commit the “lesser sin,” this idea is not taught in Scripture. It is contradicted both by the life of Christ, “who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15), and by the promise of 1 Corinthians 10:13, which says that God will always provide a “way of escape.”

The “impossible moral conflict” view easily becomes a slippery slope that in actual practice encourages Christians to sin more and more.

10. Using the Old Testament for ethical guidance requires an understanding of the history of redemption.

Many Christians have read the Old Testament and wondered how we should understand the detailed laws that God gave to the people of Israel under the leadership of Moses. This requires an understanding of the “history of redemption” – the overall progress of the main storyline of the Bible.

The Mosaic covenant, which began at Exodus 20, was terminated when Christ died. Christians are no longer directly subject to the laws of the Mosaic covenant but now live instead under the provisions of the new covenant. However, the Old Testament is still a valuable source of ethical wisdom when understood in accordance with the ways in which the New Testament authors use the Old Testament for ethical teaching, and in light of the changes brought about by the new covenant. The New Testament authors explicitly reaffirm all of the moral standards found in the Ten Commandments, except they do not reaffirm observance of the Sabbath as a requirement for new covenant Christians.

Understanding the progressive development of the Bible from the old covenant (under Moses) to the new covenant (inaugurated by Christ) is especially important when thinking about the Bible’s teaching regarding civil government today. It is important to remember that God’s wise laws about crimes and punishments that he gave to the civil government of Israel as a nation then are in many ways different from God’s wise purposes for the civil governments of secular nations now.

Learn more about Wayne Grudem’s new book, Christian Ethics: An Introduction to Biblical Moral Reasoning, and download a free excerpt today!

A couple of times I’ve run into people who are familiar with the kind of Reformed theology I hold to and are eager to challenge me. Along the way they’ve said something like this: “I don’t believe in predestination.” That brings about an easy response: “The question isn’t whether you believe in predestination, but what you believe about predestination.” After all, the word (or the idea, at least) is right there in Romans 8 and Ephesians 1. We may disagree on what we mean by the term, but we don’t have the option to believe it just doesn’t exist. I think the word “submit” may be quite similar. It’s a word some people really dislike, so instead of studying it and coming to a firm conclusion on its meaning, they choose not to believe in it at all.

I’m convinced we must have some doctrine of submission (it is, after all, right there in the Bible) but don’t think I’m alone in cringing a little bit when I hear the term “submit,” especially in the context of marriage. When I hear “wives, submit to your own husbands,” something happens in my mind or heart that I don’t really like. I feel this immediate little bit of shame or rebellion or something. Submission feels old-fashioned. It feels like the kind of thing I may want to explain away like, “I know it looks like it says ‘submit’ but it doesn’t really mean ‘submit’.” The problem is that it really does say “submit” and, as far as I can tell, really does mean it. There isn’t one Bible translation that disagrees. So we just need to tackle it head-on.

But what’s happening? Why do I feel that little bit of rebellion or shame when I hear the word “submit?” I think it’s proof that we as Christians are constantly battling worldliness. Worldliness is allowing our minds and hearts to be shaped by messages that come from outside the Bible. Remember Romans 12:2: “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.” Our minds are like Playdough and someone or something is always shaping them. Our lifelong battle is to ensure we are not being conformed to the thought-patterns of the world but are instead being transformed by the revelation of God. And in this area I think many Christians, myself included, have allowed worldliness to encroach just a little.

The worldly thinking that constantly creeps into our minds is that our value and our dignity as people comes from our function or role, from what we do relative to other people. The Bible says something different. Your value and your dignity do not come from what you do but from who you are. And who are you? You are the one creature in all the world made in God’s image! You do not gain value or dignity from your function, or your contribution, or your abilities. Your value and your dignity are intrinsic to you and equal to anyone else’s because you are made in the image of God.

Why is that important? Because a world that assigns value to function rebels against the idea of submission. It concludes that for a wife to submit to her husband means that she must have less value than her husband. This is false, but it’s so often there in our minds and hearts.

Do you believe that God the Father and God the Son are equal in value and dignity, equal in majesty and glory? Of course you do. Do you believe that God the Son does the will of God the Father? Of course you do. In John 6:38 Jesus said, “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.” Jesus submitted to the will of the Father. Yet the Son’s submission to the Father did nothing to make him less valuable or less dignified or less worthy of praise than the Father. This hierarchy of function did not interrupt the essential equality of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which proves that hierarchy, the arranging of people according to function, does not change value.

So when we encounter this word “submit” in the Bible and especially in Ephesians 5, Paul is not making a statement about the relative value of husbands and wives, but about their unique ordering, their unique functions. He is simply saying, “Families will function best when one person leads and the other person follows that leadership.”

An ember left alone will soon grow cold, but embers set close together will continue to glow, to burn brightly, and even to set others ablaze. Christians resemble embers, for we, too, must be set close together to thrive. “Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise” (Proverbs 13:20), which means that those who walk with the godly become godly.” In fact, whoever longs to be godly must walk with the godly, for God has decreed that godliness will not be attained in isolation, but in community.

Today we continue to look at “8 Rules for Growing in Godliness,” a series of instructions to lead us into ever-greater conformity to the image of Jesus Christ. The seventh rule is this: Fellowship with godly people.

Seasoned by the Seasoned

“You are the salt of the earth,” says Jesus to his followers. “But if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet” (Matthew 5:13). We Christians are the salt of the earth. But in what way?

Though salt has many purposes, it is most commonly used for flavoring and preserving. Salt flavors food, enhancing its natural flavor. It also preserves food, preventing it from rotting. Christians, then, are to season this ungodly world with the flavor of godliness and to preserve this decaying world from fully following its destructive course. We do this by being in but not of the world, by displaying godly character that contrasts with the surrounding ungodliness.

But there is an ongoing challenge here, for we are prone to conformity—conformity to the world instead of to Jesus Christ. As we stop being salty, we begin to neglect our God-given calling. Though salt cannot actually lose its salinity, it is prone to contamination and, in that way, can become ineffective or even dangerous for either flavoring or preservation. Likewise, Christians cannot actually lose their salvation, but they can slip into patterns of neglect or ungodliness and, in that way, become ineffective or even dangerous in carrying out the mission God has given us. Thus, we must be salty, we must maintain those qualities that make us distinct from the world around.

This saltiness also has an important function within the community of Christians, for believers begin their Christian life lacking in the distinctions that will flavor their lives with godliness and preserve them for a lifetime. Much of their seasoning comes from the instruction and imitation of those who are already seasoned, those who have long experience of putting sin to death and coming alive to godliness. Christians must be seasoned if they are to grow and endure, and this depends upon fellowship with godly people. One of the ways we grow into conformity with Jesus Christ is by growing into conformity with those who love him most and serve him best.

This is why Paul instructs older men to first pursue godliness and then to disciple younger men, teaching them to imitate such godly character (Titus 2:2, 6). He also instructs older women to be godly and “train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled” (4-5). It is the responsibility of all Christians to fellowship with godly people, first to be taught and then to teach, first to follow an example and then to set an example.

What We Lack, What We Need

New Christians set out conspicuously lacking in a number of important qualities. To that point in their lives they have trained themselves to think as unbelievers rather than as believers, and they have accumulated patterns of depravity rather than godliness. They have much to learn and unlearn. As Christians, they must now labor to stop being conformed to the world but to instead be transformed by the renewing of the mind (Romans 12:2). To the degree that their minds are renewed their actions will follow suit.

To experience this kind of renewal of mind and behavior, Christians need the counsel of seasoned saints. They have much to learn but little knowledge of God’s works and ways. They have important decisions to make but little wisdom to draw upon. They have brothers and sisters to serve but little love for God or man. So they must depend on those who have greater knowledge, greater wisdom, and greater love, who can guide them in the way they must go.

Christians need the prayers of seasoned saints. God chooses to work through the prayers of his people. Christians must pray for one another and with one another, committing their way to the Lord individually and corporately. “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working,” and none have greater need of prayer than those who are just being established in their faith (James 5:16). Prayer is better caught than taught, and the best school of prayer is hearing others seek the Lord in adoration, confession, thanksgiving, intercession, and supplication.

Christians need the zeal of seasoned saints. Christian zeal is exercising the fruit of the Spirit at a high level, engaging the whole self in glorifying God by doing good to others. Zeal can be developed or undeveloped, mature or immature, helpful or harmful. Believers learn from one another both the importance of zeal and its right exercise. Zeal is contagious, so they become righteously, helpfully zealous as they surround themselves by zealous people.

Christians need the example of seasoned saints. Christians are people of The Book, who deliberately immerse themselves in the Word of God, trusting that it is both sufficient and necessary to guide them into all godliness. Thus, they read it, study it, hear it preached, and meditate upon it. Yet inevitably, many of its truths are learned by imitation, which is why Paul would tell young Timothy to “set an example” and often tell others, “Imitate me” (1 Timothy 4:12; 1 Corinthians 4:16, 11:1). It is in the Christian life that we see truth lived and godliness displayed. No matter how old we are or how far along we are as Christians, we still need the example of others to show us the way to endure trials, to live righteous lives, and to die godly deaths.

Conclusion

If we are to become conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, we must be in close fellowship with Christ’s people. We depend upon their counsel, their prayers, their zeal, and their example. We depend upon their love. Ultimately, we trust that just as Christ has worked in and through them, he will work in and through us. For that reason we must deliberately be among godly people, fellowshipping with them first in the context of the local church. For it is in the local church that we stir up one another to love and good deeds, here that we love and are loved, here that we live together in community as we await the day of the Lord’s return (Hebrews 10:24-25).

Having committed to local church fellowship as a matter of first priority, we can also pursue other Christian relationships with friends or mentors, and we can even fellowship with the saints of old through their books and sermons. Through it all, we love, appreciate, and pursue the tremendous blessing of fellowship with the godly. We cannot expect to grow in godliness without it.

The “8 Rules for Growing in Godliness” are drawn from the work of Thomas Watson. Here are the words that inspired this article: “Be often among the godly: they are the ‘salt of the earth,’ and will help to season you. Their counsels may direct, their prayers may quicken: such holy sparks may be thrown into your breasts, as may kindle devotion in you: it is good to be among the saints to learn the trade of godliness, Prov. xiii. 20. ‘He that walketh with wise men shall be wise.’”

There are certain words and ideas that, over time, fall out of favor. Once they have fallen out of favor, it is not long before they fall out of common parlance. Sometimes, when words are archaic or their ideas unbiblical, this is the church’s gain. At other times, though, this is the church’s loss, for words may be useful and their ideas key to the Christian life and faith. At such times we do well to reclaim them, to introduce them to a new generation.

Worldliness is a word and idea that has been recently neglected. Perhaps this is because it was abused in the era of fundamentalism, when innocuous pleasures were held to be dangerous distractions. Or perhaps this is because we prefer not to feel the weight of its conviction. Perhaps this is the work of Satan, who wishes to mask one of his masterpieces. Either way, the Bible has much to say about the world and its influence upon us. It has much to say about how we can and must refuse to be of the world, even while we live in the world.

In this article, we continue our “8 Rules for Growing in Godliness,” a series of instructions drawn from a great preacher of days gone by. Together these rules teach how we, as Christians, can be ever more conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. The second rule for growing in godliness is this: Guard against worldliness.

The World and Worldliness

In his first letter, the Apostle John lays out the challenge and the danger of worldliness. “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). There is a stark contrast here between two opposing options: We can love the world, or we can love God, but we cannot love both. We can follow and obey the world, or we can follow and obey God, but we cannot serve two masters. Only one will own our heart, only one can claim our ultimate allegiance. That choice lies before us.

What is the “world”? In days past, some Christians took it to mean the earth and everything in it, as if there is something intrinsically wrong with experiencing pleasure in God’s creation. But this cannot be, for John would not contradict Paul who insists, “everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving…” (1 Timothy 4:4). The “world,” then, is not a place but a system. It is a way of thinking and living that rejects God’s rule. It is enthusiasm for the temporal and apathy for the eternal. It is living as if this world is all there is. To love the world is to value what unbelievers value, to foster ungodly desires and attitudes, to indulge in what is delightful to those who refuse to delight in God.

Those who love the world naturally succumb to worldliness. Worldliness is a failure to renew our minds by the Word of God so we can live in a manner pleasing to God. It is the failure to think and live in distinctly godly ways. It is the failure to become who God has called us to be through the gospel.

Worldliness is first a matter of the heart’s desires, then the mind’s meditations, then the hands’ actions. We all enter this world as lovers of the world who are in desperate need of salvation. It is only God’s work of saving grace that allows us to see our captivity, only the light of the gospel that frees us from our former blindness. Every Christian must then put off the old worldliness to embrace the new godliness. Thus, we have the choice before us: Will we be worldly, or will we be godly? Will we remain conformed to this world, or will we be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2)? We make the decision once and for all when we put our faith in Jesus Christ, and we make the decision again day by day as we battle to work out our salvation by putting sin to death and coming alive to righteousness (Philippians 2:12, Colossians 3:9-10).

Christians who mean to grow in godliness must be vigilant to guard against worldliness, for worldliness is a wily foe and a constant tempter. Few who profess Christ set out to be worldly, yet multitudes bear the world’s imprint. Just as some jump off the dock into a cold lake, while others creep down the ladder so their bodies can adjust, some who profess faith plunge into worldliness rapidly, while others become worldly through a long and slow immersion.

Some make a close study of the world and its ways, then deliberately imitate what they observe. We see this often with those raised in Christian families, ready to gain their independence. They purpose to be worldly and easily achieve their goal. They inevitably drift from the faith. Tragically, many are lost forever.

More commonly, though, Christians become worldly by neglect. We fail to be watchful, to maintain an offensive posture against the world’s attraction and intrusion. We neglect the means of grace, allowing ourselves to lose confidence in the ordinary means of Word, prayer, and fellowship. Having lost our confidence in them, we soon forsake them altogether. We neglect to approach ungodly entertainment with due caution, so that what at first shocks us soon amuses and delights us. We neglect Christian friendship and instead ally ourselves with people who have no affection for God and no desire for holiness. Through such neglect we slowly lower ourselves into the waters of worldliness. Soon, we find sin has begun to look attractive and holiness has begun to look futile.

Expelling Worldliness

To be healthy and growing Christians, we must maintain a close watch, guarding against the least encroachment of worldliness. We must be aware of its existence and its allure. We must be aware of its ease, for while godliness requires tenacity, worldliness takes only apathy. Whereas we can easily coast into worldliness, we will not attain the least godliness without persistence. And we must be aware that either godliness will drive out worldliness, or worldliness will drive out godliness. They cannot coexist any more than light can mingle with darkness, than God can cohabit with devils.

Ultimately, it is our love for Christ that will overcome our latent worldliness. Our new affection for Christ has what one Puritan referred to as an “expulsive power,” an ability to expel whatever competes with it, diminishes it, or threatens to supplant it. Thus it becomes our duty and delight to fix our eyes on Christ. “In this duty I desire to live and to die,” said John Owen. “On Christ’s glory I would fix all my thoughts and desires, and the more I see of the glory of Christ, the more the painted beauties of this world will wither in my eyes and I will be more and more crucified to this world. It will become to me like something dead and putrid, impossible for me to enjoy.”

Conclusion

The first rule of godliness warned us of our tendency to lose our confidence in the means God has provided for our sanctification. The second rule warns us against spiritual slumber, of failing to maintain a close watch against a fearsome, cunning enemy. If you long to be godly, determine not to be worldly. Guard against the least encroachment of worldliness and fight for every appearance of godliness.

The “8 Rules for Growing in Godliness” are drawn from the work of Thomas Watson. Here are the words that inspired this article: “If you would be godly, take heed of the world: it is hard for a clod of dust become a star, 1 John ii. 15. ‘Love not the world:’ many would be godly, but the honours and profits of the world divert them; where the world fills both head and heart, there is no room for Christ; he whose mind is rooted in the earth, is likely enough to deride godliness; when our Saviour was preaching against sin, the Pharisees, who were covetous, derided him, Luke xvi. 14. The world eats out the heart of godliness, as the ivy eats out the heart of the oak; the world kills with her silver darts.”

The great goal of the Christian life is to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. The Christian longs to be influenced by Christ to such an extent that every thought is one Jesus would think, that every action is one he would take. Such conformity depends upon a renewed mind, for it is only once our minds are renewed that our desires and actions can follow (Romans 12:2). The Christian life, then, is one of taking off the “old self with its practices” and putting on “the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator” (Colossians 3:9-10).

So noble a goal can only be achieved with great effort and lifelong commitment, for we are sinful people, only recently liberated from our captivity to the world, the flesh, and the devil. The Christian life is not a leisurely stroll but a purposeful journey. Jesus tells us we must “strive to enter through the narrow door,” knowing that the Christian life permits no complacency, that salvation must be “worked out,” not waited out (Luke 13:24; Philippians 2:12). The Christian is not a passive spectator in sanctification but an active participant.

We are looking at “8 Rules for Growing in Godliness,” a series of instructions for becoming increasingly conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. (Here’s the Introduction to the series.) The first rule for growing in godliness is this: Trust the means of grace. Every Christian is responsible to diligently search out and discover the disciplines through which God grants increased godliness. Then he is to make a lifelong, whole-hearted commitment to each of them.

How Do Christians Grow?

With spiritual growth comes increased knowledge of God, trust in God, and conformity to God. The one who had little knowledge of God’s works and ways comes to know them both deeply. The one of weak faith comes to have immovable trust. The one who was depraved in desire and behavior comes to display Christ-like character and conduct. Such growth leads inexorably to delight, for to know and to imitate God is to enjoy him.

How, then, can we experience such an increase in knowledge, trust, conformity, and delight? Primarily through what we call “means of grace,” disciplines through which God communicates his sanctifying grace to us. While there are many such means, we can summarize them under three headings: Word, prayer, and fellowship. They are experienced in private devotion, family and corporate worship, and whenever we are with other Christians. Though growth may come through other means, God promises growth will come through these ones. J.C. Ryle speaks of their importance when he says, “I lay it down as a simple matter of fact that no one who is careless about such things must ever expect to make much progress in sanctification. I can find no record of any eminent saint who ever neglected them.”

Ordinary Means

Christians have often referred to these activities as the ordinary means of grace. The word ordinary is meant to address the common temptation to lose confidence in the means God has ordained, and to look instead to those that are foreign or forbidden. Deeply embedded within the sinful human heart is a desire for more than God has mandated, for other than what God has prescribed. Though God gave Adam and Eve knowledge of good, their sinful temptation was to add to it the knowledge of evil. When God held back nothing except the fruit of a single tree, they found themselves obsessed with that very one. Similarly, we may grow weary of entrusting ourselves to the ordinary ministry of the Word and veer instead into mysticism. We may grow discouraged in our ordinary prayers and search for new forms of communication with God. We may grow weary of worshipping in Christian community and pursue selfish worship.

Yet God means for us to commit ourselves to these activities, to trust that they are the means through which he accomplishes his work within us. His extraordinary work is achieved through ordinary means. Thus, we must not only make use of the means of grace but trust them. We must trust they are God’s appointed means to promote zeal for godliness, to foster godliness, and to preserve godliness to the end.

God’s Means

God’s means of grace are the Word, prayer, and fellowship. These, according to John MacArthur, are the “instruments through which God’s Spirit graciously grows believers in Christlikeness and fortifies them in the faith and conforms them into the image of the Son.” Ryle describes them as “appointed channels through which the Holy Spirit conveys fresh supplies of grace to the soul and strengthens the work which He has begun in the inward man.” Let’s look briefly at each of them.

Word. The Word of God, the Bible, is God’s revelation to humanity—his revelation of himself, his character, and his works. It is his voice to the world. And it is through the Bible, more than any other means, that God sanctifies us. The Bible first reveals the gospel, which is “the power of God for salvation” (Romans 1:16). We cannot be saved without it. Then it is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,” so that every Christian may be “complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). We cannot grow in godliness without it. Therefore, the Bible must be read, taught, absorbed, and applied. We must read it as individuals, families, and churches. Parents must teach it to their children, pastors to their congregations, Christians to their peers. We must meditate upon it, diligently and prayerfully seeking to understand it, and we must apply it, shaping our lives according to its every truth and every command. As Christians we are, and must always be, people of The Book.

Prayer. As the Bible is the means through which God speaks to humanity, prayer is the means through which we speak to God. Christians are to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17), to make life a conversation in which we hear from God and speak in return, or in which we speak to God and hear in return. We are to offer prayers of adoration, confession, thanksgiving, intercession, and supplication. We are to pray privately, with our family, with our friends, and with our congregation, to pray both as individuals and gathered congregations. In certain seasons, we are to pray with fasting, specially consecrating ourselves to the work of prayer. As we pray, God blesses us with increased trust in him, increased fellowship with him, and increased confidence in his character and works.

Fellowship. When we become Christians, we enter into a fellowship of believers that spans the earth and the ages. We grow in godliness in community, not isolation. This is why the author of Hebrews wrote, “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (10:24-25). It is in Christian community that we read the Word and hear it preached (2 Timothy 4:2), that we join our voices together in prayer (Acts 4:24), that we sing praises to God (Colossians 3:16), that we bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2), speak truth to one another (Ephesians 4:25), and encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11). It is here that we celebrate the ordinances of the Lord’s Supper and baptism, and here that we experience the blessings of church membership and the tough love of church discipline. The Bible knows nothing of Christians who willfully separate themselves from Christian fellowship. It is a means through which God pours out his sanctifying grace upon us and through us.

Conclusion

Ray Ortlund points out that the means of grace are God’s answer to questions every Christian must ask: “How do I, as a believer, access the grace of the Lord for my many needs? Where do I go, what do I do, to connect with the real help He gives to sinners and sufferers here in this world?” We access the Lord’s grace and receive the Lord’s help through these ordinary means. We cannot expect to grow or thrive apart from them. But we can confidently expect to grow and thrive in proportion to the degree we commit ourselves to them, for God has ordained them for this very purpose.

Thus, the first rule of godliness is trust the ordinary means of grace. We must take full advantage of the disciplines God provides, and we must ensure we do not lose our confidence that God can and will work through such ordinary means. It is his desire and delight to do so.

The “8 Rules for Growing in Godliness” are drawn from the work of Thomas Watson. Here are the words that inspired this article: “Be diligent in the use of all means that may promote godliness, Luke xiii. 24. ‘Strive to enter in at the strait gate:’ what is purpose without pursuit? When you have made your estimate of godliness, prosecute those mediums which are most expedient for obtaining it.”

We are more than our thoughts and more than our desires, but we are certainly not less. What fills our minds and forms our dreams tells us who we really are, what we really long for, whom we really serve. Evil thoughts and evil desires reveal a deep captivity to sin and evil. This should concern us, for God assures us he has a deep loathing for evil thoughts. He has a deep loathing for those who think evil thoughts. We have already seen that God hates idolatry, sexual immorality, injustice, hypocrisy, deceit, and pride. Today we will look at God’s hatred for evil thoughts.

God Hates Evil Thoughts

In humanity’s earliest days, God “saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). The heart is the spiritual nerve-center, the seat of desire and reason, the source of action. As sinful human beings, we love to empty our hearts of what is good and fill our hearts with what is evil. God’s judgment fell on humanity because their evil hearts were filled with evil desires and evil intentions which soon became evil actions. It is not surprising, then, to learn that God hates “a heart that devises wicked plans” (Proverbs 6:18).

There is a close connection between the heart and the mind, so we expect to find that “The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the LORD” (Proverbs 15:26a). The thoughts of the wicked are not just fleeting temptations that pass quickly through the mind and are gone. They are plans and meditations, dreams and desires. God hates the evil plans that brew within evil minds.

In Zechariah we learn that God particularly hates evil thoughts that work themselves out in evil actions designed to harm others. “Do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, declares the Lord” (Zechariah 8:17). Similarly, David assures us “The LORD tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence” (Psalm 11:5). Of course God’s soul reacts with fury against anyone who loves violence, for he has made humanity in his image and must act in judgment toward those who defile or destroy people.

Why God Hates Evil Thoughts

God hates evil thoughts because evil thoughts reside within evil minds to devise evil plans. God created human beings to be perfect, to have perfect hearts and perfect minds which would express perfect desires in perfect actions. This was his dream and desire for humanity.

But the first human beings allowed their minds to stray, their desires to bend. They fell, and as they fell they “became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things” (Romans 1:21-23). They rejected the sovereignty of their Creator and soon denied his very existence. “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done” (Romans 1:28).

Evil thoughts are a sure sign of evil hearts. Evil hearts are a sure sign of evil people who have turned their backs on their good Creator.

God’s Judgment on Those Who Think Evil Thoughts

God’s judgment on those who think evil thoughts is swift and sure. His judgment falls immediately as he “gives them up” (Romans 1:26) to their foul behavior. Even in this life, God loosens his hand of restraint on humanity and allows them to suffer the consequences of their evil. He allows them to express their evil desires through their thoughts, words, and deeds. The evil they desire and pursue is their self-inflicted punishment, for while it promises life, it delivers only death.

But there is a more terrible future punishment to come: “But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed” (Romans 2:5). Those who sin against God must suffer the wrath of God. Those who deny God will find, to their eternal peril, that he exists and that he is the judge of the living and the dead.

Hope for Those Who Think Evil Thoughts

But still there is hope. There is hope even for those whose hearts are evil and rebellious. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2). Having discerned the will of God, we can do the will of God. It is God’s joy and delight to transform us from the inside out.

When we turn to Christ in repentance and faith, he takes away our hard hearts of stone and gives us supple hearts of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). He gives us a new heart with new desires. Now we long to acknowledge God, to worship God, to pursue God, to live for the glory of God. Now, at last, we live the lives he created us to live.

Key Verses

If you would like to engage in some further study, here are key verses about God’s hatred of evil thoughts.

1. Evil thoughts are the natural condition of sinful humanity (Genesis 6:5)
2. Sinful human beings become futile in their thinking (Romans 1:21-23)
3. God hates the thoughts of the wicked (Proverbs 15:26)
4. God hates evil plans against neighbors (Zechariah 8:17)
5. God hates a heart that devises wicked imaginations (Proverbs 6:18)
6. God hates those who love violence (Psalm 11:5)
7. God loves to renew our minds so we can think good thoughts (Romans 12:2)

I remember watching the commercial as a child. A man dressed for work sprints after a moving bus, trying desperately to flag it down before it drives off without him. In a flash, he is transported to a beach where he meets his future self, jogging under the morning sun. His future self looks over and asks, “Still in the rat race?” “Hey, you’re me!,” he replies. His future self is retired, healthy, free. “Retirement agrees with me.” “Retirement? How can we afford that?” The answer? “Freedom 55.”

Freedom 55, a financial planning company, held out an attractive promise: Labor for 30 years, retire at 55, and then enjoy a long, comfortable retirement. But it also held out an entire philosophy of life: True freedom is found in leisure. The good life is the free life—free from children, expectation, vocation. Many live with this as their motivation, their destination, their heaven on earth. The Bible holds out something better—something far more challenging but far more satisfying.

(Have you read the first four parts of this series? Aging Gracefully, With Greater Age Comes Greater Sorrow, With Greater Age Comes Greater Joy, and Greater Age Brings Greater Responsibility.)

Paul, the seasoned veteran, writes to young Timothy, “Train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Timothy 4:7b-8). Godliness is the goal of every Christian’s life because it alone holds promise for this life and for the life to come. In some mysterious but sure way, the godliness we achieve in this life carries over to eternity. That is a promise no retirement plan can match. The retirement dream accounts for this life, but it gives us nothing when death comes. It stores up enough treasure for a carefree retirement, but it leaves us destitute for what follows. Only godliness accumulates treasure in an account that can’t be touched by death. The philosophy of Freedom 55 is worldliness, a way of thinking that is detached from the wisdom of God.

Godliness is to be our desire and our aim from the moment of conversion to the moment of death. All the while, worldliness will be our temptation. No matter our age, no matter how far we have traveled through time, we are to relentlessly pursue godliness and persistently avoid worldliness. Just as an athlete disciplines his body and mind, just as he dedicates himself to the pursuit of excellence, we Christians must apply discipline and dedication to our pursuit of godliness. We must train ourselves and push ourselves until we have completed our race. If we ever slow our pursuit of godliness, now or in old age, we deny the connection between now and forever. We deny the resurrection.

As we train ourselves in godliness, we will inevitably encounter temptations custom-crafted to each stage of life. Worldliness will manifest itself in different ways and we will have to make choices. As we come to this final article in the series, I mean to share wisdom to help us avoid the worldly temptations that come with aging. I haven’t run far enough in my race to have this wisdom, so I read a half-dozen books written by seasoned runners, by Christians who write from the perspective of old age. As I read I asked, What are the choices we will have to make as we age? What choices will lead us to age well? What decisions do we need to make right now? Here is what I learned.

Choose Zeal Over Apathy

As we age, we face a growing temptation toward apathy. When we are young we are zealous, easily enthused by ideas, desires, and causes. We have energy and enthusiasm in abundance. But as we age, as we accumulate responsibilities and experience sorrows, we may face growing apathy and waning passion for God. Romans 12:11 offers a life-long, all-consuming challenge: “Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.” In the words of J.C. Ryle, zeal is “a burning desire to please God, to do his will, to advance his glory in the world in every possible way.” It is single-minded devotion to God.

Zeal in old age begins with zeal today, for zeal stirs up a great fire that will never burn out. It generates the enthusiasm for the Lord that will sustain us through what Solomon refers to as the many “days of darkness” to come (Ecclesiastes 11:8). J.I. Packer says, “The challenge that faces us is not to let [declining health] slow us down spiritually, but to cultivate the maximum zeal for the closing phase of our earthly lives.” Complacency in our younger days will lead to apathy in our older days. Far better, spiritual enthusiasm in our younger days will promote zeal to the very end. The final leg of our race ought to be a full-out sprint in our pursuit of godliness. Piper offers this challenge: “Knowing that we have an infinitely satisfying and everlasting inheritance in God just over the horizon of life makes us zealous in our few remaining years here to spend ourselves in the sacrifices of love, not the accumulation of comforts.” Zeal in our later days begins with zeal in our earlier days. Choose zeal today.

Choose Discipline Over Complacency

If apathy and zeal speak to motivation, complacency and discipline speak to action. Specifically, they speak to the action of putting sin to death and coming alive to righteousness. In 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, Paul turns to the metaphor of a race and warns of the high cost of inaction: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” Paul fought complacency and pursued self-discipline, so that no sin would take root in his life and leave him ashamed.

The more we age, the more we need to resist the temptation of complacency and discipline ourselves to put off sin and put on righteousness. We need to discipline our bodies to ensure we behave with self-control rather than lust. We need to discipline our minds to ensure we do not welcome any evil thoughts. We need to discipline our imaginations to ensure we delight in what is good and refuse to fantasize about what God forbids. We need to discipline our mouths to ensure we only speak words that build up. We need to discipline our time to ensure we put every moment to effective use. In every way, we must be disciplined in our pursuit of God, we must build habits of holiness. We must not succumb to the ease of complacency.

Choose Learning Over Stagnation

A further temptation of aging is the temptation of stagnation, especially when it comes to learning. Young people are lacking in knowledge and wisdom, so their younger years are filled with learning. But as we age, we may come to believe we have learned enough to carry us to the end. Yet the Christian life is one of constant mind-renewal that depends upon accumulating the knowledge of God as contained in the Word of God. Until our minds have been completely purged of sin and filled with righteousness, we must continue to learn. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2). The full and final transformation of our minds will come only in the presence of Christ. Until then, there is still sin to cleanse, wisdom to apply, truth to enjoy. Donald and George Sweeting point out that a characteristic of those who finish well is that they have a teachable spirit through life. “‘Teachable’ means that they maintain a humble posture and are open to receiving midcourse corrections. Those who finish well never stop doing this. They are lifelong learners. They learn from reading, from watching and listening to others, and from life itself. This keeps them from plateauing.”

We learn not only for our own sanctification, but also for others’ benefit. When we share what we learned with those around us, they are also built up in the faith. We cannot stop learning when there is still truth to teach. “Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will show you, your elders, and they will tell you” (Deuteronomy 32:7). What we have learned we must pass on. We must become learners now so that we will not slacken our pursuit of learning in our final days.

Choose Involvement Over Isolation

We must also resist the temptation of isolation, and especially isolation from church community. Instead, we must pursue and maintain church involvement as long as we are able and as much as we are able. In the midst of a society that honors youth and disparages age, we have God’s assurance that age gives us wisdom. And we also have God’s charge to bless others with that wisdom. There is a place for people of all ages in the local church. When Paul wrote to the congregation in Philippi, he addressed young and old alike when he said, “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27). In the community of Christians, we stand together as we resist the onslaught of the devil. The young need the old just as the old need the young.

Since God does not revoke our gifts in old age, he does not negate our responsibility to use them for the benefit of others. Perhaps Paul had an awareness of the temptation to isolation when he wrote, “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9). Of course we may have to slow down in our service or hand off our ministries. Instead of the public ministry of preaching, we may have to give ourselves to the quiet ministry of prayer. But to withdraw from Christian service altogether or to cease using the Spirit’s gifting is pure disobedience. Speaking to elderly Christians, Packer warns that spiritual gifts don’t wither with age, they atrophy with disuse. We need to exercise our gifts when we are young and continue to exercise them the best we can for as long as we can.

Choose Hope Over Despair

Finally, as we age we will experience the temptation to despair, the temptation to give up. We guard ourselves by pursuing hope. In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, he is aware of his increasing age and decreasing health. He knows his “outer self is wasting away” (2 Corinthians 4:16b), yet he remains confident and unbroken. He has not and is convinced he will not lose heart (16a). Packer shows how Paul grounds this hope in four great truths: He has a perfected body awaiting him beyond the grave (5:1); this perfected body will come to him in a perfected place that is far better (5:3-5); when he receives this body he will be at home with Christ (5:6-9); and he will be judged faithful by Christ and, by grace, receive a fitting reward (5:10-11). He is armed with truth and this truth gives him hope—hope enough to sustain him through all pain, all trauma, all temptation to despair. “It was always [God’s] plan,” says Packer, “that we, his embodied rational creatures, should live our lives in this world looking forward to, and preparing for, something even better than we have known already.”

As Christians, we can be confident we have been “born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:3-5). Our hope is a living hope because we serve a living Savior. And this Savior is guarding us through faith, keeping us from stumbling just as he is keeping our eternal inheritance from fading. Until then, we find hope in the God who promised Isaiah, “Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you” (Isaiah 46:4). Even to old age.

Conclusion

We are all aging. We are passing through time until we reach the end of our time. We find that greater age brings greater sorrow, but that it also brings greater joy, especially to those who are in Christ. God tells us that greater age brings greater responsibility and that at every age we will need to flee the temptation of worldliness, choosing instead to do what honors and glorifies him. We learn that to age gracefully we need to age in Christ and for Christ.

As this series draws to its close, we do well to turn our attention to King David, who penned Psalm 92 in old age. He was weak, he was afflicted, he was full of sorrows. But still he proclaimed his hope:

The righteous flourish like the palm tree
and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
They are planted in the house of the LORD;
they flourish in the courts of our God.
They still bear fruit in old age;
they are ever full of sap and green,
to declare that the LORD is upright;
he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. (Psalm 92:12-15)

Will you bear fruit even to old age? In your final breaths, when you are as weak as you’ve ever been, will you be able to declare “The Lord is upright! He is my rock!”? I pray it is so.

Romans 12:2 is consistently one of the most quoted verses in the Bible. In that little passage we are warned that there are forces competing for our attention and loyalty and that even Christians are at times torn between the two. “Do not be conformed to this world,” says the Apostle Paul, “but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Paul assumes that we will not and cannot remain unchanged in life. We will not and cannot remain who and what we are right now. The question, then, is how we will change and who we will allow to influence us. Will we be conformed to the world around us or will be we transformed by God?

Conformity is an ever-present danger. I recently found myself considering it and thought of two ways that we can be conformed to this world—we can actively pursue the world and worldliness or we can simply be passive and allow the world a slow but steady eroding influence.

The first way to be conformed to the world, then, is to be drawn to it, to be enamored by it and to imitate it. This is a great temptation to many people and perhaps especially to young people who have been raised in Christian homes. When I was a teenager I saw many of my friends get swept up in this kind of worldliness. We had all been raised in Christian families, but when my friends began to experience the independence of young adulthood, as they began to distance themselves from their parents, many decided they wanted to experience what the world had to offer. So they studied how the world acted and acted that way. They studied how the world dressed and they dressed that way. In a hundred little ways they conformed to the world until they were indistinguishable from the world. Some eventually experienced a work of God to draw them back. Many others never did. They were deliberately completely conformed.

For most of us, though, the conforming power of the world comes in a much subtler form. We become conformed to the world by just lowering our guard, by neglecting to maintain a watchful demeanor, by failing to hold an offensive posture against the encroachment of the world. If full-out pursuing the world is the equivalent of being instantly crushed in a giant industrial mold, then this other kind of conformity is being slowly, slowly squeezed in that mold, one little crank at a time. Eventually both methods will conform you to the shape of the mold, but one will happen much slower—so slowly that you might not even notice some of the changes as they are taking place.

We can be conformed to the world this way through our entertainment, by not being cautious about what we see, hear, and read and about how much of it we consume. We can be conformed through our education, by being influenced too much by people who are opposed to God and too little by those who love him. We can be conformed through our friendships, maintaining our best and most formative relationships with unbelievers or outright antagonists. We can be conformed to the world through our apathy, neglecting God’s ordinary means of grace dispensed through the local church, failing to engage in private and family worship.

And what happens? Over time, our understanding of our purpose is shaped by whatever is on the bestseller list instead of by what God says in his Word. Our understanding of the world’s origins is set by the classroom instead of being measured against the Bible. Our understanding of sexuality owes more to movies or pornography than to the Creator of both our bodies and our sexuality. We are conformed slowly through carelessness, through lack of attention, through plain neglect. Where are you tempted to lower your guard? Where are you allowing the world just a crack into your heart and your mind? This may be the means through which you are being conformed to the world.

Worldliness is like gravity, always there, always pushing down on you, always exerting its influence on you. As a Christian you are charged with resisting it day by day. You must and you can. You must because your spiritual life and health depend on it. You can because you are indwelled by the Holy Spirit whose joy is to transform you by the Word of God into the image of the Son of God. Do not be conformed to this world!

Image credit: Shutterstock

Of the many legacies of the Protestant Reformation, few have had greater and wider-reaching impact than the rediscovery of the biblical understanding of vocation. Before the Reformation, the only people with a vocation or calling were those who were engaged in full-time church work—monks, nuns, or priests. As Gene Veith writes in God at Work:

The ordinary occupations of life—being a peasant farmer or kitchen maid, making tools or clothing, being a soldier or even king—were acknowledged as necessary but worldly. Such people could be saved, but they were mired in the world. To serve God fully, to live a life that is truly spiritual, required a full-time commitment.

As the Reformers looked past uninspired traditions in their return to the authority and sufficiency of God’s Word, they found that full-time ministry was a vocation, but it was by no means the only vocation. They saw that each of us has a vocation and that each vocation has dignity and value in the eyes of the Lord. We can all honor God in the work we do.

Yet that old tradition is never far off, and if we do not constantly return to God’s Word and allow it to correct us, we will soon drift back. It is encouraging that today we find many Christian pastors and authors exploring what it means to be ordinary Christians doing ordinary work as part of their ordinary lives. It is encouraging to see these leaders affirming the worth of all vocations.

The questions every Christian faces at one time or another are these: Are Christian plumbers, cooks, doctors, and businessmen lesser Christians because they are not in “full-time” ministry? And what of Christian mothers and homemakers? Can they honor God even through very ordinary lives? Can we honor God through ordinary lives without tacitly promoting a dangerous kind of spiritual complacency? What does it mean to avoid being conformed to this world and to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Rom. 12:2) in this area of vocation?

As we would expect, God’s Word addresses these questions. In 1 Thessalonians, Paul responds to questions he had received from the people of the church in Thessalonica. And apparently, one of the questions they asked the apostle was something like this: How can we live lives that are pleasing to God (see 4:1–12)? They had been told of God’s creation mandate, that God created us and placed us on this earth so we could exercise dominion over it as His representatives. They had been told of Christ’s Great Commission, that His people are to take the gospel to the farthest corners of the earth, and as more and more people come out of darkness and into light, to train them in the things of the Lord.

This church knew those big-picture commands, but they found themselves looking to Paul for specific guidance. What does it look like for ordinary people in ordinary places and ordinary times to live out the creation mandate and the Great Commission? Does it require full-time ministry? Does it require moving to the far side of the globe? What is the life that is pleasing to God?

Paul’s response is fascinating and perfectly consistent with the doctrine of vocation. His response addresses three issues: sexual morality, the local church, and work.

Life Under Control

The first thing Paul tells this church is that if they want to live lives that are pleasing to God, they need to avoid sexual immorality and instead pursue sexual purity: “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor” (1 Thess. 4:3-4). The Thessalonians needed to reject the worldly counterfeits of sex and relationships to instead pursue godliness in those areas.

Life in Community

The second thing Paul tells this church is that if they are to live lives that are pleasing to God, they need to commit to loving the people in their local churches: “You yourselves have been taught by God to love one another. … But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more” (vv. 9-10). While Christians are to extend love to all men without discrimination, they are to focus their love especially on the brothers and sisters in their local church.

Life at Work

Paul’s third point is especially important to ordinary Christian work. He tells these Christians to “aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one” (vv. 11-12). If the Bible was going to tell believers that full-time ministry was a better or higher calling, if it was going to tell us that the best Christians are the ones who sell all they own and move to the other side of the planet, this is exactly where we would expect to find it. But we do not. We find something altogether different.

In 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul gives very simple instructions that transcend time, geography, and culture. He tells the Thessalonians to live quietly, to mind their own business, and to work with their hands. When he tells them to live quietly, he means for them to be content to be unknown and unnoticed. There is a paradox here: They are to work hard to be still, or to make it their ambition to be free from worldly ambition. They are to be content with their lot and to know that this contentment is how they can best honor God.

When Paul tells them to mind their own business, he means for them to focus on their own work and to avoid being busybodies, who are busy with everything but what matters most. And when he tells them to work with their own hands, he means for them to carry on the work in which they are engaged, even (or especially) if that work involves manual labor. He could call them to all of this because their work had intrinsic value simply because it was their calling—their God-given vocation.

As far as we know, Paul was not writing to a group of brand-new Christians here. He was not giving them the basic instructions that would carry them through their early years, before they eventually graduated to better and more difficult things. This church appears to be strong and spiritually mature, and still Paul’s word to them is very simple: You bring honor and glory to God through your very ordinary lives.

Life on Mission

In case the instruction was not sufficient, and before he moves on to other matters, Paul explains the importance and the effect of doing these very simple things. He wants them to do this “so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one” (4:12). Here Paul shows that Christians live out God’s desires for them through their ordinary work and their ordinary lives. This quiet life, this life of minding one’s own business and working hard, allows them to carry out the Great Commission. After all, if they do these things—if they pursue sexual purity, if they love one another, and if they work hard—Paul assures them they will be walking properly before outsiders. Not only that, but they will be displaying love for their Christian brothers and sisters.

Let’s be clear: This is not a call to complacency or a call to a bare minimum. It is a call to be faithful right where we are and to know that God is pleased with His people when they live out their ordinary lives.

There will be some who are called to full-time church ministry as their vocation. There will be some who will put aside manual labor in order to be trained and tasked as full-time pastors, dependent on the support of others. There will be some who will stop working with their hands to go into the mission field. This is good, and it honors God. But it is not a higher call or a better call or a surer path to pleasing God. We please God—we thrill God—when we live as ordinary people in ordinary lives who use our ordinary circumstances to proclaim and live out an extraordinary gospel.

This article originally appeared in Tabletalk magazine. Image credit: Shutterstock

I recently sat with a group of young adults, men and women in their late teens and early twenties, and we spoke about singleness, dating, and courtship. Eventually the conversation advanced to marriage and to both the joys and the difficulties of marriage. We realized together that as these young adults are considering relationships and begin to pursue marriage, they are wondering how they can divorce-proof their marriages. Many of them have grown up surrounded by divorce and its effects. Some are afraid of commitment because they are afraid they may not be able to keep that commitment.

One young man asked how to ensure that a couple does not bring into their marriage a seed that could bloom into divorce. And it did not take me more than a moment to realize that in my marriage and in your marriage and in every marriage, there is already the seed of divorce. In every marriage is an issue, a belief, a habit, a heart idolatry—indeed, many of them—that can lead easily and naturally to the complete destruction of the union. The world, the flesh, and the devil are all committed to the destruction of marriage, and each of those enemies brings its own evil seeds. The question is not whether those seeds are or will be present in a marriage, but what we will do with them.

It may be that in your marriage, you have allowed the seed of divorce to grow. Perhaps it has already put down roots and is digging in. Maybe it has already poked its head through the soil and begun to grow to full bloom. Do not despair. There is still hope for your marriage. A marriage is not ruined by the presence of such seeds but by accepting, ignoring, or embracing them.

The very same seeds that may lead to destruction may also lead to increased strength and growth. Though powerful forces are arrayed against marriage, God is the creator of marriage, and He is far more committed to its growth than Satan is to its destruction.

Each of those seeds that may lead to divorce represents an opportunity for health. Each is an opportunity for a couple to have open and honest discussion, to identify these seeds, to talk about them, and to commit to stand firmly against them. Each represents a matter to take to the Lord together in prayer, to seek God’s strength and protection. And, of course, each represents an area in which the Bible can and must speak. Those seeds of error are countered and overcome by the truth of Scripture.

Stuart Scott says it well: “The more each mind is renewed (changed) by the Scripture, the more similarly a couple will think (Rom. 12:2). One of the worst things a couple can do is work to change one another into each other’s likeness. They are to be changed, rather, into Christ’s likeness.” And they are changed by going together to God’s Word day by day, week by week, and year after year.

A Gift from Logos – Logos users will want to click and grab the coupon code which gets you $20 credit. You’ll need to use it by December 31.

Don’t Get Too Familiar with the Bible – Here’s a timely warning from Peter Krol: “Beware the deceptive wiles of familiarity — that sweet but double-edged virtue that makes you feel at home in the word of God.”

How Movies Embraced Hinduism – This article shows how many films are based on the tenets of Hinduism.

One Year With the Bible – YouVersion released an infographic showing what people read in 2014. I love that Romans 12:2 was the most popular verse!

Predictable Christmas Fare – Daniel Wallace destroys Newsweek’s ridiculous article on the Bible.

What Should We Be on Our Guard for as Our Children Grow Older? – R.C. Sproul Jr. raises some good points in this article.

Ten Practical Ways to Control Spending and Wisely Manage God’s Money – Here is wisdom from Randy Alcorn on being wise with money.

I had rather stand against the cannons of the wicked than against the prayers of the righteous.

—Thomas Lye

Habits are tricky things. We are more than our habits, but certainly not less. We live so much of our lives according to our habits, but still remain responsible for what we do and what we do not do. Some habits emerge without any thought and through mindless, repetitive actions, while others are formed only through deliberate effort. As Christians we work to build godly habits and put aside ungodly habits, but learn not to depend on habits for our salvation or lean too heavily upon them for sanctification.

Habits are the subject of the bestselling The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and Business by Charles Duhigg. It is a fascinating book, and especially so when it focuses in on the habits that make our lives what they are.

We are creatures of habit, and I have to assume that God designed us this way. He designed us so we form neurological pathways that condition us to do certain things in a kind of routine. “When a habit emerges, the brain stops fully participating in decision making. It stops working so hard, or diverts focus to other tasks. So unless you deliberately fight a habit—unless you find new routines—the pattern will unfold automatically.”

Here we see both the beauty and the horror of habits, the beauty of habits as they would exist in a perfect world and the horror of habits as they exist in a sin-stained world. Habits allow behavior to unfold automatically and without thinking, so that once we set them in motion, they unfold along established pathways. “The problem is that your brain can’t tell the difference between bad and good habits, and so if you have a bad one, it’s always lurking there, waiting for the right cues and rewards.” Both virtue and vice can be packaged within habits so that, to some degree, both positive and negative actions can be done on a near-subconscious level.

This is why we teach ourselves to form habits like reading the Bible at the very beginning of the day or to have family worship immediately after dinner—once the habit is established, we will obey its summons to do those things that are so important to our lives. And this is why we have such trouble battling those long-established habits of sin—once the habit is established, we will battle to disobey its summons to do those things that are so destructive. It seems like it should be so easy to stop looking at pornography, to stop drinking to excess, or to stop gorging ourselves on food, but our habits drive and cajole us into old patterns.

At heart, habits are quite simple. “This is how new habits are created: by putting together a cue, a routine, and a reward, and then cultivating a craving that drives the loop.” The craving is the key: The things we crave are the things that power our habits. If we are to form good habits, we need to crave the right things, and if we are to break bad habits, we need to learn to control the bad cravings. Duhigg says, “Cravings are what drive habits. And figuring out how to spark a craving makes creating a new habit easier.”

Duhigg looks at habits from a decidedly non-Christian and evolutionary perspective, but still offers a great deal of wisdom that will be of great interest to Christians. I was especially interested to see Duhigg enforce the importance of community in overcoming negative habits. “The evidence is clear: If you want to change a habit, you must find an alternative routine, and your odds of success go up dramatically when you commit to changing as part of a group. Belief is essential, and it grows out of a communal experience, even if that community is only as large as two people.” This sounds completely consistent with a Christian ethic which calls upon Christians to confess their sin to one another, to pray for one another, and to bear one another’s burdens. This is never more important than when trying to overcome old and sinful patterns of behavior.

When Paul told us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (see Romans 12:2), I am sure he was referring not only to thoughts, but also to habits because habits, too, emerge from the mind. Duhigg shows us the power of habits, but also the importance of overcoming and replacing bad habits. After all, “once you know a [bad] habit exists, you have the responsibility to change it.” As Christians acknowledging the existence of God, we have a heightened responsibility to use the power of habit with the greatest care and the greatest wisdom.

You can buy The Power of Habit at Amazon.

Through the month of March, I am inviting you to 31 Days of Purity—thirty-one days of thinking about and praying for sexual purity. Each day features a short passage of Scripture, a reflection on that passage, and a brief prayer. Here is day twenty-nine:

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

(Romans 12:2)

Our bodies follow our minds. This is the consistent witness of Scripture, which always places mind before body. Throughout his life, the Christian is to be renewing his mind by the Word of God, to take it into captivity and bring it into conformity. As he does this, his words and his deeds, and even his thoughts, will necessarily follow.

If there is any area where we let our bodies dictate our thoughts and our actions, it is here in the context of sexual purity, in those times when the body seems to cry out in dissatisfaction. When we wallow in sexual sin, we fill our minds with what is impure, as if Philippians 4 commands us to think about whatever is false, whatever is deplorable, whatever is unfair, whatever is impure, whatever is ugly, whatever is critical, if there is any depravity, if there is anything worthy of rebuke, we think about these things. And, not surprisingly, our bodies follow our minds.

It is so much better to heed and to practice Philippians 4 which commands us to think about what is good and noble and pure. “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8). Think about those things, brother, and let God transform your thoughts and your actions.

Father, I pray that you would do your work of mind-renewal within me. I know that my behavior follows my thoughts, so I pray that you would help me to think about those things that are true and beautiful. Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, I pray that you would help me to think about these things and to love thinking about these things.

What Now? Consider joining our 31 Days of Purity Facebook group. It is optional, but you will find it a good place to go for discussion and encouragement. (Note: that Facebook group is for men only; here is one for Women Supporting Men).

Rick Warren is one of the bestselling Christian authors of our time. While he has written too few books to compete with the likes of Max Lucado for the greatest number of books sold, the few books he has written have uniformly made their way to the bestseller lists. Where most successful Christian authors have their books sell in the thousands or maybe the tens of thousands, Warren’s sell in the millions or even the tens of millions.

I have often wondered about why Warren’s books are so successful and here is what I understand as a key factor: He does not simply write books; he creates programs. His books reflect a mountain of ambition. The Purpose Driven Church was not merely a description of what the New Testament says about church, but a complete program for how to view church and do church. The Purpose Driven Life was not merely a Christian living book, but a church-wide program meant to impact every member, every attender, and every sermon and small group over a period of time. Rick Warren’s latest book is titled The Daniel Plan and, like its predecessors, it is part of a much wider program—a program meant to revolutionize the lives of those who participate in it. (Do note that this is not The Daniel Diet. Warren does not take the description of Daniel’s diet and make it prescriptive as others have done.)

The Daniel Plan had its genesis in a baptism service. In one afternoon, Warren baptized over 800 people, and as he did that, he came face-to-face with his own obesity and the obesity of the people who attend his church. He told his congregation he intended to lose weight and invited them to join him. Where he thought a couple hundred might sign up, he instead saw 15,000 people shed 260,000 pounds in the first year alone. With assistance from experts in medicine and fitness, he led these church members to a transformed life.

He calls this program The Daniel Plan and now, through this book and its supporting resources, he is offering it to you and to your church as a forty-day journey to better health.

In The Daniel Plan you will learn the power of prayer, the power of faith, the power of letting God’s Spirit refocus your thoughts, the power of fellowship and community in a supportive small group, and most of all, the power of God’s Spirit inside you, help you to make the changes God wants you to make and you want to make.

The Plan depends upon five essentials: faith, food, fitness, focus, friends.

The Essentials are a pathway to much more than improved physical health. Each of the Essentials holds up your life, enlivens your body, enriches your mind, and fills your heart. Integrating these can lead to a whole, healthy life that helps you love fully, serve joyfully, and ultimately live out your calling at your best. We want to wake up and be able to give our highest gifts. And we want that for you too.

The word “we” is important, as this book is written by a group of contributors. Rick Warren looks at spiritual health; Dr. Mark Hyman writes about the power of food to affect your mind and body; Dr. Daniel Amen helps you “turn your brain into the powerful tool God made it to be by showing you how to boost its physical health, renew your mind, and fulfill your purpose;” and exercise physiologist Sean Foy “removes the roadblocks that keep you from exercising.” The well-known Dr. Mehmet Oz is involved as well, though I am not so clear on his contribution.

Two of the essentials, faith and friends, are what Warren calls “the secret sauce” that make this program unique in the midst of a crowded field of books and programs that make roughly the same promises. Warren makes health—a holistic view of health—an important matter of service and sanctification and provides a strong and helpful call to understand physical health as a means to pursuing God’s purpose for us. The simple fact is that too many Christians do too little for the Lord because our bodies, minds and lives are in such poor shape. This is an issue of some urgency.

Warren begins with a discussion of Faith. Knowing that many who read the book will not be Christians, he provides a sound description of the Christian faith and a call to turn to Jesus. While I would have appreciated a stronger explanation of sin and its eternal consequences, Warren does offer his reader a helpful explanation of why the Christian faith matters. Those who were disappointed at the weak gospel call and response in The Purpose Driven Life will be more satisfied with what Warren provides here.

The second section is dedicated to Food. The eating portion of The Daniel Plan is rooted in a very simple principle: Take the junk out and let the abundance in. Said simply, when thinking about food, here’s what you need to do: if it was grown on a plant, eat it, but if it was made in a plant, leave it on the shelf. The authors distinguish between food that harms and food that heals, and they advocate all those healthy foods we all love to hate. An appendix contains all the recipes you will need for forty days of healthy eating.

After Food comes Fitness and here the authors show how our sedentary lifestyles, our constant sitting, is having a detrimental impact on our health. They call on the reader to become “Daniel Strong” which they define as “a pursuit of excellence in body, mind, and spirit for God’s glory.” They explain: “Daniel demonstrated his pursuit of excellence in his faithfulness in doing the little things when no one was watching … and that’s exactly what is required to experience becoming Daniel Strong. … over time, pursuing excellence will lead to strength of character, confidence, and courage forged by God.” They advocate choosing one word and focusing on that word as a means to change your life; that word essentially becomes your goal and mission, the measure of your temptations or opportunities.

Several chapters on Focus comprises what I believe is the weakest section in the book. Here brain renewal is conflated with Romans 12:2 mind renewal, weakening both emphases and doing little to convince. Two chapters focus on Friends and the importance of doing this program in community. The book concludes with plans for exercise and healthy eating.

There is much to commend in The Daniel Plan. There are also a few points worthy of critique.

My first critique of The Daniel Plan relates to the issue I have pointed out for as long as I have been reading Rick Warren’s books. He continues to use a long list of Bible translations, seemingly choosing translations not on the basis of which is most accurate, but on the basis of which best suits his purpose. And, once again, promises made in specific contexts (Jeremiah 29:11 being a prime example) are made universally applicable and texts are applied flippantly (so the three-fold cord of Ecclesiastes necessarily refers to you, a friend, and the Lord; the honoring of God in your bodies from 1 Corinthians 6 makes no reference to sexual holiness). These critiques have been made since Warren first begin to write books and it seems that he is not going to change now.

There are times where a thin and unconvincing Christian veneer is placed over parts of the Plan, and especially as it relates to fitness and focus. Doing small exercises throughout an otherwise sedentary day is sanctified by suggesting these be called “prayer movements” so that as you do your stretches you think about the Lord and as you touch your toes, you meditate.

Of greatest concern is the wider teaching of the experts. I have not looked deeply into what Dr. Oz teaches, but his wider teaching can hardly accord with biblical truth if he is featured on Oprah Winfrey’s show and television network. I am quite sure Dr. Hyman has advocated an eastern-style meditation that is fundamentally opposed to biblical meditation. While The Daniel Plan does not advocate these things, neither does it refute them. In fact, it may open the door to them by elevating the expertise of such men. Those who read beyond The Daniel Plan may find themselves introduced to very dangerous teaching.

Those critiques aside, The Daniel Plan has every appearance of a program that deliver what it promises, and especially so in the area of physical health. I agree completely when Warren expresses that too few people are faithfully guarding their health and shaping their bodies in order to live in a healthy way, and I appreciate that he makes this a matter of sanctification. I am glad that he is willing to lead this charge and hope that others follow his lead in addressing an area in which Christians show too little distance from the world around us.

Today we come to the fourth and final part of this short series on knowing and doing the will of God. In the first part of the series I laid a foundation of God’s complete sovereignty over the universe and in the second part I sought to show that God is speaking to us today and how God is speaking to us today. In the third part I wanted showed that God is speaking to you and revealing his will for your life. In this final installment I want to ask the big question: When it comes right down to it, how do I make decisions that please God?

I want to give you 3 questions that will guide you as you think about any decision or any situation and that will help you have confidence that you are doing God’s will for your life. As you consider that big decision, you need to ask these three questions in order.

Question #1

What does the Bible say about it? That’s a rather obvious question, but it’s one we sometimes miss. What does the Bible say about it? Is there a passage in the Bible that speaks directly to this issue or is there a principle that applies to it?

We need to look to the Bible because this is where we hear God’s voice. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 gives us direction when it says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” Teaching, reproof, correction and training–that is exactly what we need when we are making decisions. There is nothing else God promises for teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness. Feelings, circumstances and impressions can’t do this. Only the Bible.

What this means is that when facing big decisions, you need to search the Scriptures and to ask others to help you as you do this. This is a great time to talk to a parent or pastor or mentor or some other person to have them help you. They may have a greater knowledge of the Bible and can help bring the Bible to bear on your situation.

What you are especially looking for here is one of two things: a clear command that you must do something, or a clear command that you must not do something. If the Bible speaks directly to the issue, you’ve got to obey right away. When God speaks, we must listen and obey.

When making a decision, there is your first big question and it’s the most important one of all: What does God say in his Word?

Of course not every question has an immediate and easy yes or no answer. Should I dedicate time every week to meeting as part of a local church? Yes, absolutely. The Bible speaks clearly. Should I go to university or get a job and begin a career? There we may not find as clear an answer. Not every question immediately yields that yes or no.

And for that reason we’ve got 2 more questions to ask, but before we get to them, we have to see that we are about to cross a line here. We are crossing a line of freedom. Where God speaks a clear yes or no we have no freedom before him to obey or disobey. We must obey God right away. But in issues where God does not speak that clear yes or no, we have freedom. Does God want me to begin a career or does he want me to go to university? I will not find a clear yes or no in the Bible. What this means is that I now have freedom to decide. God does not have clear commands for every area of life. Instead, he has structured our relationship to him in such a way that we have freedom to make choices. And we don’t just have freedom to make choices, but to make choices that God will support, that he won’t punish. Once we’ve gotten past what God commands and forbids in the Bible, we get to choose and then experience the Lord’s blessings. It is a choice between good and good or maybe a choice between better or best. But it’s no longer a choice between good and bad, between right and wrong.

The next 2 questions help us here as we grapple with our free choices.

Question #2

What is the wisest choice? Or what is the choice that will be most spiritually profitable? Which one seems to offer the greatest opportunities? This is a time to use your God-given mind and your Spirit-filled mind, to think through the issues and decide on the wisest course. Can I afford to go to school or will that saddle me with debt that I’ll never be able to pay off? Has the Lord given me exceptional intellectual gifts? How will I best be able to serve my brothers and sisters in Christ? What will allow me to be a good husband and father?

Remember here that you’re not deciding between good and bad, but between better and best. How can you best use the gifts and opportunities God has given you? Think of Romans 12:2: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” God is renewing your mind every day so you can have his wisdom and do what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Do you see the freedom in this question? Many people teach that if you make the wrong decision, you’ll be stepping outside God’s will for your life. That if you don’t heed circumstances and all these feelings and impressions and everything else that you’ll no longer be in the center of God’s will or something like that. That is nonsense! You need to free yourself from that! If you are not disobeying God’s revealed will, if you are not directly disobeying the Bible, you are in God’s will. God has given you a brain for a reason and he’s given you desires for a reason. He’s given you freedom to choose what you should do. He is a loving father who will support you either way.

So be wise. Use your mind, use the Bible, use the cumulative wisdom of your brothers and sisters in Christ and make decisions that reflect a well-trained, Spirit-led mind.

Of course after thinking through the wisdom of a decision you may find that you still have questions. Maybe you look to the Bible and you pray and you talk to friends and you look for counsel from your pastors and at the end of it all it doesn’t seem like either decision would be unwise. That brings you to the final question.

Question #3

What do you want to do? Isn’t it amazing that we get to ask this question? What do you want to do? What desires has God given you? What makes you happy? What brings you joy? What excites you? Find that thing and go do it. If that’s applying for university and pursuing a degree, go for it and do it for God’s glory. If that’s going out and getting a job, go for it and do it for God’s glory. God will be with you every step of the way. You’ll be doing God’s will. In fact, you will have found God’s will.

Conclusion

Do you see where this has taken us? God gives us his moral will, his revealed will, in the Bible. Here is where he tells us what we must do and what we must not do. But the rest of God’s will can only be found by doing it. Does God want you to go to university or get a job? Yes, he does. Either one. Be wise, do what you love, and you’re doing God’s will. Do it with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength and you’ll be doing God’s will for your life. And God will be right there with you, blessing you, loving you, pleased with you. That’s who he is. That’s how you do his will.

God has made his will clear but within that will there is a whole world of freedom. It’s freedom that allows you and me to live completely different lives, but both of us to live lives that honor God. It’s freedom to express our faith in different ways, to be very different people in very different fields with very different interests. And both of us can live with complete freedom, knowing that God is with us, that he is thrilled with us, that we are doing his will.

And Christian, this is far, far better. So let’s be careful with using language like “God told me.” God will tell you all kinds of things; but he won’t tell you what car to buy or what girl to marry. He wants you to make that decision, he wants you to make that decision with the wisdom he has given you, and he wants you to do it for his glory. Do that, and you are doing God’s will. Do that in the freedom he has given you. Do it for him, do it confidently and do it boldly and he will be right there with you through it all.

There have been a couple of times in the past few years that I have written about spiritual gifts and spiritual gift inventories. These articles continue to be read (thanks, I suppose, to the efforts of search engines) and, since I have given a great deal more thought to this subject, I wanted to update what I have said in the past. When I first began thinking and writing about spiritual gift assessments I was responding to a question that had been posed to me by a friend. He was interested in knowing my opinion on these assessments. I grew up attending very conservative churches and, sadly, the term “spiritual gifts” was largely foreign to me. These gifts were not emphasized in the churches in which I was raised and thus I decided to begin by researching spiritual gifts as one who was largely ignorant. I had taken such assessments a few times through churches I attended as an adult and through various men’s groups and had always found them somewhat helpful. Despite this they never really had a significant impact on my spiritual life.

As I began to research gift inventories or assessments I found one strange thing: it seems no one can agree about these gifts. It seems everyone has a different list of the gifts and even a different idea of how and when they are dispensed. One thing they all agree on is that these gifts are given by the Holy Spirit to believers after they become Christians and thus they are available only to believers. Some argue the gifts are given immediately upon conversion and others believe they are given at baptism. While the Bible lists only a few gifts (see 1 Corinthians 1:4-9 and 12:1-11), some assessments list far more. The following is a typical list of gifts:

Administration: the gift that enables a believer to formulate, direct, and carry out plans necessary to fulfill a purpose. Biblical References: I Corinthians 12:28, Acts 14:23.

Artistry: the gift that gives the believer the skill of creating artistic expressions that produce a spiritual response of strength and inspiration. Biblical References: Exodus 31:1-11, Psalm 149:3a.

Discernment: the gift that motivates a believer to seek God’s will and purpose and apply that understanding to individual and congregational situations. Biblical References: John 16:6-15, Romans 9:1, I Corinthians 2:9-16.

Evangelism: the gift that moves believers to reach nonbelievers in such a way that they are baptized and become active members of the Christian community. Biblical References: Matthew 28:16-20, Ephesians 4:11- 16, Acts 2:36-40.

Exhortation: the gift that moves the believer to reach out with Christian love and presence to people in personal conflict of facing a spiritual void. Biblical References: John 14:1, II Timothy 1:16-18, III John 5-8.

Faith: the gift that gives a believer the eyes to see the Spirit at work and the ability to trust the Spirit’s leading without indication of where it all might lead. Biblical References: Genesis 12:1-4a, Mark 5:25-34, I Thessalonians 1:8-10.

Giving: the gift that enables a believer to recognize God’s blessings and to respond to those blessings by generously and sacrificially giving of one’s resources (time, talent, and treasure). Biblical References: II Corinthians 9:6-15, Luke 21:1-4.

Hospitality: the gift that causes a believer to joyfully welcome and receive guests and those in need of food and lodging. Biblical References: Romans 12:13, Romans 16:23a, Luke 10:38.

Intercession: the gift that enables a believer to pray with the certainty that prayer is heard and when requests are made, answers will come. Biblical References: Matthew 6:6-15, Luke 11:1-10, Ephesians 6:18.

Knowledge: the gift that drives a person to learn, analyze and uncover new insights with regard to the Bible and faith. Biblical References: I Corinthians 12:8; I Corinthians 14:6, Romans 12:2.

Leadership: the gift that gives a believer the confidence to step forward, give direction and provide motivation to fulfill a dream or complete a task. Biblical References: Romans 12:8, John 21:15-17, II Timothy 4:1-5.

Mercy: the gift that motivates a believer to feel deeply for those in physical, spiritual, or emotional need and then act to meet that need. Biblical References: Luke 7:12-15, Luke 10:30-37, Matthew 25:34-36.

Music–Vocal: the gift that gives a believer the capability and opportunity to present personal witness and inspiration to others through singing. Biblical References: Psalm 96:1-9, Psalm 100:1-2, Psalm 149:1-2.

Music–Instrumental: the gift that inspires a believer to express personal faith and provide inspiration and comfort through the playing of a musical instrument. Biblical References: Psalm 33:1-5, Psalm 150, I Samuel 16:14-23.

Pastoring (Shepherding): the gift that gives a believer the confidence, capability and compassion to provide spiritual leadership and direction for individuals or groups of believers. Biblical References: I Timothy 4:12-16, I Timothy 3:1-13, II Timothy 4:1-2.

Service (Helps): the gift that enables a believer to work gladly behind the scenes in order that God’s work is fulfilled. Biblical References: Luke 23:50-54, Romans 16:1-16, Philippians 2:19-23.

Skilled Craft: the gift that enables a believer to create, build, maintain or repair items used within the church. Biblical References: Exodus 30:1-6, Exodus 31:3-5, Ezekiel 27:4-11.

Teaching: the gift that enables a believer to communicate a personal understanding of the Bible and faith in such a way that it becomes clear and understood by others. Biblical References: I Corinthians 12:28, Matthew 5:1-12, Acts 18:24-48.

Wisdom: the gift that allows the believer to sort through opinions, facts and thoughts in order to determine what solution would be best for the individual believer or the community of believers. Biblical References: I Corinthians 2:6-13, James 3:13-18, II Chronicles 1:7-11.

Writing: the gift that gives a believer the ability to express truth in a written form; a form that can edify, instruct and strengthen the community of believers. Biblical References: I John 2:1-6, 12-14, I Timothy 3:14-15, Jude 3.

I took a couple of the surveys that are available online and found them quite similar to ones I have taken in the past. The general format is between 30 to 50 multiple choice questions, most of which can be answered on a scale of 1 to 4 (1 meaning the description does not fit me at all and 4 meaning it is exactly like me). For example, I took a test at this site which tells me my primary spiritual gift is knowledge which it describes as follows:

The gift of knowledge allows people to automatically convert facts, data, and information into useful and important knowledge. People possessing this gift can learn in a variety of ways, retain what they learn, and understand how learning can be applied in meaningful and productive ways. Those gifted with knowledge have a voracious and insatiable desire to learn more, and they seek multiple avenues for deepening their understanding of God’s world, God’s will, and God’s people.

[For an example of this gift in popular media] See the good, the bad, and the ugly side of knowledge in Matt Damon’s character in the film Good Will Hunting.

Though I digress, I noted what has to be a conflict between gifts of the Spirit (and the fruit of the Spirit) and a movie like Good Will Hunting which, because of much of its content, is hardly compatible with the Spirit! But getting back on topic, it occurred to me that the gift of knowledge is not so thoroughly described in the Bible as in this description. I don’t think anyone could find a passage in the Bible that supports the statement that “the gift of knowledge allows people to automatically convert facts, data, and information into useful and important knowledge.” This may be true, but it seems likely that these descriptions are a good bit more detailed than in the Bible.

In the end I returned to Scripture and studied the gifts outlined in the applicable passages of Scripture. Having examined the gifts of the Spirit, both those in the Bible and those in various assessments, I decided to search for references in the Scripture of people assessing themselves to discover their gifts. A question I had to ask myself is this: Is there any Biblical model for searching for spiritual gifts? Author James Sundquist researched this topic as well and discovered the following:

I can’t find one single Scripture that says finding our gift was EVER a problem for the Church.

I can’t find one single Scripture that instructs us how to find our gift.

I can’t find any historical account that finding our gift was a problem for the Church.

I can’t find any historical account that finding our gift was a problem for Church Fathers.

Anything we do in Christ is not through our strengths, but is perfected in weakness.

I can’t find one single Scripture which uses a subjective balance of weighing our strengths and weaknesses to determine our Gift(s) of the Holy Spirit.

I can’t find one single Scripture that uses personality or personality theory to determine our course in Christ or in the Church.

I can’t find one single Scripture that instructs us to come up with a numerical value or rating system for the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

I tend to agree with most of Sundquist’s observations. The Scripture tells Christians to exercise their gifts, but does not place a great deal of emphasis on searching for these gifts, especially through means of inventories or assessments.

I spent several years in the workforce and in that time was often dragged off to seminars to help me discover my personality type. One observation I made from some spiritual gift assessments (most notably the Saddleback SHAPE assessment) is that they bear an uncanny resemblance to the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator tests so common in schools and the workforce. The Myers-Briggs indicator is used for “Professionals like you [who] depend on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator when clients need to make important business, career, or personal decisions. Last year alone, two million people gained valuable insight about themselves and the people they interact with daily by taking the MBTI instrument. The MBTI describes an individuals preferences on four dimensions; Extraverted vs. Introverted, Sensing vs. Intuitive, Thinking vs. Feeling, Judging vs. Perceiving.” Not many know this, but the Myers-Briggs assessment is drawn from the teaching and research of the humanist Carl Jung, a man who despised Christianity. Jung apparently used the services of a spirit guide, Philemon, to help him develop four profiles to describe human nature. Myers-Briggs is based upon those personality types and many of these spiritual gift assessments draw directly from this teaching. This in itself should be cause for concern. Combined with the lack of Biblical model, this should be sufficient to raise a warning flag.

But perhaps the greatest cause for concern with these assessments, and the greatest strike against them, is that they can be successfully completed by both believers and non-believers. If a spiritual gift assessment is truly assessing gifts given by the Holy Spirit, someone who is not a Christian should necessarily achieve a score of 0. This is obvious, is it not? As mentioned earlier, all of these assessments are premised on the idea that gifts are dispensed by the Holy Spirit only after a person is converted. Hence a person who is unconverted should show no evidence of the Spirit’s work in his life. This is simply not the case with these tests. There may be questions related to spiritual matters that an unbeliever cannot legitimately answer, but many of the questions are generic in nature. For example “I enjoy pitching in on service projects in the church” could be as easily answered by an unbeliever as a believer. The same holds true for “People seem to respect me and follow my lead.” We might rightly ask if these tests are truly measuring the work or gifting of the Spirit, or if they are actually only measuring personality and preferences.

Let’s pause for a moment. If spiritual gifts are given only to believers and these assessments can convince an unbeliever that he or she possesses spiritual gifts, then the assessments must be deeply flawed. It seems clear that these tests are, in reality, measuring personality, and even then, they may be measuring personality by a humanistic standard. Is it possible that perhaps we are only given spiritual gifts that compliment our personalities so personality and gifts are one in the same? That would be unsatisfying, because I believe God can work through gifts that may contradict our personalities. Think of Moses and how God used him despite his obvious shyness and lack of eloquence. Had God only used Moses’ existing talents and personality He would not have had much to work with! The Bible is filled with examples of people who were used by God despite their natural talent or gifting. (Think, for example, of Solomon, crying out to God that he was only a little child and begging for God to give him the gifts he needed to rule successfully.)

A final cause for concern is that these assessments typically provide a finite list of possibilities. They list varying numbers of gifts, ranging from only those explicitly listed in the letters of Paul to a wide variety drawn from both the Old Testament and the New. Yet it seems to me that presenting a finite list of gifts and attempting to cast each person into one of those categories may be to overlook the stunning variety of gifts God gives. I find it instructive that when the Bible lists the gifts of the Spirit it lists different gifts each time. I don’t think God wants us to believe there are only a certain number of gifts, one of which must be ours. I believe the lesson in these verses is that there may be as many gifts as there are Christians. Grudem agrees, saying in his Systematic Theology, “Paul was not attempting to construct exhaustive lists of gifts when he specified the ones he did.” There may be classifications of gifts and some may be more important than others, but there is no reason to think that the list provided in the Bible is complete or exhaustive.

Am I ready to write-off all spiritual gift assessments as a waste of time? No, I think that might be a kneejerk reaction. I see little basis, though, to believe that these truly measure the gifts of the Spirit. I am sure these tests can sometimes be valuable in assessing talents and personality traits and can cause people to look more thoroughly at where they should use their talents to honor God. But unless gifts and personality are one and the same, I do not understand how these tests can measure spiritual gifts. It seems to me that church leaders should exercise great care in if and how they present these assessments to their congregations. To have people fill out an assessment and encourage them to pursue the gift arrived at as the result of a mathematical formula based on ticking checkboxes, may lead people to pursue gifts God has not given to them while ignoring those gifts He so wants them to exercise. I believe Grudem is wise in this regard. “Paul seems to assume that believers will know what their spiritual gifts are…. But what if many members in a church do not know what spiritual gift or gifts God has given to them? In such a case, the leaders of the church need to ask whether they are providing sufficient opportunities for varieties of gifts to be used.” As for individuals,

They can begin by asking what the needs and opportunities for ministry are in their church. Specifically, they can ask what gifts are most needed for the building up of the church at that point. In addition, each individual believer who does not know what his or her gifts are should do some self-examination. What interests and desires and abilities does he or she have? Can others give advice or encouragement pointing in the direction of specific gifts? Moreover, has there been blessing in the past in ministering in a particular kind of service? In all of this, the person seeking to discover his or her gifts should pray and ask God for wisdom, confident that it will be given according to his promise.

Beyond this, a person may simply attempt different ways of ministering, noting the ones in which God brings blessing.

If you want to learn what your spiritual gifts are, the best place to begin would be with reading the Bible and praying. Allow God to speak to you through His Word, showing you where He has gifted you. Ask Him to give you a passion for your gift and to provide desire and opportunity for you to exercise this gift. And having done that, ask your Christian friends and family, your pastor and elders, what they think your gifting is. I believe this may be a far more valuable means of assessment, and probably a more accurate means of assessment, than a spiritual gift inventory.

This morning we had a “guest” pastor. I put guest in quotations because he was one of the founding pastors at our church, but recently moved to a neighboring town to help stabilize a floundering daughter church. So he was only a guest insofar as we have not seen him for a while. He preached a sermon called “The Myth of Popularity” which is the final installment in a series on the Beatitudes. Each Beatitude has been examined as the answer to a common myth. The myth of popularity, according to Pastor Jim, is that popularity gives me value. He applied this to Jesus’ words, “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me” (Matthew 5:10-11 NIV). Of course the reality of the Christian life is that popularity is not what gives us value before God. God desires that we pursue righteousness.

While he only dedicated the first few minutes of his sermon to the myth of popularity, I was taken by the applications to the blogosphere. This is something I thought and wrote about last week in reaction to a particularly good article written by Joe Carter of Evangelical Outpost.

Jim told us today that there are three unavoidable results of pursuing popularity. First, it promotes envy. When I pursue popularity I am always, consciously or subconsciously, comparing myself to others and seeing the areas where I feel I fall short. Second, it take my time and energy to maintain it. Popularity wanes when I am silent, so I must act to maintain it. Third, it causes me to depend upon others for my approval. Jim spoke about celebrities who are always reading their own publicity, trying to keep up with how the press regards them. The popularity of a celebrity depends entirely on the approval of others.

Jim provided the example of Tim Burke, a pitcher for the Montreal Expos and the New York Mets. Tim and his wife had chosen to adopt several troubled children and he came to a point in his life where he realized that his career was keeping him from his family. If he was going to prioritize what was truly most important in his life, he was going to need to retire from the game. So while his career could have lasted for many more years, and he could have earned a lot more money, Burke retired. His popularity immediately declined so that few people remember him. He has done nothing to maintain his popularity. But surely his pursuit of more noble goals has paid dividends. Burke got to a point where he realized that Major League Baseball would be able to get along just fine without him, but his family could not, and that made his decision simple.

As I listened to this message I realized the parallels with the blosophere. It is easy for us to believe that our value is tied directly to our popularity. We may think that the Hugh Hewitts and LaShawn Barbers (or anyone else who is more popular that us) of the blogosphere have greater value because they have greater popularity. But from Jesus’ teaching we know that this is not the case. Those who have the most value are those who chase harder after righteousness. Those who pursue righteousness are counted as most blessed.

I guess it is important for each of us to realize that if we shut down our blogs – if Doug McHone or Amy Scott or Hugh Hewitt or Phil Johnson or Joe Carter or Tim Irvin or Michael Russell or David Wayne or Adrian Warnock or Tim Challies stopped writing – the blosophere would get along just fine. And incidentally, if your name is not on that list and it makes you angry or jealous, you’re missing the point!

So as we read other blogs and promote them, via blogrolls or other links, let us value what God values. Let’s give honor to those who pursue righteousness and not confuse value with popularity. Let us not be, as Jim warned, hostage to what others think of us, for other people’s opinions change like the weather. Instead, let us heed the words of the apostle who says, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of th world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2 NIV).