6 Spiritual Conditions in Your Congregation
The insight of Puritan pastors never ceases to amaze me. One area where Puritan pastors have helped me immensely is in learning how to preach and apply the Word of God. William Perkins in his book “The Art of Prophesying” writes that there are essentially 6 different spiritual conditions that can be found in any collection of people you preach to. Each of these spiritual conditions requires a slightly different preaching approach.
Perkins’ analysis is crucial for any pastor, elder, or person who finds themselves teaching or preaching at Church. Knowing the different spiritual conditions a person might find themself in will aid you in your sermon application, your sermon delivery, and in how you pray for the congregation to receive your exposition. Additionally, these broad categories will help you pastorally as you seek to build up and equip the congregation God has given you to shepherd.
1. Unbelievers who are ignorant and unteachable
The first category Perkins gives is unbelievers who are “ignorant and unteachable.” There are some humans who are both unaware of the state of their souls before God, and who also have no desire to hear the truth explained to them. One might label such people as “hard-hearted.” They are contentedly living a life of rebellion against God and spurn any rebuke or conviction they might receive from Scripture.
For those in this spiritual condition, Perkins recommends trying to reason with them. In particular, you should try to explain to them their wrong attitude and call out any known sins with the hope that their “consciences may be aroused.” The only way an unteachable unbeliever can be helped is for you to plead with them to see sin and its effect in their life. If you start to see the Spirit’s work in softening their hearts and making them teachable, you can continue in a more thorough explanation of truth. But if their hearts remain hard, only God has the power to make them teachable.
The implication for preaching or teaching is clear: be sure to impress upon your listeners the gravity of sin and fearful consequences of living a life in rebellion to God.
You cannot soften a human heart in your own power. But you can boldly and unashamedly proclaim the truth of humanity’s total depravity.
Don’t shy away from specifically calling out sin from your pulpit. It may be the only time an unbeliever gets their lifestyle questioned or challenged. Be like Paul when he preached to Felix on “righteousness, self-control, and the coming judgment” (Acts 24:25). And then having preached truthfully and soberly on sin and its consequences, pray that the dead hearts in your congregation would become teachable.
2. Teachable but ignorant
The second of these many spiritual conditions is a person who willing to learn, but who doesn’t possess knowledge of Scripture or the Christian faith. Perkins recommends using the catechism to help such people start to understand the fundamental principles of Christianity. The two doctrines Perkins recommends you start with are salvation and the glory of God. Focus on the “milk” of the Christian faith and seeking to answer clearly and concisely any questions the person may have.
Again, this has implications for how you preach in your Church. Within your congregation, there will be those who have a lesser understanding of Scripture and of its doctrines. Some may be unbelievers but who want to hear more about the Gospel. Others may be young believers who have not been instructed fully into all the different aspects of Scripture and Theology. While I don’t recommend you preach a catechism from the pulpit, seek to define terms clearly and try to anticipate and answer questions your listeners might have.
Don’t assume that every single person in your Church is at the same or even a similar level of knowledge. Even for common terms such as “justification” and “righteousness” seek to give a clear and concise definition. When you are done with your teaching manuscript, read through it and imagine that you are a new believer in the congregation. What questions would you have? Ensure that in the course of your sermon you answer any questions you anticipate a newer believer asking.
3. Have knowledge but aren’t humbled
This third category of people have an intellectual understanding of the truths of Scripture. However, they have not been convicted of sin nor have they been “humbled.” What Perkins refers to here is a “godly sorrow” that leads to repentance. Perkins defines “godly sorrow” as grief for sin because it is sin. In other words, true humbling conviction comes when a person is is sorrowful over sin itself, not merely the consequences of sin.
What Perkins recommends for people in this spiritual condition is the preaching of the law. The goal is to show the height of God’s standards so that a person can actually realize the extent and gravity of their sin. Of course, Perkins immediately clarifies the goal of preaching the law is to lead them to Christ and the hope of the Gospel. But if a person knows truth generally but feels no conviction of sin, the best thing a preacher can do is show them their dire need of a Savior.
Of all the spiritual conditions listed here, this one might be most pressing for preachers in modern-day America. Never before has information about the Bible been more readily available. Many in your congregation no doubt have a dozen different copies of the Bible along with dozens of good Books written by good Christians. Most of the time in your Church, issues won’t arise as much from a lack of information as much as from a lack of conviction of sin.
Remember when you go to preach that your congregation does not merely need to receive more “facts” about the Bible. They need to have their lives confronted with its teaching.
If you pastor or teach in very intellectual congregation, heed Perkins’ advice: lay out for them the moral demands of God’s law. The Bible teaches that “knowledge puffs up” and one of the best antidotes to pride is the humbling effect of preaching the law of God.
4. The humbled
People who find themselves in this category have the strong conviction of sin discussed above. Perkins gives two words of advice for dealing with these type of people: 1. ensure that their humbling is not merely external or superficial and 2. offer the comforts of the gospel. Perkins warns not to give comfort to someone prematurely who has not been truly humbled. I take this to mean you should not give the promise of assurance until you are sure of a person’s heartfelt repentance. False assurance can doom a person to think that they are save when they are not.
When you are preaching, don’t miss the opportunity to “do the work of an evangelist” by preaching clearly the hope of the Gospel. The only hope in life and death you can offer people is Christ alone. Therefore, if you neglect to clearly share the hope of Christ when preaching, you are missing the opportunity to give comfort to those in your congregation who are feeling the weight of their sin. Remind them to turn their eyes to Christ and His finished work, not merely to “try harder”.
5. Believers
Perkins gives three main categories of truths to teach those who are already believers: the gospel, the law, and the danger of indwelling sin. By “Gospel”, Perkins means preach justification, sanctification, and the perseverance of the saints. The law when preached to believers should mainly be calling them to holy living rather than proclaiming the curse of the law since Christians are free from that curse in Christ. However, Perkins does argue for preaching the consequences of disobedience to God, even if a Christian is free from the ultimate curse of the law.
Perkins goes as far as to say that if you want to fight your indwelling sin, you must begin by meditating on the law. Why? To remain humble and to cause you to fear using the freedom you have in Christ as an excuse for sin. And again Perkins states that the ultimate goal is to remind yourself of the gospel as your ultimate rest and comfort.
A whole separate post could be written on these three categories of teaching Perkins recommends for believers. Suffice to say, make sure that you teach on each of these categories frequently. Don’t spend all your time teaching on ambiguous doctrines or obscure texts. These are profitable at times, but ensure you are sticking consistently to preaching the Gospel, obedience to Christ, and war against indwelling sin. Whether your congregation recognizes it or not, these are the three most pressing categories of truth for their lives.
6. Fallen into sin
The last of the spiritual conditions I will discuss is a believer who has “fallen back” from the faith either “in faith or in lifestyle.” Perkins spends several paragraphs describing this type of person and I recommend you read his full discussion, as it is incredibly insightful. By way of summary, falling back in faith comes from falling into error. The pastor must correct any known error and remind the individual of the truths of the Gospel. Falling back in lifestyle means falling into sin such, as David with Bathsheba. Perkins recommends again expounding the law to this person so they can run back to the Gospel in repentance.
Correcting error and calling the congregation to renewed repentance both are necessary components of preaching. In 2 Timothy 4:2, Paul commands Timothy to “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” There both an instructive and corrective component to preaching God’s word faithfully. And since you likely don’t know the specific spiritual state of each person in the congregation, ensure you are regularly confronting error and confronting sin so that those listening might hopefully avoid falling into either.
Your congregation has a mix of these spiritual conditions
Each of these spiritual conditions is likely represented by someone in your congregation. The visible Church is mixed with believers and unbelievers in various levels of spiritual health. Perkins’ categories are helpful for understanding the spiritual conditions you might encounter and how best to address them. Even though there are nuances to each response, at the end of the day, Perkins recommends constantly bringing people back to the law and the gospel. The hope is that people will see clearly the depths of their sin and their need for a savior.
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