Tag: reflection

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Hanging Up Verses in Your House

Hanging Up Verses in Your House

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My wife does an amazing job of decorating the walls of our almost-100 year old colonial. Between frames full of family pictures and tasteful art, my wife has also strategically placed Bible verses. A Psalm on the piano. A quote from Deuteronomy in my son’s bedroom. Well-known Proverbs on the stairs leading to the second story. When a plumber had to cut through one of our walls, she even wrote a quote from Romans on the white wall paper we used to cover up the hole. Until recently, however, I never thought about the benefits of hanging up verses in your house. And as I thought about it, three came to mind.

It is a reminder for yourself

Hanging up verses around your house first and foremost is a reminder to yourself. No matter how long or encouraging your quiet time is, the daily distractions and busyness can cause you to forget the very truths you and I are to treasure and live out. Sometimes in the thick of the day, you don’t have time to sit down, pause, and open your Bible. But maybe you can glance at an encouraging verse on a letterboard in your kitchen. The more avenues you have in your daily life to read and engage with the Word of God, the better. And having up verses around rooms that you inhabit is one of the easiest ways you can put truth before your eyes.

It is a discipling tool for your children

The Bible has no shortage of verses in Deuteronomy, Proverbs, and the Epistles that specifically and directly address children. My wife is very intentional with what verses she hangs in our sons’ rooms. They serve as reminders and encouragements for our family to live and function under Christ’s Lordship. Although my oldest son is still under two, sometimes he wants us to stop and read a passage from Proverbs that hangs hear the top of our stairs. I am confident that, as the years go on, having opportunities to point out these important verses to our children as we go throughout the house will be an aid in daily discipleship.

It is a visible testimony for those you have over

Having Bible verses prominently displayed in your home says something to the people you have over. Your family and thus, by extension, your home are “taking the Lord’s name.” You are publicly identifying to those you have over that:

  1. You believe God’s word
  2. You want God’s word to be a part of your home.

Now, I won’t go so far as to say “evangelize your neighbors simply by displaying Bible verses!” Of course there is more to having a good testimony than externally decorating your walls. But don’t forget that in your home, you are creating a distinct environment that people will inhabit. You should want that environment to, both internally and externally, testify to the value and majesty and importance of God and of Christ.

Including God’s word in the very adornment of your home may be only a small and external way to show off God’s importance, but it is by no means an unimportant or unimpactful.

As a personal example, we recently had some workers over to fix some plumbing issues we have had. I noticed them several times pausing to read a section of Romans 8 we had out as well as a beautiful picture my wife found at a thrift shop containing part of Psalm 127. Now, what was the effect of them reading these verses? I cannot be sure. But I also cannot be sure when was the last time they read even one Bible verse. Perhaps the Lord can ensure that His Word in frames around a house won’t return to Him void.

Hanging up verses both decorates and disciples

God has made humans visual creatures. We even use the metaphor “seeing” to describe “knowing” or “learning” something. What do you want yourself, your family, and your guests to see when they look around your home? People often display items around their house that they value. If you and I value the Word of God, does it not make sense that we would want people to see that glorious, life-giving word as their eyes dance around our homes? There are plenty of websites and online shops that sell aesthetically pleasing Bible verses. Incorporating some into your home décor can have benefits for you, your family, and for guests that you welcome into your home.

For more of my assorted reflections on a myriad of topics, click here. If you found this post helpful, please share on social media below and subscribe.

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Four Essential Elements of Theology

Four Essential Elements of Theology

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Everyone does systematic theology: you fit together large amounts of Biblical texts in your mind to come to conclusions and you answer tough questions with Scripture. The question is, how do you go about answering these questions? What are the essential elements of theology that you should consider as you come to conclusions from Scripture? I recently started reading through Louis Berkhof’s Systematic Theology and, in one of the early chapters, he defines what systematic theology is and the different facets of it. Upon my own reflection of Berkhof’s insights, I think there are at least four essential elements of theology that you should think through when doing a topical or systematic Bible study.

1. The Vertical Side: God’s Authoritative Revelation

Fundamentally any attempt to “do theology” must start with God’s authoritative revelation. Your questions, your conclusions, your doubts, your insights, your applications all must be brought before the inerrant, inspired word. As Berkhof helpfully puts it, the Christian doctrine of revelation assumes that

  • There is a personal God who communicated knowledge
  • There are truths that cannot be known apart from divine revelation
  • Humans can understand this revelation

So theology is not, at its foundation, humanity “figuring out” God. Rather, theology begins when the transcendent God reveals Himself to mankind. The vertical side of theology does not point from earth to heaven, but from heaven to earth. Therefore, your theological investigation will lead to a dead end until you take up the Word and read what it says. Even God’s revelation through His creation won’t be interpreted correctly without the corroborating and explanatory testimony of the Word. The first essential element of theology is God’s authoritative revelation.

2. The Reflective Side: Your Spirit-Empowered Synthesis

However, the Bible itself is not a systematic theology per se. As you read and study, your mind will naturally seek to fit together different texts and synthesize them into conclusions. Understanding what the Bible teaches about the deity and humanity of Jesus, for example, is a large and important theological topic. You cannot hope to understand this topic fully by merely reading one or two texts. Rather, your conclusions will require you to read, study, understand, and synthesize a large quantity of Biblical data from different literary genres.

In short, one of the essential elements of theology is simply thinking and meditating on Biblical texts with the goal of drawing summary conclusions. This takes work and time. It is very easy to come up with bad theological conclusions from the Bible: simply decide what you want the text to say, find a couple support texts, and then “prove” your position. But the careful theologian does not rush to draw broad theological conclusions on a topic until they are confident they have exhausted the pages of Scripture. Synthesis is difficult and, as far as the Christian is concerned, impossible without the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

3. The Corporate Side: What Do Other Christian’s Affirm?

Assuming you take up God’s inspired word, study it, and come to some theological conclusions, how can you check your interpretation? Certainly the first step is to continually compare your conclusions with the whole of Scripture. But another important element of theology is the corporate aspect. Christians are part of the body of Christ. We aren’t disconnected individual atoms that come up with our own theological conclusions on every issue. Rather, if we are reading the same texts and studying them properly under the Spirit’s guidance, we should expect other believers to come to similar conclusions.

Now, just because you find someone who agrees with you does not make your position correct. But if you can’t find a single fellow believer in your local Church that agrees with your theological conclusion, then you should pause and reconsider your analysis. If the Christians who you respect the most and who you know are daily in the Word cannot see from Scripture what you are seeing, you should seek to hear their own thoughts on the issue. Sharpening one another in the local Church theologically oftentimes takes the form of sharing Biblical insights with others and wrestling with conclusions together.

4. The Temporal Side: Church Interpretation Through Time

As you wrestle through difficult questions of theological interpretation, a source of great encouragement is that Christians throughout history have wrestled with many of the same questions and have written down their own analysis and conclusions. One of the most helpful disciplines I have found is to compare my own theological conclusions on a topic with several different historical creeds and confessions. You cannot get away from the fact that you are not the first person to ever read the Bible. In the Lord’s providence and grace, there are intelligent theologians throughout history who have tried to understand and synthesize the same Biblical texts that you have. To not at least consider their analysis would be foolish and border-line prideful.

Now, certainly no creed or confession is inerrant or to be put at the same level as Scripture itself. That is a given. But throughout history, the Church of Christ has worked to understand and externalize Biblical teaching on key doctrines like the Trinity, God’s sovereignty in salvation, what the Church is, baptism and countless others. So see how your theological conclusions fit in with the study of those who have gone before. If you seem to be the only Christian in the history of the Church to see something in the text, tread lightly! It is more likely that you are wrong then every other faithful believer before you was wrong.

Conclusion

Whether you are consciously aware of it or not, these four essential elements of theology are at play whenever you do serious theological study. You may think “I have to examine what the text says” (vertical side) or “I need to think about how these texts fit together” (reflective side) or “I need to check my conclusion with the elders at my Church” (corporate side) or “how do my conclusions line up the the historic confessions?” (temporal side). Consciously and explicitly including each of these four aspects into your own theological study will help you come to more robust conclusions and have more confidence that what you are seeing in Scripture is indeed what God intended you to see.

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Abolitionist and Incrementalist Approaches to Abortion

Abolitionist and Incrementalist Approaches to Abortion

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In this guest post, one of my close friends Nathan Herr writes an analysis of abolitionist and incrementalist approaches to ending abortion. He is particularly interested in considering which alternative view of how Christians should address abortion is most consistent with the Biblical text. With his permission, I have reproduced the paper he wrote on the topic for the Elders and Deacons of our Church. I found it a thought-provoking piece on a crucial societal issue addressed from a Biblical perspective.

Introduction: Abolitionists and Incrementalists 

In the camp of those that oppose abortion, there has arisen some discussion and division between those who call for the immediate and total outlawing of abortion and those who advocate an incremental approach. Those who take an immediate approach generally refer to themselves as abolitionists. The incremental approach is what has been adopted by the broader pro-life movement. Both abolitionist and incrementalist pro-lifers desire for the preborn to have equal protection under the law. This means the criminalization of abortion at all stages of pregnancy for both abortionists and mothers without exception for rape or similar circumstances.

Now, many are those who would call themselves pro-life that would not be in favor of the criminalization of abortion for the mother and/or would advocate for rape exceptions or other things which undermine the principle of equal protection for the preborn.  But in this analysis, I am only concerned with comparing abolitionist and incrementalist pro-lifers who both want equal protection for the preborn. For the remainder of this post, I will refer to pro-lifers commited to equal protection of the unborn under the law as incrementalists.

Sketches of the Positions 

The key distinguishing mark of abolitionists is that they call for total abolition of abortion by law without intermediate steps, such as heartbeat bills or other restrictions on abortion. In fact, the abolitionists argue that laws restricting or regulating abortion are iniquitous decrees that are wicked and allow for the continued murder of children. Thus abolitionists call for the immediate outlawing of all abortion through a law that establishes equal protection for the preborn. 

The incrementalists see total abolition as an impractical and unachievable goal at the present time. Thus the best way to fight abortion is by passing incremental laws which continue to restrict abortion until it will finally be banned at some point in the future. Incrementalists acknowledge that such restrictions are not sufficient, but prefer to pass such restrictions rather than do nothing so that lives may be saved.  

The Incrementalist Case 

The incrementalist says that the abortion restrictions which are achievable today are good because they help save babies who would otherwise have been murdered. Though such restrictions will not save all babies from abortion, they will save some. To take an all-or-nothing approach and thus delay action today would be to fail to save babies that could be saved today. While it is unfortunate that we are not able to ban abortion outright, the incremental restrictions limit the evil of abortion insofar as it is possible. Thus some incrementalists cite statistics that show that thousands of babies have been saved by incremental restrictions like the Texas heartbeat law.  

A slightly modified incrementalist position argues that as society comes to a greater understanding of the wickedness of abortion over time our laws will gradually change to reflect society’s changing views. While our society should completely reject abortion, these gradations are partial obedience to God’s law. And this partial or delayed obedience is better than disobedience and is the first step toward full obedience. Incrementalists reject that to have a law that places restrictions on abortion is to implicitly affirm the killing of babies when those conditions are met.  

The Abolitionist Case 

Abolitionists see any law which fails to criminalize abortion completely as unjust and therefore unacceptable. For the abolitionist, a heartbeat bill is allowing the murder of preborn without heartbeats and thus is showing partiality against those without heartbeats. Biblically defined partiality is a great sin, thus such restrictions on abortion are not progress but continued injustice via partial laws. To support this case abolitionists cite passages such as  Amos 5:24, Exodus 23:2 and Deuteronomy 16:19.

Second, abolitionists see the law as a teacher which teaches society what is right and wrong. Thus to pass restrictions on abortion is to teach society that abortion is okay in those circumstances. Abolitionists say that on the basis of popular arguments for restrictions like a 20-week abortion ban, a woman will think it is okay to have an abortion earlier in the pregnancy because there is something significant that happens at the 20-week mark (or at whatever stage abortion is restricted). She has effectively been taught that abortion is okay in her circumstance because the law allows it. An abortion ban after the baby can feel pain teaches that the baby’s ability or inability to feel pain is what makes abortion wrong or okay. A heartbeat bill teaches that life begins when the heart starts beating – or at least that there is  some significant difference between a baby with a heartbeat and one without. And similar logic would apply to other abortion restrictions.  

Third, abolitionists cite many historical or hypothetical examples to support their position.  The term abolition is a call back to history, particularly the abolition of slavery in the British Empire and America. Abolitionists state that in the effort to end slavery, there were those that sought to do it gradually, but it was the abolitionists who in the end are the ones who ended  slavery, both in Britain and America. A hypothetical that an abolitionist might use is “If you were living in Nazi Germany, would you support a law that only stopped the killing of some Jews?” These hypotheticals are intended to show that in other situations we would not apply the sort of thinking that is used to defend the incrementalist position.  

Incrementalist Criticisms of Abolitionism 

In responding to abolitionists, incrementalists point out that abolitionists are not demanding that the whole nation or whole world abolish abortion, but generally they are seeking for  individual states to abolish abortion. Thus they call this geographical incrementalism. If one is seeking to immediately abolish abortion why would the abolitionist be satisfied with  abolishing it in one state or even one nation? Is this not compromise? Further is it  compromise to wait for the next legislative session or election to pass a law banning abortion?  Surely abolitionists would agree that by waiting to abolition of abortion they are not affirming the murder of children until that law is passed.  

Incrementalists also raise the contention that abortion is not a solitary issue. Abortion is caused by sexual immorality and our society’s overall desire to disconnect sex from procreation. Thus in order to end abortion there is other work that believers must do to bring our society into alignment with God’s law. To treat abortion as an evil that occurs in a vacuum is to fail to fully understand the evil of our society.  

Incrementalists cite biblical examples of what appear to be incremental handling of sins. They point to where the Mosaic law regulated sins such as polygamy and slavery rather than banning them. These Mosaic laws gave protection for wives in polygamy or slaves in slavery, but did not ban these sins (Exodus 21:10). Thus, just as God was not approving of those sins by regulating those sins, so we are not approving of abortion if we regulate or restrict it. 

Analysis 

A vital point to recognize is that the abolitionist and incrementalist approaches have different goals. While both committed incrementalists and abolitionists work toward equal protection for the preborn, they seek it for different reasons. The incrementalists are seeking to save as many lives as possible and banning abortion is thus one tool to save lives.  Abolitionists are seeking for justice as bibilically defined. So for abolitionists, if a heartbeat bill saves babies that is something to be celebrated, however that doesn’t make that unjust law good.  

Abolitionists and incrementalists have different perspectives of the overall situation.  Incrementalists see the situation like that of a lifeguard who observes a boat capsize and a  dozen people from that boat begin to drown. The lifeguard is only able to save one at a time  and thus may not be able to save them all before they drown. He must save them  incrementally – one at a time. If he can not save them all that is not a moral failure on his  part, his moral duty is to attempt to save as many as possible. 

But the abolitionist does not see our present circumstance like that. Instead it as though there are pirates who attack boats and murder their occupants and this piracy is legal in the  waterways of this hypothetical land. We are like the lawmakers of that land – the duty of the  lawmakers would be to pass a law banning piracy outright. To restrict piracy on the basis of  boat size, color, etc would be to fail in this duty and would be a moral failure on the part of the legislators.  

Both abolitionists and incrementalists would agree that a heartbeat bill is unjust because it doesn’t protect babies without a heartbeat. But incrementalists would prefer a heartbeat bill over no restrictions on abortion. Incrementalists may say that a heartbeat bill is more just than no restrictions on abortion and is thus to be preferred, however it is only more just for those that are protected by it.  

The only ethical lens by which an unjust law can be called good because it saves lives is utilitarianism. Abolitionists reject this utilitarian thinking and thus demand justice for all preborn babies over saving the lives of some preborn. Abolitionists urge believers to work to save babies through sidewalk counseling and similar measures.They show that they care about saving individual babies but on the question of legislative strategy they are not willing to support an unjust law in order to save lives. To support incremental restrictions on abortion is to use “the ends justify the means” thinking. The incrementalist says that the end of saving lives justifies the means of using an unjust law. For the abolitionist, this would be to participate in injustice – something that God has firmly forbidden. As Isaiah  10:1 – 2 states:  

Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, 

 and the writers who keep writing oppression, 

to turn aside the needy from justice 

 and to rob the poor of my people of their right, 

that widows may be their spoil, 

 and that they may make the fatherless their prey! 

If one agrees that this passage applies to incremental restrictions on abortion, then it is impossible to continue to support such restrictions.  

It should be noted that abolitionists are not necessarily opposed to increments. The key distinction for abolitionists is whether an increment would require moral compromise.  Abolitionists want to work issue by issue. So while abortion is linked to other sins in our culture – fornication, adultery and others, we are not compromising to enact a law which addresses abortion but does not address all other related sins. 

If we adopt the abolitionist view of the law as a teacher, then we must consider what the laws are teaching. In order to for an individual to understand that abortion is murder and should  be treated as such, they do not necessarily also need to have a biblical view of sex overall. That the preborn are deserving of equal protection is a distinct issue that can be handled (at least in legislative terms) separate from other issues. The abortion laws and the arguments and media attention surrounding those laws are catechizing society on the topic of abortion. Incremental restrictions to abortion teach society that abortion should be regulated for reasons of the baby’s level of development or the woman’s safety; all such reasons distract from the fact that  abortion is murder. It does not make sense to teach people first that life begins at a heartbeat  with the intention of later teaching them that life begins at conception. Thus if we agree that people learn from the laws that are passed it is difficult to see how we can support incremental abortion restrictions. 

For example to pass an incremental law such as the Texas heartbeat bill is to teach that life begins at a heartbeat or at least there is a significant difference between the baby with a heartbeat and one without. The website promoting the Texas heartbeat bill states “The heartbeat is a key and universal medical predictor of whether human life exists”. In this case not only is the law teaching that a heartbeat is the basis for receiving protection under the law, but also the material produced by the advocates of that law implies that life is not present without a heartbeat. If in the future abortion is to be abolished in Texas it will require the Texas people to be retaught from what they have been taught by their heartbeat bill. 

Abolitionists readily acknowledge that there are other sins in our society – if abortion were entirely abolished tomorrow there would still be other sins to address. However to call this approach of addressing one issue at a time incrementalism is to confuse terms. Abolitionists are calling for abortion to be criminalized immediately, not the immediate establishment of God’s law on all issues. And though abolitionists call for abortion to be ended immediately, that does not mean that they expect success in a short period of time.  

In my opinion “geographic incrementalism” as raised by the incrementalists is a red herring.  Abolitionists are calling for the immediate end of abortion in that jurisdiction, whatever level that may be. To call for abolition in a given state is to take an abolitionist approach. In calling for abolition in his jurisdiction a man is seeking to have just laws for himself and his neighbor. And while establishing just laws on a national level or in other states or nations would be preferable, it is of lesser importance than establishing just laws for ourselves and our neighbors both born and preborn. For one to work to establish just laws in one’s own  jurisdiction and not do so in the same way in another jurisdiction is not a moral compromise.  So while there may be increments in the abolitionist approach they are not increments which require moral compromise, but the incrementalist approach is an approach of increments which include moral compromise. Thus this term of geographic incrementalism is a fruitless attempt for incrementalists to blur the line between incrementalists and abolitionists.  

A practical issue with the incrementalist case is that there are no major pro-life incrementalist organizations which advocate for full equal protection for the unborn. All major pro-life organizations oppose laws which would criminalize abortion for the mother. Though these organizations may use terms like “abolish abortion” or “equal protection for the unborn”, they are unwilling to affirm that everyone involved in a preborn baby’s murder should face prosecution just as everyone involved in a born person’s murder would. Thus most pro-life incrementalists aren’t working towards eventual justice for the unborn; under what these pro life organizations advocate the preborn would have only partial protection under the law. 

Conclusion 

In my analysis, the key issue that separates the abolitionist from the incrementalist is their view of the law. The incrementalist views the law as a tool that can be used to limit the number of lives lost to abortion. For the abolitionist laws must be just and also laws are a teacher, thus any law which is unjust is reprehensible. In my analysis, the abolitionist view is the biblically and practically defensible approach. If one accepts that incremental restrictions are unjust it is impossible to continue to advocate for such restrictions. Further even if  incremental restrictions are not unjust in and of themselves, they are teaching people (including pregnant women) about when and why life has value. The incrementalist may have the best of intentions but that does not mean their approach is correct. 

References 

Texas Heartbeat Law website

Doug Wilson “Smashmouth Incrementalism the Third” Blog and Mablog, October 19, 2017   

Toby Sumpter “Eight Tenets of Smashmouth Incrementalism” Having Two Legs, March 7,  2022

“Responding to Bart Barber and Nathan Lino’s Absurd Arguments at the SBTC | The  Liberator Podcast #67” The Liberator Podcast

“Responding to the Anti-Abolitionist Arguments of Gruber and Klusendorf: The Liberator  Podcast #37” The Liberator Podcast

“Abortion Dies by a Thousand Votes: Why Pro-Life Advocacy isn’t Compromise” Scott  Klunsendorf, January 22, 2020  

Free the States website

For my recent reflection of how Christians should view God’s law and legislation, click here. For my assorted reflections on a myriad of topics, click here. If you found this post helpful, please share on social media below and subscribe.

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Evaluating Your Child’s Profession of Faith

Evaluating Your Child’s Profession of Faith

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As my second son’s due date rapidly approaches, I have spent the past few weeks trying to understand the Bible’s theology of family and children. Inevitably, this led me to the question of baptism. After reading and listening to John Calvin, Charles Hodge, John Murray, John Gerstner, R. C. Sproul, and Doug Wilson on infant baptism, I can say (at this point) I still affirm the 2nd London Confession’s summary of baptism over the Westminster Confession’s. However, the next question to naturally come out of this study is “when should Reformed Baptist’s baptize their children?” And essentially this question is dependent on the further question “how do you evaluate your child’s profession of faith as a parent?” It is this question that I want to think through in this article.

The logic of the Christian family

Why is this question of evaluating your child’s profession of faith so crucial to examine? I think it comes down to the crucial realization that children growing up in a home with one or two Christian parents are in a privileged position. A full examination of the privileges of children growing up in a Christian home deserves its own separate post. But I think the point is evident when you examine the following logic:

  • Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17)
  • Children in Christian homes should be exposed to the Word of God constantly and at an early age if the Christian parent is being obedient (Deuteronomy 6, Ephesians 6:4)
  • Therefore, Christian parents should not be surprised if Children profess faith at a far younger age than children who grow up in homes without Christian parents

In other words, children in a Christian home are privileged to have exposure to the ordinary means by which God saves sinners from a young age. If parents are faithful in their God-given duty to train their children in the Lord, it seems logical to conclude/expect/not be surprised when (pick your favorite word) your child professes faith when they are young. And the question facing Christians with a Reformed Baptist view of baptism is how do you evaluate that child’s profession of faith to determine if they should be baptized?

How do you evaluate?

Option 1: “Am I confident that my child is truly saved?”

I think the overwhelming tendency in Reformed Baptist Churches that I have come in contact with is to try to evaluate a child’s profession with some form of the question “am I confident that my child is truly saved/regenerate/repentant?” For many, the only safe way of answering this question is to delay baptism until a child is an arbitrary age (18, 15, 12, I have read many different opinions). This is viewed as the safe option since you do not want to “inoculate” a child to the Gospel or give them false assurance that they are regenerate when they are not. Oftentimes, the “final defense” given of this position is that it is simply the wise thing to do to withhold baptism from children until they are mature and “standing on their own two feet” as it were.

Although there is a lot I can respect with this position, I fundamentally disagree on several points (in no particular order):

  • Why does an arbitrary age suddenly mean you are confident that a child’s profession is valid?
  • No matter how you spin this position, you are practically saying “I have reservations about your profession” to your child until they are a certain age
  • The Biblical data strongly indicates that children that professed faith were baptized into the Church and considered part of the Church (even if the children’s exact age is debated)
  • Baptism in the New Testament follows profession of faith and repentance, not a period of testing
  • The standards of evaluation applied to children in a Christian home seem higher than what a Church would use for a former pagan professing faith
  • In the absolute best case scenario of this position, you actively withhold from a truly regenerate child the blessings of baptism, communion, and Church membership until they are an adult
  • Even if it is not explicitly said, this position functionally says “Church membership is not for children”

In short, although this position has the best of intentions, I think it falls short of what is laid out in the New Testament and violates many principles of family laid out in the Old Testament. There are a number of counterarguments that could be made against my points above, but for the sake of time, I will continue to what I think is a far better question to ask of your child’s profession.

Option 2: “Are there any specific reasons that cause me to doubt my child’s profession?”

If your goal is to wait until you are 90-100% confident that your child is regenerate, you will necessarily wait a long time to baptize them. After all, the longer you wait, the more fruit you will hopefully see if your child is truly saved. But baptism in the Bible does not seem to follow a long period of fruitfulness or cross-examination by the Church. The pattern repeats across the New Testament: a person is exposed to the Gospel. They repent and profess faith. Then they are baptized.

So when evaluating your child’s profession of faith, I think a better question to ask is “are there any specific reasons that would cause me to doubt my child’s profession?” Is there a pattern of unrepentance? Does your child demonstrate an understanding of the Gospel? Is there an indifference to Christ or spiritual things? I think what is helpful about his question is it shifts the evaluation from asking “is my child a mature Christian?” to “are there signs of spiritual life and repentance or not?” And I think you and I practically do this with adults all the time. If an adult professes faith, you don’t immediately expect them to exhibit every fruit of the Spirit and then baptize them. Rather, you ask some questions and see if there are any major inconsistencies with their profession (ex. not willing to repent of a known sin) and then you welcome them into the Church, disciple them to maturity in Christ, and warn them of the dangers of departing from the faith.

As discussed in the previous section, it is logical to assume children in Christian homes will generally profess faith earlier than 18 or 21.They are still young and still have much to learn and grow into, but if they understand the Gospel and you can’t point to specific reasons to withhold baptism from them, then you should welcome them into the Church, disciple them to maturity in Christ, and warn them of the dangers of departing from the faith. Now, what specific reasons for saying you don’t affirm there profession will vary. But several I think are self-evident:

  • Can they accurately explain the Gospel?
  • Are they active in family worship?
  • Do they exhibit a desire for salvation?
  • Do they see themselves as a sinner in need of a savior?
  • What is their attitude towards parental discipline?
  • (This one is more nuanced) Are they trying to please you as parents or is there peer-pressure because other kids at Church/family are professing?
  • (This one is also nuanced) Do they believe anything anyone tells them? or is there some level of discernment in their thinking?

This list is not meant to be authoritative or exhaustive. And the critical reader will read these and say “aha! From this list, you seem to exclude kids from age 0-4 at least!” Perhaps that is true. My point is that your each child’s profession must be evaluated separately since each child is different and learns and grows differently. It seems reasonable to assume that even within a given Christian family God could save one child younger and one child older. If you have little to no specific reason to doubt a child’s profession of faith, Biblically I think you must baptize them. If you do have specific reason to doubt, then delay. But to operate as if you should not baptize anyone until they exhibit a high level of maturity or until they reach an arbitrary age is, in my opinion, a well-intentioned error.

Who is doing the evaluating?

The next question to answer is who is primarily responsible for evaluating you child’s profession of faith? I think a Biblical view of the household leads to the conclusion that the primary person responsible for this evaluation is the father. Fathers are the heads of the home and it is to fathers that Paul says “bring up your children in the training and instruction of the Lord.” So the responsibility, Biblically, rests first with the fathers. In other words, when your child first professes faith, your first step is not rushing them off to the Elders at your local Church to get their feedback. As head of the household and the one who is responsible for training your Children, the duty of evaluating your child’s profession of faith rests with you.

Now, does that mean you never get your Elder’s opinion? Should you go baptize your own kids as soon as you are affirm their profession? Of course not. Ideally and normally, it is your Elders who should be doing the baptism within the context of your local Church. But you as the father should be able to go alongside your child and be a witness to the Elders that there is no reason to doubt your child’s profession. Your Elders should trust your evaluation in this matter and you should submit to any questioning or concerns the Elders have. But fundamentally, you cannot “outsource” the responsibility for evaluating your child’s profession of faith to the Eldership. You either affirm your child in the context of the home and then go to the Church leadership. Or you do not affirm your child’s profession and continue to teach them.

What is at stake?

Finally, after reading this long post, you might ask “what is at stake with all of this?” Is it really a big deal to simply wait until a child is a teenager or grown to baptize them? I personally think it is. Beyond the reasons already discussed, my chief concern is that you and I don’t treat our children as worse than an unbeliever in our attempt to guard Church membership or avoid the trap of easy believism. Can God save children? Does God save children? Could God use the faithful obedience of Christian parents to save children at a young age? If the answer to this question is “yes” than to withhold baptism is to treat a professing child as worse than a pagan off the street who professes faith. In the case of the latter, as long as there is no reason to doubt that person’s profession, baptism and communion are not withheld. So why would you wait to baptize you child and welcome them into the Church if you have no reason to doubt his or her profession?

Will there be false professions? Of course. There are plenty of false professions among adults and the New Testament gives clear instructions for how to deal with them. Is our job to try to catch every false profession or withhold means of grace until we personally are assured of someone’s regeneration? Should our Church practice be based on risk mitigation or obedience to the text of Scripture? You and I are not God and, to riff off of Spurgeon, people don’t walk around with “Elect” written on their foreheads. If that were the case, deciding which children to baptize and when would be easy. But since that is not the case, the best you and I can do is carefully, prayerfully, and thoughtfully evaluate our child’s profession. And if there is no cause for alarm, we should baptize them into the Church and continue to disciple this child in the faith who also happens to be an actual child.

For more of my assorted reflections on a myriad of topics, click here. If you found this post helpful, please share on social media below and subscribe. For a helpful external post discussing baptism with links to various positions, click here.

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God’s Law and Legislation

God’s Law and Legislation

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It is no secret that the laws and legislation passed in America these days do not conform to the moral law of God. You and I live in a time where people are calling “good evil and evil good” and then enshrining such unbiblical thinking in the legislation that is passed. Seeing society as a whole and elected politicians abandon God’s standard of truth and morality is disheartening. Christians know that God’s law is good because it displays who God is and what He considers to be just and right. So the question is, how should Christians think about politics and God’s law? How should you and I act in a country that does not esteem what the Lord esteems?

Legislating popular pragmatic opinion

To answer these questions, I will start by asking “In the time in which we live, where do are our laws coming from?” My answer: “popular pragmatic opinion.” By “popular” I mean if a majority of people in society thinks something is right or wrong, that is what tends to become law. “Pragmatic” means that our society is obsessed with short term solutions to current problems rather than thinking long term about the impacts that a particular legislation will have on our nation. And by “opinion” I mean that there is no ultimate theological, philosophical, or natural law that people appeal to in order to make the case for legislation. Morality is generally defined personally based on one’s own experience and that personal experience ends up becoming the ultimate appeal for the rightness or wrongness of a thing.

A recent example of “popular pragmatic opinion” at work can be seen in American legislation redefining marriage in the eyes of the law in a way inconsistent with Scripture. If you look at recent polls, it seems even professing evangelicals are becoming more comfortable with redefining marriage to include same-sex marriage. Therefore, the legislation is “popular”. Redefining marriage in this way also doesn’t appear to have any “near term” consequences, therefore it is “pragmatic”. And finally, although you can find more thought-out arguments in favor of redefining marriage, most “off the street” arguments are based off of simple opinion. People seem to generally think marriage is “good” between a same sex couple and therefore, in there opinion, it should be accepted societally and codified in law.

There are dozens of other legislation in the past 10 years that I could use as an example. But suffice to say, popular pragmatic opinion is the main driver in what ends up becoming a “right” in America. In the eyes of American law, you can choose to partake in all sorts of behavior that God’s word condemns without consequence. As the end of Romans 1 says, the result of mankind’s rebellion is rejecting God’s righteous decrees and giving approval for people to sin. That is what America has chosen to do at societal level: give approval for it’s citizens to sin against God without any consequence.

Opinions cannot change the “oughts”

So how should a Christian think about the laws coming out of this popular pragmatic opinion? First, you must remember that something can be declared “legal” by the United States government that is still declared “immoral” by God. Although our society would beg to differ, making something a legal “right” does not make something “right” morally or in the sight of God.

The Christian basis for morality is not surveying what sinful, rebellious people consider to be “good” at a particular moment in time. Our basis is the unchanging revealed will of God.

In other words, societal opinion cannot fundamentally change what God says you and I “ought” to do and what we “ought not” to do. Moral obligations and laws are not “up for grabs” so to speak. As an example, if popular pragmatic opinion dictated that stealing is okay and America passed a law making it a “right” for individuals to steal under certain circumstances, Christians would still teach and preach and practice that stealing is a sin. Why? Because the shifting sands of popular opinion do not change the firm fixed foundation of the word of God.

Regardless of what America considers is “right” or “wrong”, Christians and the Church should help people see and abide by God’s fixed standards of “right” and “wrong”.

  • Adultery is still wrong even when divorce is celebrated in America.
  • Murder is still sin regardless of whether the life you are taking is 6 weeks old or 60 years old.
  • Racism has been and continues to be an insult to the inherent dignity of every human being made in the image of God.
  • Gender was established by God and human beings don’t have the power or autonomy to change it.
  • Sexual immorality goes against God’s plan for marriage and family regardless of how accepted cohabitation becomes.

God’s law was originally written on stone, not with erasable marker. Society can rage against God’s law, hate those who abide by it, and legislate the very opposite of what it commands. But the truth stands firm.

How should Christians respond?

What then can a Christian do in a society such as ours? You and I know that votes cannot change what God has declared good or evil. And yet we see America consistently enshrine the opposite of Biblical morality into laws. So what should we do? Two brief responses come to mind.

1. Work in society to conform legislation to God’s law

As God gives you the opportunity, seek to uphold God’s moral law in society. This certainly includes political involvement at some level. Christians from the local up to the federal level should unashamedly seek to conform America’s public morality with the morality revealed in Scripture. I think part of being “salt and light” is to stop the decay of the society in which we find ourselves living in. Certainly that primarily means preaching the Gospel that blind eyes would be opened to see the glory of Christ and of God’s will. However, I don’t think it means waiting until every person in America is converted before seeking to conform American ethical and moral standards to God’s standards.

As a Christian, you are a citizen of a heavenly kingdom. But you are also an ambassador for Christ to the nations. Just as Paul used his “natural” rights as a Roman citizen on occasion, leverage any rights you have as a citizen for God’s glory. And since God is certainly not glorified when a nation legislates immorality, fight to uphold God’s moral standards in society. Vote for public officials who will affirm Biblical morality. Speak out against legislation that is evil in God’s sight. Show up to community meetings and be a voice for Truth. Don’t merely represent your own personal interests when you engage politically. Fight for Biblical morality in society, whether you personally think it is a losing battle or not.

2. Teach others God’s moral standards and their excellency

The flip side of the point above is not becoming too obsessed with changing the laws of America from the “top down.” As mentioned before, even if people are legally free to do something does not mean they ought to do it. You and I need to teach in our homes, in our Churches and our communities God’s moral standards. But we should go beyond merely stating the standards: actually show those around you the wisdom and goodness of God in the moral laws He gives.

For example, teach those around you God’s standards for marriage and why He hates divorce. Explain to others how a Biblical view of marriage is superior to the “easy divorce” culture in which we live. You might not change America’s view of divorce or marriage from a legal perspective. But by God’s grace, you can help those around you see the goodness of God’s moral standard. The goal ultimately is for individuals to obey God from the heart regardless of whether or not a behavior is allowed in society.

And of course, ultimately none of your efforts to help those around you see the glory of God’s standards will matter without also sharing with them the Gospel of Christ. I will say this again so that I am not misunderstood: fighting to uphold Biblical morality will be fruitless unless you also preach Christ. You and I don’t have the power or desire in and of ourselves to keep God’s law in its entirety. This is the great paradox of fighting for Biblical moral standards: you are fighting for a standard that you know sinful humanity cannot meet through their own abilities. So don’t just offer the standard to society: offer Christ. Offer the Gospel. For until the God’s law is written on your heart, your flesh will desire sin regardless of any external standard applied to you.

At the end of the day, you and I shouldn’t want mere external conformity to God’s moral law. Rather, we want to see lives transformed by the Gospel so that, in love of God, people are eager to “keep his commandments.”

For more of my assorted reflections on a myriad of topics, click here. If you found this post helpful, please share on social media below and subscribe. For a helpful teaching series by R.C. Sproul on Ethics and Morality that I found very helpful, click here.

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Jonathan Edwards and 5 Spiritual Habits for 2023

Jonathan Edwards and 5 Spiritual Habits for 2023

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As the year starts, I find it useful to take stock of what spiritual disciplines are consistent in my life and what specific spiritual habits I need to grow in. Thankfully, I was able to open up the year reading an excellent essay/sermon by Donald S. Whitney on the spiritual disciplines of Jonathan Edwards. The essay is entitled “Pursuing a Passion for God Through Spiritual Disciplines” and it is published in the book “A God Entranced Vision of All Things.” If you can, give the essay a read as the year starts to get your mind thinking about developing good spiritual habits for 2023.

Today, I want to share my own takeaways and thoughts from reading this essay. Every time I read about how disciplined Johnathan Edwards was in his pursuit of the Lord and his use of time, I am humbled and motivated to become more disciplined myself. For the remainder of this article, I want to discuss five spiritual habits I want to focus on in 2023 based on reading about Jonathan Edwards.

Habit 1: Remembering it is the Spirit who bears the fruit

Every time I start thinking about spiritual disciplines, I tend to focus on the disciplines themselves rather than their purpose. It is easy to do: you and I live in a very pragmatic, check-the-box culture. The problem of importing that thinking into spiritual disciplines is you end up, as Whitney says, feeling that you can become automatically godly simply by doing different spiritual disciplines. For example, starting the year with the goal of reading through the entire Bible is a good discipline. However, the end goal should not simply be checking the daily reading boxes. Rather, the discipline is for the greater purpose of knowing God.

Any spiritual habits you and I want to develop in 2023 should all have a Godward focus and goal. The Holy Spirit is the one who bears fruit in our lives. You and I are dependent on God for the growth that can accompany spiritual disciplines and habits. So, resolve this year to not simply “add more boxes to check” in your spiritual disciplines. Resolve also to become more aware and dependent on the Holy Spirit to conform you to Christ.

Spiritual disciplines should grow our dependence on Christ, not make us feel more dependent on ourselves.

Habit 2: Having a Scripture to chew on throughout the day

If you are like me, there is always about three dozen moments each day when you are waiting on something. You might be in line at a store, stuck in traffic, or waiting for food to cook. The modern tendency (and Christians are far from immune) is to fill those “waiting moments” with entertainment or distraction. It is easier to pull out your phone to fill an empty moment than it is to redeem that time for God’s glory. Whitney makes the point that Edwards spent extensive time throughout the day not just reading Scripture, but meditating on Scripture.

What if after your morning quiet time or Bible reading you chose one verse or sentence to carry with you throughout the day? Instead of pulling out your phone during your quiet moments, you could pull out that verse or sentence and spend time thinking through it. What does it really mean? What are the implications? Are there any other Biblical verses that come to mind? I want to spend more time thinking deeply about Scripture like Edwards did this year, and I think this is a great habit to do just that. Pack a verse with you as you pack your lunch for work. Take a sentence from Jesus or Paul with you on your shopping trip. Let us fill our free moments in 2023 with truth instead of entertainment.

Habit 3: Praying at the “seams” of each day

Whitney in his article on Edwards spends several paragraphs discussing all the different times throughout the day that Jonathan Edwards prayed. It seemed very natural to Edwards to privately pray, much more natural than it is for myself or most people I know. Edwards prayed when he awoke, at breakfast with his family, before and during his studies, with his wife in the evening, and more. How are you and I to grow our spiritual habits of private prayer in 2023?

One pattern I noticed from Whitney’s communication of Edward’s private prayer was that Edwards prayed at each “seam” of the day. What I mean by “seam” is a transition from one activity to the next. You waking up is a “seam” because you are going from sleeping to waking. Arriving at work in the morning is a “seam” because you are transitioning from commuting to work to starting work. What if we let each seam or transition in our day trigger a reminder for us to pray? Oftentimes, the excuse I make for not praying more is “I get so busy that I forget.” Well, what if each time you used each transition from one task or one place to another as a reminder to pray?

Let the start or end of any task throughout your day remind you to pray.

Habit 4: Writing down more of my thoughts as I read and think

The sections in which Whitney describes Edwards’ journaling and writing were very insightful to read. Edwards wrote his own thoughts down as he studied and kept notebooks full of reflections on Biblical and theological topics. What struck me was the connection between reading, writing, and thinking for Edwards. I oftentimes treat these three as separate tasks: I either read OR I write OR I think. But perhaps one reason Edwards was such a deep thinking and profound writer was combining reading, thinking, and writing into one discipline.

Of all the spiritual habits I am mentioning for 2023, this might seem the most “un-spiritual“. But there is a really good practical lesson you and I can learn from Edwards here: write as you read and think. Don’t trust yourself to remember an insight from a Biblical text. Write it down. Our minds can only hold so much and we can quickly forget insights as fast as we get them. Perhaps a good way to think more deeply about Scripture and apply it more broadly to your life this year is to write down your thoughts on Scripture as you have them. Do your Bible reading and journaling at the same time. Get a notetaking Bible and fill the margins. That way, you can come back to them later and remember truths that the Lord revealed to you as you studied His word.

Habit 5: Prioritizing solitary time with the Lord

Edwards was able to develop a deep relationship with the Lord because he prioritized time alone with the Lord. If you read about his life, Edwards was a very busy man with a large family. But busyness and many responsibilities did not keep him from time alone with God. I realized as I read Whitney describing Edwards prioritization of solitary time with God that I am far too inconsistent with it myself. No matter how busy our schedules are, whether we have to wake up early or go to bed late, we can find time to spend with the Lord alone. The difficulty is actually doing it consistently.

In my own life, it is easy to prioritize sleep over time with God. The best time for me to seek the Lord is early in the morning but the tendency is to want to sleep right through that time. Certainly sleep is important, but is it more important than time alone with God? I am sure there will be ups and downs throughout the year, but I want to prioritize time alone with God as Edwards did.

The strength of Edwards was not found merely in his intellectual gifting. It was in the depth of his convictions which came from knowing the living God.

Conclusion

What spiritual habits are you going to develop in 2023? Each year brings new opportunity to grow to be more like Christ. Thankfully, God has left us many examples of godly men and women throughout history who have pursued Him and His glory. Let us learn from such examples what it means to seek and serve the Lord. Jonathan Edwards with his disciplined life is one such example. Even if you feel you can’t understand all his dense theological writing or if you can’t match his intellectual abilities, if you are a Christian than you can certainly imitate Jonathan Edwards in pursuing the Lord. Let us be more in prayer, more in Scripture, and more focused on Christ this year.

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3 Marks of Christian Ministry

3 Marks of Christian Ministry

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I recently was teaching a Sunday School at my local Church on Galatians 4:12-21. It occurred to me as I was studying that Galatians 4:19 gives a wonderful summary of 3 marks of Christian ministry:

My little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!

Galatians 4:19, ESV

In one little verse, Paul lays out the affection inherent to Christian ministry, the suffering that accompanies Christian ministry, and the goal of Christian ministry. I wonder if much of what bears the title of “Christian ministry” actually reflects what Paul describes in Galatians 4:19. I know in my own life, I have found myself involved in “ministry activities” with the wrong heart attitude or the wrong focus. Today, I want to think through what Paul says in this single verse and it’s implications for how you and I “do ministry” in the local Church.

Background

Paul’s words in Galatians 4:19 appear in a unique section of Galatians. Up until this point, Paul has directly addressed the Galatians leaving the true gospel of “justification by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone” to follow a false gospel of “Jesus and circumcision saves.” Paul defended his apostleship to the Church and laid out in chapter 3 that the Old Testament does not teach a salvation by works. Throughout the first three chapters of Galatians, Paul has expressed his astonishment that the “foolish Galatians” could be led astray so quickly from the true Gospel into error.

In chapter 4:12-19, however, Paul’s tone changes. His tone is less harsh and he addresses the Church more personally. I think in these verses you see Paul’s heart towards the Galatian Church which puts the rest of what Paul says in the letter into perspective. It is in this personal section that Paul gives that great summary of the marks of Christian ministry in 4:19. Paul is sharing with the Galatians both the love he has for the Church and the pain he feels that they are listening to false teachers. So, with that context in mind, how does Paul describe his ministry to the Galatians and what the the implications for Christian ministry in general?

First Mark of Christian Ministry: Genuine affection for those you serve

The first statement Paul makes in Galatians 4:19 is “my little children.” This is the only time in the letter that Paul uses this phrase to refer to the Galatian Church. Contained in this little phrase is a profound metaphor for the affection Paul has for the Church. If you are a parent, then you know the unique, special love a father or mother has for his or her child. Even when your child is misbehaving and needs correction and discipline, as a parent you still love them genuinely and deeply. In fact, even your correction is an externalization of the affection you have for your child.

Paul is saying the same thing here. At the time, the Galatians were listening to false teachers that were making Paul out to be their enemy. Yet even then, Paul still views these believers with a deep love. Even though Paul has been correcting the Galatian Church throughout the letter to the Galatians, this verse makes it clear that this correction came from a place of affection, not anger. Just as a parent genuinely wants the best for his or her child, Paul truly cares for the Galatian’s souls and wants the best for them on a spiritual level.

Implication: Do you serve out of a love for others? or do you serve to “get something out of it” for yourself?

What is the implication for you and I? One of the marks of Christian ministry is a true care and genuine affection for the souls of those you serve. True Christian ministry flows out of a love for others. If you serve in ministry, whether that is at Church or in the home or when you parent or when you disciple or when you teach with an attitude of “I am doing this so I can get something out of it” then you are not involved in Christian ministry. Christian ministry is about serving the other person, not so that you can “get something in return.”

Now, certainly as you pour yourself out for others, you will receive spiritual blessings yourself. However, the starting point of Christian ministry is not you wanting or needing something from those you serve. Rather, you start with a genuine love and affection for the other person. And this love, like it did in Paul’s case, can lead to correction and direct conversation that might not be pleasant. But for the one involved in true Christian ministry, love of others, not of self, will dominate all you do.

Second Mark of Christian Ministry: Suffering on behalf of those you serve

Even though Paul starts Galatians 4:19 with a term of affection, the next phrase shows that the kind of love he has for the Galatians is not “easy”. He compares his current ministry as “suffering labor pains.” What a vivid metaphor for ministry! If you talk with any woman who has given birth, I guarantee that they will struggle to find words to describe just how painful labor is. The pain of labor is agony. It is suffering. It has a glorious end, in that a child is brought into the world. But talk to any woman in the middle of labor and I guarantee they will not describe it as a pleasant or enjoyable process.

Paul here is comparing the agony of ministry to the physical agony of childbirth. Paul is not indifferent to the Galatians abandoning him and the true gospel for false teachers and works-based religion. He is in agony because of the Galatian Church’s behavior. He is suffering. And this agony on behalf of the souls of the Galatian Church is something Paul felt for all the Churches he ministered to. In 2 Corinthians when Paul gives a long list of physical sufferings and persecutions he has experienced, at the end of the list he adds “besides this I have a daily concern for all the Churches.”

Implication: Are you willing to suffer personally for the good of another? or will you only serve as long as it doesn’t inconvenience you?

The second of the marks of Christian ministry is a willingness to suffer on a personal level for those you serve. When you are a true Christian minister with a true concern for the souls of those around you, you are going to suffer. You are going to constantly think about the spiritual health of those you serve. You will suffer when a friend you have spent time ministering to betrays you or leaves the faith. When a member of your body falls into sin, you will suffer. As you spend more and more time loving and serving people, you will find there are more opportunities for the very people you serve to cause you the deepest pain.

I think there is a temptation to go into Christian ministry because it seems like a glorious, shiny thing. And it is glorious! But it is glorious in the same way the Cross is glorious: Jesus suffered an unimaginable death for the glorious result of buying a people by His blood. If Jesus’ ministry on this earth involved suffering for the good of His people, why should you and I expect anything different as we seek to serve His people? True Christian ministry is glorious the same way childbirth is glorious. The suffering yields something incredibly beautiful and glorious and valuable. But you can’t reach that glorious goal without going through intense suffering in the present. And so it will be with you if you are engaged in Christian ministry.

Third Mark of Christian Ministry: The goal is the Christlikeness of those you serve

So why would Paul suffer on behalf of the Galatians? What is the goal of these “labor pains?” It is for “Christ to be formed” in the Galatian Church. Paul wants to see Christ’s character matched, mirrored, and imitated in the Galatian Church. This is the goal of suffering in Christian ministry: the sanctification of those you serve. And this really is the key for understating Paul’s entire letter to the Galatians. Paul isn’t trying to get the Galatians to like him. Paul is trying to get them to look like Christ.

This single-minded commitment to the Christlikeness of the Church characterized all of Paul’s ministry. Paul elsewhere said his goal was to teach every man and warn every man “that we might present every man perfect in Christ.” Paul could persevere in a ministry characterized by suffering and personal sacrifice because he understood and grasped the glorious goal of it all: for other people to look more like Christ. Because Paul understood the value, the greatness, the significance of Jesus and His gospel, he understood that seeing other people look like Jesus and saved by that Gospel is worth any personal suffering.

Implication: Is the goal of the Christian ministries you are involved in for the Christlikeness of others? or are you serving for some lesser goal?

The last of the marks of Christian ministry is simply having the right goal. The agony you go through in ministry is for the sanctification of those you serve. For a Christlikeness that is seen not just talked about. If that is not your goal, than whatever activity you find yourself doing, it is not “Christian ministry”. For a ministry to be “Christian” in practice, not just in name, Christ must be the goal and center of everything. If you do a quick look at the New Testament, you will indeed see that Christlikeness is the end goal of all the activities you and I are called to do in all the spheres of our lives:

  • Husbands are called to love their wives just as Christ gave Himself up for the Church to sanctify her
  • The goal of disciplining and evangelism as described in Matthew 28 is teaching others to observe all that Christ has commanded
  • Parents are called to raise their children in the training and admonition of the Lord
  • Elders teach their congregations so they are equipped for the work of service

So, the question you must ask of your Church, your family, your small group you are leading, and the person you are discipling is “are they looking more like Jesus?” Do they love Jesus more? Are they delighting in obeying Him? Is Jesus more important to them than whatever they are tempted to idolize? These are much harder questions to answer than “did they like what I said?” or “how many people am I pouring into?” or “how frequently am I leading family worship?” But if you are passionate about Christian ministry, you will be passionate about the Christlikenss of those you serve and you will accept no other measure of success.

Conclusion: Affectionate Affliction for Another’s Sanctification

How can we summarize the three marks of Christian ministry laid out by Paul? I would summarize this verse by saying “True Christian ministry is affectionate affliction for another’s sanctification.” You need all three pieces. You must have a genuine love for the person you are serving, not just a “I love them for what they can do for me” mentality. You must be committed to laboring on through suffering and difficulty. True Christian ministry fights against the world, the flesh, and the devil, so you should expect and prepare for strong resistance. And finally, your goal should always be that whoever you are ministering to becomes more like Jesus.

This is the type of ministry that glorifies God and is according to His will. The Father wants Christ to be the “firstborn of many brethren”, for Jesus to be “all and in all”, for every knee to bow at Christ’s name, and for all things in heaven and on earth to be united in Christ. Therefore, when you labor on for the sanctification of others, no matter how difficult it gets, you have abundant encouragement to persevere. You can endure knowing that you are serving in accordance to God’s will and for the most glorious goal in the universe.

For more of my assorted reflections on a myriad of topics, click here. If you found this post helpful, please share on social media below and subscribe.

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How to Glorify God with Professional Accomplishment

How to Glorify God with Professional Accomplishment

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Most Christians spend the better part of their day working in some sort of profession. Whether an engineer, nurse, construction work, librarian or countless others, God calls each of us to a specific vocation. Most Christians are not called to full-time ministry, but each of us is still under the obligation to glorify God in whatever we do. So what do you do when you have personal success in your vocation? How can you glorify God with any professional accomplishment you might have?

Glorifying God Defined

I have written in the past on what “glorifying God” means and why glorifying God should be your biggest dream and desire. Jonathan Edwards in his excellent book “The End for Which God Created the World” does a word study of this idea of “God’s glory.” He explains that the Hebrew word for “glory” denotes weight or gravity. Therefore, when the Bible talks about God’s glory it is referring either to His inherent greatness, value, and significance or referring to God externalizing that inherent greatness.

So, when the Bible calls us to glorify God, it is commanding us to delight and display God’s greatness, value, and significance. This seems pretty straightforward and “easy” to do when you are at Church singing worship songs. In that case, you are quite literally praising God with music and lyrics for His infinite value for those around you to hear. But what happens when you go to your day job on a Monday? You and I are equally called to live for God’s glory at work as we are in the home or at Church. More specifically, what happens when you receive recognition from your boss and coworkers for some sort of professional accomplishment?

The Spiritual Dangers of Professional Accomplishment

What is at stake here? I find personally that whenever I have some success at my “secular” vocation it is very easy to allow the attention to stay on me. After all, if you get a promotion or award or other professional accomplishment, chances are at least some of your coworkers will praise and congratulate you. And that no doubt makes you feel pretty good about yourself. Now, there is a proportionate, good recognition for a job well done. However, if you are not careful, professional accomplishment can become a breeding ground for pride and self-exaltation. I know that is a temptation in my own heart.

What is the best way to fight your sinful tendency for self-glorification? By turning yourself back to glorifying God and recognizing you have nothing that you did not receive and you have nothing to boast in but Jesus, and Him crucified. Beyond this, your unsaved coworkers around you know nothing about living for God’s glory. They have nothing better to chase than professional accomplishment. So how can you use your professional accomplishment as a God-given opportunity to turn the attention off of you and to the Lord and Savior you worship?

Professional Accomplishment as a Platform

When God allows you to get recognition for a job well done, His sovereign purpose is likely much bigger than you getting a “pat on the back.”

What if God is giving you attention professionally so that you could then turn that attention back to God?

Easier said than done, I know. But next time you receive recognition for some sort of professional accomplishment, immediately realize that this is God giving you a platform to display His greatness to your coworkers. Don’t let your recognized success terminate on you: use any attention you receive personally to direct other people’s gaze from you to God.

How do you do this practically? There is no “one way” and you will need much wisdom to discern the best words to say. But essentially, you need communicate two realities explicitly to those around you:

  • The relative insignificance of your professional accomplishment in light of God’s significance
  • Your relative lack of greatness in light of the greatness of God

In other words, you need to communicate that however great people think you are or however important they consider your professional accomplishment to be, both are infinitely insignificant compared with who God is. You don’t have to be eloquent or long-winded, but you must be explicit that God’s glory, not professional recognition, is what you value the most. Here are some brief ideas:

  • “I’m grateful for this award but I want to make it clear I don’t work hard for recognition. I work hard because there is a God who saved me through Jesus Christ and has given me this job to do for His honor, not my own.”
  • “This promotion truly is an honor. I don’t deserve it and I recognize that I didn’t get it because I am great. Rather, I serve a great God who graciously has provided me this promotion only as a way to better serve Him.”

These are simply ideas of what to say. My goal with this post is not to give you a script, but rather to help you and I to recognize the opportunities the Lord gives us every day to glorify Him at our jobs. And I think some of the best, easiest, and clearest opportunities you will get to exclaim God’s worth to your coworkers come in the context of professional accomplishment.

When all eyes are on you, turn everyone’s gaze to Christ.

If glorifying God is truly your life’s goal, success at work will just be another avenue to worship.

If you want to learn more about being a Christian at work, visit this page. For more posts discussing God’s glory, click here. If you found this post insightful, please share on social media and subscribe below.

book quote of the week
Freedom from Felt Needs

Freedom from Felt Needs

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What do you need? Such a broad question has a number of answers. You might think “I need food to live.” Or perhaps you need respect from your spouse. Biblically, you need the Lord’s forgiveness in Christ. While some “needs” are legitimate biological needs (like food and water) or biblically-defined spiritual needs (like peace with God), a lot of “needs” you and I have on a given day could be put into a category of “felt needs.” They aren’t needs that come from explicit Scripture and they aren’t literally needed to keep us breathing.

How you and I think about felt needs has vast theological implications. It is very easy to assume that when the Bible talks about joy and satisfaction in Christ it means Jesus will provide for all of our felt needs. For example, perhaps you have a felt need of a romantic relationship. Did Jesus promise to satisfy that desire? When does that desire, even if it isn’t inherently sinful, become a sinful lust? I am currently reading through “When People are Big and God is Small” and a quote from the book helped me immensely when thinking through these questions.

“If I stand before (Jesus) as a cup waiting to be filled with psychological satisfaction, I will never feel quite full. Why? First, because my lusts are boundless; by their very nature they can’t be filled.

Second, because Jesus does not intend to satisfy my selfish desires. Instead, he intends to break the cup of psychological need (lusts), and not fill it.

“When People Are Big and God is Small” by Edward Welch

Most of our “needs” are really lusts in disguise

This quote comes from an entire chapter where Welch seeks to distinguish between different types of “needs”. According to Welch, there are biological needs, spiritual needs, and what he calls “psychological needs”. The first two are self-explanatory but Welch spends a significant amount of time discussing psychological needs. Essentially, Welch makes the case that the prevailing view of humanity in the modern day it that we are empty cups that need to be filled. Humans have extensive longings that can either be fulfilled by sin or by God.

The problem with this model, according to Welch, is that oftentimes “longings” or “needs” are really just sinful lusts in disguise. They become idolatrous desires that you and I expect God to meet. You and I can desire even good things more than we desire God’s glory. Or you can desire the right thing for sinful reasons. For example, I was reflecting after reading this chapter that a “psychological need” I find within my own heart is a need to be respected by others. When people give me the respect I feel I need, I end up feeling pretty good about myself.

But what happens when my felt needs of respect and approval from others are not met? I end up either angry or depressed. Now, at this point I could address these felt needs by saying to myself “God has given me all the approval and acceptance I need in Christ.” This is simply a more theological way of saying “God meets my felt needs of respect and approval.” But this ignores the deeper question of whether my felt needs for respect and approval are legitimate to begin with. Beneath my desire for respect and approval is the sinful belief that God has created this world to make much of me and that those around me exist to see and extol my value. When examined carefully, these “felt needs” are nothing more than the desire for self-glory.

Jesus does not meet all of our felt needs. And that is a good thing.

Welch’s quote above helped me immensely because it helped correct my false thinking about how Jesus addresses my felt needs. First, Jesus does not satisfy your every desire or “need” because many of them are either sinful in essence or in proportion. You and I will always have, on a given day, countless desires that we can easily frame in terms of “needs”. You and I have a sinful tendency to view the world in terms of “our my needs being met?” rather than “am I glorifying God and loving others Biblically?”

Welch’s quote reminded me of the good news of the gospel: Jesus didn’t come to fill the cup of my every desire. He breaks the old cup and gives me new desires. He sends me His Holy Spirit who empowers me to “deny myself” rather than satisfying myself. Jesus makes much of Himself and of the Father and invites me to do the same. Why would Jesus ever satisfy my sinful, small, selfish desires? How would that ever be good news for you or for me? Instead, in Christ, you and I get a new heart that desires the things of God and cares less about our own felt needs and instead seeks to love those around us.

Implications

1. Examine your felt needs critically and Biblically to see if there is sin lurking beneath the surface.

“The heart is deceitful above all things.” And modern cultural terminology does not help. Is it possible a lot of the things you consider “needs” are really sinful lusts in disguise? Spending time to examine your deeply held and cherished desires scripturally to see if there is sin in them is a difficult and painful process. But if what Welch is saying lines up with the Bible’s teaching, and I think it does, then there is probably a host of sinful desires in your heart that are masquerading as “felt needs”.

How can you repent of sinful desires and reorient yourself to Christ unless you first see them for what they are? The modern culture has so convinced you and I that every felt need is legitimate that we may be calling sinful desires “sweet names” and excusing ourselves from repenting of them. As I said, honestly examining deeply held desires is painful and difficult. But if you would grow in our Christ-likeness, your desire for God, and your love for others, the cost of painful self examination is worth the benefit of joyfully and prayerfully repenting of sin.

2. See yourself as a watering can, not an empty cup

After reading Welch’s metaphor of the empty cup and how Jesus breaks that cup of felt needs, I asked myself “what would a more Biblical metaphor be for the believer?” If you have had your spiritual needs met in Christ, you should be full of the fruit of the Spirit and the joy of knowing peace with God. You are, in that sense, like a watering can full of abundance to pour into others. Of course, just like Jesus, your goal is not me help other people satisfy their felt needs. Rather, you pour out the truths of how Jesus has given you “everything for life and godliness.”

In other words, once you are free from constantly seeing yourself as an empty cup, you are more free to love other people around you. That can take the form of practical assistance in biological needs, like food, water, and shelter. Or it can mean blessing them by sharing the abundance of Christ with them. It might be harsh to say “Jesus smashes the empty cup of your felt needs”, but it is freedom! Freedom from constantly needing God and other people to satisfying every desire you have. Freedom from feeling angry or depressed when your felt needs aren’t met. And freedom to prioritize God over self and others over self, as Jesus laid out clearly when asked what the two greatest commandments were.

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three pairs of shoes
Family Worship is Incremental and Iterative

Family Worship is Incremental and Iterative

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When I was a single college student, I operated under the assumption that family worship is simple to implement and execute. I expected to find the “perfect formula” soon after I was married and then spend the rest of my life executing that perfect plan. How wrong I was. I am sure for some people, implementing family worship is easy and straightforward. But I would wager for most people, even though you have a desire to start and continue regular family worship, you find that it is easier said than done. This can quickly become discouraging if you don’t remember that family worship is typically incremental and iterative.

Incremental: Little victories build to bigger victories

What do I mean by incremental? Oftentimes, your family worship will not start with a long, complicated liturgy right off the bat. There are a dozen different things you can do with your time: Bible reading, catechism memorization, hymn singing, prayer for your local Church, and on and on the list goes. If you try to do too much all at once, the habit of worshiping together as a family each day actually becomes more difficult to nurture. There is a lot you could do with your family worship time. The question is what is most realistic, spiritually edifying, and glorifying to God way to spend the time that you have.

If you want to start worshiping God together as a family on a consistent basis, start small. Focus on one or two activities primarily, like reading a chapter of the Bible together and then singing a hymn. Your family worship time does not need to become a daily mini-Church service right away. In fact, biting off more than you can chew with family worship is, in my opinion, one of the main reasons so many families with good intentions end up giving up on it. Start small and build up as you go. If you can win little victorious like getting the family together after dinner to read the Bible briefly, then you can slowly add in more features to your family worship time as you go.

Iterative: Changing your family worship as your family changes

“To everything there is a season” the Preacher in Ecclesiastes says. This is true with family worship as well: what you do when your family is young will look different than when your family grows up. Even once you slowly build up your family worship into the time that you want it to be, life and schedule changes will often require you to change your perfectly planned set up. Rather than fighting against the reality that worshiping as a family looks different at each stage, embrace it. If your kids are young and you prioritize singing hymns, great. As they grow up and you want to teach them the catechism, take out some hymn singing time to add that in.

You know your family’s needs and the nuances of their daily schedule better than anyone but the Lord. So don’t feel bad if you have to adjust what you do or when you do it to maximize the time you have worshiping God together as a family. At the end of the day, the goal of family worship should be nothing less than glorifying God and delighting in Him together. Of developing the habit of consistently meditating on God’s infinite value and greatness as a family and then responding accordingly. There is no “one way” or “one method” to do this perfectly in the context of family worship. Be flexible and keep God the main thing, not your planned structure or schedule.

Conclusion: Don’t despise the day of small things

Family worship will look different for each family. And that’s okay. The goal isn’t to have the most complicated or longest time worshiping God together as a family. It is to build the habit of seeking the Lord’s face together as a family unit. The end goal is praising God together and exposing your family consistently to the Word. If you find that it is difficult to develop this habit within your family, perhaps you are trying to do too much at once. Or maybe you need to adjust what “family worship” looks like for your family in this season of life.

If your family worship is short and unimpressive in your eyes, my council would be “don’t despise the day of small things”. Any time worshiping God together as a family is precious and important and beneficial. God can use the small act of faithfulness in gathering your family together to pray or sing or read His Word for His great ends. There will always be more that you want to do with your family worship time. But by starting small and incrementally building and by adjusting your plans as needed you can ensure that your family keeps up the habit of growing in the knowledge and love of the Lord together.

For more of my assorted reflections on a myriad of topics, click here. If you found this post helpful, please share on social media below and subscribe. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram for more content.