To my dear readers: I am apologizing in advance for this post as before I even put fingertip to keyboard, I know that this write-up will be tainted. You will have to excuse me for a moment as I share something personal, which I try not to do too much here. I have been married for sixteen years and four months. I have been a Christian for sixteen years and two months of that. My spouse has not. Recently, as I was explaining my situation to a group of ladies, I was told that I am 'spiritually single'. As true as that may be, it cut me to the core. I have, of late (and before the comment), been embarked on a bit of a pity party for myself in this area. Every day I try desperately to seek after God and the Word and learn as much as I can about Him but I really feel like because I am missing that covenantal experience of marriage to a believer, I am left not knowing a very special part of being 'the Bride of Christ'. It would be different if I was single, as the Apostle Paul chose to be, and could live my life in that vein. Yet here I am as a married woman, yearning desperately for that connection through Christ in my marriage, and continually denied this precious gift year after year. Please don't get me wrong, I in no way feel that I deserve this experience or even expect that it should happen one day. It is just something that I feel would elevate my journey with God to another level and that is what I long for most of all.
How this relates to the book I am discussing is that the authors come from a perspective of being married to a fellow Christian and both spouses striving to improve their relationship with God first, and then each other. There was not one mention in the entire book about the possibility that a reader may be yoked to an unbeliever. Now, I understand that not a lot of Scripture is devoted to my particular situation (1 Corinthians 7:12-16, 1 Peter 3:1-5) but I can't be the only one out here (except it would seem in my home church that I am). So the book left me feeling a bit 'un-spoken to' but I will try to tease out things that will be valuable to all. Oh, and be careful to whom you give this book as there is a lot of descriptive sexual content and for someone who has a history of, or currently is, struggling in this area I would not recommend it at all. Just in case.
This won't be my normal post, with copious quotes, but rather a rundown of the book in general. The first half of the book is about marriage. The Driscolls provide an interesting reflection on their lives both before and after they met and are very candid about parts of their history that played a role in their marriage relationship. The basis of their teaching is "[h]usbands and wives who want their marriages to be enduring and endearing must be friends" (p. 24). Part of that friendship "involves healthy conflict and hard discussions as God reveals sin and repentance, and reconciliation takes place" (p. 25). They provide many different areas and ways where we show our devotion to our spouse as our closest and best friend. "It is in the darkest seasons of life that God reveals to us our most devoted friends...In marriage, being a devoted friend in all life's seasons is key to building oneness, intimacy, and trust (p. 39).
After this introduction to the author's marriage philosophy, Mark has written a chapter to the men and Grace has written a chapter to the women. Mark talks about many stereo-typical types of men and then says "[w]hen you consider how many men are really just boys who can shave, think about how terrifying it must be for a woman to marry" (p. 48). He believes that the husband's primary goal should be to honour his wife - physically, emotionally, verbally, financially and technologically (yes men, you do need to turn off your phone). Mark goes on to discuss the concept of having a covenant marriage where "[a]s the covenant head, you cannot remain distant, unwilling to get involved in the messiest parts of your family life, or tell your wife to get her act together apart from your loving inclusion. This is not to say that your wife bears no responsibility for her own sin, but that you bear it with her out of love" (p. 56). Finally he says that the three things he believes will aide a marriage in going well are getting involved in a good church, agreeing on what the Bible says, and worshipping together at home. The chapter that Grace wrote to the women was probably my favourite chapter of the entire book. She believes that the wife's primary goal should be to respect her husband. Her idea of respect involves your head, heart and hands. She encourages women to pay close attention to how we are thinking about our husbands and if there is even a shred of disrespect "it will seep into your heart and eventually come out in your words and actions...We need to stop disrespectful lies and sinful thoughts before they 'give birth'" (p. 67). Grace tells us to confess our sin of disrespect and listen closely for the Spirit's conviction for change. We need to be watching our husbands closely and "start a journal or make a list of things you appreciate about him" (p. 69). As our hearts grow into respect for our husbands, our words will reflect this change. Our hands respect our husbands by being a helper to him. We should use our hands to pray, touch, feed, hunt and fish (a.k.a. doing something he likes that isn't necessarily your favourite thing to do) and open the Bible. Grace talks next about disagreeing respectfully. "We've never known a couple to agree on everything and live in perfect harmony unless they were in denial or didn't want to allow change or healthy conflict in their own lives. The key is to fight as friends and not as foes" (p. 74). We need to pray before we go into any discussion about a disagreement and ensure that we are not trying to put our husbands in a place of submission to us. "Every disagreement is an opportunity for oneness or division. Every day we are either drawing together or drifting apart. As wives, we can be a tremendous blessing if we continually seek, by the grace of God, to be respectful helpers fighting against being either silently compliant or loudly contentious, and fighting for the glory of God and the good of our husbands" (p. 79). There is a section on submitting respectfully which I would encourage you to read as Grace gives an extremely balanced and biblical perspective on this often sensitive subject. Her bottom line is that we, as wives, need to use Jesus and His place in the Trinity as our example of submission and know that "a woman can simultaneously be respectfully submissive and vocally honest with both her husband and God about how she's feeling" (p. 84).
The final chapter of the marriage portion of the book is about how to deal with sin within the marriage relationship. "We can kill our sin, or sin will kill our marriages" (p. 88). This involves repentance and forgiveness. "Forgiveness is loving despite sin. Just as God forgives not just undeserving but ill-deserving sinners, we must too. We do not forgive our spouses because they are good or deserving, but rather because God is good and deserving. Forgiveness includes wanting good for the spouse who sinned against you, being able to pray for his or her well-being, and not keeping a record of wrongs against your spouse like a pile of rocks to throw when convenient. Forgiveness is an ongoing lifestyle that is incredibly costly to us and lived out of love for God and others" (p. 94). We also must work against bitterness getting a foothold in our marriage. "In seasons of bitterness, we have a proclivity to blame others, most likely our spouses, for our bitterness, as if they placed it in us through their transgression. The truth is people, even the worst of them, do not embitter us. Rather, they provide an opportunity, or temptation, to choose bitterness, for which we remain morally responsible" (p. 96). I loved their very simple sentence to round out this section which said "Marriage either gets bitter or gets better" (p. 99). Simple and to the point. You can probably look at all the marriages around you and tell in a few moments in which direction each is headed.
So, on to the second half of the book. It's all about sex. "We are to pour all our passion and pursuit of sexual pleasure into our spouses alone, without comparing them to anyone else in a lustful way" (p. 110). The authors beliefs are that we make sex a god, gross or a gift and a lot of where we stand on this has to do with our past. Grace came into the marriage with a history of abuse in a past relationship. They devote a chapter to discussing this; how it affected their marriage and what they did to try and heal her wounds and the wounds it had caused in their marriage as the abuse was not revealed until after they had been married for some time.
A chapter about pornography was very eye-opening to me. I found myself crying as I read stories about women who had been lured into the industry and how it ravaged their souls. And the information about the damage that it does to a marriage relationship is shocking. "The natural chemical 'high,' what some call a 'biochemical love potion,' resulting from sex and orgasm was designed by God to bind a husband and wife together. In the best sense of the word, God intends for a devoted married couple to be 'addicted' to each other, bound together in every way" (p. 141). When pornography is viewed, this binding happens with other people in mind and leads to addiction. The harm that pornography does to God (it grieves His heart), the viewers (it rewires their natural sexuality), and women (it objectifies them) is astounding. "It is the Holy Spirit who gives us desires that are deeper and stronger than sinful desires. Thus, a holy life is the most passionate life that does not settle for petty things like sexual sin but rather passionately pursues the glory of God in all things" (p. 153). We must seek and practice sexual contentment with our spouse alone. "Sex is a part of your life, but it is not your life...you must frequently seek evidences of God's grace to you through your spouse. Spend more time thanking God for what you have from your spouse than you do picking at what she or he does not have or give, and your attraction toward and satisfaction with your spouse will increase" (p. 154).
In one of the final chapters, Mark and Grace discuss the issue of being either a selfish lover or a servant lover. Obviously, God calls us to be servants in this area of our life as well. Pride is our biggest barrier to success in being loving servants. "If we do not choose humility, God will choose humiliation for us. So we must willfully, earnestly, and continually humble ourselves" (p. 158). I appreciated when they revealed that it takes "between nine and fourteen years for a couple to become not entirely unselfish, but rather less selfish, and begin to shift from 'me' to 'we'" (p. 159). That explains a lot. "Marriage is for our holiness before our happiness...God will use our spouses to expose our selfishness and make us to be increasingly more humble servants like Jesus Christ" (p. 159). They give many great points about ways we are selfish lovers and why we are selfish lovers. Also, there is a really in-depth discussion about Song of Songs and I had very little knowledge about this book of the Bible. It was enlightening.
I watched the introduction to the Driscoll's teaching sessions on this book and the chapter that Grace thought was going to get them in the most trouble was the "Can we ___?" one. I can see why she thought this as they discuss many different sexual acts from the perspective of Is it lawful?, Is it helpful? and Is it enslaving?. I will let you tackle this one on your own when/if you read the book. They do say "Our aim is to open up the topic to married couples so they can lovingly, graciously, and prayerfully discuss what they would like to do and not do. We want to emphatically state that our intent is to inform heterosexual married couples of the full range of their sexual freedom. But we do not want this information to be used in any way to force someone to act against his or her conscience" (p. 203).
After this is all said and done, they ask the readers to have a getaway with their spouse and plan the rest of their marriage. The desire should be for our marriages to be full of intentionality. Our days should be full of prayer and purpose and we should be looking to hear from God when we are organizing our life. There are pages full of questions to discuss from how the bedroom will look to major changes that will have taken place. "The goal is progress, not perfection" (p. 220). This is something that I would absolutely love to to with my husband. He has agreed to peek at the book when he has time. Would you pray with me that it would be a catalyst to the end of my 'spiritually single' life?
Note: April 21, 2012. I have rethought this post so many times since I put it up. But I will leave it as is and just ask you to take the time to read this review as well. This author says so well the things that I was not able to say but really felt in my heart when I was done the book.
Monday, 19 March 2012
Thursday, 23 February 2012
"Life Together" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
I feel like I'm kind of cheating on this one. I read this book years ago and remembered that it had a lot of great 'meat' to it but I was vague on what exactly I had dined. This time around in no way felt like I was subjected to leftovers but rather had been served up a fresh off the grill meal. The one thing I did remember was thinking it would be an excellent book to give to people who are joining membership of a church (or current members who might need a bit of a 'review'). I feel that even more strongly now that I've been through it a second time. There are so many wonderful principles throughout Life Together that, if truly implemented within the Body of Christ, would change how the church is viewed by the world as a whole but also how we within the church would view each other and our role within it.
I fear so deeply that I am not going to do this book justice. The treasures that it contains can be attested by the amount of comments I wrote in the margins. A lot of 'YES', 'great explanation' and 'if only we could all do this' litters the pages. There are only five chapters in this small book and I will try to pull out the brightest points just for the sake of sharing but I implore you to read this book and just try not to be challenged about your role within your church.
Community
This first chapter can be summed up as Bonhoeffer's view on how Christians should 'be' together. It's all about being "through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ" (p. 21). If we are living our lives as redeemed people who understand our sinful nature but also our righteousness gained through Christ dying for us, we will live "wholly by God's Word pronounced upon [us], whether that Word declares [us] guilty or innocent" (p. 22). "The Christian is dependent upon the Word of God spoken to him...He is as alert as possible to this Word. Because he daily hungers and thirsts for righteousness, he daily desires the redeeming Word. And it can come only from the outside. In himself he is destitute and dead. Help must come from the outside, and it has come and comes daily and anew in the Word of Jesus Christ, bringing redemption, righteousness, innocence, and blessedness" (p. 22). I think what made me love this thought so much is it flies in the face of our current culture where we are told to find the answers and strength inside ourselves, no matter what we are facing. This leaves so many people disappointed in their life - unhappy and unfulfilled - but to know that we have the answer to that should bring us great joy and hope as we share the truth with those around us. This also leads to the idea that "the Christian needs another Christian who speaks God's Word to him. He needs him again and again when he becomes uncertain and discouraged, for by himself he cannot help himself without belying the truth" (p. 23). We cannot be an island. We need each other in fellowship. This will lead to brotherly love in Christ. "He who looks upon his brother should know that he will be eternally united with him in Jesus Christ" (p. 24). This one sentence was extremely convicting for me and it sat on my mind for many days. How can I think that it's okay to be frustrated with or unkind to or judgmental toward another brother or sister in Christ, knowing that they are part of me? That one incredibly powerful link between us that is Jesus Christ should lead me to treat them as if they were part of my own flesh.
Another section that I really appreciated was about when we are in the Christian community we should not be seeking ideals but rather be thankful for our fellow Christians. "A community which cannot bear and cannot survive [the shock of disillusionment], which insists upon keeping its illusion when it should be shattered, permanently loses in that moment the promise of Christian community. Sooner or later it will collapse. Every human wish dream that is injected into the Christian community is a hindrance to genuine community and must be banished if genuine community is to survive. He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial" (p. 27). I think that Bonhoeffer is saying that God has decided beforehand what health in our Christian community should look like and how it should manifest and when we feel that we know better than him how and through whom that health should come about, we are trying to dethrone Him as the head of our community.
One of the most powerful things we can be within our Christian community is thankful. "We do not complain of what God does not give us; rather we thank God for what He does give us daily...Only he who gives thanks for the little things receives the big things. We prevent God from giving us the great spiritual gifts He has in store for us, because we do not give thanks for daily gifts...We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not small) gifts. How can God entrust great things to one who will not thankfully receive from Him the little things?" (p. 28-29). And this was a very powerful point for me: "If we do not give thanks daily for the Christian fellowship in which we have been placed, even where there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith, and difficulty; if on the contrary, we only keep complaining to God that everything is so paltry and petty, so far from what we expected, then we hinder God from letting our fellowship grow according to the measure and riches which are there for us all in Jesus Christ" (p. 29). The reason that this spoke to me is I made a decision to attend the women's study at my home church and left an amazing group of ladies at my previous church. I have not connected with this new group of women as much as I would like and have not come even close to forming bonds of friendship and trust like I had before. I realized when I read this quote that I was spending my 'thought time' about this new group comparing it to the old group, rather than looking at them as a fresh opportunity for fellowship and new bonds. I had completely neglected to pray for that fellowship to grow but rather was grumbling (aloud and in my heart) about how it was not meeting my expectations. And the result was that I had no fruitful fellowship. Mr. Bonhoeffer told me why.
Within our community we must have love. But we must understand and be able to recognize the difference between human love and spiritual love. "Human love is directed to the other person for his own sake, spiritual love loves him for Christ's sake...Human love cannot tolerate the dissolution of fellowship that has become false for the sake of genuine fellowship, and human love cannot love an enemy, that is, one who seriously and stubbornly resists it" (p. 34). Spiritual love takes over where human love can no longer continue because its unfulfilled desire turns into hatred and contempt. "Because spiritual love does not desire but rather serves, it loves an enemy as a brother. It originates neither in the brother nor in the enemy but in Christ and his Word. Human love can never understand spiritual love, for spiritual love is from above; it is something completely strange, new, and incomprehensible to all earthly love" (p. 35). Part of this love is realizing that I cannot save anyone, only Christ can do that and I "must release the other person from every attempt of mine to regulate, coerce, and dominate him with my love. The other person needs to retain his independence of me; to be loved for what he is, as one for whom Christ became man, died, and rose again, for whom Christ bought forgiveness of sins and eternal life...I must leave him to his freedom to be Christ's; I must meet him only as the person that he already is in Christ's eyes" (p. 36, italics mine).
The Day with Others
Deitrich Bonhoeffer spent some of his life in a very unique situation. He was a founding member of the Confessing Church in Germany during the rise of Nazism. The Confessing Church formed an underground seminary at Finkenwalde where he lived in relative isolation with his students. Thus, standards for how they would spend their days together had to be developed and put into effect. It was very important to Bonhoeffer that the morning was not wasted. "For Christians the beginning of the day should not be burdened and oppressed with besetting concerns for the day's work. At the threshold of the new day stands the Lord who made it. All the darkness and distraction of the dreams of night retreat before the clear light of Jesus Christ and his wakening World. All unrest, all impurity, all care and anxiety flee before him. Therefore, at the beginning of the day let all distraction and empty talk be silenced and let the first thought and the first word belong to him to whom our whole life belongs" (p. 43). He believed that the day should be started with hymns sung and time in the Word of God. He had some wonderful thoughts on the Psalms: "A psalm that we cannot utter as a prayer, that makes us falter and horrifies us, is a hint to us that here Someone is praying, not we; that the One who is here protesting his innocence, who is invoking God's judgment, who has come to such infinite depths of suffering, is none other than Jesus Christ himself" (p. 45) and "Even if a verse or a psalm is not one's own prayer, it is nevertheless the prayer of another member of the fellowship; so it is quite certainly the prayer of the true Man Jesus Christ and his Body on earth" (p. 47). He sets out very clearly some standards for being in the Word every day and has something to say to those who feel that the day's Scripture reading is too long for them: "The Scripture as a whole and every word, every sentence possesses such multiple relationships with the whole that it is impossible always to keep the whole in view when listening to details. It becomes apparent, therefore, that the whole of Scriptures and hence every passage in it as well far surpasses our understanding...So perhaps one may say that every Scripture reading always has to be somewhat "too long" because it is not merely proverbial and practical wisdom but God's revealing Word in Jesus Christ" (p. 52-53). And in order to ward off any feelings that time in the Word is not meaningful he pens, "What we call our life, our troubles, our guilt, is by no means all of reality; there in the Scriptures is our life, our need, our guilty, and our salvation. Because it pleased God to act for us there, it is only there that we shall be saved. Only in the Holy Scriptures do we learn to know our own history" (p. 54). If that doesn't make you want to dive into the Word, I'm not sure what will.
In reading a Bonhoeffer biography I learned that he had quite a great sense of humor so in his section on singing together I wasn't sure in some parts if he was being a bit cheeky or was serious. He was quite an accomplished musician and says that Christians should always sing together "because in singing together it is possible for them to speak and pray the same Word at the same time...here they can unite in the Word" (p. 59). What made me giggle was a section where he is quite hard on people who try to sing harmonies and then even harder on the "unmusical who cannot sing" (p. 60). We all have all had that person who we find ourselves beside in worship service who is just belting it out, hands in the air, making what can only be called a 'joyful noise'. I can only imagine what Mr. Bonhoeffer would have to say to that person. It made me smile just thinking about it. Unison singing only for him.
Regarding prayer, Bonhoeffer believed "where Christians want to live together under the Word of God they may and they should pray together to God in their own words" (p. 62). We should be interceding for each other and praying for our fellowship but he felt that it should be very structured with a plan laid out for what to pray and one leader who guides the group and ensures that there is not monotony occurring in the same requests being made day after day. But his concluding thought on praying together is we must "bear with the other in patience. Let nothing be done by force; let everything be done in freedom and love" (p. 66).
Eating together was important as well at Finkenwalde (and in any group of Christians I suppose) as Bonhoeffer saw it as their literal 'daily bread' and a chance to acknowledge the Lord as the giver of all gifts (James 1:17). "Christians, in their wholehearted joy in the good gifts of this physical life, acknowledge their Lord as the true giver of all good gifts; and beyond this, as the true Gift; the true Bread of life itself; and finally, as the One who is calling them to the banquet of the Kingdom of God" (p. 67). And we must eat with joy. "God cannot endure that unfestive, mirthless attitude of ours in which we eat our bread in sorrow, with pretentious, busy haste, or even with shame. Through our daily meals He is calling us to rejoice, to keep holiday in the midst of our working day" (p. 68). What a great reminder for me to never take for granted those moments when I can sit and be nourished, especially if I am fortunate enough to be sitting with fellow believers!
I don't 'work' in the sense that I don't leave the house to go to a designated job but I am a stay-at-home mom who considers it one of the greatest blessings of my life that I am able to stay home and be here for my children almost all the time. A portion of this chapter entitled 'The Day's Work' really spoke to me. "In work the Christian learns to allow himself to be limited by the task, and thus for him the work becomes a remedy against the indolence and sloth of the flesh. The passions of the flesh die in the world of things. But this can happen only where the Christian breaks through the "it" to the "Thou," which is God, who bids him work and makes that work a means of liberation from himself" (p. 70). But we must start the day off properly: "The prayer of the morning will determine the day. Wasted time, which we are ashamed of, temptations that beset us, weakness and listlessness in our work, disorder and indiscipline in our thinking and our relations with other people very frequently have their cause in the neglect of the morning prayer" (p. 71). The quick prayer offered up by a mother of young ones before her feet hit the floor at 6am may not be what Bonhoeffer envisioned, but I know for sure the difference in a day when I have pleaded for love, patience and grace before I see those little, smiling faces.
The Day Alone
In this section of the book, Bonhoeffer offers his thoughts on the connection between being in community and the ability to be comfortably alone. "We recognize, then, that only as we are within fellowship can we be alone, and only he that is alone can live in the fellowship. Only in the fellowship do we learn to be rightly alone and only in aloneness do we learn to live rightly in the fellowship" (p. 77-78). We must embrace silence as the "stillness of the individual under the Word of God" (p. 79). We wait for God and come from His Word with a blessing. "If we have learned to be silent before the Word, we shall also learn to manage our silence and our speech during the day" (p. 80).
Our alone time should be for three purposes:
1) Meditation on Scripture
Bonhoeffer's thoughts here were very meaningful to me and really gave me a new freedom in my time spent in the Word. "In our mediation we ponder the chosen text on the strength of the promise that it has something utterly personal to say to us for the day and for our Christian life, that it is not only God's Word for the Church, but also God's Word for us individually...we read God's Word as God's Word for us...Often we are so burdened and overwhelmed with other thoughts, images, and concerns that it may take a long time before God's Word has swept all else aside and come through. But it surely will come, just as surely as God Himself has come to men and will come again" (p. 82). We want to spend time in Word so it becomes such a part of stirring us and operating us we are not even conscious of it. "Above all, it is not necessary that we should have any unexpected, extraordinary experiences in mediation. This can happen, but if it does not, it is not a sign that the meditation period has been useless. Not only at the beginning, but repeatedly, there will be times when we feel a great spiritual dryness and apathy, an aversion, even an inability to meditate. We dare not be balked by such experiences. Above all, we must not allow them to keep us from adhering to our mediation period with patience and fidelity" (p. 83-84). What freedom to me to hear that if I don't feel a fresh 'encounter' or 'word' during my devotion time it should not be considered time spent unfruitfully.
2) Prayer
I have noticed, as I'm sure you have as well, that as someone is increasingly a student and lover of the Word of God, so their audible prayers become more and more filled with Scripture. "Prayer means nothing else but the readiness and willingness to receive and appropriate the Word, and, what is more, to accept it in one's personal situation, particular tasks, decisions, sins, and temptations" (p. 84). Meditation and prayer will often begin to naturally flow together. "It is one of the particular difficulties of mediation that our thoughts are likely to wander and go their own way, toward other persons or to some events in our life. Much as this may distress and shame us again and again, we must not lose heart and become anxious, or even conclude that meditation is really not something for us. When this happens it is often a help not to snatch back our thoughts convulsively, but quite calmly to incorporate into our prayers the people and the events to which our thoughts keep straying and thus in all patience return to the starting point of the meditation" (p. 85).
3) Intercession
"A Christian fellowship lives and exists by the intercession of its members for one another, or it collapses...There is no dislike, no personal tension, no estrangement that cannot be overcome by intercession as far as our side of it is concerned...To make intercession means to grant our brother the same right that we have received, namely, to stand before Christ and share in him mercy" (p. 86).
Ministry
The focus here is our ministry to others in the fellowship. I loved this chapter of the book and wished that each section was its own chapter unto itself. It would make an incredible sermon series for sure! The pages in this part of my book are so marked up and the margins are full of my thoughts but I will try not to copy out the entire chapter here.
Who could not use a strong reminder from time to time to hold their tongue? Bonhoeffer sees holding one's tongue as a form of ministering to others and, although I never thought of it that way as I strive to bridle my tongue, I would definitely agree. Pardon the long quote here but I could not possibly omit any of this wonder thought: "Where the discipline of the tongue is practiced right from the beginning, each individual will make a matchless discovery. He will be able to cease from constantly scrutinizing the other person, judging him, condemning him, putting him in his particular place where he can gain ascendency over him and thus doing violence to him as a person. Now he can allow the brother to exist as a completely free person, as God made him to be. His view expands and, to his amazement, for the first time he sees, shining above his brethren, the richness of God's creative glory. God did not make this person as I would have made him. He did not give him to me as a brother for me to dominate and control, but in order that I might find above him the Creator. Now the other person, in the freedom with which he was created, becomes the occasion of joy, whereas before he was only a nuisance and an affliction. God does will that I should fashion the other person according to the image that seems good to me, that is, in my own image; rather in his very freedom from me God made this person in His image. I can never know beforehand how God's image should appear in others. That image always manifests a completely new and unique form that comes solely from God's free and sovereign creation. To me the sight may seem strange, even ungodly. But God creates every man in the likeness of His Son, the Crucified. After all, even that image certainly looked strange and ungodly to be before I grasped it" (p. 93).
Our ministry of meekness to others comes in considering ourselves the greatest of all sinners. "There can be no genuine acknowledgment of sin that does not lead to this extremity. If my sinfulness appears to me to be in any way smaller or less detestable in comparison with the sins of others, I am still not recognizing my sinfulness at all...Brotherly love will find any number of extenuations for the sins of others; only for my sin is there no apology whatsoever" (p. 96)
Who of us does not know how our heart and mind has been helped by a brother or sister who simply took the time to listen? We must listen with our full ear, not half an ear with presumptions about what the other person is going to say. "He who can no longer listen to his brother will soon be no longer listening to God either...our attitude toward our brother only reflects our relationship to God" (p. 98).
We must always be ready to help ("We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. God will be constantly crossing our paths and canceling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions" p. 99) and bear with others ("It is the fellowship of the Cross to experience the burden of the other. If one does not experience it, the fellowship he belongs to is not Christian...To bear the burden of the other person means involvement with the created reality of the other, to accept it and affirm it, and, in bearing with it, to break through to the point where we take joy in it" p. 101).
One ministry of which the author spoke and seems to be something that is rare in our churches today is proclaiming the Word. He discusses the fear that arises in the one who feels they have been given the responsibility the speak to another but says "If we cannot bring ourselves to utter it, we shall have to ask ourselves whether we are not still seeing our brother garbed in his human dignity which we are afraid to touch, and thus forgetting the most important thing, that he, too, no matter how old or highly placed or distinguished he may be, is still a man like us, a sinner in crying need of God's grace. He has the same great necessities that we have, and needs help, encouragement, and forgiveness as we do" (p. 105). This is a very challenging portion of the book and I made many notes along the line of knowing that what he was suggesting is right but so tough to put into practice. It requires both the willingness of the person speaking the proclamation to come, with deepest humility, outside of their zone of comfort for the good of their fellow Christian and the receiver of the proclamation being open in their heart and mind to hearing what is being shared with them. "The more we learn to allow others to speak the Word to us, to accept humbly and gratefully even severe reproaches and admonitions, the more free and objective will we be in speaking ourselves...the humble person will stick both to truth and to love...Nothing can be more cruel than the tenderness that consigns another to his sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe rebuke that calls a brother back from the path of sin. It is a ministry of mercy, an ultimate offer of genuine fellowship, when we allow nothing but God's Word to stand between us, judging and succoring" (p. 106-107).
Confession and Communion
One thing that really draws me to Bonhoeffer's theology on fellowship is his focus on us all being equal...as sinners. As I am, admittedly, not part of a fellowship in which there is open and full confession of our sins, I can only imagine the love and understanding and compassion each member would have for the others. "The final break-through to fellowship does not occur, because, though they have fellowship with one another as believers and as devout people, they do not have fellowship as the undevout, as sinners...Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous. So we remain alone with our sin, living in lies and hypocrisy. The fact is that we are sinners!...This message is liberation through truth. You can hide nothing from God. The mask you wear before men will do you no good before Him. He wants to see you as you are, He wants to be gracious to you. You do not have to go on lying to yourself and your brothers, as if you were without sin; you can dare to be a sinner. Thank God for that; He loves the sinner but He hates the sin" (p. 110-111). The freedom to be released from our sins and grow away from them and closer to God is what makes this so attractive to me. We must bring sin out into the open in our communities. "Sin wants to remain unknown. It shuns the light. In the darkness of the unexpressed it poisons the whole being of a person. This can happen even in the midst of a pious community" (p. 112). We want our confession to bring us closer to the Cross. "We cannot find the Cross of Jesus if we shrink from going to the place where it is to be found, namely, the public death of the sinner" (p. 114). Confession will bring us new life. "What happened to us in baptism is bestowed upon as anew in confession. We are delivered out of darkness into the kingdom of Jesus Christ. That is joyful news. Confession is the renewal of the joy of baptism" (p. 115). And here is, to me, a very powerful and sobering thought: "Why should we not find it easier to go to a brother than to the holy God? But if we do, we must ask ourselves whether we have not often been deceiving ourselves with our confession of sin to God, whether we have not rather been confessing our sins to ourselves and also granting ourselves absolution. And is not the reason perhaps for our countless relapses and the feebleness of our Christian obedience to be found precisely in the fact that we are living on self-forgiveness and not a real forgiveness? Self-forgiveness can never lead to a breach with sin; this can be accomplished only by the judging and pardoning Word of God itself...A man who confesses his sins in the presence of a brother knows that he is no longer alone with himself; he experiences the presence of God in the reality of the other person" (p. 115-116). I will confess here of being guilty of this offence. I have to wonder how many sins I have confessed in the past that were not confessed to God but simply to make myself feel better. This is concerning to me but if I move forward in awareness of this possibility I think I will be able to guard well against it. Bonhoeffer says that those who are most aware of their own sinfulness and need for forgiveness are your best choice when looking for someone to whom you can confess.
So, that is my summation and highlights of this wonderful Life Together. Going through it yet again as I composed this (so my third time through) I am even more convinced of the great value of this book to those in fellowship in the church. Read it, absorb it and put it into practice!
Yours is the day, yours is also the night - Psalm 74:16
My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins - James 5:19-20
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words - Romans 8:26
I fear so deeply that I am not going to do this book justice. The treasures that it contains can be attested by the amount of comments I wrote in the margins. A lot of 'YES', 'great explanation' and 'if only we could all do this' litters the pages. There are only five chapters in this small book and I will try to pull out the brightest points just for the sake of sharing but I implore you to read this book and just try not to be challenged about your role within your church.
Community
This first chapter can be summed up as Bonhoeffer's view on how Christians should 'be' together. It's all about being "through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ" (p. 21). If we are living our lives as redeemed people who understand our sinful nature but also our righteousness gained through Christ dying for us, we will live "wholly by God's Word pronounced upon [us], whether that Word declares [us] guilty or innocent" (p. 22). "The Christian is dependent upon the Word of God spoken to him...He is as alert as possible to this Word. Because he daily hungers and thirsts for righteousness, he daily desires the redeeming Word. And it can come only from the outside. In himself he is destitute and dead. Help must come from the outside, and it has come and comes daily and anew in the Word of Jesus Christ, bringing redemption, righteousness, innocence, and blessedness" (p. 22). I think what made me love this thought so much is it flies in the face of our current culture where we are told to find the answers and strength inside ourselves, no matter what we are facing. This leaves so many people disappointed in their life - unhappy and unfulfilled - but to know that we have the answer to that should bring us great joy and hope as we share the truth with those around us. This also leads to the idea that "the Christian needs another Christian who speaks God's Word to him. He needs him again and again when he becomes uncertain and discouraged, for by himself he cannot help himself without belying the truth" (p. 23). We cannot be an island. We need each other in fellowship. This will lead to brotherly love in Christ. "He who looks upon his brother should know that he will be eternally united with him in Jesus Christ" (p. 24). This one sentence was extremely convicting for me and it sat on my mind for many days. How can I think that it's okay to be frustrated with or unkind to or judgmental toward another brother or sister in Christ, knowing that they are part of me? That one incredibly powerful link between us that is Jesus Christ should lead me to treat them as if they were part of my own flesh.
Another section that I really appreciated was about when we are in the Christian community we should not be seeking ideals but rather be thankful for our fellow Christians. "A community which cannot bear and cannot survive [the shock of disillusionment], which insists upon keeping its illusion when it should be shattered, permanently loses in that moment the promise of Christian community. Sooner or later it will collapse. Every human wish dream that is injected into the Christian community is a hindrance to genuine community and must be banished if genuine community is to survive. He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial" (p. 27). I think that Bonhoeffer is saying that God has decided beforehand what health in our Christian community should look like and how it should manifest and when we feel that we know better than him how and through whom that health should come about, we are trying to dethrone Him as the head of our community.
One of the most powerful things we can be within our Christian community is thankful. "We do not complain of what God does not give us; rather we thank God for what He does give us daily...Only he who gives thanks for the little things receives the big things. We prevent God from giving us the great spiritual gifts He has in store for us, because we do not give thanks for daily gifts...We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not small) gifts. How can God entrust great things to one who will not thankfully receive from Him the little things?" (p. 28-29). And this was a very powerful point for me: "If we do not give thanks daily for the Christian fellowship in which we have been placed, even where there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith, and difficulty; if on the contrary, we only keep complaining to God that everything is so paltry and petty, so far from what we expected, then we hinder God from letting our fellowship grow according to the measure and riches which are there for us all in Jesus Christ" (p. 29). The reason that this spoke to me is I made a decision to attend the women's study at my home church and left an amazing group of ladies at my previous church. I have not connected with this new group of women as much as I would like and have not come even close to forming bonds of friendship and trust like I had before. I realized when I read this quote that I was spending my 'thought time' about this new group comparing it to the old group, rather than looking at them as a fresh opportunity for fellowship and new bonds. I had completely neglected to pray for that fellowship to grow but rather was grumbling (aloud and in my heart) about how it was not meeting my expectations. And the result was that I had no fruitful fellowship. Mr. Bonhoeffer told me why.
Within our community we must have love. But we must understand and be able to recognize the difference between human love and spiritual love. "Human love is directed to the other person for his own sake, spiritual love loves him for Christ's sake...Human love cannot tolerate the dissolution of fellowship that has become false for the sake of genuine fellowship, and human love cannot love an enemy, that is, one who seriously and stubbornly resists it" (p. 34). Spiritual love takes over where human love can no longer continue because its unfulfilled desire turns into hatred and contempt. "Because spiritual love does not desire but rather serves, it loves an enemy as a brother. It originates neither in the brother nor in the enemy but in Christ and his Word. Human love can never understand spiritual love, for spiritual love is from above; it is something completely strange, new, and incomprehensible to all earthly love" (p. 35). Part of this love is realizing that I cannot save anyone, only Christ can do that and I "must release the other person from every attempt of mine to regulate, coerce, and dominate him with my love. The other person needs to retain his independence of me; to be loved for what he is, as one for whom Christ became man, died, and rose again, for whom Christ bought forgiveness of sins and eternal life...I must leave him to his freedom to be Christ's; I must meet him only as the person that he already is in Christ's eyes" (p. 36, italics mine).
The Day with Others
Deitrich Bonhoeffer spent some of his life in a very unique situation. He was a founding member of the Confessing Church in Germany during the rise of Nazism. The Confessing Church formed an underground seminary at Finkenwalde where he lived in relative isolation with his students. Thus, standards for how they would spend their days together had to be developed and put into effect. It was very important to Bonhoeffer that the morning was not wasted. "For Christians the beginning of the day should not be burdened and oppressed with besetting concerns for the day's work. At the threshold of the new day stands the Lord who made it. All the darkness and distraction of the dreams of night retreat before the clear light of Jesus Christ and his wakening World. All unrest, all impurity, all care and anxiety flee before him. Therefore, at the beginning of the day let all distraction and empty talk be silenced and let the first thought and the first word belong to him to whom our whole life belongs" (p. 43). He believed that the day should be started with hymns sung and time in the Word of God. He had some wonderful thoughts on the Psalms: "A psalm that we cannot utter as a prayer, that makes us falter and horrifies us, is a hint to us that here Someone is praying, not we; that the One who is here protesting his innocence, who is invoking God's judgment, who has come to such infinite depths of suffering, is none other than Jesus Christ himself" (p. 45) and "Even if a verse or a psalm is not one's own prayer, it is nevertheless the prayer of another member of the fellowship; so it is quite certainly the prayer of the true Man Jesus Christ and his Body on earth" (p. 47). He sets out very clearly some standards for being in the Word every day and has something to say to those who feel that the day's Scripture reading is too long for them: "The Scripture as a whole and every word, every sentence possesses such multiple relationships with the whole that it is impossible always to keep the whole in view when listening to details. It becomes apparent, therefore, that the whole of Scriptures and hence every passage in it as well far surpasses our understanding...So perhaps one may say that every Scripture reading always has to be somewhat "too long" because it is not merely proverbial and practical wisdom but God's revealing Word in Jesus Christ" (p. 52-53). And in order to ward off any feelings that time in the Word is not meaningful he pens, "What we call our life, our troubles, our guilt, is by no means all of reality; there in the Scriptures is our life, our need, our guilty, and our salvation. Because it pleased God to act for us there, it is only there that we shall be saved. Only in the Holy Scriptures do we learn to know our own history" (p. 54). If that doesn't make you want to dive into the Word, I'm not sure what will.
In reading a Bonhoeffer biography I learned that he had quite a great sense of humor so in his section on singing together I wasn't sure in some parts if he was being a bit cheeky or was serious. He was quite an accomplished musician and says that Christians should always sing together "because in singing together it is possible for them to speak and pray the same Word at the same time...here they can unite in the Word" (p. 59). What made me giggle was a section where he is quite hard on people who try to sing harmonies and then even harder on the "unmusical who cannot sing" (p. 60). We all have all had that person who we find ourselves beside in worship service who is just belting it out, hands in the air, making what can only be called a 'joyful noise'. I can only imagine what Mr. Bonhoeffer would have to say to that person. It made me smile just thinking about it. Unison singing only for him.
Regarding prayer, Bonhoeffer believed "where Christians want to live together under the Word of God they may and they should pray together to God in their own words" (p. 62). We should be interceding for each other and praying for our fellowship but he felt that it should be very structured with a plan laid out for what to pray and one leader who guides the group and ensures that there is not monotony occurring in the same requests being made day after day. But his concluding thought on praying together is we must "bear with the other in patience. Let nothing be done by force; let everything be done in freedom and love" (p. 66).
Eating together was important as well at Finkenwalde (and in any group of Christians I suppose) as Bonhoeffer saw it as their literal 'daily bread' and a chance to acknowledge the Lord as the giver of all gifts (James 1:17). "Christians, in their wholehearted joy in the good gifts of this physical life, acknowledge their Lord as the true giver of all good gifts; and beyond this, as the true Gift; the true Bread of life itself; and finally, as the One who is calling them to the banquet of the Kingdom of God" (p. 67). And we must eat with joy. "God cannot endure that unfestive, mirthless attitude of ours in which we eat our bread in sorrow, with pretentious, busy haste, or even with shame. Through our daily meals He is calling us to rejoice, to keep holiday in the midst of our working day" (p. 68). What a great reminder for me to never take for granted those moments when I can sit and be nourished, especially if I am fortunate enough to be sitting with fellow believers!
I don't 'work' in the sense that I don't leave the house to go to a designated job but I am a stay-at-home mom who considers it one of the greatest blessings of my life that I am able to stay home and be here for my children almost all the time. A portion of this chapter entitled 'The Day's Work' really spoke to me. "In work the Christian learns to allow himself to be limited by the task, and thus for him the work becomes a remedy against the indolence and sloth of the flesh. The passions of the flesh die in the world of things. But this can happen only where the Christian breaks through the "it" to the "Thou," which is God, who bids him work and makes that work a means of liberation from himself" (p. 70). But we must start the day off properly: "The prayer of the morning will determine the day. Wasted time, which we are ashamed of, temptations that beset us, weakness and listlessness in our work, disorder and indiscipline in our thinking and our relations with other people very frequently have their cause in the neglect of the morning prayer" (p. 71). The quick prayer offered up by a mother of young ones before her feet hit the floor at 6am may not be what Bonhoeffer envisioned, but I know for sure the difference in a day when I have pleaded for love, patience and grace before I see those little, smiling faces.
The Day Alone
In this section of the book, Bonhoeffer offers his thoughts on the connection between being in community and the ability to be comfortably alone. "We recognize, then, that only as we are within fellowship can we be alone, and only he that is alone can live in the fellowship. Only in the fellowship do we learn to be rightly alone and only in aloneness do we learn to live rightly in the fellowship" (p. 77-78). We must embrace silence as the "stillness of the individual under the Word of God" (p. 79). We wait for God and come from His Word with a blessing. "If we have learned to be silent before the Word, we shall also learn to manage our silence and our speech during the day" (p. 80).
Our alone time should be for three purposes:
1) Meditation on Scripture
Bonhoeffer's thoughts here were very meaningful to me and really gave me a new freedom in my time spent in the Word. "In our mediation we ponder the chosen text on the strength of the promise that it has something utterly personal to say to us for the day and for our Christian life, that it is not only God's Word for the Church, but also God's Word for us individually...we read God's Word as God's Word for us...Often we are so burdened and overwhelmed with other thoughts, images, and concerns that it may take a long time before God's Word has swept all else aside and come through. But it surely will come, just as surely as God Himself has come to men and will come again" (p. 82). We want to spend time in Word so it becomes such a part of stirring us and operating us we are not even conscious of it. "Above all, it is not necessary that we should have any unexpected, extraordinary experiences in mediation. This can happen, but if it does not, it is not a sign that the meditation period has been useless. Not only at the beginning, but repeatedly, there will be times when we feel a great spiritual dryness and apathy, an aversion, even an inability to meditate. We dare not be balked by such experiences. Above all, we must not allow them to keep us from adhering to our mediation period with patience and fidelity" (p. 83-84). What freedom to me to hear that if I don't feel a fresh 'encounter' or 'word' during my devotion time it should not be considered time spent unfruitfully.
2) Prayer
I have noticed, as I'm sure you have as well, that as someone is increasingly a student and lover of the Word of God, so their audible prayers become more and more filled with Scripture. "Prayer means nothing else but the readiness and willingness to receive and appropriate the Word, and, what is more, to accept it in one's personal situation, particular tasks, decisions, sins, and temptations" (p. 84). Meditation and prayer will often begin to naturally flow together. "It is one of the particular difficulties of mediation that our thoughts are likely to wander and go their own way, toward other persons or to some events in our life. Much as this may distress and shame us again and again, we must not lose heart and become anxious, or even conclude that meditation is really not something for us. When this happens it is often a help not to snatch back our thoughts convulsively, but quite calmly to incorporate into our prayers the people and the events to which our thoughts keep straying and thus in all patience return to the starting point of the meditation" (p. 85).
3) Intercession
"A Christian fellowship lives and exists by the intercession of its members for one another, or it collapses...There is no dislike, no personal tension, no estrangement that cannot be overcome by intercession as far as our side of it is concerned...To make intercession means to grant our brother the same right that we have received, namely, to stand before Christ and share in him mercy" (p. 86).
Ministry
The focus here is our ministry to others in the fellowship. I loved this chapter of the book and wished that each section was its own chapter unto itself. It would make an incredible sermon series for sure! The pages in this part of my book are so marked up and the margins are full of my thoughts but I will try not to copy out the entire chapter here.
Who could not use a strong reminder from time to time to hold their tongue? Bonhoeffer sees holding one's tongue as a form of ministering to others and, although I never thought of it that way as I strive to bridle my tongue, I would definitely agree. Pardon the long quote here but I could not possibly omit any of this wonder thought: "Where the discipline of the tongue is practiced right from the beginning, each individual will make a matchless discovery. He will be able to cease from constantly scrutinizing the other person, judging him, condemning him, putting him in his particular place where he can gain ascendency over him and thus doing violence to him as a person. Now he can allow the brother to exist as a completely free person, as God made him to be. His view expands and, to his amazement, for the first time he sees, shining above his brethren, the richness of God's creative glory. God did not make this person as I would have made him. He did not give him to me as a brother for me to dominate and control, but in order that I might find above him the Creator. Now the other person, in the freedom with which he was created, becomes the occasion of joy, whereas before he was only a nuisance and an affliction. God does will that I should fashion the other person according to the image that seems good to me, that is, in my own image; rather in his very freedom from me God made this person in His image. I can never know beforehand how God's image should appear in others. That image always manifests a completely new and unique form that comes solely from God's free and sovereign creation. To me the sight may seem strange, even ungodly. But God creates every man in the likeness of His Son, the Crucified. After all, even that image certainly looked strange and ungodly to be before I grasped it" (p. 93).
Our ministry of meekness to others comes in considering ourselves the greatest of all sinners. "There can be no genuine acknowledgment of sin that does not lead to this extremity. If my sinfulness appears to me to be in any way smaller or less detestable in comparison with the sins of others, I am still not recognizing my sinfulness at all...Brotherly love will find any number of extenuations for the sins of others; only for my sin is there no apology whatsoever" (p. 96)
Who of us does not know how our heart and mind has been helped by a brother or sister who simply took the time to listen? We must listen with our full ear, not half an ear with presumptions about what the other person is going to say. "He who can no longer listen to his brother will soon be no longer listening to God either...our attitude toward our brother only reflects our relationship to God" (p. 98).
We must always be ready to help ("We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. God will be constantly crossing our paths and canceling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions" p. 99) and bear with others ("It is the fellowship of the Cross to experience the burden of the other. If one does not experience it, the fellowship he belongs to is not Christian...To bear the burden of the other person means involvement with the created reality of the other, to accept it and affirm it, and, in bearing with it, to break through to the point where we take joy in it" p. 101).
One ministry of which the author spoke and seems to be something that is rare in our churches today is proclaiming the Word. He discusses the fear that arises in the one who feels they have been given the responsibility the speak to another but says "If we cannot bring ourselves to utter it, we shall have to ask ourselves whether we are not still seeing our brother garbed in his human dignity which we are afraid to touch, and thus forgetting the most important thing, that he, too, no matter how old or highly placed or distinguished he may be, is still a man like us, a sinner in crying need of God's grace. He has the same great necessities that we have, and needs help, encouragement, and forgiveness as we do" (p. 105). This is a very challenging portion of the book and I made many notes along the line of knowing that what he was suggesting is right but so tough to put into practice. It requires both the willingness of the person speaking the proclamation to come, with deepest humility, outside of their zone of comfort for the good of their fellow Christian and the receiver of the proclamation being open in their heart and mind to hearing what is being shared with them. "The more we learn to allow others to speak the Word to us, to accept humbly and gratefully even severe reproaches and admonitions, the more free and objective will we be in speaking ourselves...the humble person will stick both to truth and to love...Nothing can be more cruel than the tenderness that consigns another to his sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe rebuke that calls a brother back from the path of sin. It is a ministry of mercy, an ultimate offer of genuine fellowship, when we allow nothing but God's Word to stand between us, judging and succoring" (p. 106-107).
Confession and Communion
One thing that really draws me to Bonhoeffer's theology on fellowship is his focus on us all being equal...as sinners. As I am, admittedly, not part of a fellowship in which there is open and full confession of our sins, I can only imagine the love and understanding and compassion each member would have for the others. "The final break-through to fellowship does not occur, because, though they have fellowship with one another as believers and as devout people, they do not have fellowship as the undevout, as sinners...Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous. So we remain alone with our sin, living in lies and hypocrisy. The fact is that we are sinners!...This message is liberation through truth. You can hide nothing from God. The mask you wear before men will do you no good before Him. He wants to see you as you are, He wants to be gracious to you. You do not have to go on lying to yourself and your brothers, as if you were without sin; you can dare to be a sinner. Thank God for that; He loves the sinner but He hates the sin" (p. 110-111). The freedom to be released from our sins and grow away from them and closer to God is what makes this so attractive to me. We must bring sin out into the open in our communities. "Sin wants to remain unknown. It shuns the light. In the darkness of the unexpressed it poisons the whole being of a person. This can happen even in the midst of a pious community" (p. 112). We want our confession to bring us closer to the Cross. "We cannot find the Cross of Jesus if we shrink from going to the place where it is to be found, namely, the public death of the sinner" (p. 114). Confession will bring us new life. "What happened to us in baptism is bestowed upon as anew in confession. We are delivered out of darkness into the kingdom of Jesus Christ. That is joyful news. Confession is the renewal of the joy of baptism" (p. 115). And here is, to me, a very powerful and sobering thought: "Why should we not find it easier to go to a brother than to the holy God? But if we do, we must ask ourselves whether we have not often been deceiving ourselves with our confession of sin to God, whether we have not rather been confessing our sins to ourselves and also granting ourselves absolution. And is not the reason perhaps for our countless relapses and the feebleness of our Christian obedience to be found precisely in the fact that we are living on self-forgiveness and not a real forgiveness? Self-forgiveness can never lead to a breach with sin; this can be accomplished only by the judging and pardoning Word of God itself...A man who confesses his sins in the presence of a brother knows that he is no longer alone with himself; he experiences the presence of God in the reality of the other person" (p. 115-116). I will confess here of being guilty of this offence. I have to wonder how many sins I have confessed in the past that were not confessed to God but simply to make myself feel better. This is concerning to me but if I move forward in awareness of this possibility I think I will be able to guard well against it. Bonhoeffer says that those who are most aware of their own sinfulness and need for forgiveness are your best choice when looking for someone to whom you can confess.
So, that is my summation and highlights of this wonderful Life Together. Going through it yet again as I composed this (so my third time through) I am even more convinced of the great value of this book to those in fellowship in the church. Read it, absorb it and put it into practice!
Yours is the day, yours is also the night - Psalm 74:16
My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins - James 5:19-20
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words - Romans 8:26
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
"Future Men" by Douglas Wilson
I'm always looking for books on how to raise boys in a way that will make them strong, Christian men and wonderful husbands and this seemed right up that alley. Admittedly, that is the focus of this book but some of the philosophy and methodology left me feeling a bit cold. There were some moments of brightness but in some areas I found myself thinking "Oh come on! Really?" Alas, I will try to tease out the parts that will be useful both to me and those reading this.
At the start, the author explains "faith is central in bringing up boys, but it is important to remember that the object of faith is not the boy. It is faith in God, faith in His promises, faith in His wisdom. Faith concerns the boy, and the boy can see that it concerns him. Parents are to believe God for their sons, which is a very different thing than believing their sons" (p. 11). There is a major focus on Proverbs throughout the book as the guiding instruction for how boys should be and what we, as parents, should expect of their behaviour. Also, Jesus is to be the "ultimate pattern for friendship, for courage, for faithfulness, and integrity" (p. 12). As He should be!
The chapters at the beginning of the book deal with masculinity and what that means from a Biblical perspective. Wilson says that the roles involved in Biblical masculinity are:
- lords: boys should be in training to become men who exercise dominion and they should learn to be adventurous and visionary (p. 15)
- husbandmen: once the boys have fulfilled their job as lords and have conquered, they should settle down. To do this well they need to learn to be patient, careful and hard-working (p. 15)
- saviors: boys need to learn to be strong, sacrificial, courageous and good. "Men who follow Jesus Christ, the dragon-slayer, must themselves become lesser dragon-slayers" (p. 16)
- sage: boys must learn wisdom through studying, learning and intellectual discussion. They are to be teachable, studious and thoughtful (p. 16-17)
- glory-bearers: boys must learn to be representative, responsible and holy as they grow into men who are the glory of God (1 Cor. 11:7) (p. 17-18)
In a discussion about finding a healthy balance for boys that is somewhere between effeminacy and macho-man he says that we must do exactly what God requires of us with our boys and that can only come from knowing the Word ourselves.
In a call for fathers, Wilson says that our boys are threatened from two directions, their inner sin and a culture that is hostile toward Biblical masculinity and is trying to exterminate it (p. 27). One of the ways we are to counteract this is through discipline. "Refusal to discipline amounts to hatred and is simply a slow, cruel way for a man to disown his son, clearly marking him out as illegitimate" (p. 28). I found this a bit of a harsh statement but when put into the context of the importance of disciplining boys in a way that lays a foundation of respect I could understand a bit better what the author was trying to say. "The point of discipline is to gain an audience, and there is no sense in gaining an audience if you then do not say anything. Fathers are to teach, and they are to teach receptive sons...A godly home should contain discipline, not retribution" (p. 29). His point here is that future men are future husbands and "knowledge of what a godly husband is should surround him from the time he is a small boy...love [is] the central duty of husbands...a good husband knows how to give love and he knows how to receive respect [from his wife]. Jut as he ought to love his wife, so he needs to love his wife" (p 32).
Mr. Wilson believes, and I would agree, that there is no age that is too early to begin teaching our boys proper doctrine. One of the most important doctrinal concepts is the sovereignty of God. "The Bible teaches that God controls everything, and nothing builds a young man's spine more thoroughly than this doctrine" (p. 47). "Our boys need to learn humility, and they also need to learn boldness and courage. The only way to accomplish this in balance is through a grasp of who God is" (p. 49). The other piece of doctrine the author focuses on is what he calls 'optimism' or a Godward meekness. "The virtue or grace spoken of is a spiritual meekness, humility, and lowliness...Our Lord himself is our example. He is gentle. But such meekness or gentleness is not inconsistent with strength...meekness means we must have a teachable spirit...we must be ready to submit to the providential will of God as revealed in events, and we must be ready to submit to the revealed will of God as displayed in His Word" (p. 49-50). I know that I would love my boys to be people who lived this way and I would be very excited to give them to their wives knowing that they will run their homes based on these doctrines.
In a short chapter called 'Secret Sin, Tolerated Sin', we are told "Godly parents do not have the luxury of wanting to "not know" about sin their sons may have drifted into...one of their regular prayers should be that god would give them any information they need to know in order to be good parents...Boys should grow up knowing that sin cannot ever be truly covered up" (p. 53). Using Scriptures like Num. 32:23, Heb. 4:13, Luke 12:1-3 the author shows that sin may temporarily be secret but God will ensure that it is publicized at some point. He believes that we tolerate open sins in most homes in the form of verbal sin. We often speak unkindly, hastily, spitefully or rudely to those with whom we live in close quarters and it is brushed off as someone just having a bad moment but this should not be allowed.
The next portion of the book deals with specific areas of our boys' lives and how we are to direct them in each area. In speaking on 'Laziness and Hard Labor' Wilson pulls many points from Proverbs (6:6-11, 10:26, 13:4) to show that boys need to be taught how to do hard physical work. "Work is a public activity and should be publicly evaluated. A boy steeped in laziness will be evaluated roughly, and should be" (p. 61). He says that laziness left alone will lead to disgrace and deceit. In order for boys to not fall into a pattern of laziness they must be taught how to properly prepare to work as well. "Laziness is not rest; it does not prepare for work. It only prepares for more laziness" (p. 64). A chapter entitled 'Money Paths and Traps' teaches the reader that we show our boys the importance of honouring God with every cent they have, from saving to spending. Integrity with their money should be the focus. In order to instruct our boys in how to be honest with money we should have work for them in the home that is considered chores but then things that they get paid to do (p. 72). This gives us as parents a chance to ensure "he grows up to be a worshipper with his money first and a consumer last" (p. 72).
In a great chapter about Christian liberty, Mr. Wilson explains how we much have a strong understanding of what this means because "teenaged boys like liberty because they like something to swing around on the end of a rope" (p. 75). He explains that "liberty in Christ means freedom from guilt, God's judgment, and the condemnation of moral law" (p. 76) and is not something that we can use to reinstate practices that were at one time rejected. "The point is not to drink or smoke or dance according to our own whims, in the light of our own wisdom, but to do whatever we do before the Lord, with the increase of joy and holiness obvious to all. Our guide on how this is to be done is the Bible, and not our pet evangelical traditions" (p. 77). Parents are given to sons in order to guide them in making judgment calls and learning to be slaves to nothing or no one other than God.
One of my favourite parts of Future Men was in a chapter entitled 'Giants, Dragons, and Books'. The author believes that exposing our boys to Middle Earth and Narnia and such allows them to see the Bible as the fantastic book that it truly is with many great stories and adventures. "[I]f our sons are to be prepared for the world God made, then their imaginations must be fed and nourished with tales about the Red Cross Knight, Jim in the apple barrel, Sam Gamgee carrying Frodo up the mountain, Beowulf tearing off Grendel's arm, and Trumpkin fighting for Aslan while still not believing in him. This type of story is not allowed by Scripture; this type of story is required by Scripture. The Bible cannot be read rightly without creating a deep impulse to tell stories which carry the scriptural truth about the kind of war we are in down through the ages" (p. 102).
I also appreciated a chapter on friends and friendship and how to watch for signs of healthy or unhealthy relationships. "In order for the friendship to be healthy, the focal point of the friendship, the point of common interest, needs to be healthy as well" (p. 119). He says that not all friends need to be Christians but the standard situation and majority should be. We should not want friends for our boys who seem emotionally needy or manipulative or who are flatterers but rather good friends will be encouraging, will push and challenge and will show our sons the kind of friend that they themselves strive to be. "Training a son in his friendships is another important way to prepare him for marriage. He will learn the meaning of true companionship" (p. 122). Finally the author makes no bones about the fact that "if an existing friendship proves spiritually harmful, parents should be willing to bring a friendship to an end" (p. 124).
In discussing fighting, sports and competition, Mr. Wilson says "every aspect of manhood should start in boyhood. This means that boys should learn when, where, and how to fight" (p. 125). Scripture will guide us in any of these situations. "There can be no mistake about the personal demeanor required of Christians. If someone is an enemy, then we must love them. If someone curses us, then we must bless them. If someone hates us, then we must do good to them. If someone spitefully uses us and persecutes us, we must pray for them. These are the things which a soldier can do toward the enemy he fights, and a policeman can do to the criminal he restrains. A boy needs to learn how to make the distinction" (p. 129). I liked what the author said regarding allowing boys to play at war because we are often training them to do what men may be called to do. "This means that a boy who is is playing with a toy gun should be trained to never use it more freely simply because it is not real. A small boy who is playing war with his brothers should be pointing and blasting away with the best of them. But if a lady from church comes over to visit the young boy's mother, and is standing in the foyer, and the boy comes up and tries to blow her away, the young warrior's mother should haul him off to the bedroom to be tried for war crimes. The visitor was a civilian and noncombatant, and Mother should be schooled in the principles of just war theory, and she should enforce the rules" (p. 131). This made me smile but it was also helpful for me to have some guidelines for this kind of play as previous to reading this book I didn't know how I should feel or what my standards should be in this area.
Two chapters on 'Girls and Sex' and 'Courtship and Betrothal' were well written and I underlined a lot in them that I have no doubt I will return to when we get to that stage of life with our boys. For now, I can take the author's suggestions and continue in prayer for the purity of my sons and for their future wives.
The final major heading of the book is 'Contempt for Cool'. I was sorry that this was the final section I read as it was one of the only portions of the book where I found myself disagreeing with the author a lot. In discussing the commercialization of our culture and how we should not allow our children to wear anything with logos or brand names displayed he asks the reader to imagine Jonathan Edwards wearing a Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt. Well this just seemed like a ridiculous notion to me because that was not an option for Jonathan Edwards and when one sees pictures of Edwards he is wearing the clothing of the era in which he lives. Who is to say that if he did live in this day and age he would not dress like all the other men his age (or like the other teenagers when he was one)? Does the author think that Edwards would wear his Puritan collars and powdered wig if he lived in 2012? I am in agreement with the concept that our clothing is part of how we honour and glorify God but we don't want to push it right into the middle of the ring of legalism. "Everything we do, all day long, is aiding or hindering us in our maturity in Christ. Nothing is neutral" (p. 159). For sure. But putting such hard lines on the issue of appearance (Mr. Wilson says that if a teenage boy dies his hair purple he must confess that he is in direct rebellion against God (p. 161)) can set our children up to be people who judge harshly on first physical impressions of people rather than seeing all people around them as someone who may be a believer in Christ, either now or in the future. Sorry, this is more personal opinion than I usually offer up but the author spent an entire chapter saying that everything in this generation, from music to clothing to movies is of no value and full of folly. In the sovereignty of God, this generation will have and has reflections of Him and I believe we need to steer our children to see those and know how to find them and bring God glory through those things. To write is all off is truly throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
After the conclusion of the main portion of the book, there is Appendix A about 'Liberty and Marijuana'. I thought it was kind of out of left field that a topic of this nature would come up in this particular book but it was a good read and definitely followed the vein of the rest of the writing. It provided me with some good points when the time comes to have the discussion with my sons about making decisions when they are faced with drugs and alcohol.
So this was definitely not one of my favourite parenting books but it had some high points. If you have time, give it a read and maybe you will find some things that will be helpful to you in your journey with the boys in your life.
For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God - 1 Corinthians 11:7
A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother - Proverbs 10:1
My inmost being will exult when your lips speak what is right. Let not your heart envy sinners but continue in the fear of the LORD all the day - Proverbs 23:15-16
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another - Galatians 5:13
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things - Philippians 4:8
Even a child makes himself known by his acts, by whether his conduct is pure and upright - Proverbs 20:11
At the start, the author explains "faith is central in bringing up boys, but it is important to remember that the object of faith is not the boy. It is faith in God, faith in His promises, faith in His wisdom. Faith concerns the boy, and the boy can see that it concerns him. Parents are to believe God for their sons, which is a very different thing than believing their sons" (p. 11). There is a major focus on Proverbs throughout the book as the guiding instruction for how boys should be and what we, as parents, should expect of their behaviour. Also, Jesus is to be the "ultimate pattern for friendship, for courage, for faithfulness, and integrity" (p. 12). As He should be!
The chapters at the beginning of the book deal with masculinity and what that means from a Biblical perspective. Wilson says that the roles involved in Biblical masculinity are:
- lords: boys should be in training to become men who exercise dominion and they should learn to be adventurous and visionary (p. 15)
- husbandmen: once the boys have fulfilled their job as lords and have conquered, they should settle down. To do this well they need to learn to be patient, careful and hard-working (p. 15)
- saviors: boys need to learn to be strong, sacrificial, courageous and good. "Men who follow Jesus Christ, the dragon-slayer, must themselves become lesser dragon-slayers" (p. 16)
- sage: boys must learn wisdom through studying, learning and intellectual discussion. They are to be teachable, studious and thoughtful (p. 16-17)
- glory-bearers: boys must learn to be representative, responsible and holy as they grow into men who are the glory of God (1 Cor. 11:7) (p. 17-18)
In a discussion about finding a healthy balance for boys that is somewhere between effeminacy and macho-man he says that we must do exactly what God requires of us with our boys and that can only come from knowing the Word ourselves.
In a call for fathers, Wilson says that our boys are threatened from two directions, their inner sin and a culture that is hostile toward Biblical masculinity and is trying to exterminate it (p. 27). One of the ways we are to counteract this is through discipline. "Refusal to discipline amounts to hatred and is simply a slow, cruel way for a man to disown his son, clearly marking him out as illegitimate" (p. 28). I found this a bit of a harsh statement but when put into the context of the importance of disciplining boys in a way that lays a foundation of respect I could understand a bit better what the author was trying to say. "The point of discipline is to gain an audience, and there is no sense in gaining an audience if you then do not say anything. Fathers are to teach, and they are to teach receptive sons...A godly home should contain discipline, not retribution" (p. 29). His point here is that future men are future husbands and "knowledge of what a godly husband is should surround him from the time he is a small boy...love [is] the central duty of husbands...a good husband knows how to give love and he knows how to receive respect [from his wife]. Jut as he ought to love his wife, so he needs to love his wife" (p 32).
Mr. Wilson believes, and I would agree, that there is no age that is too early to begin teaching our boys proper doctrine. One of the most important doctrinal concepts is the sovereignty of God. "The Bible teaches that God controls everything, and nothing builds a young man's spine more thoroughly than this doctrine" (p. 47). "Our boys need to learn humility, and they also need to learn boldness and courage. The only way to accomplish this in balance is through a grasp of who God is" (p. 49). The other piece of doctrine the author focuses on is what he calls 'optimism' or a Godward meekness. "The virtue or grace spoken of is a spiritual meekness, humility, and lowliness...Our Lord himself is our example. He is gentle. But such meekness or gentleness is not inconsistent with strength...meekness means we must have a teachable spirit...we must be ready to submit to the providential will of God as revealed in events, and we must be ready to submit to the revealed will of God as displayed in His Word" (p. 49-50). I know that I would love my boys to be people who lived this way and I would be very excited to give them to their wives knowing that they will run their homes based on these doctrines.
In a short chapter called 'Secret Sin, Tolerated Sin', we are told "Godly parents do not have the luxury of wanting to "not know" about sin their sons may have drifted into...one of their regular prayers should be that god would give them any information they need to know in order to be good parents...Boys should grow up knowing that sin cannot ever be truly covered up" (p. 53). Using Scriptures like Num. 32:23, Heb. 4:13, Luke 12:1-3 the author shows that sin may temporarily be secret but God will ensure that it is publicized at some point. He believes that we tolerate open sins in most homes in the form of verbal sin. We often speak unkindly, hastily, spitefully or rudely to those with whom we live in close quarters and it is brushed off as someone just having a bad moment but this should not be allowed.
The next portion of the book deals with specific areas of our boys' lives and how we are to direct them in each area. In speaking on 'Laziness and Hard Labor' Wilson pulls many points from Proverbs (6:6-11, 10:26, 13:4) to show that boys need to be taught how to do hard physical work. "Work is a public activity and should be publicly evaluated. A boy steeped in laziness will be evaluated roughly, and should be" (p. 61). He says that laziness left alone will lead to disgrace and deceit. In order for boys to not fall into a pattern of laziness they must be taught how to properly prepare to work as well. "Laziness is not rest; it does not prepare for work. It only prepares for more laziness" (p. 64). A chapter entitled 'Money Paths and Traps' teaches the reader that we show our boys the importance of honouring God with every cent they have, from saving to spending. Integrity with their money should be the focus. In order to instruct our boys in how to be honest with money we should have work for them in the home that is considered chores but then things that they get paid to do (p. 72). This gives us as parents a chance to ensure "he grows up to be a worshipper with his money first and a consumer last" (p. 72).
In a great chapter about Christian liberty, Mr. Wilson explains how we much have a strong understanding of what this means because "teenaged boys like liberty because they like something to swing around on the end of a rope" (p. 75). He explains that "liberty in Christ means freedom from guilt, God's judgment, and the condemnation of moral law" (p. 76) and is not something that we can use to reinstate practices that were at one time rejected. "The point is not to drink or smoke or dance according to our own whims, in the light of our own wisdom, but to do whatever we do before the Lord, with the increase of joy and holiness obvious to all. Our guide on how this is to be done is the Bible, and not our pet evangelical traditions" (p. 77). Parents are given to sons in order to guide them in making judgment calls and learning to be slaves to nothing or no one other than God.
One of my favourite parts of Future Men was in a chapter entitled 'Giants, Dragons, and Books'. The author believes that exposing our boys to Middle Earth and Narnia and such allows them to see the Bible as the fantastic book that it truly is with many great stories and adventures. "[I]f our sons are to be prepared for the world God made, then their imaginations must be fed and nourished with tales about the Red Cross Knight, Jim in the apple barrel, Sam Gamgee carrying Frodo up the mountain, Beowulf tearing off Grendel's arm, and Trumpkin fighting for Aslan while still not believing in him. This type of story is not allowed by Scripture; this type of story is required by Scripture. The Bible cannot be read rightly without creating a deep impulse to tell stories which carry the scriptural truth about the kind of war we are in down through the ages" (p. 102).
I also appreciated a chapter on friends and friendship and how to watch for signs of healthy or unhealthy relationships. "In order for the friendship to be healthy, the focal point of the friendship, the point of common interest, needs to be healthy as well" (p. 119). He says that not all friends need to be Christians but the standard situation and majority should be. We should not want friends for our boys who seem emotionally needy or manipulative or who are flatterers but rather good friends will be encouraging, will push and challenge and will show our sons the kind of friend that they themselves strive to be. "Training a son in his friendships is another important way to prepare him for marriage. He will learn the meaning of true companionship" (p. 122). Finally the author makes no bones about the fact that "if an existing friendship proves spiritually harmful, parents should be willing to bring a friendship to an end" (p. 124).
In discussing fighting, sports and competition, Mr. Wilson says "every aspect of manhood should start in boyhood. This means that boys should learn when, where, and how to fight" (p. 125). Scripture will guide us in any of these situations. "There can be no mistake about the personal demeanor required of Christians. If someone is an enemy, then we must love them. If someone curses us, then we must bless them. If someone hates us, then we must do good to them. If someone spitefully uses us and persecutes us, we must pray for them. These are the things which a soldier can do toward the enemy he fights, and a policeman can do to the criminal he restrains. A boy needs to learn how to make the distinction" (p. 129). I liked what the author said regarding allowing boys to play at war because we are often training them to do what men may be called to do. "This means that a boy who is is playing with a toy gun should be trained to never use it more freely simply because it is not real. A small boy who is playing war with his brothers should be pointing and blasting away with the best of them. But if a lady from church comes over to visit the young boy's mother, and is standing in the foyer, and the boy comes up and tries to blow her away, the young warrior's mother should haul him off to the bedroom to be tried for war crimes. The visitor was a civilian and noncombatant, and Mother should be schooled in the principles of just war theory, and she should enforce the rules" (p. 131). This made me smile but it was also helpful for me to have some guidelines for this kind of play as previous to reading this book I didn't know how I should feel or what my standards should be in this area.
Two chapters on 'Girls and Sex' and 'Courtship and Betrothal' were well written and I underlined a lot in them that I have no doubt I will return to when we get to that stage of life with our boys. For now, I can take the author's suggestions and continue in prayer for the purity of my sons and for their future wives.
The final major heading of the book is 'Contempt for Cool'. I was sorry that this was the final section I read as it was one of the only portions of the book where I found myself disagreeing with the author a lot. In discussing the commercialization of our culture and how we should not allow our children to wear anything with logos or brand names displayed he asks the reader to imagine Jonathan Edwards wearing a Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt. Well this just seemed like a ridiculous notion to me because that was not an option for Jonathan Edwards and when one sees pictures of Edwards he is wearing the clothing of the era in which he lives. Who is to say that if he did live in this day and age he would not dress like all the other men his age (or like the other teenagers when he was one)? Does the author think that Edwards would wear his Puritan collars and powdered wig if he lived in 2012? I am in agreement with the concept that our clothing is part of how we honour and glorify God but we don't want to push it right into the middle of the ring of legalism. "Everything we do, all day long, is aiding or hindering us in our maturity in Christ. Nothing is neutral" (p. 159). For sure. But putting such hard lines on the issue of appearance (Mr. Wilson says that if a teenage boy dies his hair purple he must confess that he is in direct rebellion against God (p. 161)) can set our children up to be people who judge harshly on first physical impressions of people rather than seeing all people around them as someone who may be a believer in Christ, either now or in the future. Sorry, this is more personal opinion than I usually offer up but the author spent an entire chapter saying that everything in this generation, from music to clothing to movies is of no value and full of folly. In the sovereignty of God, this generation will have and has reflections of Him and I believe we need to steer our children to see those and know how to find them and bring God glory through those things. To write is all off is truly throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
So this was definitely not one of my favourite parenting books but it had some high points. If you have time, give it a read and maybe you will find some things that will be helpful to you in your journey with the boys in your life.
For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God - 1 Corinthians 11:7
A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother - Proverbs 10:1
My inmost being will exult when your lips speak what is right. Let not your heart envy sinners but continue in the fear of the LORD all the day - Proverbs 23:15-16
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another - Galatians 5:13
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things - Philippians 4:8
Even a child makes himself known by his acts, by whether his conduct is pure and upright - Proverbs 20:11
Thursday, 5 January 2012
"Think" by John Piper
As someone who has always had a stronger bent toward the intellectual things of God rather than a seeker of the less concrete and visible aspects of faith, I am naturally attracted to a book that "is a book to help Christians to think about thinking" (back cover). Something that has come to me in a powerful way (especially over this past year) is as my mind comes to understand God and His Word more, my experiences of those less concrete and visible aspects of my faith have become more tangible and more powerful in shaping my relationship with God. The connection between knowing and feeling is so intricate and I am positive that I have only scratched the surface of this in my journey. So, I welcome any insight on how to grow this marriage of two seemingly opposite aspects of faith. That the book on this subject was written by John Piper (who I'm sure, 200 years from now, will be considered one of the greatest theologians of this generation) is just an added bonus.
Piper starts out the book explaining "the ultimate goal of life is that God be displayed as glorious because of all he is and all that he has made and done - especially the grace he has shown in the work of Christ. The way we glorify him is by knowing him truly, by treasuring him above all things, and by living in a way that shows he is our supreme treasure...The more we see of his surpassing greatness and knowledge and wisdom and power and justice and wrath and mercy and patience and goodness and grace and love, the more we will treasure him" (p. 15). This is John Piper in a nutshell - it's like he wrote three sentences to sum up all the books I've ever read by him. Brilliant. But in this case, it's just the start of something new. It's very important to him from the start that his readers know where he is coming from and in this book it is finding the balance between anti-intellectualism and over-intellectualism which can both be a problem. "It's not about going to school or getting degrees or having prestige. It's not about the superiority of intellectuals. It's about using the means God has given us to know him, love him, and serve people. Thinking is one of those means. I would like to encourage you to think, but not to be too impressed with yourself when you do" (p. 17).
The beginning of the book is so fun to read as Piper shares his journey from being an academic to accepting the call on his life to be a pastor. He is, by gifting, a thinker and believes "[t]hinking is indispensable on the path to passion for God. Thinking is not an end in itself. Nothing but God himself is finally an end in itself. Thinking is not the goal of life...thinking under the mighty hand of God, thinking soaked in prayer, thinking carried by the Holy Spirit, thinking tethered to the Bible, thinking in pursuit of more reasons to praise and proclaim the glories of God, thinking in the service of love - such thinking is indispensable in a life of fullest praise to God" (p. 27). The two Scriptures that he intends to make the main point of the book and support his thoughts are 2 Timothy 2:7 and Proverbs 2:1-6. "Thinking is essential on the path to understanding. But understanding is a gift of God. That's the point of this book" (p. 30). He then goes on to tell of the impact that Jonathan Edwards has had on his own thought about the connection between thinking and feeling. "The apex of glorifying God is enjoying him with the heart. But this is an empty emotionalism where that joy is not awakened and sustained by true views of God for who he really is. That is mainly what the mind is for" (p. 37).
The next section deals with what Piper means by thinking and how he wants the reader to apply it to studying what we read, especially the Bible. "The Bible is the main place that we come to know God, and the Bible is a book, and a book requires thinking" (p. 41). When he says 'thinking' and 'understanding' he means "working hard with our minds to figure out meaning from texts" (p. 45). He knows that this requires being intentional and that taking on this intention can be difficult but "[t]he person who will not embrace the pain and frustration will remain at lower levels of achievement and joy...If you cannot embrace the pain of learning and must have instant gratification, you forfeit the greatest rewards of life" (p. 47). I appreciated how he said this because it will be an encouragement to me when I would rather sit and read a magazine or watch TV with my spare time. Any bit of time I spend trying to think about the Word and understand Scriptures is an investment in my own joy, whether immediate or future. "There comes a point when we choose to be intentional about our thinking, so that we grow in what we see and understand. If we don't choose to think harder, we will settle for an adolescent level of understanding the rest of our lives" (p. 48). My thought after I read this was 'Umm, no thank you very much!' We also have to have the right attitude in our hearts when we are asking questions. "There is a humble and submissive kind of question that is eager to understand and believe and obey the truth. And there is academic gamesmenship and unbelieving cynicism and indifferent dismissal...[when he talks about questioning he means] humble questioning that expresses eagerness to grow and to uncover truth" (p. 50). Piper then goes into a very interesting lesson on the word 'therefore' and that alone proves a big point about the never-ending depth of the Bible and how much there is to learn and think about. What he wants to get across is "[w]e observe carefully. We ask questions. And we work hard with our minds to try to answer questions" (p. 55).
The following portion of the book discusses how thinking can bring about faith and someone becoming a believer. So much of how we choose to see and and process information around us about God and Jesus is about our thinking. "[E]vil hearts disorder...rational powers and make [people] morally incapable of reasoning rightly about Jesus...our self-centered hearts distort our reason to the point where we cannot use it to draw true inferences from what is really there. If our disapproval of God's existence is strong enough, our sensory faculties and our rational faculties will not be able to infer that he is there...The corruption of our hearts is the deepest root of our irrationality (italics mine)" (p. 63). Piper uses Ephesians 3:4 as support for the concept that "engaging the mind in the mental task of reading is a pathway into the mysteries of God" (p. 64) and 2 Timothy 2:7 to plead that we will "embrace both human thinking and divine illumination" (p. 64). He then goes on to an examination of faith and how "[t]he only kind of faith that matters in the end is saving faith" (p. 69). But what is saving faith? Piper explains that a faith is a saving one when a person receives Jesus "for who he really is and what he really is, namely, more glorious, more wonderful, more satisfying, and therefore, more valuable than anything in the universe" (p. 72). In order to get to this, human reason and the use of one's mind must play a role when the gospel is presented. Using 2 Corinthians 4:4-6, Piper forms some excellent conclusions. "The revelation of the glory of Christ is not a mystical experience cut loose from our thinking about Christ in the gospel...Saving faith is 'reasonable' in the sense that there are real reasons to support it. It is not based on a figment of imagination. Its basis is the glory of Christ in the gospel. It is a real gospel and a real glory...the sight of the self-authenticating glory of Christ is not separate from the rational presentation and demonstration and reception of the truth of the gospel...Because our hearts not see Christ as infinitely valuable, our resistance to the truth is overcome. Our thinking is no longer the slave of deceitful desires, because our desires have changed. Christ is now the supreme treasure. So our thinking is made docile to the truth of the gospel" (p. 75-77). This section concludes with a beautiful sentence - "Treasuring God is the essence of loving him, and the mind serves this love by comprehending (imperfectly and partially, but truly) the truth and beauty and worth of the Treasure" (p. 80).
This past year I've had some truly wonderful lessons about love and the difference between what the world calls love and how God calls us to love. So when I saw that Piper was aligning loving God and treasuring God with my mind I was very excited to learn about this. The basis of his thought process is in Matthew 22:36-39 where we are told to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul and all our mind above all other things. In other words, to be loving God to the best of our ability, all three components must be fully engaged (p. 85). I cannot do Piper's discourse here justice without typing out the entire chapter so I will just share some of the points he made that really resonated with me. "What happens in the heart is essential. The external behaviors will be pleasing to God when they flow from a heart that freely treasures God above all things" (p. 88). "The fires of love for God need fuel. And the fires of love for God drive the engines of thought and deed. There is a circle. Thinking feeds the fire, and the fire fuels more thinking and doing. I love God because I know him. And I want to know him more because I love him." (p. 89). I found this so wonderful and brilliant that I must have read it about twenty times the first time I came across it. "If we do not know anything about God, there is nothing in our mind to awaken love. If love does not come from knowing God, there is no point calling it love for God. There may be some vague attraction in our heart or some unfocused gratitude in our soul, but if they do not arise from knowing God, they are not love for God...If we did not use our minds to know and think about the fullest revelation of god in the person and work of Jesus, we would not know about God. And if we did not know him, we would not love him. And if we did not love him, we would not express his worth in all the other uses of our mind" (p. 90-91).
The next section of the book deals with relativism, how even Jesus had to deal with it before it had a name and how it is so dangerous in our current culture. This relates to the topic of the book in that "God is the ultimate Truth...[and the author's] goal is to encourage you to embrace the work of thinking as a means of knowing this truth" (p. 96). I really enjoyed reading how Piper saw Jesus' conversations with the chief priests and elders in the temple as exposure of the first seeds of relativism. "People don't embrace relativism because it is philosophically satisfying. They embrace it because it is physically and emotionally gratifying. It provides the cover they need at key moments in their lives to do what they want without intrusion from absolutes" (p. 102). In a wonderfully full portion of this discussion, Piper provides strong arguments against relativism and shows how it is harmful and immoral. I would love to commit some of this section to memory so I have his brilliant logic available when I do get in to those discussions with people who believe there is no concrete truth in our world. The reality of relativism is this: "in claiming to be too lowly to know the truth, they exalt themselves as supreme arbiter of what they can think and do. This is not humility. This is rooted in deep desire not to be subordinate to the claims of truth. The name for this is pride" (p. 112). I must share a quote that Piper has in here from Michael Novak: "The most perilous threat to the free society today is, therefore, neither political nor economic. It is the poisonous, corrupting culture of relativism...During the next hundred years, the question for those who love liberty is whether we can survive the most insidious and duplicitous attacks from within, from those who undermine the virtues of our people, doing in advance the work of the Father of Lies. 'There is no such thing as truth,' they teach even the little ones. 'Truth is bondage. Believe what seems right to you. There are as many truths as there are individuals. Follow your feelings. Do as you please. Get in touch with yourself. Do what feels comfortable.' Those who speak this way prepare the jails of the twenty-first century. They do the work of tyrants" (p. 114).
Next Piper provides us with reading that, if applied, will aide us in facing anti-intellectualism. He starts out with a brief discussion of subjectivism and pragmatism and explains how this line of thinking lead to an undervaluing of thinking itself. "If we abandon thinking, we abandon the Bible, and if we abandon the Bible we abandon God...It is therefore futile counsel to tell the church that thinking is worthless. There is no reading without thinking. And there is no reading carefully and faithfully and coherently without thinking carefully and faithfully and coherently. The remedy for barren intellectualism is not anti-intellectualism, but humble, faithful, prayerful, Spirit-dependent, rigorous thinking" (p. 123). He brings up many times in Scripture when we are told that 'knowing' God and Truth will lead to holy behaviour - "Knowing the truth with our minds and holding fast to it as a treasure in our hearts is the key to holiness" (p. 127). Luke 10:21 and 1 Corinthians 1:20 are verses used often in support of anti-intellectualism and Piper very wisely takes two chapters to refute their position. This is a great read from both a philosophical and Biblical point of view. One of the key explanations he gives is that in Luke 10:21 when Jesus speak of 'children' he is speaking of "the kind of person who is deeply dependent and humble enough to receive the help he really needs from God" (p. 141). Reading the discussion on 'wisdom' was so helpful and informative to me. "...a fundamental difference between divine wisdom and human wisdom is that God's wisdom exalts what the cross stands for and human wisdom is offended by what the cross stands for" (p. 146). "God's wisdom makes the glory of God's grace our supreme treasure. But man's wisdom delights in seeing himself as resourceful, self-sufficient, self-determining, and not utterly dependent on God's free grace" (p. 149). Please read this section of the book with an open heart and mind, both of mine were full and rejoicing by the time I got to the end.
One thing that is emphasized over and over again in this book is the importance of humility being present when we are thinking and learning. The author takes the last major potion of this book to flesh out this idea and explain how to apply it well in our lives. He explains that during the time when Corinthians was being written by Paul "knowledge was producing pride, and pride was destroying love" (p. 158) and this can still happen today. In order to know as we ought to know we must understand that "any knowledge that does not stand in the service of love is not real knowing...Knowing and thinking exist for the sake of love - for the sake of building people up in faith. Thinking that produces pride instead of love is not true thinking" (p. 159-160, italics mine). This, to me, seemed like the crux of the entire discussion. I feel like I can study and learn all day long but if it doesn't deepen my love for God, my siblings in Christ and those who are lost then all that time is for naught. For the Corinthians, "[t]he solution to their problem was not to stop thinking. The solution was the heartfelt discovery of God's grace in Jesus Christ. The Corinthians needed to see that everything they knew was a free gift of electing grace and was designed by God to feed the fires of humble love for God and man" (p. 164). In a final discussion about scholarship, Piper makes some illuminating statements:
- the least we can say is that this means all thinking - all scholarship - of every kind exists ultimately to discover and display the glory of God, that is, the glory of Jesus Christ, in his Word and in his world...If all the universe and everything in it exist by the design of an infinite, personal God, to make his manifold glory known and loved, then to treat any subject without reference to God's glory is not scholarship but insurrection (p. 168).
- the magnifying of God's glory is in and through the seeing and savoring of the scholar's mind and heart (p. 170).
- since loving man means ultimately helping him see and savor God in Christ forever, it is profoundly right to say all thinking, all learning, all eduction and all research is for the sake of knowing God, loving God and showing God (p. 175).
In the conclusion of the book, Piper speaks to both thinkers and non-thinkers directly. No matter where you fall on this spectrum, please read both statements. They are enlightened and enlightening. And don't stop there. Appendix 1 has some extremely valuable information and Appendix 2 has a story that I guarantee you will love and never forget.
I don't generally make resolutions and I'm not going to make one here but I will say that in the new year and with this perspective on thinking fresh in my mind, I will be striving to think through the lens of love and, conversely, love through the lens of thinking.
...yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God - Proverbs 2:3-5
For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow - Ecclesiastes 1:18
Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything - 2 Timothy 2:7
When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit - Ephesians 3:4-5
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord - Philippians 3:8
In their case, the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ - 2 Corinthians 4:4-6
"I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to the little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will" - Luke 10:21
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world - 1 Corinthians 1:20
Piper starts out the book explaining "the ultimate goal of life is that God be displayed as glorious because of all he is and all that he has made and done - especially the grace he has shown in the work of Christ. The way we glorify him is by knowing him truly, by treasuring him above all things, and by living in a way that shows he is our supreme treasure...The more we see of his surpassing greatness and knowledge and wisdom and power and justice and wrath and mercy and patience and goodness and grace and love, the more we will treasure him" (p. 15). This is John Piper in a nutshell - it's like he wrote three sentences to sum up all the books I've ever read by him. Brilliant. But in this case, it's just the start of something new. It's very important to him from the start that his readers know where he is coming from and in this book it is finding the balance between anti-intellectualism and over-intellectualism which can both be a problem. "It's not about going to school or getting degrees or having prestige. It's not about the superiority of intellectuals. It's about using the means God has given us to know him, love him, and serve people. Thinking is one of those means. I would like to encourage you to think, but not to be too impressed with yourself when you do" (p. 17).
The beginning of the book is so fun to read as Piper shares his journey from being an academic to accepting the call on his life to be a pastor. He is, by gifting, a thinker and believes "[t]hinking is indispensable on the path to passion for God. Thinking is not an end in itself. Nothing but God himself is finally an end in itself. Thinking is not the goal of life...thinking under the mighty hand of God, thinking soaked in prayer, thinking carried by the Holy Spirit, thinking tethered to the Bible, thinking in pursuit of more reasons to praise and proclaim the glories of God, thinking in the service of love - such thinking is indispensable in a life of fullest praise to God" (p. 27). The two Scriptures that he intends to make the main point of the book and support his thoughts are 2 Timothy 2:7 and Proverbs 2:1-6. "Thinking is essential on the path to understanding. But understanding is a gift of God. That's the point of this book" (p. 30). He then goes on to tell of the impact that Jonathan Edwards has had on his own thought about the connection between thinking and feeling. "The apex of glorifying God is enjoying him with the heart. But this is an empty emotionalism where that joy is not awakened and sustained by true views of God for who he really is. That is mainly what the mind is for" (p. 37).
The next section deals with what Piper means by thinking and how he wants the reader to apply it to studying what we read, especially the Bible. "The Bible is the main place that we come to know God, and the Bible is a book, and a book requires thinking" (p. 41). When he says 'thinking' and 'understanding' he means "working hard with our minds to figure out meaning from texts" (p. 45). He knows that this requires being intentional and that taking on this intention can be difficult but "[t]he person who will not embrace the pain and frustration will remain at lower levels of achievement and joy...If you cannot embrace the pain of learning and must have instant gratification, you forfeit the greatest rewards of life" (p. 47). I appreciated how he said this because it will be an encouragement to me when I would rather sit and read a magazine or watch TV with my spare time. Any bit of time I spend trying to think about the Word and understand Scriptures is an investment in my own joy, whether immediate or future. "There comes a point when we choose to be intentional about our thinking, so that we grow in what we see and understand. If we don't choose to think harder, we will settle for an adolescent level of understanding the rest of our lives" (p. 48). My thought after I read this was 'Umm, no thank you very much!' We also have to have the right attitude in our hearts when we are asking questions. "There is a humble and submissive kind of question that is eager to understand and believe and obey the truth. And there is academic gamesmenship and unbelieving cynicism and indifferent dismissal...[when he talks about questioning he means] humble questioning that expresses eagerness to grow and to uncover truth" (p. 50). Piper then goes into a very interesting lesson on the word 'therefore' and that alone proves a big point about the never-ending depth of the Bible and how much there is to learn and think about. What he wants to get across is "[w]e observe carefully. We ask questions. And we work hard with our minds to try to answer questions" (p. 55).
The following portion of the book discusses how thinking can bring about faith and someone becoming a believer. So much of how we choose to see and and process information around us about God and Jesus is about our thinking. "[E]vil hearts disorder...rational powers and make [people] morally incapable of reasoning rightly about Jesus...our self-centered hearts distort our reason to the point where we cannot use it to draw true inferences from what is really there. If our disapproval of God's existence is strong enough, our sensory faculties and our rational faculties will not be able to infer that he is there...The corruption of our hearts is the deepest root of our irrationality (italics mine)" (p. 63). Piper uses Ephesians 3:4 as support for the concept that "engaging the mind in the mental task of reading is a pathway into the mysteries of God" (p. 64) and 2 Timothy 2:7 to plead that we will "embrace both human thinking and divine illumination" (p. 64). He then goes on to an examination of faith and how "[t]he only kind of faith that matters in the end is saving faith" (p. 69). But what is saving faith? Piper explains that a faith is a saving one when a person receives Jesus "for who he really is and what he really is, namely, more glorious, more wonderful, more satisfying, and therefore, more valuable than anything in the universe" (p. 72). In order to get to this, human reason and the use of one's mind must play a role when the gospel is presented. Using 2 Corinthians 4:4-6, Piper forms some excellent conclusions. "The revelation of the glory of Christ is not a mystical experience cut loose from our thinking about Christ in the gospel...Saving faith is 'reasonable' in the sense that there are real reasons to support it. It is not based on a figment of imagination. Its basis is the glory of Christ in the gospel. It is a real gospel and a real glory...the sight of the self-authenticating glory of Christ is not separate from the rational presentation and demonstration and reception of the truth of the gospel...Because our hearts not see Christ as infinitely valuable, our resistance to the truth is overcome. Our thinking is no longer the slave of deceitful desires, because our desires have changed. Christ is now the supreme treasure. So our thinking is made docile to the truth of the gospel" (p. 75-77). This section concludes with a beautiful sentence - "Treasuring God is the essence of loving him, and the mind serves this love by comprehending (imperfectly and partially, but truly) the truth and beauty and worth of the Treasure" (p. 80).
This past year I've had some truly wonderful lessons about love and the difference between what the world calls love and how God calls us to love. So when I saw that Piper was aligning loving God and treasuring God with my mind I was very excited to learn about this. The basis of his thought process is in Matthew 22:36-39 where we are told to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul and all our mind above all other things. In other words, to be loving God to the best of our ability, all three components must be fully engaged (p. 85). I cannot do Piper's discourse here justice without typing out the entire chapter so I will just share some of the points he made that really resonated with me. "What happens in the heart is essential. The external behaviors will be pleasing to God when they flow from a heart that freely treasures God above all things" (p. 88). "The fires of love for God need fuel. And the fires of love for God drive the engines of thought and deed. There is a circle. Thinking feeds the fire, and the fire fuels more thinking and doing. I love God because I know him. And I want to know him more because I love him." (p. 89). I found this so wonderful and brilliant that I must have read it about twenty times the first time I came across it. "If we do not know anything about God, there is nothing in our mind to awaken love. If love does not come from knowing God, there is no point calling it love for God. There may be some vague attraction in our heart or some unfocused gratitude in our soul, but if they do not arise from knowing God, they are not love for God...If we did not use our minds to know and think about the fullest revelation of god in the person and work of Jesus, we would not know about God. And if we did not know him, we would not love him. And if we did not love him, we would not express his worth in all the other uses of our mind" (p. 90-91).
The next section of the book deals with relativism, how even Jesus had to deal with it before it had a name and how it is so dangerous in our current culture. This relates to the topic of the book in that "God is the ultimate Truth...[and the author's] goal is to encourage you to embrace the work of thinking as a means of knowing this truth" (p. 96). I really enjoyed reading how Piper saw Jesus' conversations with the chief priests and elders in the temple as exposure of the first seeds of relativism. "People don't embrace relativism because it is philosophically satisfying. They embrace it because it is physically and emotionally gratifying. It provides the cover they need at key moments in their lives to do what they want without intrusion from absolutes" (p. 102). In a wonderfully full portion of this discussion, Piper provides strong arguments against relativism and shows how it is harmful and immoral. I would love to commit some of this section to memory so I have his brilliant logic available when I do get in to those discussions with people who believe there is no concrete truth in our world. The reality of relativism is this: "in claiming to be too lowly to know the truth, they exalt themselves as supreme arbiter of what they can think and do. This is not humility. This is rooted in deep desire not to be subordinate to the claims of truth. The name for this is pride" (p. 112). I must share a quote that Piper has in here from Michael Novak: "The most perilous threat to the free society today is, therefore, neither political nor economic. It is the poisonous, corrupting culture of relativism...During the next hundred years, the question for those who love liberty is whether we can survive the most insidious and duplicitous attacks from within, from those who undermine the virtues of our people, doing in advance the work of the Father of Lies. 'There is no such thing as truth,' they teach even the little ones. 'Truth is bondage. Believe what seems right to you. There are as many truths as there are individuals. Follow your feelings. Do as you please. Get in touch with yourself. Do what feels comfortable.' Those who speak this way prepare the jails of the twenty-first century. They do the work of tyrants" (p. 114).
Next Piper provides us with reading that, if applied, will aide us in facing anti-intellectualism. He starts out with a brief discussion of subjectivism and pragmatism and explains how this line of thinking lead to an undervaluing of thinking itself. "If we abandon thinking, we abandon the Bible, and if we abandon the Bible we abandon God...It is therefore futile counsel to tell the church that thinking is worthless. There is no reading without thinking. And there is no reading carefully and faithfully and coherently without thinking carefully and faithfully and coherently. The remedy for barren intellectualism is not anti-intellectualism, but humble, faithful, prayerful, Spirit-dependent, rigorous thinking" (p. 123). He brings up many times in Scripture when we are told that 'knowing' God and Truth will lead to holy behaviour - "Knowing the truth with our minds and holding fast to it as a treasure in our hearts is the key to holiness" (p. 127). Luke 10:21 and 1 Corinthians 1:20 are verses used often in support of anti-intellectualism and Piper very wisely takes two chapters to refute their position. This is a great read from both a philosophical and Biblical point of view. One of the key explanations he gives is that in Luke 10:21 when Jesus speak of 'children' he is speaking of "the kind of person who is deeply dependent and humble enough to receive the help he really needs from God" (p. 141). Reading the discussion on 'wisdom' was so helpful and informative to me. "...a fundamental difference between divine wisdom and human wisdom is that God's wisdom exalts what the cross stands for and human wisdom is offended by what the cross stands for" (p. 146). "God's wisdom makes the glory of God's grace our supreme treasure. But man's wisdom delights in seeing himself as resourceful, self-sufficient, self-determining, and not utterly dependent on God's free grace" (p. 149). Please read this section of the book with an open heart and mind, both of mine were full and rejoicing by the time I got to the end.
One thing that is emphasized over and over again in this book is the importance of humility being present when we are thinking and learning. The author takes the last major potion of this book to flesh out this idea and explain how to apply it well in our lives. He explains that during the time when Corinthians was being written by Paul "knowledge was producing pride, and pride was destroying love" (p. 158) and this can still happen today. In order to know as we ought to know we must understand that "any knowledge that does not stand in the service of love is not real knowing...Knowing and thinking exist for the sake of love - for the sake of building people up in faith. Thinking that produces pride instead of love is not true thinking" (p. 159-160, italics mine). This, to me, seemed like the crux of the entire discussion. I feel like I can study and learn all day long but if it doesn't deepen my love for God, my siblings in Christ and those who are lost then all that time is for naught. For the Corinthians, "[t]he solution to their problem was not to stop thinking. The solution was the heartfelt discovery of God's grace in Jesus Christ. The Corinthians needed to see that everything they knew was a free gift of electing grace and was designed by God to feed the fires of humble love for God and man" (p. 164). In a final discussion about scholarship, Piper makes some illuminating statements:
- the least we can say is that this means all thinking - all scholarship - of every kind exists ultimately to discover and display the glory of God, that is, the glory of Jesus Christ, in his Word and in his world...If all the universe and everything in it exist by the design of an infinite, personal God, to make his manifold glory known and loved, then to treat any subject without reference to God's glory is not scholarship but insurrection (p. 168).
- the magnifying of God's glory is in and through the seeing and savoring of the scholar's mind and heart (p. 170).
- since loving man means ultimately helping him see and savor God in Christ forever, it is profoundly right to say all thinking, all learning, all eduction and all research is for the sake of knowing God, loving God and showing God (p. 175).
In the conclusion of the book, Piper speaks to both thinkers and non-thinkers directly. No matter where you fall on this spectrum, please read both statements. They are enlightened and enlightening. And don't stop there. Appendix 1 has some extremely valuable information and Appendix 2 has a story that I guarantee you will love and never forget.
I don't generally make resolutions and I'm not going to make one here but I will say that in the new year and with this perspective on thinking fresh in my mind, I will be striving to think through the lens of love and, conversely, love through the lens of thinking.
...yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God - Proverbs 2:3-5
For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow - Ecclesiastes 1:18
Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything - 2 Timothy 2:7
When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit - Ephesians 3:4-5
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord - Philippians 3:8
In their case, the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ - 2 Corinthians 4:4-6
"I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to the little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will" - Luke 10:21
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world - 1 Corinthians 1:20
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