GospelChristianity3LG PDF

Gospel
Christianity
Leaders Guide | Course 3
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it,

but whoever loses his life for me will save it.
Luke 9:24
Tim Keller | Redeemer Presbyterian Church | 2007

Copyright © Timothy J. Keller, and Redeemer Presbyterian Church 2007
All rights reserved. In compliance with copyright restrictions, no portion of these materials
may be reproduced in any form or stored on any system without the permission of
Redeemer Presbyterian Church 271 Madison Ave., Suite 1600 New York, NY 10016
Table of contents
1 Study 1 Gospel character 185

Leaders Participants
guide 22 Study 2 Love and friendship 195 guide
43 Study 3 Joy and peace 205
61 Study 4 Humility and self-image 214
83 Study 5 Self-control and emotions 224
101 Study 6 Patience in suffering 232
122 Study 7 Race and embrace 241
147 Study 8 Integrity and our words 249
163 Study 9 Guidance and wisdom 260

Gospel Christianity
Gospel character
Study 1 | Course 3
KEY CONCEPT - SPIRITUAL FRUIT

Read and put a “?” if you have a question; put an “!” if an insight is helpful to
you.
The Spirit’s purpose

The ultimate purpose of the Holy Spirit’s work in Christians is not just to give us
general comfort or strength, but to change our character into that of Jesus.
• Romans 8:29 – “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be
conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn
among many brothers.”
• Ephesians 4:13 – “…until we all reach unity in the faith and in the
knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the
whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
The Spirit’s process

The Spirit does not enact this Christ-like character in us all at once, but
gradually. Therefore, becoming like Christ is not a crisis as much as a process,
though growth does not happen evenly, but in “spurts,” as in the biological
realm.
The Spirit’s fruit

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” (Gal. 5:22)
Agape (Love)
Definition: Happy to meet needs of others rather than your own.
Opposite: Fear – trampling on the needs of others to protect your interests.
Counterfeit: Selfish affection – helping others but only because it profits you.
Chara (Joy)
Definition: Delight in God for the beauty and worth of who he is.
Opposite: Hopelessness, despair.
Counterfeit: Elation that rests in blessings not the Blesser! A joy that can be
lost based on circumstances.
Irene (Peace)
Definition: Confidence and rest in God’s wisdom rather than your own.
Opposite: Anxiety and worry that God might not direct things as they should go.
Counterfeit: Indifference, apathy, not caring.

notes GOSPEL CHARACTER
Makrothumia (Patience)
Definition: Ability to suffer trouble without blowing up or giving up.
Opposite: Resentment toward God and/or others.
Counterfeit: Hardness. “This is too small to be bothered about.”
Chrestotes (Kindness)
Definition: Compassion that offers true friendship not just help.
Opposite: Self-absorbed obliviousness to the needs and hurts of others.
Counterfeit: Cowardly fear of upsetting anyone, or self-congratulatory charity.
Agathosune1 (Integrity)
Definition: Honesty, transparency. Being the same in all situations.
Opposite: Phoniness, hypocrisy.
Counterfeit: Truth without love. “Getting it off the chest” without love or
wisdom.
Pistis (Faithfulness)
Definition: Loyalty and courage. To be principle-driven, utterly reliable, and true
to one’s word.
Opposite: Fair-weather friend.
Counterfeit: Love without truth. Refusing to confront or challenge out of
misplaced loyalty.
Prautas (Humility)
Definition: Self-forgetfulness
Opposite: Superiority – self-absorbed self-aggrandizement. And envy, unable to
rejoice in joy of others.
Counterfeit: Inferiority – self-absorbed self-consciousness.
Egkrateia (Self-control)
Definition: Ability to choose the urgent over the important thing.
Opposite: A driven, impulsive, uncontrolled person.
Counterfeit: Willpower through pride or desire for approval, power, comfort.
The Unity of the Fruit

The fruit of the Spirit always grow together, since they all proceed from the
Spirit’s work of applying the gospel to our hearts (Col. 1:6-8).
• For example, some are sweet and accessible (gentleness) but are not
bold and courageous (i.e. they lack faithfulness). That is not, then, real
Spirit-produced humility, but just a sanguine temperament.
• If the fruit of the Spirit are not all there (at least in some measure), they
are not really there at all.
2 Study 1 | Gospel Christianity Course 3

GOSPEL CHARACTER notes
1. Which statements impressed you and why?
2. The last paragraph states that the fruit of the Spirit always grow together.
a) Experience shows us that some people are very strong in some of these
characteristics yet very weak at others at the same time. How do you account
for that?
John says, “If a man says ‘I love God’, and hates his brother, he is a liar.”
Notice that he does not say, “If a man loves God but doesn’t love his brother,
he is unbalanced.” No, he says he is a liar. True love to God (love) goes along
with love to others (kindness). If they are not both there, neither is truly there at
all. When we look at the list of traits in the “fruit lists” (1 Cor. 13:4-7; Gal. 5:22-
23), we notice that we are naturally stronger in some rather than others. If the
fruit of the Spirit grow together, how can that be?
The answer is that there are two other sources of personal traits.
• First, there are traits from natural temperament. That is, traits that
originate from your brain chemistry and/or very early training.
• Second, there are traits we learn out of self-interest. We discovered
that certain behaviors paid off in our family or community and after a
while they became virtually unconscious habits of being.
• Some people are temperamentally gentle and diplomatic (which looks
like the spiritual fruit of gentleness.) But usually such people are not at
the same time able to be bold or courageous when it is called for (the
spiritual fruit of faithfulness).
a) This is a sign that the sweetness is either a matter of physiological
constitution or is a pattern learned to survive in their family situation.
b) Because of what Paul says about the unity of the fruit, this means
that the gentleness is not real spiritual humility, but just
temperamental niceness and may even be revealed to be a form of
cowardice.)
• Some people seem very unflappable and unbothered by anything. They
never seem anxious or upset. This looks like the spiritual fruit of peace,
but often such people are not extremely compassionate or sympathetic
to others (the fruit of kindness.) They tend to say to people who are
suffering, “Buck up!”

a) This is not the real spiritual fruit of peace, but rather a temperamental
passivity. It may even be a cultivated indifference or cynicism about
life, developed by not letting one’s heart become deeply invested in
anyone.
b) That enables you to get through the difficulties of life without being
always hurt, but it desensitizes you and makes you much less
approachable.
b) Think of some ways in which each of the spiritual fruit would depend on the
others.
The reason that the spiritual fruit always grow together is because they inter-
depend on one another. Therefore, if one is missing, the others cannot be
produced. Here are several examples:
Real peace is dependent on humility
There is a kind of peace that is based on favorable circumstances (cf.Phil.4:4-7).
• When “things go right,” the proud person assumes that this is due to
her wise choices or competence. (e.g. “If you are a savvy, disciplined
person like me, things will go right for you.”) But such a peace is very
easily shattered by unfavorable circumstances.
• True, infallible peace is based on humility. Worry is basically arrogance
— an assumption that you know best how life ought to go.
• But humility brings a peace as it submits to the wisdom of God. James
4:13-14 — “You make your plans and say, tomorrow we will go so and
such — but you don’t know…” We only worry if we think we know.
Real peace depends on humility.
Real self-control dependent on joy

There is a kind of self-control and self-discipline that comes only by substituting
one idolatrous over-desire for another one.
• For example, a boy may lack emotional self-control. When someone
says to him, “Don’t act like a girl,” suddenly he gets control of his
emotions.
• But how does it happen? He has been made to feel superior to women
and shamed into control. That throws out one distorted view of life
(self-pity) and puts in another distorted view (proud superiority), which
produces (for the moment) emotional control. But later in marriage, that
man may lose his temper when his wife talks back to him!
• The only true kind of self-control is that which comes from joy in God.
Addictions to anger, to habits that make us temporarily feel better about
ourselves, all come from a basic lack of joy in our lives.

• What we need above all else is a deep joy and experience of God’s
beauty. Then we will not be out of control, addicted to seeking beauty
and satisfaction in other things.
Real integrity dependent on love

There is a kind of honesty that is not the same as the spiritual fruit of integrity
(faithfulness and goodness).
• There are many people who habitually speak the truth, but not in love
(Eph.4:15). They are straight talkers but they speak out to get the upper
hand, to harm, to prove themselves, to show superiority.
• Truth-telling is not done out of service but as a power-play. But that
means that, ultimately, such a person will not really be speaking the
truth. The truth he speaks, if it does not arise out of love, will always be
partial, designed to make him look good.
• And ultimately, a person who is not filled with love cannot be a person
of integrity. Integrity means to be transparent, to have nothing to hide,
to act and speak the same way in one setting as in another.
• A love-less truth speaker always has things to hide, always has things
to prove, and thus cannot be thoroughly transparent.
Real gentleness dependent on love

It is very, very common to see people who are very accepting and tolerant
(gentleness) and seemingly humble, but their tolerance is really a defense
mechanism.
• By abandoning any evaluative standards (“Who am I to judge?”) and
correcting no one, they essentially disengage from people around them.
They think, “I don’t negatively evaluate anyone — neither should
anyone negatively evaluate me for how I live.”
• But such tolerance is not really love for others. Real Christian
gentleness and kindness to people is to accept, love and serve others
despite the fact that we may not believe their behavior is right. That
takes real love!
Real forgiveness depends on several of the fruit

• First, you need humility. How can you forgive someone if you feel
superior to them? You cannot.
• Second you need joy and peace. Without a deep grasp of God’s love for
you, how will you have the emotional strength to forgive someone who
may have hurt your reputation or hurt you financially?

• If your finances or people’s approval is a greater source of joy to you

than God, it will be almost impossible to forgive someone who wronged
you in these areas.
c) If the fruit of the Spirit really only grow together, what practical difference
does that make to us?
First, it means that even our strengths have to be renewed.

• In Christ all things truly are become new (2 Cor.5:17). It means that
when we become Christians we get the seed of every part of perfect,
holy character and behavior toward God and others.
• Thus even our “strengths” get a new basis and power. In actual
practice, a Christian’s strengths are a mixture of older natural
temperament and self-interest, and new supernatural operation by the
Spirit using the logic of the gospel within us.
• There will be times when we will be shocked that something we
thought we were very strong in — fails. It is because to some degree
our strengths are based on old foundations.
Second, it means that we are spiritually only as strong as our weakest graces.
• In other words, to see the real level of the Holy Spirit in our lives, go to
the weakest link in the chain of the fruit of the Spirit. That is, look at an
area where by natural temperament and ability you are very weak. As
you grow there, you see more clearly to what degree you are maturing
in the Spirit.

BIBLE STUDY
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
1. In verses 1-2, Paul makes a list of talents or spiritual gifts. What are they?
What does this tell us about the Corinthian church to which he is writing?
• Paul speaks about “speaking in the tongues of men and of angels”

which is a reference to the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues and of
healing and miracle-working that he has just been discussing (1 Cor
12:28-31).
• Then he moves on to “the gift of prophecy and can fathom all
mysteries.” The gift of prophecy was a supernatural gift, in which the
recipient got direct revelation from God, and then was given the ability
to communicate.
a) It is important to notice that Paul is not talking about some sort of
false or counterfeit prophet here. He is speaking of someone who is
getting direct revelations from God and who is edifying people,
changing people’s lives through the communication of God’s Word.
• Then he mentions “faith that can move mountains.” Most
commentators believe Paul is not talking about what we would call
“saving” faith — the faith that connects you to God. Instead, when he
speaks of “faith that moves mountains” he is talking of a leadership
gift.
a) It’s an infectious vision that enables a group of people to overcome
hurdles they wouldn’t otherwise overcome. Paul is speaking of
someone who has been an extremely effective leader.
• This is a picture of a church that is filled with very talented, able, brilliant
people, people with great ability.
a) Prophecy is the ability to communicate — the talent of artistic people.
b) “To fathom mysteries” is a sort of academic gift — the talent of
intellectual people.
c) To “move mountains” is a leadership or management gift — the
talent of entrepreneurial people.
2. What does Paul say in vv.1-2 is possible about such brilliant, talented people?
Why is this so surprising?
If you read the whole letter of 1 Corinthians you will see that despite the fact
that it was filled with unusually gifted, talented and brilliant people, it was also
filled with fighting and divisions. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 is famous and is
constantly ripped out of the context of the whole letter to be read at weddings

or put up on walls. But when you read verses 4 to 7 in light of the rest of the
letter to the Corinthians, you will immediately notice that all of the words in
these verses have shown up before as qualities that the Corinthian Christians
lack.
• In other words, they were gifted, brilliant and talented, but they were
nonetheless impatient, harsh, self-centered, irritable and fractious.
• The reason for this was that Corinth, like New York and really like
almost any big city today, had a culture in which all the emphasis was
on “doing” and not on “being.” All the emphasis was on performance,
brilliance and ability, and not on inner heart character.
• There’s an old joke that goes: “At least he or she has a nice
personality.” It is a way of saying “no looks, no talent, but a nice
person.” In our culture, character is not marketable. You’ve got to be
good. You’ve got to perform. You’ve got to produce.
But Paul is saying exactly the opposite of this and it is completely stunning to
us. He says, “If you have all these brilliant talents but don’t have love, don’t
have beautiful character of the heart — you are spiritually nothing. God doesn’t
value it at all.”
• This is what he means when he says, “I am just a resounding gong”
and “I am nothing” Paul is taking on a culture like New York City, where
it is expected that the most revered people — the most brilliant,
talented people — are filled with character flaws in their personal lives.
They are belligerent, insecure, unhappy, addicted.
• But Paul says God doesn’t care how rich you are, how talented you are,
how gifted you are, how successful you are, how accomplished you
are. If you don’t have a heart of joy and love, if you don’t have inner
grace and love and strength, if in spite of all your success and
accomplishment and giftedness, you are impatient, irritable and self-
pitying, self-absorbed and vain, anxious and driven — you’ve (spiritually
speaking) got nothing!
• Don’t comfort yourself by saying, “I’m successful — I’ve just got some
personal issues that I’ve got to work out.” You’ve got nothing!
It is stunning that Paul says God could be literally doing miracles through you,
leading people to Christ through you, changing lives through you, and you can
still be “nothing.”
• This is not some kind of rhetorical insult. It’s not like New York street
language, saying, “You’re nothing!” He means that talent and ability is
so distinct from character that it is possible to do miracles through the
power of God even though you have never given your heart to God or
only given your heart to God a little.

• You can give God your talents and not your very self and heart in faith
and trust. You can try to do things for other people and for God without
really evacuating the throne of your life and putting God there.
• Or you can do it very little so that you are an incredibly immature
Christian though still prominent in the church through your talents and
gifts.
• God can do miracles through you and yet you may not even be a
Christian, so distinct is giftedness and talent from character.
3. In verse 3, Paul makes another short list. This isn’t a list of talents: what is it?
What does Paul say is possible for these kinds of people?
The two qualities in verse 3 are not talents, gifts or abilities. Paul says, “If I give
all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames.” Notice that
giving to the poor and surrendering your body to the flames does not take any
talent at all. This is not a competency or skill list. Rather these are two forms of
moral, virtuous behavior. What are they?
• First, there is “giving all you possess to the poor?” What does that
require? It takes sacrificial generosity, thrift, willingness to make do for
less, and hard work.
• Secondly, there is “giving my body to be burned.” This refers to
martyrdom, a willingness to die for your faith. What does that require?
It takes utter commitment and integrity. It means standing for your
beliefs no matter what the consequences. It is extreme moral courage.
• It is interesting to notice that this virtue list covers both the “liberal”
and “conservative” virtues. Heading the liberal virtue list is caring for
the poor and social justice. At the top of the conservative virtue list is
dying for your faith and commitment.
But, amazingly, Paul does the same thing to the list of virtues that he does to
the list of gifts! He says it is possible that a person be living an exemplary
moral life and still be spiritually nothing!
• It’s almost as if in verse three Paul is responding to someone who has
listened to verses 1-2 and said, “Yes, Paul, I agree with you in verses 1-2.
There’s too much emphasis on gifts and talents and brilliance. But I’ll
tell you what is really important; not talent, gifts or ministry but plain,
old-fashioned moral virtue. That’s all that matters!”
• Yet Paul doesn’t agree. He says that not only is inner Christian character
not the same thing as talents and gifts, it is also not the same thing as
moral behavior. We must not confuse these things, or think that
because I’m leading an exemplary moral life that I am growing in
Christian character.

How could people who are very moral and virtuous have little or no Christian
character? Notice that at the end of verse 2 Paul says you can be gifted and be
nothing. But at the end of verse 3 he says you can be moral and gain nothing.
This little difference may be significant.
• The word “gain nothing,” literally means “counts nothing” — it merits
or earns nothing. When Paul uses the word “count” or “gain,” he
means that it is possible to do good deeds, help other people, sacrifice,
be generous, and be honest in order to “count.”
• Your motivation (and it may be almost unconscious) is “I want to do
good deeds because then I will know I am worth something. God,
others and my own heart will then know I’m a worthwhile person.”
• Nietzsche was fond of noticing how much moral behavior was really
just a power-play, something done so we can feel morally superior.
• In short, we can be doing all our moral behavior not for others or for
God but simply for us. There can be no love behind our moral behavior.
4. Notice that Paul does not actually say “be patient, kind.” He personifies love in
verses 4-7. He speaks of it as if it is a person. What is he trying to get across
with this language?
Paul’s rhetorical device is muted by the way most translations render these
famous verses.
• Paul does not say, “Here is what I want you to be. If you want to be
loving, then be patient. If you want to be loving, then be kind.” This is
not what he says.
• Rather, he personifies love. In the Greek, there are no adjectives; there
is nothing but transitive verbs. He does not say ‘love is patient’ but
“Love waits patiently; Love seeks out. Love forgives.”
What is Paul trying to get across with this approach?
• First, vv.4-7 depict love as a power. Paul sees love not so much as a set
of guidelines that you pick up and do. Real love is a living active power
that comes and picks you up and changes you.
a) We will never become loving only by trying hard. Paul implies that
we’ll only become loving through meeting and encountering.
Becoming a person of love is not a mechanical process. Something
profound must happen to us. We must meet Love.
b) This may sound rather mysterious but it is also common experience.
Children are not naturally unselfish. Rather, they can become loving
and kind and unselfish as they experience love, kindness, and
unselfish regard.

c) Children are only weaned off of their native self-centeredness as they

see parents and family around them acting in love and service to
each other. We can’t actually generate love as we can receive it and
then pass it on.
• Secondly, vv.4-7 depict a breath-takingly loving person. And considering
Paul’s theology and all else that he wrote elsewhere, it is impossible to
believe Paul was thinking of Love as some Platonic dis-embodied
principle and not as Jesus Christ himself.
a) Literally, verse four starts, “Love suffers long.” Who can forget the
one who said, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
b) Then Paul goes on and says, “Love is not self-seeking, is not easily
angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.” Who can forget the one who
said, “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing.”
c) Then Paul writes: “It always protects. It always trusts. It always
hopes. It always perseveres.” How could he not think of the one who
said, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”
d) These are all statements of Jesus Christ from the cross, where he
became the ultimate example of love.
5. How is Jesus Christ’s love for us on the cross the main means by which we
grow into loving character?
Jesus’ dying love on the cross as an example is actually a crushing burden. If

he is only an example, we are lost. We will never live up to it! But if we see
Jesus’ dying patience, forgiveness, self-giving and kindness for us — as the
means by which our sins are pardoned — then Jesus’ love on the cross can
actually change our hearts at the root.
The normal way that the world tries to create character is through fear or pride.
• For example, how do you we ordinarily try to get children to be honest?
We say, “If you lie, you’ll get caught! You’ll get caught by the police.
You’ll get caught by the teacher. You’ll get caught by God. You’ll get
caught by me.” We scare them.
• Another way we may try to get children to be honest is through pride.
We may say, “You don’t want to be like those terrible people who lie!
You want to be better than that.”
• But fear and pride are both very self-centered impulses. Basically, we
are appealing to children’s self-centeredness to get them to be honest.
We are saying, “It will pay off for you to tell the truth” not “It will help
all those around you to tell the truth.”
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• The trouble with this is, of course, that fear and pride are also forces
that lead us to lie. Lying springs from selfishness and disdain of the
needs of others. The fear of losing approval or power or comfort that is
used to keep people honest also is the main reason people are corrupt
and dishonest.
• So even if you do get people to be generous through fear and pride,
you haven’t really changed the character, the heart. You’ve only
restrained the natural self-centeredness of the heart.
a) You’ve “jury-rigged” it so that its fear and pride is leading to truthful
behavior. But such rigging is “a house of cards.”
b) A person who is honest in a morally restrained way (rather than a
heart-changed way) is eventually going to be more afraid to tell the
truth than to tell a lie. And then the house of cards will come down.
The only way to become really truthful out of a changed heart is to get so much
joy, to be so absolutely certain, to have the love of God so real to your heart
that every moment of the day, your heart is singing, “God is for me! Who can
be against me?”
• You never lie unless at that moment God’s love is not real to your heart.
So the only way not to just restrain a heart but to truly change the heart
is to see verses four to seven as Jesus Christ dying on the cross for
you, doing that on the Cross for you!
• The gospel humbles me out of my pride, showing me that I am a
sinner. But it also values me out of my fear, showing me what Jesus
was willing to do for me. I don’t need to lie to save face or to hold on to
things in this world that can never give me the hope, joy and
significance that the saving love of Jesus can.

READINGS
you.
There is something which unites magic and [modern technology] while separating
both from the wisdom of earlier ages. For the wise men of old, the cardinal
problem of human life was how to conform the soul to objective reality, and the
solution was wisdom, self-discipline, and virtue. For the modern, the cardinal
problem is how to conform reality to the wishes of man, and the solution is a
technique.
– C.S.Lewis 2
Many bad men have had these spiritual gifts. “Many will say on the last day ‘Lord,
Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name, and in Thy name cast out devils, and in
Thy Name done many miracles?’ “ And Jesus will say to them, “I never knew
you.” [Matthew 7:21) Such as these have had gifts of the Spirit but had no special
saving work of the Spirit in their lives. Gifts, [talents, and abilities are excellent
things but they are not things which are inherent in the nature like true grace and
holiness. [They] are, as it were, precious jewels which a man carries about him. But
true grace in the heart is, as it were, the preciousness of the heart by which the
soul itself has become a precious jewel. The Spirit of God may produce effects on
many things to which He does not communicate Himself. So the Spirit of God
moved on the face of the waters but He did not communicate Himself to the
waters. But when the Spirit by His ordinary influences bestows saving grace, He
imparts Himself to the soul. Thus grace, as it were, is the holy nature of the Spirit
of God imparted to the soul.
– Jonathan Edwards 3
It is seldom that any of our [bad habits or flaws] disappear by a mere process of
natural extinction. At least, it is very seldom that this is done through the
instrumentality of reasoning… or by the force of mental determination. But what
cannot be destroyed may be dispossessed — and one taste may be made to give
way to another, and to lose its power entirely as the reigning affection in the mind.
It is thus that the boy ceases at length to be a slave of his appetite, but it is
because a [more ‘mature’] taste has brought it into subordination. The youth ceases
to idolize [sensual] pleasure, but it is because the idol of wealth has… gotten the
ascendancy. Even the love of money can cease to have mastery over the heart
because it is drawn into the whirl of [ideology and politics] and he is now lorded
over by a love of power [and moral superiority]. But there is not one of these
transformations in which the heart is left without an object. Its desire for one
particular object is conquered — but its desire to have some object… is
unconquerable… The only way to dispossess the heart of an old affection is by the
expulsive power of a new one… It is only… when admitted into the number of
God’s children, through faith in Jesus Christ, that the spirit of adoption is poured out
on us — it is then that the heart, brought under the mastery of one great and
predominant affection, is delivered from the tyranny of its former desires, and the
only way that deliverance is possible. Thus… it is not enough… to hold out to the
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world the mirror of its own imperfections. It is not enough to come forth with a
demonstration of the evanescent character of your enjoyments… to speak to the
conscience… of its follies… Rather, try every legitimate method of finding access to
your hearts for the love of Him who is greater than the world.
– Thomas Chalmers 4

APPLICATION QUESTIONS
2. Discuss the Edwards quote. Read both Matthew 7:21-23 and 1 Corinthians
13:1-7. a) What is Edwards’s very stunning point? b) How could God use
people who have little or no spiritual fruit?
a) What is Edwards stunning point?

• In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul says that it is possible to get revelation and
prophecies from God and to exercise leadership and teaching in the
church and to do it all without any motivation of love and grace — and
therefore to be (spiritually) nothing.
• In Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus speaks of people who he never had a
personal relationship with (“I never knew you”) yet who are used by
God to do miracles and to preach.
• The Bible is saying this: so distinct is talent from spiritual character
growth that it is possible to do miracles through the power of God
though you never have given your heart to God or though you are living
in great spiritual immaturity.
• This Biblical teaching is Edwards’ stunning point. The Spirit of God can
use your talents and gifts to do things in the lives of others even as you
withhold your heart from God.
• Talents, gifts, prophecy, ability, counseling, leadership can all be
exercised with little or no real grace in the heart, with little or no true
character change. Your inmost motivation for everything you do can be
power and human approval rather than a grateful, joyous response to
God’s grace.
• That’s why Edwards says that the gifts of the Spirit are like precious
jewels you have but a grace-changed, inner-transformed heart is like
becoming a precious jewel yourself.
• For an example of what Edwards is saying, look at Judas. The Bible
says he was a son of perdition from the beginning. But when he goes
out with the other apostles he heals, does miracles and prophesies
(Luke 10). King Saul was the same way (1 Samuel 10).
Edwards is saying that a “gift-operation” of the Spirit does not have to proceed
out of the “preciousness of the heart,” out of the level of gospel-changed
character. Gifts can operate even when your experience of God’s grace is very
low, when your walk with him and your joy of salvation is very weak.
15

• If you have a gift of teaching, for example, the classroom situation

draws out your gift, and you may be very effective. This is why Jesus
says “by their fruit ye shall know them” rather than “by their gifts.”
• Love, joy, peace and humility can’t grow and flourish when our hearts
are far from God, but teaching, evangelism, counseling and leading can.
The terrible danger is that we can look to our ministry activity as evidence that
God is with us, and/or as a way to earn God’s favor and prove ourselves.
• 1 Corinthians 13:1 says that all our leading and speaking and witnessing
can be nothing but “gongs and cymbals.” Many commentators believe
this is a reference to the pagan worship in Corinth of the temples of
Demeter and Cybele. Pagan worship was a way of putting on a show to
merit and attract the favor of the gods.
• Paul is saying that it is possible to be doing Christian ministry in the
same way. If our heart is remembering the gospel, is rejoicing in our
justification and adoption, then our ministry is Christian sacrifice of
thanksgiving — and the result will be that our ministry is done in love,
humility, patience and tenderness.
• But our heart may be continuing to do the same self-justification it has
always done — seeking to control God and others by earning and
proving our worth — through our ministry performance. Then our
ministry can be a pagan sacrifice — “a sounding gong” — a way to
convince ourselves and others that we are “something.”
• As we see in 1 Cor 12-14, when this is the case, there will be the tell-
tale signs of impatience, irritability, pride, hurt feelings, jealousy and
boasting. We will identify with our ministry and make it an extension of
ourselves. We will be driven, scared, and either too timid or too brash
— until we see what we are doing. We are clashing our cymbals.
• And perhaps, away from the public glare, there may be secret sins. It all
shows that the ministry performance is exhausting and a cover for
either of the two forms of pride: self-aggrandizement or self-hatred.
b) How could God use people who have little or no grace in their hearts?
This is really two questions.
First, why would God use people with little or no grace in the heart to help
others? The answer is that God is a very loving God! Think of what a terrible
world this would be if the only way God ever helped people was through
mature Christians.
Second, how can somebody have spiritual gifts with little or no grace in the
heart? The answer is that we tend to mistake the operation of gifts for the

operation of grace. That is, when we see ourselves doing Christian service and
helping others we think that is a sign of spiritual growth. We mistake our deeds
of service for inner heart character.
Let me give you an example. Imagine a grown man who carries deep anger
toward his mother. He has never forgiven her for ways that she failed him. This
poisons his life in many ways.
• First, it distorts his relationship with women in various ways.
• But second, and more subtly, it creates a ground note of self-pity in that
man’s life.
a) He always feels like a victim, like he never gets a fair shake. As a
result, he loses his temper very quickly.
b) He can’t take criticism. He gets too despondent too quickly. He’s not
resilient; he doesn’t bounce back because of that ground note of self-
pity.
• Now imagine he becomes a Christian. What he should do is take the
love of God in Christ and make it spiritually real to his heart in a
sustained way in order to deal with that root of self-pity in his life.
a) The gospel could give him the perspective to see it for what it is--a
root of bitterness. Then he would have to bring the love of God in
Christ directly to bear on his self-pity in prayer every time it asserts
itself in the form of temper or discouragement.
• But imagine that this man turns out to be a very gifted teacher. And
because the guy is a very gifted teacher, people start to ask him to
teach, in Sunday school or church.
a) Instead of doing the very hard work of character change, he gets
some temporary consolation for his inner unhappiness by teaching
and getting lots of accolades.
b) People begin to say, “You’ve helped me so much.” He gets tapped
for various roles of Christian leadership.
• What happens? The man walks around saying, “God is with me! God is
using me!” But he mistakes the operation of giftedness for grace and
growth. But the Bible says: don’t be fooled!
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3. Jonathan Edwards says in “common morality” one does good because it

benefits you, but in “true virtue” one does good out of love to God. How does
the Chalmers quote illustrate this?
13What motivates people to good, moral, and virtuous behavior? Jonathan

Edwards tackled this over the years in Charity and Its Fruits and especially in
The Nature of True Virtue. He says there are two kinds of moral behavior:
“common morality” and “true virtue.” To illustrate the difference let’s take the
example of honesty.
“Common” honesty is developed two ways.
• It can be inspired by fear.
a) There is the secular version — “Be honest — it pays!” or “If you are
not honest, society not work.”
b) There is also the religious version — “If you are not honest, God will
punish you!”
c) These are all versions of the same motive, namely, that it is
impractical to be honest.
• It can be inspired by pride.
a) There is the secular conservative version — “Don’t be like those
terrible dishonest people who hurt others have no virtue!” or the
secular liberal version — “Don’t be like these greedy people who
don’t work for the common good.”
b) There is also the religious version — “Don’t be like these sinners,
these bad people. Be a good godly person.”
c) These are all versions of the same motive, namely, that I am better
than these people who lie.
Edwards is by no means scornful of common morality. Indeed, he believes in
the “splendor of common morality” (Paul Ramsay), which is the main way God
restrains evil in the world. Nevertheless, there is a profound tension at the
heart of it.
• We just said that the main reason people are honest is due to fear and
pride. But why are we dishonest? Why do we lie? Almost always, it is
out of fear or pride.
• So in common morality, you’ve done nothing to root out the
fundamental causes of evil.
a) In common honesty you have restrained the heart, but not changed
the heart.

b) You are doing an ingenious form of judo on yourself. (Judo depends

on using the enemy’s forward motion against him.)
c) You have jury-rigged your heart so that the basic causes of
dishonesty are being used to make yourself honest.
• But this is quite a fragile condition. At some point you will find that
honesty is not practical or it is humiliating and you will lie or deceive.
Then you will be shocked. You will say, “I was not raised to do such a
thing”
• But in common morality the reason for your honesty was basically self-
centeredness. You were nurturing the roots of sin (fear and pride) within
your moral life.
• This is true whether you grow up in a liberal-moral environment or a
conservative-moral environment. The roots of evil are alive and well and
protected underneath your moral-behavior progress.
• And some day they erupt and show themselves and then you are
shocked.
What, then, is true virtue? It is when you come to love truth-telling not for your
sake but for God’s sake and for truth’s sake.
• How does true honesty grow? When I grasp the saving love of God for
me in Jesus Christ.
• In fact, on the cross, I see the ultimate act of integrity. There is Jesus
keeping a promise he made to the Father despite the infinite suffering it
brought him.
• Now that, on the one hand, destroys pride; I am so lost because he
had to do this for me. But that also, on the other hand, destroys fear,
because if he’d do this for me while I’m an enemy, then he values me
infinitely, and nothing I can do will wear out his love for me.
• To the degree I grasp this, my heart is not just restrained but changed.
Its fundamental orientation is transformed. The fear and the pride that
leads both to lying and to self-interested honesty are eroded.
Chalmers vividly illustrates this distinction between common morality and true
virtue. He imagines a young man who has a problem with partying and drinking.
• He turns into a self-controlled person when he realizes he will never
make any money or achieve social status if he doesn’t make a change.
The self-discipline is good, but it is basically motivated out of a desire
for human approval and power. (“The youth ceases to idolize [sensual]
pleasure, but it is because the idol of wealth has… gotten the
ascendancy.”)
19

• Then Chalmers depicts him making another change. He comes to see

he has become greedy and ambitious, but this is because he has
become committed to a political ideology that wants to bring about
more social justice.
• Again — social justice is good! But Chalmers points out that a political
agenda can be adopted as just a new way to feel useful and powerful.
That was basically the same reason he originally pursued money. (Even
the love of money can cease to have mastery over the heart because it
is drawn into the whirl of ideology and politics and he is now lorded
over by a love of power and moral superiority.)
• In each case the moral behavior is motivated by a combination of fear
and pride. But though the behavior it inspires can be good, it almost
always leads to being driven, and to a superiority or disdain of others
who do not share the same values.
a) If you seek success in business as a way to gain a sense of self-
worth, you will over-work and despise those who are not as wealthy.
b) If you seek success in politics as a way to gain a sense of self-worth,
you will demonize the opposition.
c) Any lack of success in these areas will lead to a personal break-down.
• You are not really doing your business work or your political work for
others but for yourself. You must be successful to get an identity. So
any failure is devastating, while any success leads to superiority toward
others.
• Ultimately, all these forms of moral behavior are motivated by a desire
for power and advantage over others, not by a desire simply to serve
others.
Chalmers says only when, through the gospel, Jesus becomes the greatest
object of your affection because he is the source of your salvation, joy, hope,
meaning and worth, only then will you have self-control and a concern for social
justice but it will be grace-motivated. Being driven and unstable, selfish and
feeling superior will vanish.
Chalmers also says that there is no other way to truly change one’s character
than through the grace of the gospel.
• No one can change simply through will-power. You will always be
controlled by your heart’s supreme affection and love — by your heart’s
ultimate source of love and meaning.
• The only way to truly change a proud and fearful heart is by the grace of
God in Christ.

4. Look over the list of the spiritual fruit on the first page of this study.
a) In which one or two have you seen growth lately?
b) In which one or two do you most need to grow right now?
Go to someone who knows you well and ask them questions about your growth.
• Ask if you are a kinder person than you were two years ago?
• Are you a happier person than you were two years ago?
• Are you a more patient person?
• Are you a less self-pitying person?
• Can you take criticism now with joy without needing to bite back?
• Are you a more peaceful person?
• Do you worry less?
1 Of all the words in the Galatians 5:22-23 list of spiritual fruit, this one is the hardest to define, since it
is so general and is seldom used in other Greek literature. Since goodness and truth are often used
synonymously in the Bible, we will use this term as a basis for reflecting on the importance of integrity.
2 C.S.Lewis, The Abolition of Man (MacMillan, 1943) pp.87-88.
3 Jonathan Edwards, Charity and Its Fruit (Banner of Truth, 1975) (Sermon Two)
4“The Expulsive Power of a New Affection,” from The Works of Thomas Chalmers (New York: Robert
Carter, 1830) vol. II
21

Gospel Christianity
Love and friendship
Study 2 | Course 3
KEY CONCEPT - RELATIONSHIPS IN PROVERBS1

you.
Neighbor-love
• We are to be disarmingly kind and peaceable, not quarrelsome (not
bringing our neighbors ‘hastily into court’ – 25:8).
• We are not to gossip (16:28) or harm reputations but are to speak
directly to anyone with whom we have a complaint (25:9).
a) And this should not be frequent, since ‘love covers a multitude of
sins’ (10:12 cf.1 Peter 4:8).
• We must not have a critical, complaining spirit (11:12).
• Not only should we not give bad reports about our neighbors, but we
are not to receive them either (17:9).
a) There’s always another side to the story (18:17) and therefore we
should not draw negative conclusions about a person’s character
from second-hand accounts.
b) Even when you see a neighbor who has failed in some way, you
should respond with compassion and help rather than contempt
(21:10).
• Nevertheless, neighbor-love is not undiscerning, unprincipled or
sentimental.
a) Some neighbors may be malicious, hot-tempered and corrupt.
b) And if non-vindictive, equitable efforts to correct them (25:9) fail, you
may need to keep your distance. They might corrupt you (22:24, 25)
or exploit you (6:1-5).
c) It is not kind to people to make it easy for them to sin against you
(12:26).
Friend-love
There have always been consumer-vendor relationships in which you relate to
the vendor only as long as your needs are being met at an acceptable cost. And
there have always been covenantal relationships in which you commit to the
good of the other whether your individual needs are being met or not. In
modern culture the marketplace has become so dominant that even personal
relationships are now based on the consumer model. But Proverbs rejects this
model for friendships.
22

notes LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP
• Constancy – Friends love at all times and, especially during adversity

(17:17), they stick closer than a brother (18:24).
a) The counterfeit is a fair-weather friend who drops out when your
prosperity, status or influence drops off (14:20; 19:4, 6-7).
• Transparency – Friends open to each other and speak intimately and
personally.
a) On the one hand, real friends encourage and affectionately affirm one
another (27:9; cf.1 Sam. 23:16-18).
b) On the other hand, real friends offer gentle but firm critiques (27:6 –
faithful are the wounds of a friend) and refuse to simply flatter and
use one another (29:5; cf.1 Kings 1:16).
c) Real friends know that their critique might not be appreciated until
later (28:23) but they are willing to wait.
d) Friends make decisions together, through a healthy clash of
viewpoints (27:17).
• Sympathy – Proverbs asserts that a few close friends are better than
huge networks of contacts and acquaintances (18:24).
a) You cannot force someone to become your close friend. (See 25:17;
27:14; 25:20. These passages speak of imposing your presence and
your heartiness on someone who doesn’t want it.)
b) Friendships arise between people with common passions and
commitments. (See “Readings”)
Enemy-love
The attitude toward opponents that we see in the New Testament and pre-
eminently in the cross is foreshadowed in Proverbs.
• We are not to either hate our opponents, gloating when they fail (24:17)
nor are we to secretly envy their power (24:19).
• Instead we are to look for every opportunity to be kind to them (25:21,
22).

LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP notes
2. Proverbs gives us a simple rule of thumb about gossip. If you have something
negative to say about another person, say it to him or her, not to others.
a) What do you think of it? b) Is this a realistic standard?
One of the places where Proverbs lays out this standard is in 25:8-9: “Do not
hastily bring into court, for what will you do in the end, when your neighbor
puts you to shame? [Rather] argue your case with your neighbor himself, and
do not reveal another’s secret.”
• This is very wise advice. If you pick a fight with someone you may find
that you do not know all the facts and, in court, you yourself will be put
to shame.
• Instead, if you have a complaint with someone you should speak to him
or her directly (“argue… with your neighbor himself” – v.9a) without
spreading negative reports (“do not reveal another’s secret” – v9b).
• Derek Kidner comments on this text: “To run to the law or to the
neighbors is usually to run away from the duty of personal relationship
— see Christ’s clinching comment in Matthew 18:15b.”
Is this a realistic standard? If you define gossip as “any negative evaluation of
another person’s behavior” at all then, of course, this is not a realistic standard
for our behavior. But the Bible is talking about something more specific.
• It is possible to make a negative evaluation of behavior in a tentative
way (“It looks like this to me — correct me if I am wrong”) or in a
sympathetic way (“I wish I didn’t have to say this and I think this person
has so many other great qualities.”)
• In both cases the goal of the negative statement is to gain more
information or guidance or to spark real change in another person.
• But gossip or slander in the Bible is an act of speech with a very
different goal. The negative evaluation is made in order to marginalize,
hurt or punish another person.
24

In James 4:10-11, we read: “Humble yourselves before the Lord. Don’t slander
or attack one another.”
• The verb “slander” here simply means to speak against (kata-lalein). It
is not necessarily a false report, just an “against-report,” one that
deliberately and intentionally undermines the listener’s respect and love
for the person being spoken about. (“As the north wind brings rain, so
slander brings angry looks.” Prov. 25:23.)
• James links “against-speaking” slander to pride (v.10), showing that
slander is not the humble evaluation of error or fault, which we must
constantly be doing. Rather, in slander the speaker speaks as if he
would never do the same thing himself.
• Non-slanderous evaluation — even when critical or negative — is
gentle, guarded, and always shows that the speaker senses how much
he or she shares the same frailty, humanity, and sinful nature with the
one being criticized. It always shows a profound awareness of one’s
own sin.
So this is not just a realistic standard but a crucial standard that members of a
community must adopt unless they wish to see the fabric of that community
broken again and again.

BIBLE STUDY #1
Galatians 5:26-6:3
1. What does it mean to be conceited and, according to verse 26, what are the
two possible effects of conceit on relationships?
The word translated “conceit” is “kenodoxoi,” which means literally “empty of

honor.” That is a very interesting take on conceit! Conceited people, in this
view, hunger for honor because they are empty of it.
• Conceit is born of a deep insecurity, a perceived absence of honor and

glory, with a concomitant need to prove our worth to ourselves and
others. This describes the natural state of our heart without the gospel.
What are the two possible effects of conceit on relationships?

The two possible effects of conceit are: a) provoking others and b) envying
others.
• The word provoke is obviously a word denoting hostility. Prokaleo
literally means “to call out” or “to challenge” someone to a contest.
Envy, of course, means to be jealous.
• The commentator John Stott believes that Paul is talking of two
different relationship pathologies.
a) “Provoking” (in Stott’s view) is the stance of someone who feels
superior and looks down on others.
b) “Envying,” on the other hand, is the stance of someone who feels
inferior to others.
2. How could conceit and pride lead to both superiority and inferiority
complexes?
How are the two effects the same? Paul’s statement here is very striking and
profound, for he says that both are a form of conceit. How could that be?
• One way to put it is that both the superior and the inferior person are
self-absorbed. Whether you are a condescending person or a shy
person, you are being self-centered, for in both cases you are focusing
heavily on how the other person makes you look and feel instead of
how you make he or she look and feel.
• Another way to put it is in terms of works-righteousness. Both the
superior and the inferior person are trying to gain worth through
26

competition (therefore, at the expense of others). Both want to gain an

identity by beating and surpassing others. Both therefore, want to be
proud and superior.
• The only difference between the person of arrogance and the person
with low self-esteem is that the inferior person has lost at the game,
has failed to jump the hurdle. So though provoking and envying seem
like exact opposites, they are both forms of conceit.
• In short, Paul is saying, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is
thinking of yourself less.” Self-flagellation and low self-esteem is not
gospel humility. It is just as much a rejection of the gospel as is pride
and hubris!
So both the superiority complex and the inferiority complex are both, at root,
born of insecurity and inferiority. They are just two different ways to deal with
the glory-vacuum. Therefore, v.26 could be paraphrased as saying: “Do not let
your hunger for honor make you either despise or envy people.”
3. Do you have more of a tendency to provoke or to envy in relationships?
To answer the question about whether you tend to provoking or envying, ask if:
• You have a tendency to blow up or, on the other hand, to clam up?
• If you tend to pick arguments with people or, on the other hand, to
completely avoid confrontation?
• If you tend to get very down on individuals and groups of people or, on
the other hand, to be embarrassed and intimidated around certain kinds
of people?
Another way is to look at how you take criticism.
• On the one hand, do you get very angry and judgmental and simply
attack right back?
• Or, on the other hand, do you get very discouraged and defensive —
make lots of excuses, or give right in?
Another way is to ask:
• Do I often feel I would never, ever do what this person has done?
• Or do I look at people and say, “I could never accomplish what this
person has done?”

How can you use the gospel to overcome your tendency, whatever it is?
The gospel creates a whole new self-image (5:26, 6:3-5) which is not based on
comparisons with others. Only the gospel makes us neither self-confident nor
self-disdaining, but both bold and humble.
• This works itself out in relationships with everyone. The gospel is the
only thing that addresses conceit, the vain-glory. To the degree I am still
functionally earning my worth through performance (i.e. to the degree I
am still functioning in works-righteousness), to that degree I will be
either operating out of superiority or inferiority.
• Why? If I am saved by my works, then I can either be confident but not
humble (if I am living up) or humble but not confident (if I am not living
up).
• In other words, apart from the gospel, I will be forced to be superior or
inferior or to be one way with some people and another way with
others. I am continually caught between these two ways, because of
the nature of my self-image.
But the gospel creates a new self-image, as we have seen previously.
• It humbles me before anyone, telling me I am a sinner saved only by
grace.
• But it emboldens me before anyone, telling me I am loved and honored
by the only eyes in the universe that really count.
• So the gospel gives a boldness and a humility that do not eat each
other up but can increase together.
Practically speaking, you have to use the gospel by preaching it to yourself right
in the midst of the situations where you are trying to act in newness of life.
• If, for example, you find yourself being very defensive around someone,
you must use the gospel at that very moment, saying, “What you think
of me is not the important thing. Jesus Christ’s approval of me, not
yours, is my righteousness, my identity, my worth.”
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4. 6:1. What principles does Paul lay down in this verse? How does v.2 shed light
on v.1?
We can break Paul’s advice down into four principles:

The party in need
Paul says that we are not to ignore a situation when we see someone “caught
in a sin.”
• This does not mean that we are to confront anyone we see sinning in
any way. I Peter 4:8 (“Love covers a multitude of sins”) and I Cor.13:5
(“Love is not easily angered, does not keep a record of wrongs”) and I
Cor.13:7 (“Love… hopes all things, endures all things.”) show us that
we are not to be quick to criticize and tell people about their faults.
• Paul’s qualifier is that we must not overlook someone “caught” or
overtaken in a sin. This indicates that the sinful behavior is a pattern
that has gotten the upper hand with this person. It is a habit of sin that
the person won’t overcome without outside intervention. Therefore,
Paul insists that Christians be neither quick to criticize nor afraid to
confront.
The party responsible

Paul holds “you who are spiritual” responsible to address the person caught in
sin.
• It should be obvious that Paul is not referring only to some spiritual
elite. We must read this verse in the context of 5:16-18 and 15. He is
saying, “If you follow the dictates of the Spirit, the desires of the Spirit,
you will do this.”
• In other words, this responsibility belongs to anyone who is trying to
live a Christian life.
The action required

Paul tells us to “restore” the person caught in sin.
• The word is a very instructive Greek word, katartizdo. This term was
used widely in Greek for setting a dislocated bone back into place.
• Now a dislocated bone is extremely painful, because it is not in its
designed, natural relationship to the other parts of the body.
• To put a bone back in place is inevitably to inflict pain, but it is a healing
pain. It means we are to confront, but to seek a change of life and
heart, also.

The spirit required

Paul warns against a harsh, unwinsome spirit in two ways.
• First, he says to do this confrontation “gently.” Then he also reminds
them that this gentleness will only come if they watch themselves,
knowing their own susceptibility to temptation.
• This is very difficult but practical advice. You won’t be able to
winsomely confront someone if you think that you are not capable of a
similar sin.
• If you feel you are above the person, your air of superiority will come
through and the interchange will not “restore” but will destroy.
It is extremely important to see the connection between v.1 and v.2.
Confronting over sin is a form of service to others; it is a form of burden
bearing.
• This means, on the one hand, that the person listening to the correction
must realize that this is the way other members in the Body of Christ
are to serve him or her.
• On the other hand, it means that when we do our confronting, we must
profoundly examine our motives. We are supposed to be seeking to
serve the person we are criticizing — not to just tell him off.
• We are trying to bear the person’s troubles, not seeking to get rid of the
person’s troubles!
“Notice how positive Paul’s instruction is. If we detect somebody doing something
wrong, we are not to stand by doing nothing on the pretext that it is none of our
business and we have no wish to be involved. Nor are we to despise or condemn
him in our hearts and, if he suffers for his misdemeanor, say ‘Serves him right’ or
‘Let him stew in his own juice’. Nor are we to report him...or gossip about him to
our friends… No we are to ‘restore’… “
– J. Stott, The Message of Galatians p.160
[Applying the text of Gal.6:1] “Run unto him, and reaching out your hand, raise him
up again, comfort him with sweet words, and embrace him with motherly arms.”
– M. Luther, Commentary on the Galatians, p.538
30

5. How do you think your particular small group or church community is at the
restoration of 6:1?
What could you do practically to be better at 6:2? At 6:1?

BIBLE STUDY #2
1 Samuel 18:1-5; 23:15-18; John 15:9-15
What are the marks of friendship according to these Biblical passages?
The first two passages describe the famous friendship between Jonathan and
David. The last passage describes Jesus’ own friendship with his disciples. If
we read them together we can see at least two basic principles for friendships.
We see here examples of transparency and constancy. Put another way —
friends always let you in but never let you down.
First, we can see the transparency in a relationship of real friendship (see above
– “Key Concept”).
• Jonathan and David became “one in spirit” with one another (1 Sam.
18:1), a very strong phrase! That oneness in spirit was exhibited when
Jonathan came to David during a very dark time and “helped him find
strength in God” (1 Sam 23:16). Jonathan knows about David’s fear and
talks to him directly about it and lifts up his heart through affirmation
and encouragement.
• Jonathan and David show the personal transparency and intimacy that
is the mark of friendship. Friends are open about (and sensitive to) one
another’s hopes, fears, and joys. Though they were warriors in an
ancient culture, they weep together and express affection. (1 Sam
20:41).
• A writer once spoke of “the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a
person — having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but
pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together;
certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth
keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.”
(Dinah Maria Mulock Craik from A Life for a Life.)
• Jesus speaks of this when he says that his disciples are not simply
servants who are given orders but friends with whom he discloses his
mission and knowledge. In other words, the distinguishing mark of
friendship for Jesus is revelation. The only Old Testament characters
called “friends of God” — Abraham and Moses — enjoyed remarkable
access to the mind and heart of God.
• “A potentate demands obedience in all his subjects. His slaves,
however, are simply told what to do, while his friends are informed of
his thinking, enjoy his confidence, and learn to obey with a sense of
privilege and with full understanding of their master’s heart.” (D.A.
Carson, The Gospel According to John, p.522-523)
32

In summary, in both human and divine friendship there is deep self-disclosure.

Friends do not give only surface information. They don’t manipulate each other,
putting on a ‘front’, seeking to control what your friend knows about you.
Second, we can see the constancy in a relationship of real friendship in how

David and Jonathan make a covenant of friendship (1 Samuel 18:1) which was
marked by a set of vows (1 Samuel 20:41).
We said in the Key Concept that there have always been two kinds of
relationships.
• In the business world, there is the consumer-vendor relationship. That
relationship lasts only as long as the vendor meets your needs at a cost
acceptable to you. If another vendor delivers better services or the
same services at a better cost, you have no obligation to stay in a
relationship to the original vendor. Thus in consumer-vendor
relationships rights take precedence over responsibility. That is, my
needs are more important than the relationship.
• But there have always been covenantal relationships. These are
relationships that are constant and binding on us. In a covenantal
relationship the good of the other person and the relationship take
precedence over our own needs. For example, a parent gets very, very
little out of caring for an infant, but that doesn’t matter, since it has
always been understood that a parent-child relationship is covenantal.
• It is the opinion of sociologists, historians, and other observers (across
the spectrum of politics and ideology) that something unprecedented
has happened in contemporary western society. The model of the
marketplace has become dominant and the consumer-relationship has
become the way people operate virtually all their relationships, even
marriage. We stay connected to people only as long as they meet
particular needs at an acceptable cost. When we cease to make a profit
— that is, when the relationship requires more love and affirmation
from us than we are getting back — we cut our losses and drop the
relationship.
Jonathan’s commitment to David cost him far more than he received. He knew
that if David survived and thrived then he would never be king himself after his
father (1 Sam 23:16-17).
• When he took off his robe and sword (1 Samuel 18:2), most
commentators believe he was signifying his willingness to serve David.
Jonathan’s friendship with David not only lost him his social status but
also his father’s trust.
• One could even argue that Jonathan’s loyalty to both his father and to
David led to his death. He would never have died in a hopeless battle
alongside his father Saul if he had either sided with Saul against David
or if he had abandoned his father to be a fugitive with David.

• Instead, Jonathan treated all his personal relationships as covenantal.

He was constant; he stuck with them. Constancy does not mean simply
being there when the chips are down — though it includes that.
• Rather, it means being there constantly. Friends spend time together.
They eat take out together, they process the day’s events together, they
take walks together.
Jesus, of course, is the ultimate example of this kind of constancy in friendship.
• He said, “Greater love has no on than this — that he lay down his life
for his friends” (John 15:13).
• In the Garden of Gethsemane, he saw his friends falling asleep on him
at his moment of greatest need, yet he lay down his life for them.
• When he had a choice between going to hell on the cross, as it were or
losing his friends forever, he took hell!
In summary, in both human and divine friendships there is loyalty and
commitment to the good of the others even (or especially) when this entails
sacrifices to your own comfort and convenience.
Third, we see the sympathy (sym-patico) or common passion and truth that
friends must share if a friendship is to be built.
In Jonathan and David’s case, they shared a commitment to God’s will and a
passion to see God’s people led by his anointed king.
• They both recognized that God had anointed David and not Jonathan.
• They both wanted to see David on the throne. That was the basis for
their friendship.
• In Jesus’ case, he rather boldly says, “You are my friends if you do
what I command” (John 15:14).
• This means that friendship with Jesus is quite a lot like Jonathan’s
friendship with David. We must have a common commitment that
Jesus is the Lord’s anointed King over all.
This aspect of friendship is not something you create so much as you discover
in another person. C. S. Lewis’ writings are quite helpful at this point.
• He insisted that the essence of friendship is the exclamation, “You,
too?” While erotic love can be depicted as two people looking at one
another, friendship-love can be depicted as two people standing side by
side looking at the same object and being stirred and entranced.
• Lewis speaks of a “secret thread” that runs through all the movies,
books, art, music, past-times, ideas, themes, and scenery that most
34

deeply moves us and tells us there is hope. When we meet another

person who in some measure shares these deep interests, we have the
potential for a real friendship. (See the Readings for some interesting
quotes by Lewis on this aspect of friendship.)
In summary, if you find a person with a common commitment to a deeply held
truth or passion, and if then you provide mutual transparency and mutual
constancy — you have a developing friendship.

READINGS
you.
Friendship arises… when two or more… discover that they have in common some
insight or interest… Lovers seek for privacy. [But] friends find this solitude about
them, this barrier between them and the herd, whether they want it or not… as
Emerson said, “Do you love me?” means “Do you see the same truth?” — Or at
least, “Do you care about the same truth?” The man who agrees with us that some
question, little regarded by others, is of great importance, can be our Friend…
Hence we picture lovers face to face but Friends side by side; their eyes look
ahead. That is why those pathetic people who simply ‘want friends’ can never
make any. The very condition of having friends is that we should want something
else besides friends. Where the truthful answer to the question, “Do you see the
same truth?” would be “I don’t care about the truth — I only want [you to be my]
friend.” no friendship can arise. Friendship must be about something, even if it
were only an enthusiasm for dominoes or white mice. Those who have nothing can
share nothing; those who are going nowhere can have no fellow-travelers.
– C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves Chapter 4
Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to
make sure of keeping it intact, you must give it to no one, not even an animal.
Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements.
Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe,
dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become
unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The only place outside Heaven where you
can be perfectly safe from all the dangers of love is Hell.
It is probably impossible to love any human being simply too much. We may love
him too much in proportion to our love for God; but it is the smallness of our love
for God, not the greatness of our love for the man, that constitutes the inordinacy.
People who believe themselves to be free from class snobbery may be devoured
by the desire in another form. It may be the very intensity of their desire to enter
some quite different Ring which renders them immune from all the allurements of
high life. An invitation from a duchess would be very cold comfort to a man
smarting under the sense of exclusion from some artistic or communistic coterie.
Poor man — it is not large, lighted rooms, or champagne, or even scandals about
peers and Cabinet Ministers that he wants: it is the sacred little attic or studio, the
heads bent together, and the delicious knowledge that we four or five all huddled
here — are the people who know… As long as you are governed by that desire you
will never get what you want. Until you conquer the fear of being an outsider, an
outsider you will remain.
– C. S. Lewis, “The Inner Ring”
36

There are no ordinary people. You’ve never talked to a mere mortal. Nations,
cultures, arts, civilization, these are mortal and their life is to ours as the life of a
gnat. It’s a serious thing to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting
person you talk to, may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would
be strongly tempted to worship. Or else a horror and a corruption such as you now
meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping
each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these
overwhelming possibilities, with the awe and circumspection proper to them that
we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, loves, play, and
politics. Next to the Blessed Sacrament, your neighbor is the holiest object
presented to your senses
– C.S.Lewis, The Weight of Glory

2. What basic principle for building and maintaining friendship can you
extrapolate from each of the first three quotes from C. S. Lewis?
Those pathetic people who simply “want friends”

The first of the quotes lays out the principle that friendship is based on
common commitments, passions, loves, experience and passions. (This was
covered both in the Bible study and in the Key Concept above.)
• Lewis argues here that friends therefore cannot simply be created or
constructed but discovered. Friendships that are begun simply to meet
emotional needs for closeness and love inevitably fail. Such
relationships are basically selfish — “all about you.” Friendship cannot
operate like that; they become claustrophobic and fail.
• Lewis’ reference to “those pathetic people who simply ‘want friends’ “
reminds us of our school days in which the more unpopular kids who
longed to have friends were often rejected, while the kids who seemed
the least needy and desirous of having friends often got them.
• An inner happiness and enthusiasm for things in life is therefore the
best prerequisite for having good friendships.
Love anything and your heart will be broken

The second of the quotes refers to the principle of constancy noted previously.
But here we see that love means more than simply being patient with others. It
means moving into relationships with the knowledge that you will be let down,
disappointed, and hurt to the point of a deeply broken heart.
• This is true of all loves — simple affection, friendship, romance and
marriage, parent-child love, and so on. Lewis’ vivid passage shows us
that the consumer approach to relationships will totally isolate us. If we
only stay in relationships as long as our own needs are being met at an
acceptable cost to us, then we will never be in any deep relationships at
all.
• The modern inability to commit to anyone — to always keep your
options open — will turn your heart hard and in the end less human.
38

It is probably impossible to love any human being “too much”

The third of the quotes addresses a common problem of relationships in our
secular culture. Some people have called it co-dependency.
• It seems in some ways that two people can love each other too much.
Sometimes one person needs another person so much he or she stays
in an abusive relationship.
• Other times Person A needs to be needed so much that he or she
confirms Person B in broken or dysfunctional behavior — all so B will
need to stay dependent on A.
• One of the solutions put forth by secular psychology is to urge people
to set up lots of boundaries and learn emotional independence from
others. In small doses, this advice is good for people who are too needy
and make an idol of approval and human love.
• But in large doses this is nothing but modern western individualism that
promotes selfish consumer-oriented relationships. If you simply pull
back too far and put up boundaries too high and just look out for your
own needs, you shed not only overly idolatrous, exploitative dependent
relationships but also healthy inter-dependent covenantal relationships.
Lewis gives the best answer and it is a simple one. You can’t love someone too
much — but if you love someone more than God, that is an idolatry or an
inordinacy. (Here Lewis draws on Augustine, who defines sin as largely being
inordinate love — loving good things more than God.)
• It is only when we get our primary value from other people’s love that
we will become pathologically dependent on them.
• If our primary love needs and significance come from God, we can
afford to be in relationships that don’t really give us a lot in return. (Just
like an independently wealthy person can invest in a worthy cause even
though it loses money year after year.)
a) If we are emotionally rich in God, we can stay in relationships when
others will have to leave. That is, we can stay faithful to people who
don’t love us well and it doesn’t lead us to crash and burn.
b) On the other hand, if we are emotionally rich in God, we can also
leave abusive relationships when others will need to stay. That is, we
can stand back from people who are mistreating us. (It is never loving
to make it easy for someone to sin against you.)
So this shortest of the quotes is a very simple account of how the gospel
transforms friendships and relationships. Because of the gospel, we neither
earn our worth through approval from people nor through power over people,
so we are neither over-dependent on others, nor afraid of commitment and
vulnerability. That works itself out in relationships with everyone. The gospel is
the solution to both over-dependence and the inability to commit (under-
dependence).

If you aren’t sure of God’s love, you must maintain a self-image of being a good
person.
• Some moralists do so by laying the blame on others, by being very
judgmental and by always insisting that they are in the right. There is a
lack of teachability, of humble admission of error, or listening.
• Or on the other hand, you may try to earn a sense of worth by getting
people to need you (i.e. saving yourself by saving others).
• Either way makes relationships torturous. The gospel allows us to
sacrifice and commit to others, but not out of a need to convince
ourselves or others we are acceptable.
• So we can love the person enough to confront, yet stay with the person
when it does not benefit us.
3. What is Lewis warning us about in the fourth quote? What are the forms of it
that you have seen working within your own life?
Above we looked at two relationship pathologies: 1) the selfish inability to

commit deeply, and 2) the need to be needed so much that you stay in abusive
relationships or maintain someone’s over-dependence on you. Here is a third
pathology.
This quote is from a famous address of C. S. Lewis named “The Inner Ring”
about the danger of seeking to become an insider who is accepted by some
elite crowd or circle in order to feel important and superior to others.
• Lewis is trying to show us that, while we may hate snobbery in people,
it is almost always working in our own lives but in different patterns.
• The example he uses is how a man might totally despise social
climbers who want to be admitted to the “Inner Ring” of high society
and wealth.
• But a person who despises people who disdain the poor might disdain
people of a different political persuasion. Such a man might not aspire
to the top echelons of society, but might aspire to be seen by all other
left-wing activists as one of the few who are really “in the know.”
• Lewis says that this desire — to build relationships only with people
who can get you into the “Inner Ring” — is spiritual poison. And on top
of that, it is virtually impossible. The more desperately you want to be
an insider the more likely you are to be disdained by others.
• The solution, of course, is the gospel. The hunger to be accepted by the
“Inner Rings” is as soul-destroying as the inability to commit to anyone
or as the inability to confront or step back from someone.
40

4. In the final quote, Lewis asks us to remember something and asks us to do

something. What are these two things? How can you practically carry out
what Lewis urges?
Lewis urges us to recognize that every human being is also a soul that will live
forever.
• He asks us to remember the greatness and the horror that will result
from our basic choices. If you respond in a selfish, grumpy way you
make it easier to do it again the next time and slowly you become
grumpier and more self-pitying and more self-righteous and more proud.
• It is true that over the course of several decades that might not change
you totally but over a million years it will be hell — and that’s just what
we call it.
• Lewis wants us to remember we will all be around one million years
from now in some form. Some of us will turn ourselves into absolute
horrors while some will become radiant, unbearably beautiful, happy,
and glorious people.
• We are all helping one another toward one or another of these
destinations. That’s what he urges us to remember.
Secondly, he asks us to “conduct” all relationships — even our play — in the
light of these overwhelming possibilities and with the awe and circumspection
proper to them. What does this mean? Discuss this among yourselves.
• It means that we should treat every human being we meet with
tremendous respect and value, despising no one. It means we should
realize the importance of treating people with love and humble service,
since it encourages the same in them.
Every human being is made in the image of God. There is in them potential to
be a glorious king or queen in the universe — vice-regents under God. That’s
what he made us to be.
• Can you conduct all of your dealings with people with that end in view?
We tend to think of life as being about us — our story. When we
encounter people, it’s as if they come into our story and we say, “I
wonder if we can get them to play the role we want so that our story
will go in the direction we want it to go in?”
• That needs to change. Are you going to cross paths with every other
person saying, “How can I use these people to make me feel better?”
Or are you going to say, as God and the angels watch, “What can I do
to get these people into God, eventually?”
• When you come upon a person, any human being, you must realize that
here is someone of infinite preciousness, infinite value. You must come
into their life the way that God has come into your life, not to be served
but to serve, and to help you toward your own potential.

5. What is the single most important thing you have learned from this study?
How can you apply it in practice?
1 This study is heavily based on Derek Kidner’s The Proverbs: An Introduction and Commentary (IVP,
1964) “The Friend” p.44.
42

Gospel Christianity
Joy and peace
Study 3 | Course 3
Key concepts – PEACE

you.
Jesus says “My peace I give you. Not as the world gives it, do I give it to you.
Don’t be troubled or afraid” (John 14:27). When Jesus meets his disciples after
the resurrection he continually says “Peace” to them (John 20:19, 21, 26).
Under these circumstances it is obvious that the term “Peace’” is
extraordinarily packed and pregnant. What is the peace Jesus gives us?
Peace in the Old Testament

The background to Jesus’ words is the Hebrew word shalom, an extraordinarily
rich word. It refers to multi-dimensional flourishing and fulfillment — spiritual
physical, emotional, social and cultural.
• Peace has to do with wholeness in relationships.
a) Peace is lost when our relationship with God is broken, leading to
psychological, social and physical alienation. (We are out of
relationship with our selves, one another, and the physical world and
our own bodies.)
• Shalom is the restoration of all these relationships under the power and
reign of God. Therefore, shalom is perhaps the basic characteristic of
the future kingdom of God, when the Lord comes to heal all that is
wrong with the world (Num. 6:26; Ps. 29:11; Isa. 9:6-7; 52:7; 54:13;
57:19; Ezek. 37:26.)
Peace in the New Testament

The New Testament speaks about this peace as well but shows us that it
comes through Jesus. The gospel of Jesus is “the gospel of peace” (Eph. 6:15;
Acts 10:35; Eph. 2:17). The kingdom of God is already but not yet —
characterized by peace (Rom. 14:17; 1 Cor. 14:33).
In the New Testament this peace of Christ has several facets.
It has both an individual aspect and a corporate aspect.

• In Philippians, it garrisons the individual heart against anxiety, difficulties
and sorrows (Phil. 4:4-7). The God of peace sanctifies us, growing us
into Christ-like character and maturity (1 Thess. 5:23; cf. Gal 5:22).
43

notes JOY AND PEACE
• In Colossians, it keeps Christians in unity and love though they wrong

each other and rub each other the wrong way (Col. 3:13-15).
• In Ephesians, Christ is our peace and by his death on the cross removes
racial barriers (Eph 2:11-20.)
It has both an objective aspect and a subjective aspect.

• In Romans, it is the objective peace with God that comes from
justification by faith (Rom 5:1-2).
a) There was a barrier between God and humanity, but Jesus paid the
debt and now there is peace. This peace cannot increase or
decrease.
b) Though in ourselves we are actually “wicked,” in Christ we are
“justified” and accepted (Rom 4:5).
c) So we have a legal standing before God. We are “holy and blameless
in his sight” (Col 1:22).
d) In a sense, we are as loved now as we will be a billion years from
now when we are glorified and perfect. This is peace with God.
• In Philippians 4:12-13, we are told that it is possible to have a peace so
deep that it makes us content in any circumstances, even in times of
great difficulty.
a) It is the opposite of worry and anxiety (Phil 4:6-7).
b) The peace of Christ is so closely related to joy (notice John 14:27 and
15:11; Rom. 15:13) that we might say that joy is peace when it gets
exercised.
Which statements impressed you and why?

JOY AND PEACE notes
BIBLE STUDY #1
Romans 5:1-11
1. What are the results of justification by faith, according to vv.1-2?
The first result of justification by faith is “peace with God” (v.1).

The second result of justification is “access to grace in which we stand “(v.2a).
• The grace of God is now something we “stand” in. This interesting
phrase means that being a Christian is (among other things) a new
position or relationship to God that we receive by grace.
• Our relationship with God is not something based on our record or
performance or character, for then our access to God would wax or
wane depending on how we are living.
• Instead of that, our relationship is a new standing received by grace —
through our Lord Jesus Christ — apart from our actual character and
life.
The third result of justification is the hope of glory of God (v.2b).
• The word “hope” in English is rather too weak to completely convey
the sense of the Greek term. In English, “to hope so” means to want
something without certainty.
• But the Greek word actually means something more like “to long with
deep conviction.” It means Christians anticipate with eagerness (not
uncertainty) that we will see God face to face. We will have the beatific
vision — the ultimate satisfaction of the human soul.
• In 1 John 3:2-3, we read “Dear friends, now we are children of God,
and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that
when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.”
This remarkable statement tells us that to even long for this glory now
purifies and changes you.
2. vv.3-4. How does Paul answer the question: “But what good are these benefits
if we are still going to suffer?” (Hint: Why does Paul say we should rejoice in
our suffering, not for them?)
Paul anticipates the question: “But we are suffering so much! If God loves us
so much, why are we suffering?” immediately in v.3. Not only so, but we
rejoice in suffering. He says in effect, “Not only do we have these joys, but
these joys stay joys in our sorrow, and even help us to find joy in our sorrow.”
45

notes JOY AND PEACE
Paul does not say we rejoice for our sufferings, because that would be
masochism. It actually is possible to rejoice for suffering.
• Some people need to feel punished in order to deal with their sense of
unworthiness and guilt. Others actually get a superior attitude toward
people who have had an easier life — they see them as superficial or
ungrateful.
• It is possible to use suffering as a “work” — another form of
justification by works! Some feel that God owes them his favor and
acceptance because we have had such a hard life.
• People who do not process their suffering through the gospel of grace
can become proud and superior or deeply cynical.
Christians, rather, rejoice in suffering.
• That does not mean we are to take any joy in the actual troubles
themselves. God hates the pain and troubles of this life and so should
we.
• Rather, a Christian knows that suffering will have beneficial results. A
Christian is not a stoic who faces suffering by just gritting their teeth.
• Christians “look through” the suffering to their certainties and rest in
the knowledge that our troubles will only serve to increase our
enjoyment and appreciation of them.
3. By what two ways can we know that God loves us according to vv.5-8? How
secure is the future for a Christian and why (according to vv.9-10)?
By what two ways can we know that God loves us according to vv.5-8?
Paul again anticipates a question: “How can you really know this hope of glory
is right? How can you know you don’t just wish it to be true! How do you know
it is?” As we see through the Bible, the Christian’s ground of assurance is two-
fold: one is internal and subjective, while one is external and objective. Both are
necessary.
First, v.5 tells us that we can know that God loves us because of the
experience of his love.
• This hope does not disappoint us, for God poured out his love into our
hearts. It comes through the Holy Spirit. Therefore, every Christian has
some inner experience of the love of God.
• Paul’s language shows that this can be quite a strong experience,
though it can be mild and gentle too, which is more common. The
greater your inner experience of love, the greater the assurance and
hope and power you have.

JOY AND PEACE notes
• Generally, the people who have the most of this are those who are very
experienced and disciplined in prayer, meditation, life-balance and
obedience.
• Some Christians have experienced this assurance very powerfully. For
example:
“Sometimes our spirits cannot stand in trials. Therefore, sometimes the immediate
testimony of the Spirit is necessary. It comes saying, “I am thy salvation!” and our
hearts are stirred up and comforted with joy inexpressible. This joy hath degrees.
Sometimes it is so clear and strong that we question nothing — other times doubts
come in soon.”
– Richard Sibbes
“It is no audible voice, but it is a ray of glory filling the soul with God as life, love
and liberty. It is like the word to Daniel that said, “O man greatly beloved!” or like
the word to Mary. The Lord only said her name MARY, and filled her soul so she no
longer doubted she was his! Oh, how glorious is this manifestation of the spirit!”
– William Guthrie
Second, verses 6-8 tell us that we can know God loved us because of the
death of Jesus.
• Paul makes an argument which we should all have in our minds clearly.
It goes like this:
a) v.7a – “It would take a very loving person to die to save another.”
b) v.7b – “But even a very loving person would not die for an evil one —
a very good one, yes, but an evil or wicked one? No.
c) v.8 – “But that is what Jesus Christ did, by the will of the Father.
While we were rebelling, and while we were resisting him, he died
for us.
• Therefore — God loves you.
How secure is the future for a Christian and why (according to vv.9-10)?
In verses 9-10, we are assured that we will be preserved as “saved”
throughout our life and through the very Day of Judgment.
The argument of Paul is very strong. He intertwines two arguments in these
two verses:
• If Jesus saved us on the cross when we were God’s enemies (v.10a),
how much more will he keep us saved now that we are his friends
(v.10b)?
a) If he succeeded in saving us when we were hostile to him, could he
fail to prevail now that we are friends?
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notes JOY AND PEACE
b) If he didn’t give up on you when you were at war with him, what
could you do to make him give up on you now that you are at peace
with him?
• Further, if Jesus effected our salvation when he was dead, how much
more will he keep us saved since he is alive (v.10b)?
• Paul says that it is inconceivable that Christ should fail to save us to the
end.
4. On the basis of all that we saw, what can you learn from the text about the
nature of this peace that is mentioned?
In verses 1-2, we are told that our relationship with God is by grace and is a
“standing” that is not based on our performance. Then we are told that we
have an eager conviction that we will see God’s glory.
• Verses 9-10 insist that we can’t really lose this salvation. After all, if we
didn’t earn it to begin with by our good deeds, how can we un-earn it
now with our failures?
All the signs are that peace with God is an objective thing, not subjective.
Therefore, peace with God (here in our text) is not the same thing as the peace
of God (talked about in Phil 4:7).
• The peace of God is having a calm and satisfied frame of heart in the
midst of troubles and pressures.
• But peace with God means that there was a state of hostilities between
God and us which is now over. Peace with God is objective, and
happens whether or not I feel happy and secure.
• The peace of God is peace with regard to the cares of the world. It is
subjective.
It means that, there until salvation, there is a war going on between God and
us.
• When we disobey God, there are two things that happen. You not only
break his law, but you assume the right or authority to do so; you claim
kingship over yourself and your world.
• But God claims kingship over the same thing. Whenever two parties
claim absolute (kingly) control over something, there is a war.
• In addition, it means God has a problem with us. It is not just that we
are hostile to him. Paul told us that God’s wrath is upon us (Romans 1).
Here we are told that we are reconciled to God (v.10), which indicates
that his anger is taken away.

JOY AND PEACE notes
• As we saw in Romans 1, God’s anger is not the same as ours. It is not

vengeful or vindictive — it is legal. There is a sentence on us and it
cannot just be discarded. The debt cannot just be wished away.
• But Jesus death changed it, for through him we have the reconciliation.
5. v.11 What are the signs that you are rejoicing in your reconciliation and
enjoying your peace with God?
1) Your mind is deeply satisfied with the doctrine of justification by faith.

You rejoice in it by studying it and speaking about it to others.
2) You only think of your past in terms of it. You don’t say, “What a
mess I made of it there!” But you say, “Me a Christian! Despite my
deep flaws, despite my record! Yet it is absolutely true!”
3) When you discover in yourself some surprising new character flaw —
a fearfulness, or a lack of self-control, etc. — the discovery does not
make you doubt God’s love. Rather, it makes you feel closer to him.
His grace for you becomes more precious in your sight.
4) When your conscience accuses you and says, “How could God love
you after what you’ve done?” you don’t try to answer the conscience
with reference to your performance. In other words, you don’t say, “I
had a bad day!” or “I was under pressure.” You say something like:
“Even if I hadn’t done this thing, that would not have made me
acceptable in his sight anyway! Jesus died for me, and his blood can
cover a thousand worlds filled with people 1,000 times worse than
me!
5) When you face death, you do it with serenity, because you are going
to a friend.
6) When you face criticism, you don’t say, “This is totally unfair.” You
rejoice gently inside with thoughts like, “Well, I’m really a much
worse sinner than they know, but…”
Well may the accuser roar,
of sins that I have done!
I know them all and thousands more,
Jehovah knoweth none!”
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notes JOY AND PEACE
BIBLE STUDY #2
Philippians 4:4-12
1. Where is Paul when he makes his call in verse 4? How does that help us
understand what he is exhorting us to do?
Paul is in chains and in prison (Phil. 1:13-14) when he calls his readers to
rejoice. He is therefore saying, “Keep on rejoicing regardless of what comes
upon you, even if it is prison, torture, and imminent death.”
• The exhortation assumes that there is some kind of joy “in the Lord”
that is not subject to circumstances. Most people would say, “How can
I rejoice in all these difficulties?”
• It’s as if Paul knows that this is the normal reaction so he adds, “Again I
say — rejoice!” As if to say, “Yes, it is quite possible. I am doing it!
Most kinds of joy get weaker as circumstances become more painful.
But there is a particular kind of joy that gets deeper as things get worse
— as stars shine brighter as the night grows darker. “
2. What are we called to do in vv.5-6?
In verses 5 and 6, Paul calls us to do three things.

First, we are to be “gentle” because “the Lord is near.”
• This quality of being gentle is opposed to being combative (in 1 Tim.
3:3; Tit. 3:2) and is linked to being easy to entreat, wise and patient in
James 3:17.
• It means, basically, to not get upset when life or other people misuse
you. It means to be calm, patient and self-controlled. Why? “The Lord is
near.”
• This word “near” in Greek is as ambiguous as it is in English — it can
be used spatially or temporally. It could mean that Jesus is near
spiritually to believers or that he is near in the sense that his return to
earth is imminent.
• Perhaps both senses are included. Because Jesus is near us and will
some day come again and put everything right, we are to become
neither too elated by success and prosperity nor too despondent by
difficulties and losses.
• Paul speaks of this attitude of moderation in 1 Cor. 7:29-31, where he
says: “What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on…
those who mourn, should mourn as if they did not; those who are

JOY AND PEACE notes
happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not
theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not
engrossed in them.”
• Put another way — Paul is calling people to avoid idolatry. He warns us
against putting our hope and heart totally into any scheme, relationship,
agenda or plan.
Second, we are to “In everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,

present your requests to God.”
• This directive is practical, comprehensive and hard. “In everything”
means that every need we have should be turned into a request to God.
• “With thanksgiving” is quite crucial and may be the key to the passage.
We are never to separate our petition to God (for things we don’t have)
from thanksgiving and praise to God (for things we do have).
• Grateful joy — for what we have in Christ, what we are promised and
guaranteed in Christ, and anything else we have received from him —
must be intertwined with our cares, burdens, and needs.
• Anyone who has tried this knows how important it is. If you remember
his mercies and grace as you make your requests, it will give you far
more hope as you pray for the things you need.
• But if you forget or fail to drench your requests with thanksgiving, your
prayer time really just becomes a worry-time. When you are done you
will be more anxious than when you started.
Third, we are commanded (an imperative grammatical form) to “stop worrying

about anything.”
• The word for anxiety — merimnate — does not mean simple concern
but harmful, anxious, harassing care. It means to be torn up and
distracted by your anxiety.
• If Paul had simply made this command in a vacuum we could well
complain that it is unreasonable. Anxiety, after all, is in large part an
emotion and it is the natural outflow of love (notice Phil. 2:28).
• But in its context, this command makes sense. Deep concern is a result
of love (cf. 2 Cor. 11:28) but it will turn into debilitating worry if:
a) You don’t continually press yourself to remember the nearness and
importance of Jesus so as to avoid heart-idolatry.
b) You don’t discipline yourself to process all your life-events and heart-
desires through a prayer life balanced by emotional realism and
petition, and joyful gratitude and praise.
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notes JOY AND PEACE
c) These latter two things are within your control. If you do them your
concern will not go bad and turn into anxiety (just as, if you rub salt
into meat it will not putrefy and go bad).
3. What will be the results if we do this (v.7, v.9, v.12)?
A powerful peace – v.7

• “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard
your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” The peace of God here is
clearly a subjective, inner peace that is opposed to anxiety (v.6) rather
than the great objectivities which comprise peace with God of Romans
5:1.
• The word translated “guard” in verse 7 is an extremely active word —
more so than comes out in the English translation. When it says, “Let
the peace of God guard your heart,” it literally means, “March around
the ramparts of your heart,” like a guard, warding off any attacks.
• God’s peace is a living power, an active force that wraps itself around
us. This peace is not a vague inner detachment, nor some kind of
stoicism, nor blissful ignorance. It is a living power that comes into your
life and acts. It rules. It dominates. It guards you.
A surpassing peace – v.7

• Also, we see it is a peace that (literally) passes all thought. Considering
the context, it probably means something like “his peace is far more
effective at removing anxiety than any human line of reasoning.”
• Human reasoning cannot stop worrying about a possible harmful
occurrence unless it achieves certainty that the harmful occurrence
cannot happen. Thus, human reasoning about the future can never give
powerful peace that literally wraps itself around us.
• But God’s peace gives us a sense of peace and safety far beyond what
our logic and planning can provide.
• It is not that God’s peace is irrational at all. After all, Paul asks us to use
the mind when he tells us to remember “the Lord is near,” and even
when he tells us to drench our petitions in “thanksgiving.”
• Thus, we are to remind ourselves over and over about how the story of
the universe is going to end, about who is in charge of it, about what
we already have — which should fill us with joy and peace even if we
never got another thing we asked for.

JOY AND PEACE notes
• God’s peace is not irrational, but it goes beyond what human invention
can provide. No matter how hard you try to plan and guard against any
eventual problem, you cannot live in assurance that you’ve covered all
the bases.
• But God’s peace can lift you up and guard your life so you know you are
ultimately safe no matter what happens. (See application question #2
below for more on this principle.)
An independent peace – v.12

• Finally, verse 12 says explicitly what he has implied up until now. God’s
peace — based on the nearness of Jesus and gratitude for his grace —
is not only something beyond human reasoning but it is independent of
circumstances. Literally, he says, “In any and all circumstances I have
learned the secret of being well-fed.”
• The word translated “content” means to have a full stomach. The
metaphor is vivid and practical. If you are stuffed, then it doesn’t matter
if your refrigerator is full of goodies (you aren’t tempted!) or if it is
empty (you aren’t longing, hungry, or frustrated).
• Your behavior will be the same, no matter what is around you.
• Notice that Paul says that the peace of God is not only a secret for
times of want but times of plenty. If you have a lack of inner peace,
then when things are going well, you will build your happiness on
changeable circumstances too much.
• You may even over-indulge and use the things you have very selfishly or
indulgently.
The peace of God rules, it is not ruled by circumstances. It is independent of
circumstances around you.
• Jesus says, “Peace I give you. My peace I give you, not as the world
gives you.” (John 14:27). There’s a worldly kind of peace but it’s always
going away because of circumstances.
• If you’ve ever felt like you’re really at peace now and the very next
moment it’s gone — that’s peace as the world gives.
• Here’s why. Think of a mirror. The mirror has no power of illumination of
its own. If there’s light outside, the mirror is illuminating. But if it’s dark
outside, the mirror is dark. It has no power within of illumination.
• So the natural heart can only reflect its circumstances. If there are
peaceful circumstances out there, you have peace in the heart. But you
don’t have your own peace. It’s a peace that the world gives you and it
will take it away so fast.
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notes JOY AND PEACE
• But the peace of Christ is not ruled by circumstances; it rules despite

circumstances. It rules from inside. It rules from itself. It’s not a peace
that the world gives you and then can take away. It’s in you. It wards off
anxiety.
So what is Paul saying? I have learned the secret of deep equilibrium in the
face of prison, torture and even death. I have something spiritually within that
makes it possible for me to keep my peace regardless of circumstances.
A personal peace – v.9

• But verse 9 keeps us from thinking of this peace as an abstract force.
There we are told that if we follow all that Paul has been saying, “The
God of peace will be with you.”
• That is, the peace comes from a consciousness of God’s presence.

JOY AND PEACE notes
READINGS
you.
There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains,
Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he
looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear
and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and
passing thing: there was light and high beauty forever beyond its reach. His
[courage before] had been defiance rather than hope; for then he was thinking of
himself. Now, for a moment, his own fate and even his master’s ceased to trouble
him… Putting away all fear he cast himself into a deep untroubled sleep.
– J. R. R. Tolkien 1
I am trying to rip open the inconsolable secret in each one of you — the secret
which hurts so much that you take your revenge on it by calling it names like
Nostalgia and Romanticism and Adolescence… Wordsworth’s expedient was to
identify it with certain moments in his own past. But… if Wordsworth had gone
back to those moments in the past, he would not have found the thing itself… The
books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we
trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and was only longing.
If these things are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking
the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the
scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news
from a country we have never yet visited… But if we are to take the imagery of
Scripture seriously, we believe that God will one day give us the Morning Star and
cause us to put on the splendor of the sun… At present we are on the outside of
the world, the wrong side of the door. Someday, God willing, we shall get in. When
human souls have become as perfect in voluntary obedience as the inanimate
creation is in its lifeless obedience, then they will put on its glory, or the greater
glory of which Nature is only the first sketch… Our Lord finds our desires not too
strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and
sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to
go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the
offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
– C. S. Lewis 2
I pity celebrities. No, I do… When God wants to play a really rotten practical joke on
you, he grants you your deepest wish and then giggles merrily when you suddenly
realize you want to kill yourself. Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis and Barbra
Streisand fervently… wanted fame… The night each of them became famous they
wanted to shriek with relief. Finally!… All their fantasies had been realized, yet the
reality was still the same. If they were miserable before, they were twice as
miserable now, because that giant thing they were striving for, that fame thing that
55

notes JOY AND PEACE
was going to make everything okay, that was going to make their lives bearable,
that was going to provide them with personal fulfillment, and (ha ha) happiness, had
happened. And nothing changed. They were still them. The disillusionment turned
them howling and insufferable.
– Cynthia Heimel 2
Assurance [of salvation] goes far… It enables you to feel that the great business of
life is a settled business, the great debt is a paid debt, the great disease is a healed
disease, and the great works a finished work; and all other business, diseases,
debts and works are then by comparison small. In this way assurance makes you
patient in tribulation, calm under bereavements, unmoved in sorrow, not afraid of
evil tidings, in every condition content, for it gives you a fixedness of heart…
– J. C. Ryleiv

JOY AND PEACE notes
2. What practical principle for developing inner peace and joy can you see in the
Tolkien quote from Lord of the Rings?
At the darkest point in The Lord of the Rings, the protagonist Sam is about to
lose hope but then he sees a star in the heavens.
• Tolkien writes that Sam had previously gotten up his courage against
the darkness through “defiance” which was just “thinking of himself.”
• That is, he faced troubles by filling his mind and heart with the danger
and his need. He said, “I’m not going to let this stop me! I’m not going
to let this defeat me!”
But when looking at the star he had a sudden realization that the evil in the
world was ultimately tiny and fleeting in comparison to the “light and high
beauty” of God that would eventually prevail.
• Suddenly, he got a peace that worked in his heart in almost the exact
opposite way from defiance. He realized that no matter what happened
there would be light and high beauty. No matter what happened, God
and good would triumph in the universe.
• He stopped thinking about his own situation altogether and fell asleep in
peace.
This is exactly how God’s peace works.
• It is the realization that ultimately, no matter what happens, everything
will be fine. If Jesus is who he said he is then eventually there will be
so much light, beauty and joy that at some point we will hardly be able
to remember the things we worried about.
• We will be a part of that whether we die now or later.
So often the language of peace in the Bible depends on thinking out the
implication of Christian doctrine and truth.
• Jesus says, “Don’t be afraid” because “I go to prepare a place for you”
(John 14:1-2). We saw above that Paul counsels peace on the basis that
“The Lord is near.”
• If we want the peace of Christ to rule in our hearts, we have to learn to
think.
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notes JOY AND PEACE
Why don’t the secular self-help books and articles about anxiety start by asking
people to think about the universe, the meaning of life, and the “big
questions?” One reason is that the implications of a secular worldview are not
very peace-producing!
• For example, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. — a classic secular 20th
century thinker — once wrote: “There is no reason for attributing to a
man a significance different in kind from that which belongs to a
baboon or to a grain of sand. The world has produced me and the
rattlesnake but I will kill it if I get the chance and the only reason is
because it is incongruous to the world I want, the world we are all
trying to make according to our own power.”
• This sounds incredibly bleak, but he is just thinking out the implications
of the view that the world and all its inhabitants are here by sheer
accident. If that is true then first, there is no real reason for saying that
human beings are valuable or have any inherent dignity, and second,
there is no real right and wrong — only power.
How disturbing! But we all know plenty of people with the same secular
worldview who simply refuse to “go there.” They refuse to think out the
ultimate implications of their view of the world and life.
• They say, “Well, yes, I agree that we are all here by accident but I just
know that people are valuable and that injustice is wrong.”
• Notice, though, that when you do something like that you are getting
peace of mind by refusing to rigorously think out the implications of
your own view.
• Let’s notice that Christian peace of mind works in exactly the opposite
direction.
The Christian learns from the Bible that the world was created by a God who
wants our friendship, and even though we’ve turned away from him and made
quite a mess of things, he is moving heaven and earth to re-acquire us.
• At infinite cost to himself, he sent his Son to come and redeem us.
Nothing will stop him from re-uniting with us.
• Paul says if you believe that, then think out the implications! Think of
how valuable your life is. Think of the inevitable joy you are in for.
• So, for Christians, peace comes from thinking out the implications of
their basic beliefs about the nature of the world. Secular people get
peace by avoiding the implications of their basic beliefs about the world.
• If you want the “peace that passes understanding” there can be no
intellectual end run. You have to think.

JOY AND PEACE notes
Lewis quote? What does he warn us against doing? (cf. with Heimel)
Lewis says that we all long for joy and peace, and certain objects (landscapes,
persons, etc) can arouse in us some very powerful feelings that are
tremendously pleasurable.
• When we first fall in love, when we first begin a new job, when we
begin to make enough money to buy some nice things, we feel that
thrill and say, “This is going to finally bring the inner peace and
fulfillment and contentment.” But it never works. (See the hilarious but
cutting remarks by Cynthia Heimel.)
The reason it doesn’t work is two-fold.
• First, Lewis says, the objects could not give us the joy — they only
aroused the longing for it. They reminded us of the things that alone
can fill the deepest part of our heart — God and his eternal glory.
• Second, Lewis notes, even the feelings we feel are “only longing.”
They are not the joy itself
This is another practical principle for developing inner peace. Paul says, “Put to
death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature, sexual immorality,
impurity, lust, epithumia and greed, which is idolatry” (3:5).
• The term “evil desires” is the Greek word epithumia. The word means
an epi-desire, a mega or inordinate desire. Paul is talking about
inordinate desires for good things, the thing Lewis warns us against.
• So Paul is saying, “Kill off the over-desires in your heart which are
caused by idolatry.” The first commandment — “Have no other gods
before me” — we break every day when we put more of our hearts’
functional trust for our significance and security in created things rather
than in Jesus.
• This creates inordinate longings and emotional attachment to these
things, even if they are good in themselves.
Then Paul says, “Set your minds on things above… Your life is hidden with
Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will
appear with him in glory” (3:2-4). Here we get a rhetorical strategy to use on
our own hearts.
• When you are wracked by epi-anger, fear, and despondency, dig down
and discover the inordinate desire.
• Then look at it and say to it: “You are not my life! You do not define me,
make me or break me! Christ is my life! You did not die for me, and you
cannot redeem me. He did and can and will! So ultimately, I don’t really
have to have you.”
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notes JOY AND PEACE
• When Paul says we must “set our minds” on Christ, he certainly is

talking about more than just thinking. He means we are to come into
Christ’s presence in prayer and rely on the Holy Spirit to make him
spiritually real to our hearts.
• This, ultimately, is what cultivates the peace of Christ in the heart.
• “Come unto me,” says Jesus, “and you will find rest for your souls”
(Matt 11:28-30).
1 J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings Book VI chapter 2 (The Return of the King)
2 C. S. Lewis The Weight of Glory
3 Cynthia Heimel, “Tongue in Chic” column in The Village Voice, January 2, 1990.
4 J.C. Ryle, “Assurance” in Holiness: It’s Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots.

Gospel Christianity
Humility and self-image
Study 4 | Course 3
Key concepts – HUMILITY

you.
The Greek word tapnophorosune — translated “humility” or “lowliness” —

was used infrequently in Greek literature and then only in the most derogatory
sense of servility or shameful weakness. The Greco-Roman world despised
weakness and did not value sensitivity or gentleness. Yet, remarkably, in the
Bible some form of this word occurs 270 times.
• God’s saving work in history is to lift up and exalt “the humble” (Luke
1:54), referring especially to the poor and those of low estate.
• We can only receive Christ through meekness and humility (Matt 5:3, 5).
• Christians are to serve Christ in humility (Acts 20:19) and are to regard
others with humility and service (Eph. 4:2; 1 Pet. 5:5; Col. 3:12).
• God gives special grace (strength and blessing) to the humble (Jam. 4:6;
1 Pet. 5:5). Therefore, all believers are to humble themselves (Jam.
4:10; 1 Pet. 5:6).
• It is a principle of life that those who humble themselves are exalted
but those who exalt themselves are brought down (Luke 14:11; 18:14).
Most remarkable of all is that this concept — so scorned by the world —
expresses the character and work of Christ.
• Jesus says he is “gentle and lowly in heart” (Mt. 11:29) and Paul says
that Jesus humbled himself (Phil. 2:8) and was exalted (v.9).
• It is the humbling and exaltation of Jesus that is the whole basis for the
Christian life. We are saved not by pointing to our goodness but by
humbly admitting our lack of it.
• We find our true selves only when we stop seeking self-fulfillment and
seek to serve God and others (Mark 8:35).
• Only by dying to our own independence can we find true freedom (John
8:31-32).
Paul tells every Christian to adopt the “humility of mind” toward one another
(Phil. 2:3) which he contrasts to two things.
• First, he contrasts it with “selfish ambition.” This could be called a
superiority complex. It means to take the needs of others very lightly
and make your own concerns the center of the universe.
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notes HUMILITY AND SELF-IMAGE
• Second, Paul contrasts it with “vain conceit.” The Greek word here is
literally “empty-glory”; it means someone who seeks glory and honor
out of hunger for it, to fill one’s own inner emptiness as it were. This
could be called an inferiority complex.
• Out of an excessive desire for glory and recognition, a person maintains
a distorted self-image. One must deny character flaws and exaggerate
one’s strengths.
• Self-centeredness and self-absorption, then, can take the form of either
a superior or an inferior attitude. (Both are, to some degree, present in
us all.)
What then is humility? Humility is not self-consciousness or behaving abjectly
before a “superior” or hating yourself. Nor is it self-aggrandizement.
• Humble people in Christ have a new confidence not based on their
performance but on the love of God in Christ (Rom. 3:22-23). Thus, they
are no longer looking at themselves all the time.
• Christian humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of
yourself less. It is self-forgetfulness.
• And because a humble person is neither self-absorbed nor “empty of
glory” on the inside, they are free to count the concerns of others more
important than their own (Phil. 2:3b).

HUMILITY AND SELF-IMAGE notes
BIBLE STUDY #1
Philippians 2:1-11
1. What problem is Paul addressing in vv.2-4?
In 1:27-30, Paul addressed problems on the outside of the Philippians church —

opposition and persecution. Now he speaks of problems within the
congregation. We can imagine what the problems are by looking at the positive
exhortation.
• First, in verse 2, he asks us to be “like-minded, having the same love,
being one is spirit and purpose.” This is a call to unity but it is three-
fold; mind, heart and will.
a) He wants them to agree on the truth (like-minded), to love one
another (having the same love), and to work together toward the
same goal (spirit and purpose).
• Verses 3-4 are a call to humility, putting the interests of others ahead of
our own. While v.2 addresses the Christians as an entire body, vv.3-4
addresses each one as an individual.
a) There are two things they are to turn from: selfish ambition (which is
putting your own needs ahead of others) and vain conceit (which is
an unrealistic assessment of yourself).
• It seems clear that self-centeredness was leading to disunity.
2. What are the four motives for unity and humility that he lists in verse 1?
• First, Paul mentions “encouragement from being in Christ.” The word

“encouragement” is the Greek word paraklesis which indeed means to
be strengthened and given courage from our salvation in Christ.
• Second, Paul mentions the deep comfort of our salvation — the word
connotes consolation you give someone who is grieving.
• Third, there is the Spirit’s fellowship, a word that means “participation.”
All the Philippian Christians have been given the very Spirit of God.
• Fourth, Paul speaks of tenderness and compassion. We don’t know for
certain whose tenderness and compassion Paul was speaking of. But
these two words are used in the Bible of God’s mercy in the
overwhelming majority of cases.
63

a) “Mercy” is, of course, a word for love, but it refers to love that is
unmerited and particularly concerned to alleviate pain and misery.
• So Paul is saying that they have gotten strength and deep consolation
from Christ, they have been bound together by the participation in one
Spirit, and they have been freely forgiven by the mercy of the Father
despite their failings.
The links between these four blessings and the need for unity and humility are
many. Here are just a few:
• The strength and deep consolation from Christ should make us less
needy.
a) The term “vain conceit” has the connotation of being hungry for
honor, recognition, and status.
b) Why, if we have the profound joy, encouragement, and consolation
from Christ — should we be so needy of attention? To act as if we
need the acclamation from others is to forget the power of what we
have received.
c) Paul is urging people to think about that.
• The “participation of the Spirit” means that all Christians are one
despite their differences.
a) We may have diverse opinions, temperaments or cultural mindsets
but the fact that we all participate in the Spirit should be more
important than political, intellectual or cultural differences.
b) To act otherwise shows that you don’t realize the glory of what you
have received.
c) Paul is urging people to think about that.
• The remembrance of the mercy of God should humble us and then be a
model for us.
a) God’s care and provision for us was completely unmerited and
undeserved, so we should humble ourselves before others.
3. Verses 6-11 have been described as a symphony in three movements. What are
the three movements?
The first movement is the incarnation. (vv.6-7)

• Here we see to our amazement that Jesus not only had a divine nature
(v.6a – “being in very nature God”) but literally had equality with the
Father. Though he is called the Son of God, he is in every way equal
with the Father.

• Yet he “made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant.”

Notice that Paul does not say that he shed his nature as God but rather
he assumed a human nature.
• Don’t be misled by the term “likeness.” That doesn’t mean he only
appeared to be human. It says he took on a human nature.
• He was, then, both divine and human at the same time. This is a clear
teaching that Jesus had two natures.
The second movement is the atonement. (vv.8)
• Here we see that he did not simply humble himself into being a man,
but he also humbled himself into a particular task or project — he
became “obedient unto death — even the death on a cross!”
• The word “obedient” shows that the death of Christ was not a tragic
accident. Jesus came in order to die. His death fulfilled the law of God.
• Despite the fact that he retained his divine nature when on the earth,
he voluntarily did not exercise it, but instead became weak and
vulnerable and died on the cross for us.
The third movement is the resurrection and future kingdom. (vv.9-11)
• This packed section tells us that “God exalted him to the highest place”
which refers (indirectly) to the resurrection.
• He is exalted and ruling from heaven, but Paul looks all the way forward
to the day when everyone and everything in the world will bow the
knee to Jesus.
• This is his “second coming” when he returns to renew the whole
world.
4. How does Paul urge us to apply the career of Christ to our own lives (v.5)?
Paul does not consider vv.6-11 as simply an eloquent piece of theological

writing.
• He urges us to have the same “attitude” — a word that means a frame
of mind, a permanent and comprehensive way of looking at things.
• Jesus’ career was marked by not just one but two self-humblings: the
incarnation and the cross. He was exalted but not by himself — by God
— and only through and after his humbling.
• When you humble yourself for Jesus’ sake (not in order to get power
over others but simply because of what Jesus did for you) then you
participate in Jesus’ death and there will be in some way a resurrection.
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• Christ shows us that “the way up is down.”

a) The way to get influence is to give up power.
b) The way to lead is to serve.
c) The way to find fulfillment is not to seek fulfillment but look to the
fulfillment of others.
“Christ turned his back, voluntarily, deliberately, and decisively, upon all that
belonged to personal glory, and all that conduced to personal gain. He recognized
no limit to the extent to which His obedience to God in self-humbling must go.
Whatever he found in himself to be expendable, he spent. While anything was left
which could be poured forth, he poured it forth. Nothing was too small to give, or
too great. This is the mind and the life which is commended to us by the example
of Christ and approved by signal acts of God.”
– Alec Motyer, Philippians Studies, p. 85

BIBLE STUDY #2
1 Corinthians 3:3-7; 3:21-4:7
1. What problem in the Corinthian church is Paul addressing (see 1 Cor. 3:3-7)?
There is a problem of jealousy (v.3 – desiring to have the status, esteem, or

honor given to someone else) and quarreling or strife (v.3 – active strategies to
gain advantage for oneself over others).
• Both words have to do with a sustained effort to advance the interests
and power of the self over other selves.
• The particular form this self-seeking takes in Corinth is “party-spirit.”
The Corinthians hide their self-seeking under the veil of promoting the
doctrine or policy of their leaders.
The reason for all the references to Paul and Apollos and Cephas (Peter) was
because while the Corinthian church had originally been planted by Paul, later
on other ministers came through and did their work.
• So some of the Corinthian Christians had been converted and built up
under one leader, some under another, and some under another.
• Doubtless each of these men had their own distinctive emphases in
their preaching and ministry, but now these differences were seized on
as the basis for a power play.
• Parties had arisen. Divisions are tearing the church up. People are
saying:
a) “I am just promoting the approach of the great Apollos.”
b) “I should be the leader because Paul is the one who discipled me.”
c) “So what! I have a relationship with Cephas!”
But Paul will have none of that.
• On the one hand, he pays Christian leaders a great complement. He
says that they are the ones “through whom you came to believe” (v.5).
These ministers were active agents responsible for the Corinthians’
conversions.
• But ultimately, they are only servants (v.5). They would never have done
anything unless they had been sovereignly assigned (v.5) and gifted to
do their work.
• So Paul can draw the strong conclusion (about himself) that ultimately
Christian leaders are not anything (v.7). It is all from God.
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2. What is the root cause of the strife? What is boasting? What things might we
boast in? What are the results of boasting? Does Paul preclude all boasting?
Paul says that the root cause for why we cannot live at peace with each
another is pride and boasting. Verse 21 starts, “No more boasting” while 4:7
repeats, “Let’s stop the boasting.” The Greek word is kauxaomai which means
to glory in something. It means to identify with something and get one’s own
confidence and importance from the identification.
• The first thing mentioned in this passage that we might boast in is
“men” (3:21). That is, we might attach ourselves to someone admirable
and boast in that.
• This may have many forms. We might boast of our family pedigree, or
social class, our political party, our intellectual movement.
• The second thing mentioned that we might boast in is our own “gifts,”
meaning our talents and abilities (4:6-7).
• While the first kind of boasting uses a corporate strategy (“look at the
group I’m part of”), the second kind of boasting uses an individualistic
strategy (“look at what I’ve accomplished”).
• This is to get one’s confidence from one’s brains, looks, talents,
achievements — or perhaps from one’s moral record and religiosity.
• In every case, we are glorying or boasting in something by closely
identifying our very selves with it and deriving importance and
confidence from it.
Paul says that the result of boasting is to be “puffed up.” This English term
translates a Greek word that Paul uses in 4:6, though the NIV translates it
simply, “Don’t take pride in one man over another.”
• The word is phusiousthe and it literally means to be over-inflated,
swollen, distended beyond its proper size.
• It’s related to the word bellows. It’s very evocative and kind of painful. It
evokes the image of some organ of the human body that is distended
because so much air has been pumped into it that it’s ready to burst.
It’s over-inflated, distended, swollen, inflamed because it’s been
extended past its proper size.
• This, he says, is the condition of the natural human ego. What does this
mean? The metaphor of over-inflation gets across both the concept of
distortion and of fragility.
a) First, pride is an unrealistic, inflated view of oneself; it is playing
down or denying one’s bad features and playing up the good features
so that your self-evaluation is unrealistic.

b) But secondly, a proud person is always an overly sensitive person,

someone who is easily offended, insulted, hurt. An inflated ego is a
fragile ego. Our unrealistic self-appraisal must be constantly affirmed
and re-enforced because deep down we know it is not true.
• Body parts don’t call attention to themselves unless there is something
wrong with them. You don’t ordinarily walk around thinking, “My toes
feel great today!” They only call attention to themselves when they are
swollen or blistered or when there is something wrong with them.
• Why is it that our ego is always calling attention to itself? Why do our
feelings always get hurt? Why are we always comparing ourselves to
others? Why do we feel snubbed or ignored? There’s something wrong
with our self-regard, our ego, because it is so fragile, because it is never
happy.
• So the results of boasting and pride are:
a) Internally, unrealistic distorted self-image and fragile, easily offended
egos.
b) Externally, such persons will constantly be fighting with one another.
c) This is the natural state of the human ego and of human society.
But Paul does not preclude all boasting. That would be impossible. We cannot
live without boasting or glorying in something.
• When he says “no boasting of men,” and then says, “You do not
belong to Apollos or me but to God,” he is saying implicitly what
elsewhere he says explicitly. Paul tells us we should boast or glory in:
a) the hope God gives us (Rom. 5:2)
b) in God himself (Rom. 2:17; 5:11; 1 Cor. 1:31; 2 Cor. 10:17)
c) in Christ (Phil. 3:3)
• What does it mean to boast or get your identity in God? Look below.
3. Compare Paul’s warning about boasting with today’s popular teaching on the
importance of self-esteem.
Up until the 20th Century, nearly every society believed that too high a view of
yourself is the real root cause for most of the evil in the world. Most of the
crime, violence and war-likeness were attributed to hubris, the Deadly Sin of
Pride.
• From the time of the ancient Greeks and Confucius until recently, it was
considered deadly to others if you had too high a view of your own
importance and abilities.
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• But in modern Western culture and particularly in the United States we

have a cultural consensus that is almost the very opposite. Our
education, the way we treat incarcerated prisoners, the basis of a lot of
our legislation, the basis of our counseling — assumes that people
misbehave mainly because of a lack of self-esteem, too low a view of
yourself.
• Traditional cultures said the problem is that you have too high a view of
yourself; pride and too much self-esteem is the problem. Now we say
the problem is too little self-esteem.
Lauren Slater’s article “The Trouble with Self-Esteem” (in New York Times
Magazine, Feb 3, 2002) reports that there is enough accumulated evidence
from 20 years of scientific studies to conclude that “People with high self-
esteem pose a greater threat to those around them than people with low self-
esteem. And feeling bad about yourself is not the source of any of our
country’s biggest problems.”
• People with higher self-esteem are more likely to be cruel or to feel
they are above the law. (Probably the executives at Enron who cheated
people of so many millions were able to do so because of an over-
inflated idea of their own importance and ability.)
• On the other hand, people with lower self-esteem often do better in
school and are understanding and compassionate.
• Slater indicates, however, that the American belief that our social
problems come from low self-esteem will not be willingly discarded. In
traditional societies, you can only control misbehaving people by saying:
“You are bad! Stop it!” We love the idea that the way to help
misbehaving people is by saying: “You are good and valuable! Stop it!”
• The low-self-esteem theory of misbehavior requires you to make no
moral judgments in order to deal with problems. How we like that!
4. How does what Paul says about his own self-regard in 4:2-4 compare to
today’s understanding of self-esteem?
In this passage Paul says, “Let me show you how my own self-concept
works.”
First of all, in verse 2 he says, “I’m a minister and have a job to do.” But how
does he know if he is a good person/minister or a bad person/minister?
• In verse 3 he says, “I care very little if I am judged by you or any human
court.” The word judge is to “pass a verdict.”
a) He says he doesn’t look to human approval or human opinion at all
for an appraisal of himself. His confidence and identity owes nothing

to what people say about him. It is not tied in any way to others’
verdict and evaluation.
b) He says, in effect, “I don’t care what you think about me. I don’t care
what anybody thinks about me.” Now that is not “low self-esteem”
by any standards. Paul is confident and assured.
• But how did Paul get there — how did he get to the place where what
people thought about him didn’t matter?
a) Most modern people would say something like, “It shouldn’t matter
what other people think of you. It only matters what you think of you.
You shouldn’t be living according to the standards of others. Choose
your own standards. Decide who you want to be and then be it.”
• But that is not what Paul does at all! He doesn’t proceed from, “I don’t
care what you think of me” to “I only think what I think of me!”
• Rather, he says, “I care very little if I’m judged by you or by any human
court — indeed, I do not judge myself.”
a) In other words, Paul says: “I don’t care what you think but I don’t
care what I think. I have a very low opinion of your opinion of me. But
I have a very low opinion of my opinion of me.”
b) Notice what he adds: “My conscience is clear but that does not
make my innocent.” He says, “Just because my conscience is clear
doesn’t mean I’m innocent. Just because I feel good about myself
doesn’t mean I am right!”
c) After all, Hitler might have had a clear conscience but that doesn’t
mean he was innocent.
What is Paul doing? Today we don’t know how to remedy low self-esteem
except to replace it with high self-esteem. But Paul does not fall into the trap.
He does not get his confidence through an act of expressive individualism,
choosing his own standards and dreams and then fulfilling them.
• Paul realizes that it is no remedy to substitute someone else’s
standards and regard for your own. Sure we feel terrible (low self-
regard) when we can’t live up to others’ standards or the culture’s
standards. But we feel at least as terrible when we can’t live up to our
own standards.
• So how can the solution to low self-esteem be to set my own different
standards than the people around me and do my own appraisal? Or is
the solution that I should set myself lower standards than the people
around me? Then I will feel horrible because I’m the kind of person who
has low standards!
• Paul is not doing any of this, yet he is clearly a confident man! He is
one of the most influential leaders in the history of the human race. He
had enormous confidence. Nothing fazed him. How did he get like this?
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• He says, “My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent
— it is the Lord who judges me.” The word “clear” is the word “to
justify” (to be pronounced in the right), the same word Paul uses all
through Romans and Galatians.
a) Paul is saying, “My conscience is clear but that does not pronounce
me in the right. It is God who does that.”
b) The tip-off (even in the English translation) is that Paul says “I care
little if I’m judged by you or by any human court.”
• This may seem odd at first. The Corinthian Christians are hardly a court.
But he’s talking metaphorically.
a) Ordinarily, our self-regard works like this. Every day you’re in the
courtroom. It is like you’re on trial. Everything you do is stamped as
evidence for the prosecution (you’re not OK) or for the defense
(you’re OK). Some days you feel like you’re winning the trial. Some
days you feel like you’re losing the trial.
b) We are all basically the same. An atheist may say “I get my self-
image from being a good, caring person.” A Buddhist, Muslim, or
Jew may have a much more exacting set of standards, but in every
case, performance leads to the verdict.
c) So every day you’re in the courtroom. Every day you’re on trial.
• But Paul says he’s found the secret. “The trial is over for me! I’m out of
the courtroom. It’s gone. Over. Because the ultimate verdict is in.” He
says, “I don’t look to you for a verdict on what I am, and I don’t look to
myself for a verdict either.” I look to God.
• Now how could that be? He says it very simply. “You cannot justify me.
I cannot justify myself. It is the Lord who judges me. His opinion only
counts.” And in Jesus Christ, and only in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, do
you get the verdict before the performance.
• Paul writes elsewhere: “But now, a righteousness from God apart from
law [apart from your performance] has been made known… This
righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who
believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:22-24).
Gospel Christianity completely reverses the way self-esteem works. It is not
that the performance leads to the verdict, but the verdict leads to performance.
The minute I believe, the verdict is in. “Now there is no condemnation for
those who are Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1).
• The verdict is in and now I perform on the basis of the verdict. He loves
me. He accepts me. Now I don’t have to do things just to build my
resume.

• Now I don’t have to do things to make me look good. I can do things to

do things and help people to help people, not so I can feel better about
myself, not so I can fill up the emptiness.
• Every other form of identity in which you say, “What’s going to make
me have a sense of worth is I’m liberal or I’m conservative. I’m a good
person or a free person. I’m religious. I’m moral.”
• It’s always the performance that leads to the verdict. But the verdict is
never there. It never comes.
• Paul is out of the courtroom and out of the daily trial because Jesus
went to trial, went into the courtroom. It was an unjust trial and He was
put to death.
• As our substitute, He took the condemnation we deserved. He took the
trial we deserved so we don’t have to have any more trials.
• And the minute I say, “Lord God, accept me because of what Jesus has
done,” the only Person whose opinion counts, looks at me and finds
me more valuable than all the jewels that are under the earth.
This leads to a life in which you are not always examining yourself, passing
judgment on yourself. Paul was not looking at his performance that much. He
certainly made assessment in order to do better, but he was not free of that
much more relentless and debilitating self-examination when your entire
identity and self-esteem is based on it.
“Justification by grace constitutes no less than the bringing forward [into the
present]… of the total success [in Christ we will experience] in the final judgment.
Thus Paul suspends judgments about his ministerial effectiveness, placing both,
and indeed everything, simply into the hands of God”
– Anthony Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians p.341-342
The Christian identity operates totally different from any other kind of identity.
That’s the reason why it leads in Paul to what we might call “blessed self-
forgetfulness.”
• He’s not always judging himself. Christian identity takes you out of the
courtroom. The trial is over. The verdict is in.
• This is Gospel humility, blessed self-forgetfulness. It is not thinking
more of yourself like in modern cultures or thinking less of yourself like
in traditional cultures.
• It’s thinking of yourself less.
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READINGS
you.
I now come to that part of Christian morals where they differ most sharply from all
other morals… There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault
which we are more unconscious of in ourselves… The vice I am talking of is Pride
or Self-Conceit: and the virtue opposite to it is called Humility. According to
Christian teachers… Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God
state of mind… How is it that people who are quite obviously eaten up with Pride
can say they believe in God and appear to themselves very religious? I am afraid it
means they are worshipping an imaginary God. They theoretically admit themselves
to be nothing in the presence of this phantom God, but are really all the time
imagining how He approves of them and thinks them far better than ordinary
people… Pride can often be used to beat down the simpler vices. Teachers often
appeal to a boy’s Pride, or, as they call it, his self-respect, to make him behave
decently: many a man has overcome cowardice, or lust, or ill-temper, by learning to
think that they are beneath his dignity — that is, by Pride. The devil laughs. He is
perfectly content to see you becoming chaste and brave and self-controlled
provided he is setting up in you the Dictatorship of Pride
Pride is essentially competitive — is competitive by its very nature — while the

other vices are competitive only, so to speak, by accident. Pride gets no pleasure
out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say
that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not.
They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others… It is the
comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest… Pride is
spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even
common sense… If we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are
good-above all, that we are better than someone else — I think we may be sure
that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil. The real test of being in
the presence of God is that you either forget about yourself altogether or see
yourself as a small, dirty object. It is better to forget about yourself altogether.
If you want to find out how proud you are, the easiest way is to ask yourself, “How
much do I dislike it when other people snub me, or refuse to take any notice of me,
or shove their oar in, or patronize me, or show off?”… It is because I wanted to be
the big noise at the party that I am so annoyed at someone else being the big
noise… Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most
people call ‘humble’… who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody.
Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed cheerful [and] took a real
interest in what you said… He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be
thinking about himself at all.

To love and admire anything outside yourself is to take one step away from utter
spiritual ruin; though we shall not be well so long as we love and admire anything
more than we love and admire God… In God you come up against something
which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God
as that — and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison — you do not
know God at all. As long as you are proud, you cannot know God. A proud man is
always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are
looking down, you cannot see something that is above you… If anyone would like
to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realize
that one is proud. And a biggish step, too. At least, nothing whatever can be done
before it. If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited
indeed.
– C. S. Lewis 1
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2. According to Lewis, why is it so important to understand the nature of pride

and humility?
Lewis gives four reasons why it is spiritually crucial to understand the nature of
pride and humility.
First, this is where Christianity “differs most sharply from all other” moralities
and systems of ethics.
• If you don’t realize this, then you don’t grasp the difference between
Christianity and mere moralism or religion.
• Lewis was an expert in the classical moral philosophy of the Greeks and
the Romans, but Christianity also differs at this point with Islam and
modern secular individualism. None of these systems puts the premium
on humility and constant repentance that Christianity does.
• The gospel — that you are saved by sheer grace — radically alters your
self-perception.
• In all other philosophies and religions a superior relationship with God is
based in some way on superior spiritual achievement and performance.
That gives some legitimate place for boasting and self-recommendation.
That is not the case in gospel Christianity.
Second, Lewis says “pride leads to every other kind of vice.”

• This is classic Christian teaching — “Pride” is the first of the seven
deadly sins in classic Christian moral teaching. Pride — self-
centeredness — is the prerequisite for all other kinds of sins.
a) Unloving behavior comes from putting your own needs ahead of
others.
b) Disobedience to God’s law assumes you know better than God what
is best for you and others.
c) Bitterness requires that you put yourself in God’s seat as judge.

d) Worry assumes you know better than God how the circumstances of
your life should be going.
• In every case, the “sin underneath the sins” is the sin of pride —
putting your own wisdom, needs, desires and interests before God’s.
Third, Lewis says, “There is no fault of which we are more unconscious of in

ourselves.”
• It is the very nature of both pride and humility that they are difficult to
discern in oneself.
a) Proud people, with their inflated self-view, will not think they have
negative characteristics like pride.
b) Proud people will think they are reasonably humble, while truly
humble people (by definition) will be those who recognize they are
full of pride.
• But if Lewis is right that pride is the root of all the other sins, its
invisibility is tremendously damaging. The ability to discern our own
pride is crucial for our spiritual survival; therefore, we need to give great
thought and study to the subject.
Fourth, Lewis says that “very religious” people are often “eaten up with
Pride.”
• It may be true that, in general, pride is worse among religious and moral
people than it is among irreligious people. The obvious self-
righteousness and superiority of so many religious people is one of the
greatest reasons so many people steer clear of God and faith.
a) Pride can be used to eliminate less serious sins, like sexual
immorality or drunkenness. You can say to yourself, “I’m not going to
be like those immoral, undisciplined people out there! I’m better than
that!”
b) As Lewis says, “the devil laughs” when he sees us becoming self-
controlled through self-righteousness. He knows he will be able to
make you a very cruel, hard person.
• Often, people who have the most struggles with sins of the flesh are
fairly humble, tender-hearted people who make the world a better place
to live in than the Pharisees do.
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3. According to Lewis, what is pride and humility? Define them.
First, Lewis says, “Pride is essentially competitive… it is the comparison that

makes you proud.”
• This is fairly obvious. Proud people have an identity-structure based on
favorable comparisons with others. Their understanding of who they are
and of their worth is based on the fact that in certain select areas
(money, looks, recognition, morality, character, race/nationality, etc.)
they are better than others.
• But this means that pride removes any ability to enjoy anything or
anyone for who they are in themselves. Pride makes you not happy in
your job, but happy that your job has more status and makes more
money than someone else’s.
• Pride even makes you not happy that you are physically attractive, but
that you are more attractive than others and therefore can command
attention. (Lewis is right; if you are proud and you are in a room full of
other people equally attractive as you, you will take no pleasure in it at
all.)
• In other words, pride means everything is about you. You are never able
to take pleasure in things for themselves — in beauty for itself, for
excellence in itself. “To love and admire anything outside yourself is to
take one step away from utter spiritual ruin.”
• So Pride is basically works-righteousness. You are always in the mode
of scoring points so you can convince yourself you are OK, so you can
prove yourself.
a) Pride means you don’t do music for the music’s sake — it is all about
you — you do it to prove yourself.
b) Pride means you aren’t attracted to a mate-candidate because you
love them, but because it will enhance your self-image if someone
like this would love you.
• This is why Lewis says, “Pride is spiritual cancer; it eats up the very
possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense.”
Second, pride is an unrealistic, over-inflated view of one’s abilities, wisdom, and

sufficiency.
• Lewis gets this across vividly when he characterizes a proud man as
“always looking down on things” and therefore unable to see God,
“something that is above you.”
• Pride destroys our sense of proportion. If we have a clear view of who
God is, then we cannot keep the over-inflated understanding of our own
abilities.

Third, pride is self-concentration.

• Lewis says that, in the presence of God, you may come to see yourself
as “a small, dirty object.” This is often the way a relationship with God
starts, with a new grasp of your sin, but with only a vague
understanding of the gospel, of what Christ has done for us.
• Once we get a clear view of both sin and grace, however, Lewis says it
will give us a great definition of humility. It is “forgetting yourself
altogether” and then he defines a humble man not as someone who is
“always telling you that, of course, he is nobody” but who is happy and
takes unusual interest in others, because “he will not be thinking about
himself at all.”
There are two forms of pride then:
a) self-aggrandizing self-concentration (what we would call a superiority
complex) and
b) self-deprecating self-concentration (what we would call an inferiority
complex).
Both are forms of self-consciousness, self-concentration.
• Both come from an inner emptiness we are trying to fill. We are trying
to prove ourselves, earn our self-worth.
• The only difference is that the superior person feels he or she is living
up to the standards while the inferior person feels he or she is not. The
system is the same.
• Humility, then, is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself
less. It is to have both our self-aggrandizement removed by the doctrine
of sin and our self-deprecation removed by the doctrine of sheer grace.
• This removes the inner emptiness and self-concentration. Now your
pursuits (job, relationships) are not all about you, about proving and
confirming your worth. They now can be pursued and enjoyed for their
own sake.
4. According to Lewis, what are some of the tests by which you can discern pride
and humility?
• A first test of pride is that proud people are very sensitive to slights and
“snubs.” Criticism per se is not the bane of a proud person — being
ignored or “patronized” is. So the more you get your feelings hurt and
the more easily offended you are the more self-centered and proud you
are. Everything is about you.
• A second test of pride is that you particularly hate it when others “show
off.” A second mark of a proud person is that you cannot abide or have
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anything at all to do with others you perceive to be boasters or

egocentric.
• The third test of pride is the ultimate one. “If you think you are not
conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed.” Proud people by
definition think they are not proud, and humble people by definition
think they are. If you don’t think you are proud — of if you know it but
aren’t bothered by it — then you are proud indeed.
• A first test of humility is, then, a balanced, realistic self-appraisal of both
strengths and weaknesses. Since, according to the Bible, all human
beings are self-centered by definition, a humble person will recognize it.
• A second test of humility is implied in Lewis’ description of a humble
man: “He seemed cheerful and took a real interest in you.” Humble
people will not come across as humble people but rather as unusually
happy, loving and empathetic people. Lewis speaks elsewhere of “the
unsmiling concentration on Self that is the mark of Hell.” Nothing sucks
the joy out of life like pride. You can never relax; everything is another
test of whether you can prove yourself as being better than others.
Note: There is a fourth test of pride especially for religious people. “If we find
that our religious life is making us feel that we are good — above all, that we
are better than someone else — I think we may be sure that we are being
acted on, not by God, but by the devil.” This is extremely important.
• If you believe you are saved by works you will have to feel superior to
people who don’t share your beliefs or moral practices.
• If you believe you are saved by sheer grace then you can’t feel superior
to those without your beliefs and practices. (After all, you are not saved
because of your right doctrine and ethics.)
• Lewis is right to put his finger on this. If your religion leads you to
despise others, you actually are a Pharisee rather than someone who
believes the gospel. Pharisees have an identity structure like everyone
else. Anyone who does not share their identity factor must be seen as
inferior. (That is, if I am OK because I have worked hard to be moral,
then anyone who is immoral is simply undisciplined and lazy.)
• The gospel changes our identity structure, since we are now OK
because of the work and love of Jesus Christ. Now we can embrace
the “Other” without superiority.

5. According to Lewis, how can humility be cultivated?
Lewis mentions three ways to cultivate humility in the final paragraph.
The smallest and most basic way to undermine pride is “to love and admire
anything outside yourself.”
• Any kind of love that pulls you out of self-centeredness is spiritually
helpful. This is one of the reasons that raising children can be so
spiritually effective. Children (especially when they are young) give you
very little in return but they need so much.
• Parenting is a form of sacrificial service. It has made many self-centered
people more humble and loving.
• Nevertheless, Lewis quickly adds that without God this can’t take us
very far. Without God, sacrificial love becomes idolatry which creates
other kinds of problems!
The next step in cultivating humility is “to realize that one is proud. And a
biggish step, too. At least, nothing whatever can be done before it.”
• The gospel message is that we are not simply guilty of sins (breaking
the rules) but more primarily for Sin (putting ourselves in the central
place — before God and others).
• Until you are willing to recognize this, you cannot go forward spiritually.
Everything begins with repentance — and Christian repentance is not
just being sorry for a particular sin, but for one’s prevailing pride and
self-concentration that is at the root of all our misery and wrongdoing.
The last way to cultivate humility is to “love and admire” the One who is “in
every respect immeasurably superior to yourself.”
• This is an interesting combination of phrases. To a proud person, it is
painful to compare yourself to someone who is superior to you. Why?
Their whole identity structure is based on pride, on favorable
comparisons with others.
• But in the gospel we learn that this infinitely-greater-than-us God
became weak and vulnerable. He emptied himself of his glory! He did
not hold on to his superiority, but emptied himself and became a
servant and went to the cross for us (Phil 2).
• When we repent of our old basis of identity (favorable comparisons with
others) and base our identity and worth on what Christ did for us —
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now we are freed to admire (without pain!) someone infinitely greater

than we are.
• In fact, the more we see how great our loving Father is, the greater we
feel since we are now in his family, and will rule and reign with him.
• So every time we get a “faith-sight” (a sense on our heart of the reality)
of this great God, we are both humbled and exalted.
In summary, humility starts with any kind of sacrificial love and service. It opens
up when we repent of and admit our pride to God. And it grows the more we
understand and rejoice in the greatness of God’s glory and grace.
1 C. S. Lewis from the chapter “The Great Sin” in Mere Christianity

Gospel Christianity
Self-control and emotions
Study 5 | Course 3
KEY CONCEPT — SELF-CONTROL

you.
‘Self-control’ in the New Testament by the Greek word egokratia (1 Cor 7:9,
9:25; Gal 5:23) which literally means self-rule, self-command.
• “Self-control” is to master our emotions and desires rather than

allowing them to master us.
• The most obvious failure of self-control is seen in the great range of
addictions that can beset us. But all of us have serious trouble with this
in some area — whether it is with control of our tongues or our time or
our thoughts.
• If we do not learn self-control then anger, fear, and sadness, envy,
ambition, and sexual desire will eventually strip us of jobs, marriages,
friendships, and even our physical lives.
In ancient times emotions and desires were seen as ‘lower’ and attached to our
physical nature, while our reason was seen as ‘higher’ and attached to our
spirits.
• Ancient cultures advised self-control as an act of the will to follow our
higher nature and repress our lower.
• Modern society, however, counsels ‘self-actualization’ rather than self-
control.
a) It sees repression as the cause of uncontrolled addictions rather than
the cure.
b) It advises identifying our deepest desires and re-arranging our lives to
affirm and fulfill them.
The Biblical approach to self-control is quite different than either ancient or
modern approaches. The Bible does not identify our body as being more fallen
and sinful than the reason or the spirit, nor does it divide us into ‘higher’ reason
and ‘lower’ feelings.
• In a more wholistic fashion, the Bible recognizes that our thinking (Gen
6:5; Rom 1:21), our willing (Prov 6:14; Rom 2:5), and our feelings (Prov
14:13; Rom 9:2) are all rooted in ‘the heart’ from which flows
everything in your life (Prov 4:23).
• Why? Our thoughts, feelings, and actions all flow out of our hearts’
loves. They are all controlled by what we love and find the most
beautiful, valuable, and good.
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notes SELF-CONTROL AND EMOTIONS
• So Augustine said the Christians life is ‘the right ordering of our loves.’
A lack of ‘self-control’ comes when we love some things (usually
personal pleasure, recognition, etc) more than the other things (the
common good or God himself.)
• Self-control in the area of X then does not come from repressing our
love for X but in loving God more.
Christian self-control then does not consist mainly in direct repression of
feelings in favor of thinking, nor of naked will-power. Foolishness, lust,
ambition, envy, despair are as much a matter of thinking as of feeling — and
they all result from what the heart has most fixed itself on as the most
beautiful, true, and good. The Biblical way to self-control is then very ‘wholistic.’
• It entails deepening one’s worship and adoration of God.
• It requires changes in the thinking — identifying false beliefs (“if I don’t
have this my life is a failure!”)
• It requires accountability to others for our behavior. The Bible does not
envision Christian character as something that can come about through
individual effort and will power. It develops only in a Spirit-filled
community.
• Finally it requires a very different approach to our feelings.
a) While traditional culture tells us to simply repress feelings and
modern culture to express them, the Psalms (in particular) call us not
to ventilate or to suppress but rather to pray our emotions.
b) We are often amazed at the intensity of the Psalmists’ emotional
expression but we should notice they are prayers. Emotions are not
denied but they are ‘processed’ before the face of God.
c) Our feelings are honestly owned but in the context of adoration,
confession, and petition to God. That always changes how we
experienced them.

SELF-CONTROL AND EMOTIONS notes
BIBLE STUDY #1
I Corinthians 9:23-10:13
1. What does Paul say is the reason that athletes in training are so self-
controlled? What does this tell us about ‘how self-control works’?
In verse 25 Paul says, “everyone who competes in the games goes into strict
training.” In other words, athletes in training are models of ‘self-control’.
• Athletes’ lives are a model of balance. They don’t eat too much or too
little. They don’t sleep too much or too little. Everything in their lives is
‘in the right place.’ They don’t let their natural desires for more ease
and rest, more leisure time, lots of food etc get in the way of their
training.
• Paul says literally “exercise self-control in everything.” Why? The
answer is to get a crown or a prize. Athletes have many desires, but
they have subordinated other desires to this, the greatest one. Their
desires to eat chocolate or to go out drinking or even to simply sleep in
and not exercise — are subordinated to one over-mastering desire.
This differs from Plato and the Greeks. Paul teaches us here is that self-control
is not really a matter of the will but a matter of the heart. What the Scripture
says goes against common sense then and now.
• The ancients thought of self-control as an exercise of the reason and
the will over the feelings. In this view, the heart is filled with feelings
but they must be put in their place. We must act on the basis of our
will, not our feelings. That is still how many or most people think today
about self-control.
• But Paul is saying in this illustration that self-control is not a matter of a
naked exercise of the will against the feelings. Rather you’re always
controlled by your deepest passion — what captivates the heart the
most.
• It is misleading to think that self-control comes from stuffing your
feelings. Rather, self-control comes from feeling strongly, passionately
for some goal which then is the basis for the right ordering of your
entire life.
• Naked exercise of the will over the feelings doesn’t work because that’s
not how we’re put together.
Here is an example from the Old Testament. Jacob wanted marry Rachel. “So
Jacob served seven years to get Rachel.” (Gen 29:20a) He was willing to work
seven years in backbreaking labor for her father Laban.
• Where did he get that kind of discipline? “They seemed like only a few
days to him.” (Gen 29:20b) He had no problem with endurance. He
never said “when is this going to be over?” The text tells us he had no
sense of even ‘working’.
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• Why? “So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed
like only a few days to him because of his love for her.” That was not a
mere exercise of the will. This illustrates the point. Whatever you set
your heart on the most, the greatest passion of your life, is that which
will seek to bring all the desires of the heart into order. It’s the thing
that all the desires of the heart are subordinated to, that passion of your
life.
• For the joy that was set before him, the love of Rachel, Jacob ordered
everything in his life so that seven years seemed like nothing.
2. How is this athletic image an analogy for Christian self-control? What is our
‘prize’ or ‘crown’?
• Paul tells us here that there’s one ultimate goal and passion that will
rightly order all the other desires of the heart and bring your life into the
balance of self-control. What is it? It is the prize or the crown that will
last forever. (v.25) It’s an imperishable crown. What would that be?
• It is natural to assume that Paul is talking about his individual heavenly
reward, which Paul is beating his body for and working really hard for.
But if that is the case, it’s a contradiction of everything else Paul’s ever
said.
• Could the man who wrote Galatians and Romans — especially Romans
8:1, who says, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in
Christ Jesus,” — really be saying he’s working really hard because he’s
afraid that at the very end, he might not get into heaven (v.27-
disqualified)? Does that make sense? No, it doesn’t.
• What is his “crown” then? What is this passion that’s uniting his life
and bringing everything into subordination?
• Here are a couple of other places where he talks about it. In 1
Thessalonians 2:8,19 he says, “We loved you so much that we were
delighted to share with you not only the Gospel of God but our lives as
well, because you had become so dear to us. For what is our hope, our
joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of the Lord
Jesus when He comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and
joy.” In Philippians 4:1, he says, “Therefore my brothers and sisters,
you who I love and long for, my joy and my crown.”
• The key is verse 23, which reveals Paul’s passion: “I do all of this for
the sake of the Gospel, that I may share in its blessings.” The word
“share” here is the word koinonia with a little prefix so that the word is
syn-koinonia — joint participation or sharing with others. Paul is saying.
“I have these incredible blessings of the Gospel. The passion of my life

is to have other people, both those who believe and those who don’t
believe, to have as much joy as I have. I want to share the things I see
in the face of Jesus. I’m giving up everything in my life. I forgo all kinds
of things because I want to reflect the beauty of God to other people so
that they can have the same transforming view of the glory and beauty
of the One I am looking at right now.”
Paul reveals there that self-control is ultimately and ‘other-directed’ thing.
• This is different than the way the world tells you to get self-control.
There we are told: “What you have to do is get inside yourself and find
that strength. You have to decide you’re going to be the person you’ve
always wanted to be.”
• Paul says that self-control does not work in such a self-centered way.
He says — he didn’t get ‘control’ by seeking if for himself. He got it
when he sought it for God and for others.
• Self-control was not something you can develop directly, just to feel
better within yourself. It happens as the by-product of loving others and
especially God.
3. What are some practical guidelines in 10:11-13 for self-control?
In 10:1-10 Paul has been recounting the sins and failures of Israel and how God
continually punished them. Then he says: “These things happened to them as
examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment
of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you
don’t fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And
God is faithful.” I think we can find three practical guidelines for us here.
Scripture
“These things happened to them as examples… for us.” Paul says we can use
the Scripture to help us live as we ought. The ultimate example of this was
Jesus himself.
• Jesus of course had perfect self-control. He set His face like a flint to
go up to Jerusalem. He never wavered. He was never put off from his
mission. There was a man of utter self-control and discipline.
• How did he do it? He was God, but the Bible indicates that while on
earth, in his human nature, Jesus had to used the resources other
human beings have. (Acts 10:38) And so we see at every point where
he needed self-control he uses the Scripture.
a) How does he handle the temptation of Satan? Willpower? Willpower?

No, by using Scripture “it is written!” (Matthew 4:1ff.)
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b) When soldiers are about to take him in the garden of Gethsemane,

Peter pulls out his sword. But Jesus says: “Peter, put it back. I could
call twelve legions of angels but how would the Scriptures be
fulfilled?” (Matt 26:54)
c) The final example is, of course, on the Cross, when He cries out at
the moment of greatest agony than anyone has ever experience,
“My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me,” He is quoting
Psalm 22:1.
• When you are at the depths of pain and suffering and agony, you don’t
say, “Well what should I say now? What would sound good up here?”
When you’re stabbed, you just speak instinctively whatever dominates
your heart and thinking. And when He was stabbed he ‘bled’ Scripture.
• What kind of a man is thinking about the Scriptures being fulfilled at a
time he is about to be arrested and killed? The answer is — a man who
was completely saturated in mind and heart with the Bible.
a) Its themes, images, metaphors, stories completely dominate his
imagination. And whatever captures and thrills your imagination has
captured your heart.
• The Scripture is not a key to self-control because it has some kind of

magic power. It’s the key because if worship is the key to self-control,
and our big problem is we know God is there but we don’t find Him
beautiful.
Community
In verse 12 is a famous exhortation: “If you think you’re standing firm, be
careful that you don’t fall.” Paul warns all his listeners that they cannot trust
their own judgment about the strength of their own character especially in the
area of self-control.
• Pride (as we say in a previous study) creates enormous self-deception.
And addictions always feed themselves in our hearts through denial.
We always think we are doing better in self-control than we are.
• Pride makes us feel we are OK when we are really fragile. This means
we can’t grow in self-control alone. Paul gets this across in some ways
that the English reader can’t see.
a) In Greek “if you think you’re standing firm” is an emphatic singular
which means, “if you [individual] think you’ve arrived or you think you
can do this yourself you’ve got another thing coming.”
b) You are in the same boat as everyone else. No temptation overtakes

you except that which is common to others and you need to hear
from them. Everyone is subject to temptation.

• Most of us know where we have the biggest problem with self-control

and we are too embarrassed to tell others about it. We say, “I can
handle this on my own” but Paul says that is proud, self-defeating
denial. It will never work.
• You’ve got to have other people who you give information to and you
make it safe for them to lovingly ask you tough questions regularly
about how you’re doing.
“Paul’s mentioning uncontrolled debauchery [in Galatians 5:19-21a] does not

function as an exhortation for the individual to exercise greater self-control. For the
strength to exercise self-control comes only in community, and specifically in the
community in which the Spirit is bearing fruit [Galatians 5:19-23.]”
– J. Louis Martyn, p.499
God is Faithful
Last of all, we learn here that God is faithful and together with any temptation,
he will always provide a way out that you will be able to “endure” it. (The NIV
renders the word ‘stand up under’)
• Here is a key to being a man or woman of self-control. We are to look

to God’s faithfulness. It is true that the term “God is faithful” probably
means “he will be faithful to help you get through your temptation.”
• But it is also a call to look to God’s faithfulness in general. We are to be
faithful to God (self-controlled) because God is faithful to us.
• And of course Jesus is the greatest example of that faithfulness. We
will get self-control for him to the degree we see him exercising self-
control for us.
In Hebrews chapter 12, we “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great
cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so
easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let
us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set
before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand
of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men,
so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
The text again uses the metaphor of self-control — an athlete running a race —
but this time applies it to Jesus.
• Jesus Christ came and subordinated all of his desires to some prize —
and we’re told it was a “joy.” What was it?
a) Was it God’s glory? But he already had that.

b) Was it heaven? He already had that.
c) A relationship with the Father? He had all of these things before he
came to earth. They couldn’t have been ‘the prize’ for him.
d) Why would He have come down here? What joy did He not already
have?
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The only thing Jesus didn’t have before he came to earth was us. Let me put it
another way. We were his “Rachel”.
• He loved us so much that he made light of the Cross. Jesus Christ
loved us so much that the Cross was something He was able to take.
• If you see Jesus Christ making you his joy, making you, in a sense, the
passion of His life — then he will become your joy and the passion of
your life.
• To the degree that you screw this down into your heart through
adoration and worship everyday, to that degree you will have self
control.
Ultimately it’s not a matter of willpower, it’s gospel-power (1 Cor 9:23).
Ultimately you will only endure if you see who endured for you and why.
• Fix your eyes on him. Contemplate him. You’ll have all the self-control
you want.

BIBLE STUDY #2
Romans 7:14-25
1. v.14-25. Is Paul speaking in these verses of an unbeliever’s struggle with sin, or

is he talking about a believer’s struggle with sin? What is the evidence (in the
text) for your answer?
This is a difficult question, and plenty of thoughtful people have been on both
sides of this issue. Some believe that a believer could not talk like Paul does,
when he says, “I am unspiritual, sold as a slave under sin.” (v.14) He also
virtually confesses that he sins regularly, even compulsively — “what I want to
do, I do not do, but what I hate I do…” (v.15) “For I have the desire to do what
is good, but I cannot carry it out” (v.19) Therefore, over the ages, many people
have concluded that Paul is talking of himself as he was before conversion.
Here, however, we are going to make a case that Paul is talking of his own,
personal, present experience.
When we compare this passage with the passage immediately prior, where
Paul is speaking of how he came to faith in Christ, we notice:
• There’s a change in verb tenses. vv.7-13 verbs were in the past tense,
but from v.14 on all the tenses are present. A natural reading would tell
us Paul is speaking of his own present his “now”.
• Paul delights in God’s law. He says, “In my inner being I delight in God’s
law...” (v.22) and then goes on to say sin nonetheless is at work within
him. Yet elsewhere he says “the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does
not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.” This categorically denies that
any unbeliever can delight in God’s law. 8:7 nearly proves that 7:22 can’t
be the words of an unbeliever.
• Paul admits he is a lost sinner. He says, “I know that nothing good lives
in me, that is, in my sinful nature.” (v.18) As we have seen in vv.7-13,
unbelievers are not aware of being lost and so sinful that they can’t
save themselves. In fact, even immature believers tend to be over-
confident and unaware of the depths of the depravity of their own
hearts.
2. vv.14-25. What does Paul tell us here about a) what has changed b) what has
not changed, c) what our need is, d) what our hope is as Christians?
First, Paul tells us we now identify with the law of God.

• A Christian can now delight in the law (v.22) which wasn’t possible
before (cf. 8:7). A Christian can also see its beauty and perfection (v.12,
14a, 16), and can long to keep it (v.18b). None of these things were
possible before we were converted.
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• But even beyond this, Paul says that it is in his “my inner being” that
he rejoices in the law — this is like saying “my heart of hearts” or “my
true self”. (Some translations render it “my inmost self”.)
a) Paul here is recognizing that we all are aware of conflicting desires —
we have, in some sense, “multiple selves”. Sometimes we want to
be this — sometimes, in contrast, we want to be that.
• Morally, most people feel “torn” between diverse selves as well. Freud
went so far as to talk about an inner “libido” (filled with primal desires)
and a “superego” (the conscience, filled with social and familial
standards).
• The great question we all face: “I have divergent desires, different
‘selves’ — which is my true self? What do I most want?”
Now for a Christian, that question is settled even though the conflict isn’t
settled.
• Paul calls the law of God his “inmost” delight, and even calls it “the
law of my mind” (v.23) (Cf. v25b – “I myself in my mind am a slave to
God’s law”.) Of course, Paul sees that there is still a powerful force of
sin and rebellion within, but those desires are not truly “him”. It is no
longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.
• A Christian has had an identity transformation. As a Christian “I”, my
truest self, really seeks God and loves his law and holiness.
• While sin remains in me, with a lot of strength, it no longer controls the
personality and life. It is still able to lead us to disobey God — but now,
sinful behavior goes against our deepest self-understanding.
• The Christian, even in defeat — has a change of consciousness — the
“I” the REAL ME is the law of God. Sin is “it”.
Second, Paul tells us that the Christian still has a powerful center of remaining
sin within. It is a “sinful nature” (v.18). It is part of his nature or heart that
“seeks what I hate” (v.15). This means that in himself he cannot fulfill the law.
• In vv.7-13 he is showing us that the unbeliever cannot keep the law (so
we need the work of the Son); in vv.14-25 he is telling us even the
Christian cannot keep the law (so we need the work of the Spirit). Many
people are puzzled that Paul seems to not only characterize his present
condition as one of struggle, but almost of defeat — “I am unspiritual,
sold as a slave to sin” (v.14).
• But the reason Paul tends to cast things in this way is because he is
looking at his struggle from a particular perspective. Paul is probably
emphasizing that in yourself, a Christian is incapable of keeping the law.

Notice that he uses the word “I” numerous times. Thus he is saying,
“in myself, I am still unable to live as I should.”
• Even though there is a new identification, love and delight in the law of
God — a Christian is STILL completely incapable of keeping the law.
Note: This may not be clear to readers unless they can see how Paul uses the
word “law” in three distinct ways in these verses.
• Sometimes “law” means the law of God (as in verses 14, 16, 22, and
25).
• But in verse 21 Paul uses the word “law” once to denote a principle. “I
find this law at work.” Paul means “I find it to be a principle — the
more I try to do good, the more evil comes at me.”
• Lastly, in verse 23 and 25 Paul uses the word “law” to mean a force or
power. “But I see another law at work in my members… the law of
sin.”
• Paul is saying: “In my heart of hearts [“inner being” v.22; “my mind”
v.23] I delight in God’s law. God’s law is now the main power in my
heart and mind. But there is another power within me — the power of
sin. It is not the ruling influence of my heart, but it is still within me and
makes war against my deepest desires for holiness.”
Third and lastly, in this way, Paul is setting the table to show us what he has to
say in Romans 8 about life in the Spirit.
• He is telling us that without walking in the spirit, we still cannot live the
Christian life. This is not therefore a hopeless case. Paul will tell us the
triumphant possibilities for Christian living in Romans 8, through the
Spirit of God.
• And he foreshadows that triumph in v.25 when he says, “Thanks be to
God — through our Lord Jesus Christ.” God, through Christ will deliver
us from this “body of death”. So even in this perspective of his
weakness in himself, Paul has conviction of a triumph.
3. If this is the Apostle’s present experience, how does this both warn and
comfort us in our own struggles for self-control?
First, it warns us that no one ever gets so advanced in the Christian life that
they no longer struggle with sin.
• This is the apostle Paul talking here! It warns us that if we ever
perceive ourselves to be “over” sin, if we ever feel ourselves to be
pretty good and mature Christians, we are deceived. For the more
mature and spiritually discerning we get, the more we see of the sin in
our hearts.
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• So, the more holy we become, the less holy we will feel. This is not
false modesty. Even when we know and see ourselves making
progress against many bad habits and attitudes, we will grow more
aware of the rebellious and selfish roots that are still within us.
• The holier we are, the more we cry “what a wretch I am! Who will
deliver me from this sin within!”
On the other hand, it comforts us.

• It is typical, when we struggle with sin, to think that we must be
terrible persons, or very wicked or immature to have such wrestling.
• But Romans 7 encourages us that temptation and conflict with sin,
even some relapses into sin, are consistent with being a growing
Christian.
“The most renowned and now crowned saints have, in the days of their being on
earth, relapsed into one and the same sin. Lot was twice overcome with wine;
Abraham did often lie, and twice lay his wife open to adultery to save his own life,
which even the heathens would not have done… David in his wrath was resolved
to slay Nabal and his family, but repented, and yet after this he fell into the foul
murder of Uriah… Samson is by the Spirit of the Lord numbered among the
worthies (Heb.11:32) yet he fell often into one gross sin. Peter you know relapsed
often, and so did Jonah; and this comes to pass that they may see their own
inability to stand, to resist or overcome temptations (Jude 14-16), so hat they may
be taken off from all false confidences, and rest wholly upon God, and only upon
God, and always upon God… [But remember] God always makes even his dearest
ones dearly smart for their relapses, as may be seen by his dealings with Samson,
Jehoshaphat, and Peter. Ah, Lord! what a hard heart hath that man who can see
thee stripping thy dearest ones for their relapses, and yet make nothing of returning
to folly.”
– Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices

READINGS
Read and mark “?” – question to raise “!” – insight or helpful to you
“True Christianity is a fight… Do we find in our heart a spiritual struggle? Are we

conscious of two principles within us, contending for the mastery? (Gal.5:17) Do we
feel anything of war in our inward being? Well, let us thank God for it! It is a good
sign. It is strongly probable evidence of the great work of sanctification. Anything is
better than apathy, stagnation, deadness, and indifference. We are in a better state
than many. The most part of so-called Christians have no feeling at all....I say again,
let us take comfort. The children of God have two great marks — they may be
known by their inward warfare as well as by their inward peace.”
– J.C. Ryle 1
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to
say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright
and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope — the
glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for
us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his
very own, eager to do what is good.
– Titus 2:11-14 2
Salvation by grace, salvation by free grace, salvation not by works but according to
the mercy of God is indispensable to godliness. Retain a single shred or fragment of
legality with the Gospel and you take away the power of the Gospel to melt and
conciliate. On the tenure of “do this and you will live”, a spirit of fearfulness is sure
to enter; and the man striving to be square and even with his Creator is, in fact,
pursuing all the while his own selfishness instead of God’s glory. It is only when, in
the Gospel, acceptance is bestowed as a present, without money and without
price, [that he can then] repose in Him as one friend reposes in another… rejoicing
in the impulse of gratitude, by which he is awakened to the charms of a new moral
existence. And never does the sinner find within himself so mighty a moral
transformation, as when under the belief that he is saved by grace, he feels
constrained thereby to offer his heart a devoted thing, and to deny ungodliness.
[Why is this grateful love so important?] It is seldom that any of our [bad habits or
flaws] disappear by a mere process of natural extinction. At least, it is very seldom
that this is done through the instrumentality of reasoning...or by the force of mental
determination. But what cannot be destroyed may be dispossessed. We only cease
to be a slave of one appetite because another has brought it into subordination. A
youth might cease to idolize sensual pleasure but it’s only because the idol of
material gain and career success has gotten the ascendancy. There is not one
personal transformation in which the heart is left without an ultimate object of
beauty and joy. It’s desire for one particular object may be conquered but its desire
to have some object is unconquerable. The only way to dispossess the heart of an
old affection is by the expulsive power of a new one. It is only when admitted into
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the number of God’s children, through faith in Jesus Christ, that the spirit of
adoption is poured out on us — it is then that the heart, brought under the mastery
of one great and predominant affection, is delivered from the tyranny of its former
desires, and the only way that deliverance is possible. Thus… it is not enough… to
hold out to the world the mirror of its own imperfections. It is not enough to come
forth with a demonstration of the evanescent character of your enjoyments… to
speak to the conscience… of its follies… Rather, try every legitimate method of
finding access to your hearts for the love of Him who is greater than the world.

2. Titus 2:12 tells us that the grace of God ‘teaches us to say no’ to things and
lived self-controlled lives. How do you think the knowledge we are saved by
sheer grace helps us to ‘say no’ to stubborn habits?
The word translated “teaches” is a word that is often translated ‘chasten’ or

‘discipline’. It is a very strong word that means much more than merely ‘to
instruct’. It means to drill or train or perhaps “to confront.”
• This goes against the common notion if we tell people too much about
how they are freely saved by grace that it will lead to ‘loose living’
because people’s motivation to live good lives will be removed.
• If when you remove all fear of rejection (as the gospel does) you then
lose all your motivation to live a good life — the only motivation you
must have had was fear.
• Think of all the motivations to say “No” to uncontrolled behavior that

are fear-based.
a) Some people say “No” to immoral behavior out of fear God will
punish them and won’t answer your prayers.
b) Some people say “No” out of fear of looking bad.
c) Some people ‘say no’ out of fear they will lose self-respect unless
they know you can “lick it.”
d) Some people say “No” out of fear of what God, others, or their own
egos will do to them.
The problem with using fear as a motivation for gaining self-control is that fear
is by nature very self-centered. You are essentially using sin to squelch sin —
that is always counter-productive.
• For example, often people ‘help’ little boys gain emotional self control
by saying, “stop crying! You’re acting like a girl.”
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• This fear of ridicule may help the boy get control but it does so by
leading him to feel superior to women.
• Later on (in marriage!) this hardness of heart and superiority may cause
him to have a hard time relating to women or it may lead him to be very
unsympathetic others.
• To cast out a lack of self-control with fear is to simply throw out one
slavery (to emotions) to another slavery (to your pride and to
appearances.)
How does the gospel of grace give us a new motivation for holiness that is not
fear-based and yet is quite confrontational and strong?
First, the gospel gives us a new reason to obey God — grateful joy.
• The gospel of course removes a fear that we can fall into condemnation
(Rom 8:1) but it also shows us why — the infinite sacrificial love of
Jesus.
• This attracts us toward God in the most positive way possible. We now
want to obey God for deeply relational and unselfish reasons. We want
to please him and give him delight for his sake, not ours. Also, we want
to obey God now in order to know him and resemble him and relate to
him more closely.
• Positive attraction is always a more long-lasting and thorough motivation
for action than fear and insecurity. Under fear you will only do your duty
to the minimum extent, and only when the one you are afraid of is
watching.
• So gospel joy is a more powerful motivation to for self-control than the
motivation of fear.
Second, the gospel eliminates the root reasons for the root sins under our
self-control issues.
• For example: Imagine you’ve got this high-powered job and you’re
working really hard at it but you can’t quite take the pressure. So you
start to turn to drugs for it.
• You start to pop certain kinds of pills to keep yourself up and alert. Next
thing you know, you’re a drug addict.
• What should you do? Of course, you should go to detox. You should
admit it your addiction and break through your denial and go. But if that
is all you do there is still a fundamental problem.
• Why did you take such a high pressure job? Or why do you put so
much pressure on yourself in your jobs? The reason perhaps is that you
are looking to your work and accomplishment to give you the
significance that only God can give you.
• If you relate to God out of fear of rejection that means even though you
believe in him he is not a source of love or of your significance. His love

is not the wonder of your life. Your passion is not to resemble, know,
and delight the one who lost everything for you.
• A fear-based relationship with God leaves you still empty of a sense of
honor and worth. You will look to other things in order to fill that need.
• Along the way you will fall in to various problems with self-control, as
you nervously seek to prove yourself.
So the grace of God comes and ‘argues’ with you. “You don’t need that! You
don’t need that! Not when you have Jesus!”
3. The long Chalmers quote is basically an exposition of Titus 2:11-14. How does
the gospel ‘melt and conciliate’? Make a list of ‘methods of finding access to
your hearts for the love of Him who is greater than the world.”
Here is an outline for how to use the gospel of grace during the day when
certain emotions crop up. These are ways of ‘praying’ and processing these
feeling through grace.
When we feel anxiety we may think: “If I slip up, if I make a wrong move here,
I could lose everything.”
• But we must think, instead, “All the things I have are really gifts of
grace. They aren’t here because of my performance, but by God’s
generosity. He loves me enough to lose his only Son for me, surely he
will continue to give me what I need. Console yourself”
When we feel pride and anger we may think: “I am not getting what I deserve!
People are not treating me right! Who do they think they are?”
• But we must think, intend, “All the things I have are really gifts of
grace. I have never gotten what I deserve — and I never will! If God
gave me what I deserved, I’d be dead. Humble yourself.”
When we feel guilt, we may think: “I have blown it! My problems mean he’s
abandoned me.”
• But we must think, instead, “All the things I have are the results of
God’s grace. I never earned them to begin with — so I couldn’t have un-
earned them. He accepted me long ago even though he knew I would
do this. This was in my heart all along — I just didn’t see it, but he did.
He’s with me now. Be confident, Self.”
When we feel boredom and lethargy we may think: “Sure, I’m a Christian. Sure
I have good things. So what?”
• But we must think, instead, “All the things I have — every one — is a
gift of grace. The very fact I am a Christian is a miracle. Be amazed. Be
in wonder, Self.”
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1 J.C.Ryle, “The Fight” in Holiness

2 Thomas Chalmers, “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection”

Gospel Christianity
Patience in suffering
Study 6 | Course 3
KEY CONCEPT – SUFFERING AND THE GOSPEL

you.
A heart that understands and remembers the gospel knows:

• it is completely undeserving of God’s blessing,
• yet is completely forgiven and accepted.
A heart that misunderstands or forgets the gospel thinks:
• it is somewhat deserving,
• yet it is not at all sure it is acceptable and lovable.
What practical difference does this make when suffering comes? It makes all
the difference in the world.
• A heart forgetting the gospel has a problem with both guilt and anger.
a) If you have been living a pretty good life (in your estimation) when
suffering comes, then you will mainly feel great anger toward life and
God.
b) You feel you deserve a better life, and that will lead to tremendous
bitterness.
On the other hand, if you have not been living a good life (in your estimation)
when suffering comes, then you will mainly feel great guilt, feeling you
probably are some kind of failure and God has rejected you.
But, since we are trying to earn our salvation without the gospel, we always
struggle with both a sense of deserving and an insecurity about our
acceptability, so we have both guilt (“I hate me”) and anger (“I hate Thee”)
churning away in our stomach when we suffer.
But the gospel, on the one hand, takes away our surprise and pique over
suffering.
• We know that we deserve to be eternally lost but by mercy we will
never get what we deserve. This eliminates self-pity.
On the other hand, we know God could not be punishing us for our sin since
Jesus paid for our sins, and God cannot receive two payments.
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notes PATIENCE IN SUFFERING
• This means whatever suffering we are receiving is not retribution, but

instruction.
In Romans 5:1, Paul says, “Since we have been justified through faith,” not
works.
• Then Paul immediately says, in vv.3-5, that now suffering leads to
“perseverance” (which means single-mindedness, right priorities),
“character” (which means “testedness,” confidence and poise), and
“hope” (which means assurance of one’s relationship of love with God).
• Then he adds that from this character and hope, we experience “love
poured out into our hearts.”
Here’s the amazing assertion of Paul.
• When he shows that suffering starts a chain reaction that leads to
hope, which is one of the fruits of justification, he is saying that the
benefits of justification are self-propagating. They are not only, not
diminished by suffering, but they are enlarged by suffering.
• In other words, if you face suffering with a clear grasp of justification by
grace alone, your joy in that grace will deepen, but (as he implies) if you
face suffering with a mindset of justification by works, the suffering will
break you, not make you.

PATIENCE IN SUFFERING notes
BIBLE STUDY
Psalm 3:1-8
Many Psalms are called “laments.” They are emotionally realistic and brutally
honest prayers and reflections on the pain and misery of life. The Psalmists
question God directly on why he allows suffering. They struggle mightily with
bitterness, paralyzing fear, and despair.
The skill of praying our troubles and sorrows is often overlooked as such. When
we think of the essential forms of prayer, we think of adoration (and its close
cousin, thanksgiving), repentance, and petitioning.
• Praying our suffering is not a different form of prayer that parallels
these. But praising, petitioning, and repenting in the midst of suffering
is so critical for spiritual growth (and for survival) that it should be
considered as a subject on its own.
• Most of us just stop praying when we are suffering or put up nothing
but the occasional, brief petition asking for relief.
• But the Laments show that the right thing for us to do is to process our
suffering through sustained prayer.
This is the first Psalm with a title that links it to an incident in the life of David.
2 Samuel 15-18 tells of how David’s son Absalom led a coup to overthrow him
as king and kill him.
1. What progression do you see through the four sections of the Psalm (vv.1-2,
3-4, 5-6, 7-8)? How does the last section give us tests by which we can tell that
we have triumphed over suffering, even if we are still grieving?
The progression of the Psalm is one of increasing confidence and buoyancy.
• The first section is a plaintive cry for help.
• The second section progresses to a certainty of future refuge and
safety only.
a) In this section, he remembers that God is sovereign and in control,
that he is a prayer hearing God. Therefore, he does not need to fear
for his life.
• The third section progresses from only being assured of future help and
protection to asserting present peace.
a) Though the deliverance has not yet happened, David experiences
“the peace that passes understanding” right now. He sleeps deeply
and untroubled.
• Finally, the fourth section moves beyond mere request for personal and
individual safety to a call for a victory over injustice (v.7) and a passion
for the good and blessing of David’s people (v.8).
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a) We have not really triumphed over suffering if we only deal with it

psychologically. Suffering makes us very self-absorbed and keeps us
from giving ourselves to others and to our community.
b) For David, this new concern for justice and community is a re-capture
of his calling as king. “For David, called to kingship… [personal]
refuge is not enough. To settle for less than victory would be virtual
abdication: hence the uncompromising terms of verse 7” (D.K., p.55).
But though we are not kings like David, we can see that we have not
rebounded from suffering until we have become re-involved in ministry to
others and re-involved in community. Or, we should see that David has begun
to think this way before his suffering is over. This is one of the ways we come
up out of the depths and triumph over grief and trouble.
In summary, David is “praying himself confident.” The progression of his heart
from fear to peace to boldness to ministry and community is evident.
2. vv.1-2. What are the two basic ways that his enemies were opposing David? (If
you wish, read the account of Absalom’s rebellion in 2 Sam. 15-18.) How are
the troubles you face similar to David’s?
What are the two basic ways the enemy opposed David?
First, they are attacking him.
• Verse 1 says they “rise up against me.” As we know from the account
in 2 Samuel 15-18, a large portion of the populace was literally seeking
him out to defeat and kill him. This was not just a small conspiracy (see
v.1a – “how many are my foes” and v.6a – “tens of thousands drawn
up against me”).
Second, they were accusing him.
• Verse 2 says that many “are saying of me, ‘God will not deliver him.’” It
was widely rumored that God had now abandoned him and thus he no
longer could be king (v.2 – “God will not deliver him”).
• It is likely that the accusations went something like this. “Think of all
the terrible things David did: the affair with Bathsheba and the killing of
Uriah. No wonder God is fed up with him. He can’t be our king any
longer.”
• This kind of talk was necessary by Absalom’s supporters in order to
de-legitimize him as king of Israel.
• Not only were they after his life, but also his reputation and his right to
be king. They attacked his faith and his record; they claimed that God
had withdrawn from him.

How are your troubles similar?

At first glance, David’s trouble seems pretty remote from anything we would
face (unless you’re the potentate of a small Near Eastern nation!) Today in the
U.S., we are not so likely to have anyone seeking to literally kill us. However, it
is quite possible and normal to attract enemies who want to harm our
reputation or our standing in our work or in the eyes of others.
• We now live in an increasingly mobile and competitive society where
relationships are not based on kinship and tradition but on associations
for mutual profit.
• More than ever, your success can immediately attract jealousy and both
overt and covert efforts to undermine your influence, power or
prosperity.
• You may find very quickly that people you thought of as friends have
pulled away from you and are poisoning what other people think of you.
But there is a second way in which the general outline of David’s two-fold
trouble is very common to us all. All believers have to deal with the Accuser
himself — Satan.
• The name “Satan” means “prosecutor” or “accuser.” His job is to
accuse Christians — to make them doubt that God can love or care for
them. Rev. 12:10 and Zech. 3:1-6 are examples of Satan’s accusation;
so is Job 1.
• Satan may use human beings to shake your confidence that God is
committed to you, or he may attack you directly, psychologically
inflaming your conscience with inappropriate guilt or unrealistic
standards so that you look weak and foolish in your own eyes.
• In this sense, all Christians always have a formidable enemy who is
seeking every day to say to us in some way: “God’s salvation is not for
(or inadequate for) you.” (“God will not deliver/save you.”)
Just as spiritual accusation accompanies the physical attack in David’s life, so
an assault on your belief in the gospel normally accompanies troubles when
they come into your life. It is quite normal to have some major setback in your
life and find that it is accompanied by severe doubts about God’s love for you or
about your worthiness of his care and commitment.
In summary, almost all suffering has these same two dimensions to it — the
attack and the accusation.
• On the outside, we deal with the trouble itself, which causes worry,
anger or fear.
• On the inside, we renew our faith in the gospel that we are given
unmerited, free grace.
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3. vv.3-4. How does David find assurance and confidence in the face of the
physical attacks? Are we to believe that God will never let anything really bad
happen to a believer?
The first sentence of v.3 uses the metaphor of a shield: “But you are a shield
around me, O Lord.” The preposition which the NIV translates “around” is very
strong. It can also be translated, “You are a shield that completely covers me.”
• This is not one of the tiny little shields that a soldier used in hand to
hand combat. It was rather a full-length shield, the size of a door, to
ward off arrows, that was held before the soldier as he walked toward a
fortress.
• Literally nothing could get in to harm the bearer of the shield. Therefore,
David has assurance even in the face of literal hordes of attacking
enemies.
But what does this promise — that God is a shield around us — really promise?
• This does not promise that no one will ever be able to do anything to us
that causes pain or damage. That would not comport with the history of
the saints in the Bible, and especially not with the career of Jesus
himself.
• This cannot be a promise that no one will ever be able to rob us or
cheat us nor be able to literally put a weapon to our flesh.
• What this does promise is that any pain that does get through God’s
protection will only be part of his long-term defense of us. God is
always shielding us, whatever happens to us.
a) If we suffer here, it will only be to shield us from something far more
damaging elsewhere.
b) If we lose something now, it will only be to shield us from losing
something greater much later.
• Thus, many Christians can testify that an episode of severe suffering
led them to see flaws, sins and a need for God so that it almost literally
saved their spiritual lives.
• Perhaps the most vivid example of this is Job. Satan attacked Job,
hoping to destroy Job spiritually as well as materially. God, however,
only let as much suffering into Job’s life as he needed to grow into the
very great servant of God that Satan wanted to prevent.
• Another vivid illustration is Joseph and his brothers. His brothers did
what they could to destroy Joseph, and Joseph did suffer greatly, but
looking back on his life, Joseph could insist: “You meant it for evil, but
God meant it for good” (Gen.50:20).

a) In Joseph’s case, God was shielding Joseph and his brothers with the
suffering, not just from the suffering. Gen.50:20 is just another way
to say: “You, O Lord, in all my suffering, were a shield about me.”
The promise here is not — “God won’t let me suffer,” but — “even if I suffer,
God is shielding me from the intentions of my enemies or of Satan himself.”
This leads to peaceful sleep (v.6)!
• It is the assurance that “no one can really and truly harm me.” It is the
assurance that “All things work together for good for those who love
God” (Rom.8:28).
• If, however, we read Psalm 3:3a as a guarantee that bad things can’t
happen to us, the very promise that can give us peace in all
circumstances will be a cause (eventually) for despair and deep anger at
God.
4. vv.3-4, 8. How does David find assurance and confidence in the face of the
accusation? What makes him think that God will not finally forsake him? How
can we know God won’t forsake us? (Hint: Read v.3 Christo-centrically.)
What gives David confidence that God won’t forsake him?

The second sentence of v.3 uses a different metaphor: “You bestow glory on
me and lift up my head.” Even without the first clause, the second clause
shows that God is here giving David dignity and unashamed boldness.
• To walk with “head held high” is a metaphor for healthy pride, a clear
conscience, and confidence. This is critical for us when we are
“accused,” as we saw above.
• Almost always, when we experience some setback, we are shaken in
our faith that God really loves us. Our head is down, our eyes are cast
down.
• This doubt may come in from one or both of two sides.
a) On the one hand, we may feel: “I’m really unworthy. This proves it.
God has cast me off and I deserve it.”
b) Or on the other hand, we may feel: “I did my part, but God has
abandoned me. He is not committed to me. This isn’t fair.”
c) So the attack leads to accusation of either ourselves or God or both.
But David is confident that God will not and has not forsaken him. He says that
God “lifts up his head,” but how? The first clause tells us, even though it is a
bit difficult to grasp in the NIV version. The NIV says: “But… you bestow glory
on me and lift up my head,” but the older King James Version is more literal:
“But thou art… my glory, and the lifter of my head.”
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• Kidner writes: “’My glory’ is an expression to ponder: it indicates...the

comparative unimportance of earthly esteem.” (D.K., p.55). David
realizes that he has tended to let his people’s approval and praise be the
cause of his self-esteem. He walked with head held high because of his
acclaim and popularity.
• Now he asserts the theological truth that God is his only glory. It is
having God as my King, my Shepherd and Friend — that is the only
honor that matters.
• He was getting downcast because he had made something else into his
“glory” besides his relationship with God and God’s love for him.
This is enormously important for learning how to process our suffering.
• When something is taken from us, our suffering is real and valid. But
often, inside, we are disproportionately cast down because the
suffering is shaking out of our grasp something that we allowed to
become more than just a good thing to us.
• It had become too important spiritually and emotionally. We looked at it
as our honor and glory, the reason we could walk with our head up. We
may have said to others that “Jesus is my savior. His approval, and his
opinion of me, and his service are all that matters.” But functionally, we
got our self-worth from something else.
• When we suffer, these “something else’s” get shaken. In David’s case,
most of his suffering was perfectly valid. To lose the love of your son
and your people and to be falsely accused was searing pain. But he also
realized that he had let popular opinion and “earthly esteem” become
too important to him.
• He recommits himself to finding God as his “glory” — something that
can only be done in prayer, through repentance and adoration — we see
him grow into buoyancy and courage.
Note: It is possible to read v.3 as being a kind of adoration-based in repentance.
To fill it out, David is saying, “But you are a shield around me, O Lord, not any
other thing! And you are my glory and the lifter of my head — not these others!
Not my record nor political power nor even my son’s love or my people’s
acclaim — only you!” That is praise, but grounded in repentance.
How does God become our glory? The NIV indicates the answer when it uses
the word “bestow.” Our relationship with God is a gift, it is bestowed.
• The only answer to the Accuser is the gospel of free grace. If we hear
the accusation, “God will not save him; he is unworthy,” the only
answer is that salvation is not for the worthy, but for the humble —
those who admit that they are not worthy.
• This is directly stated in v.8: “From the Lord comes deliverance
(salvation).” This is identical to the famous declaration of Jonah:
“Salvation is of the Lord” (Jonah 2:9).

• We do not save ourselves — it is unmerited. Therefore, God’s grace will

not abandon us.
Sum: David had an intuitive grasp that we are saved by grace. He realized that
no lasting glory or salvation comes through earthly accomplishments and
reward. If we look to them for salvation, we will be disappointed, for “from the
Lord comes salvation.”He re-oriented himself to the freeness of grace, and
realized that God’s support of him was not ultimately based on his
accomplishments.
How can we know that God won’t forsake us?
If we read v.3 Christo-centrically, we see that we have a much more specific
way to deal with accusation than did David.
First, in Christ, we see how the Lord becomes very literally “our shield.”
• A shield protects us by taking the blows that would have fallen upon us
and destroyed us. It protects us through substitution.
• Jesus, of course, stood in our place and took the punishment we
deserved. This is why the accusation of Satan is overcome by the blood
of Christ. (See Rev.12:10-11.)
• We know God won’t forsake us, because he forsook Jesus for our sin.
He cried out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” as he
was punished for us.
• God cannot get two payments for your sin. Therefore, he cannot
forsake you.
Second, in Christ we are “holy and blameless in his sight” (Col. 1:22), despite
our spotty record.
• Christians, then, know that Christ is literally our glory and honor before
the Father.
• If we have that, then we are not overthrown by accusation. This is why
there is an old hymn that goes:
Well may the Accuser roar
Of sins that I have done.
I know them all, and thousands more —
Jehovah knoweth none.
Sum: If I can remember how God sovereignly and providentially processes my

suffering for my good (v.3a – as shield) and if I can remember my imputed
perfect righteousness in Christ (v.3b – as glory and lifter), then I will be able to
sleep well, anytime (v.5)!
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5. In what ways can a Christian pray against enemies like David does in v.7? In
what ways can we not do so? (Read Rom. 12:17ff)
On the one hand, calls to God for justice in the world are absolutely right, and
they remind us how important God’s holiness and justice are.
• So we must not recoil and dismiss prayers like Psalm 3:7 as primitive
and unworthy. We should long for justice to be done and for
wrongdoers to be prevented from doing evil. This is a longing for social
justice.
• But, on the other hand, the Psalmists did not understand fully the work
of Christ on the cross. The cross reveals several things.
a) First, if God brought judgment he would count all sins (Ps.130:3-4)
and we would all be lost.
b) But second, he poured out judgment instead on Jesus Christ.
This means, as Kidner notes, we live in a time of both greater mercy which will
be followed by greater judgment. “The Psalmists in their eagerness for
judgment call on God to hasten it; the gospel by contrast shows God’s
eagerness to save, but reveals new depths of judgment [later] which are its
corollary… Now they have no excuse”. (D.K, p.29).
In other words, the gospel humbles us (showing us that we were only saved by
grace) and leaves a period of grace in which people can repent of wrongdoing
and find the same grace.
However, because evil must have a solution, there will still be a judgment day.
On that day, either Christ’s work will be revealed as paying for our sins, or we
will pay for our own.
Until that day, the gospel’s logic compels us to pray for our enemies and wish
them good, even if we are opposing their deeds. We cannot feel superior to
them nor hope that they personally will pay for their sins when we have only by
grace been exempted for paying for our own. Yet we also know that God in the
end will not let evil prevail, whether people repent or not.
6. What have you learned in this Psalm that can help you “pray your difficulties”
better?
Take time to think out which of the insights you received from this Psalm were
the most important and relevant to you. Some of the principles that you may
have distilled include:
• Suffering does not have to end in order for a person to regain footing
and confidence.

a) David’s circumstances have not changed by the time he reaches v.8.

b) Instead of waiting for our circumstances to improve, we need to
“pray our difficulties,” We need to process them by prayer.
• One source of confidence and comfort in suffering is the promise and
concept of how God sovereignly shields us in and even with our
trouble.
a) We must pray this concept real to ourselves to gain strength. We can
meditate on examples of it (Gen.50:20).
• Another source of confidence and comfort in suffering is assurance that
God will not forsake us.
a) Trouble always casts a shadow on our faith in God’s love. We need in
prayer to re-orient ourselves to the original graciousness of God’s
support of us.
b) We can do this by praying: “Lord, I know you won’t forsake me. You
forsook Jesus and punished him for my sins so that you can stand
with me now.”
• Another way to process our suffering is to recognize that some good
earthly things may have become too important to us and have
functioned as our glory.
a) Our identity is wrapped up in them. Suffering threatens them and
gives us an opportunity to make Christ our true glory.
b) In prayer, we look at such things and say, “I don’t need you to
survive if I have Him.”
• We have not really dealt with suffering if we have only come to the
place where we individually are at peace.
a) We are to come out of suffering more prepared than ever to minister
to others and participate in community. Therefore, one of the ways to
process suffering is not to pull out of community during trouble.
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READINGS
you.
Why does God permit all this evil…? Christians must concede that they don’t
know… But our grasp of the fundamental way of things is at best limited...and so
there is no reason to think that whatever God’s reason is for permitting the evil that
we would be the first to know… But as the Christian sees things, God does not
stand idly by, coolly observing the suffering of his creatures. He enters and shares
our suffering… Christ was [sent] to endure the agonies of hell itself… This does not
answer the question, “Why [exactly] does God permit evil?” But it helps the
Christian trust God as his loving Father… His aims and goals my be beyond our
ken, but he himself is prepared to share much greater suffering than we in the
pursuit of those ends.
– Alvin Plantingai 1
The Christian is not one who has become immune to what is happening around
him. Grief and sorrow are something to which the Christian in subject… the
absence of a feeling of grief… savors more of the stoic or psychological states
produced by a cult than of Christianity… [Christians] have something that enables
them to rise above these things… though you feel them. It is not an absence of
feeling.
– D.M. Lloyd-Jones 2
All shall work together for good; everything is needful that he sends; nothing can be
needful that he withholds… You have need of patience, and if you ask, the Lord will
give it. But there can be no settled peace till our will is in a measure subdued…
fight against every thought that would represent it as desirable to be permitted to
choose for yourself. When your spirit is overwhelmed within you; he will not leave
you to sink. And keep close to the throne of grace. If we seem to get no good by
attempting to draw near him, we may be sure we shall get none by keeping away
from him.
– John Newton 3
Christ suffered — not that we might not suffer, but so that in our suffering, we
might become like Him. We may group God’s reasons for suffering into four
categories. First, we suffer for our own sake: That we may learn who God is
(Ps.46:1; Dn.4:24-37), That we may learn to trust (2 Cor.1:8-9) and obey (Ps.119:67-
71) Him. That we may bear fruit (Jn.15:3) and be shaped into Christ’s image
(Rom.8:29) and reach maturity of character (Jas.14; 2 Cor.9:2,12:9; Rom.5:3-4;
Heb.12:1-13). Second, we suffer for the sake of God’s people: That they may have
courage (Phil.1:14) and grace (2 Cor.4:15). That because of ‘death’ working in us, life
may work in them (2 Cor.4:12; Gal.4:13; 1 Jn.3:16). Third, we suffer for the world’s
sake: That it may be shown what love and obedience mean (Jn.14:31; Mt.27:40-43).
That the life of Jesus may be visible in ordinary human flesh (2 Cor.4:10). Fourth,
we suffer for Christ’s sake: That we may identify with him (Gal.2:20). That we may
share in his sufferings and glory (1 Pet.4:12-13; Phil.1:29, 2:17, 3:8,10; Rom.8:17-
18; Heb.2:9-10; 2 Cor.4:17).
– Elisabeth Elliott 4

The other gods were strong, but Thou was weak.
They rode, but Thou didst stumble to a throne.
But to our wounds only God’s wounds can speak,
And not a god has wounds but Thou alone.

– Edward Shillito (quoted in E.Elliott)
I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the
humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage, like
the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small Euclidean mind of
man, that in the world’s finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so
precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all
resentments, of the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, of all the blood shed;
that it will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened.
– Fyodor Dostoevsky 5
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2. How effective is Plantinga’s answer to those who say, “I can’t believe in God
because of all the suffering in the world?”
Plantinga makes two basic arguments:

a) The hidden premise of human omniscience
The classic argument against God on the basis of evil was formulated by the
18th century Scottish philosopher David Hume. He wrote: “Is [God] willing to
prevent evil, but not able? Then he is impotent. Is he able but not willing? then
he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? From whence then comes evil?” 6
The reasoning is then:
1. If a good and all powerful God exists, there could be no evil unless
he has a reason that would justify his permitting it.
2. There is lots of senseless evil — evil that brings about no ultimate
good — evil for which there is no justification.
3. Therefore, God does not exist.
However, Plantinga, a Christian philosopher, points out that there is a hidden
premise in that argument. It assumes that if God has a reason for allowing evil
to continue that we would be able to discern it. But why believe that? Plantinga
writes: “Our grasp of the fundamental way of things is at best limited… and so
there is no reason to think that whatever God’s reason is for permitting… evil
that we would be the first to know.” In other words, look at the argument
against God listed immediately above. Look at premise #2: “There is a lot of
senseless evil — that brings about no ultimate good.” Plantinga is pointing out
that tucked away in this premise is the following line of reasoning:
1. If there were any reasons I would be able to see them.
2. I can’t see any good reason for this evil and suffering.
3. Therefore, there can’t be any.
But that is obviously fallacious thinking. Even within our own lifetimes we can
get perspective and see some events that seemed to be disasters turned out
to be blessings in disguise. How can we be sure that just because we can’t
think of any good reasons for God to allow evil and suffering to go on that,
therefore, he can’t have any!
It is humble, wise and Biblical not to try at all to posit or provide a reason for
why God allows evil and suffering. On the other hand, it really is rationally

invalid to insist that there can’t be one and therefore God is cruel and beastly or
does not exist. If you look up the discussion by Plantinga footnoted above, and
especially if you look up the recent work of Christian philosophers he cites, I
think it is would be fair to conclude that there is no longer any confident
consensus among philosophers that Evil and Suffering disprove the Christian
God. That may have been a prevailing view in mid-century, but a rather large
hole has been punched in the old David Hume objection.
b) The suffering of God in Christ.
The second argument Plantinga makes is by pointing to the suffering of God in
Jesus. He reasons, “God’s willingness to voluntarily come into the world to
suffer and die for us is strong evidence that he must have some good and
loving reason for allowing evil to go on.” Whatever his reasons for allowing evil
to go on it cannot be due to a lack of love or indifference to our misery.
Let’s summarize Plantinga’s argument.
First, if you have a God great and transcendent enough to be mad at because
he hasn’t stopped evil and suffering in the world, then you have to (at the same
moment) have a God great and transcendent enough to have good reasons for
allowing it to continue that you can’t know. (You can’t have it both ways!)
Second, though we don’t know the reasons why he allows it to continue, he
can’t be indifferent or uncaring, because the Christian God (unlike the gods of
all the other religions) takes our misery and suffering so seriously that he is
willing to get involved with it himself. On the cross, Jesus suffered with us.
3. While we may not know the ultimate reason for suffering, Elliott’s quote
shows us there are a number of penultimate reasons that we suffer. Think of
Job, Jonah, David, and the man born blind (John 9). How did each of these
examples exhibit some of these penultimate reasons?
Job’s experience of suffering

When Job’s life fell apart, he kept looking for a sin that he was being chastised
for or even a clear lesson that he was supposed to be learning. In other words,
he wanted to know what the particular issue or reason was for which God was
allowing him to suffer.
• But instead, God was simply bringing him to the position of obeying
God simply for the sake of who He is.
• The only way possible to become a person of character, greatness and
joy is to learn to obey God simply out of delight and honor toward God,
not out of a desire to use God for other, more non-negotiable (and
therefore more ultimate) ends.
115

Satan knew that, to a great degree, Job’s character was superficial. He said, to
God, in effect, “Job is only serving you in order to get you to do things for him.
He is trying to control you through his obedience. It is, therefore, conditional.”
• This was not true of Job to the degree Satan asserts. If it was so, Job
would have been a completely nominal believer and all faith would have
withered away in the heat of his suffering.
• But it was true of Job to some degree, as it is with us all. To some
degree, Job based his standing with God on his works/obedience, and
the mark of that is that he believed God owed him a comfortable life.
• When the suffering came, Job says, over and over again: “I’ve lived a
good life, so I don’t deserve this.” The implication is that he did deserve
a good life because of his righteousness.
• Works-righteousness, therefore, cannot take suffering.
So Job looked in vain for a specific lesson, but the lesson was really a
revelation about the whole tenor of his life. The suffering was there to reveal
and crash Job’s works-righteousness world-view.
• When God took away his prosperity and comfort, and Job becomes
furious and self-righteous, it proved that he was serving God for what
he can get out of God — not for He himself. It proved he has been
serving God not out of gratitude for a full salvation, but as a lever to get
the things that are his real salvation (prosperity, comfort, recognition).
David’s experience of suffering
When David’s life fell apart, there was a very specific lesson, a very specific sin.
He had seriously violated the law of God by taking Bathsheba, another man’s
wife, and by having the former husband killed. Then the new young son of
David (by Bathsheba) dies.
• Was God punishing David and Jonah for their sins? Not really. Romans
8:1 says that there is “no condemnation” for a believer. This means,
simply, that if Jesus received the punishment and made payment for
our sins, God cannot then get payment out of us too!
• God does not do “retribution” to a believer, because of Jesus, and
because if he really punished us for our sins we’d all have been dead
long ago!
• But God often appoints some aspect of the brokenness of the world
[caused by sin in general — Gen.3; Romans 8:18ff] to come into our
lives to wake us up and turn us to him. The severity of this depends on
our heart’s need.
Imagine that a person is engaged five times in a row and he breaks up with
each fiancée.

• Because each fiancée has flaws, he mistakes these occasions for the
breakups to be the causes.
• But his perfectionism is the cause, and a sense of moral superiority is
the root cause.
• Some rather major temptation and moral failure may be the only way
for such a man to be humbled and to wake up to this barrier. The
Psalmist says in Psalm 25, “Cleanse me from hidden faults.” In general,
this can only happen through suffering.
The man born blind’s experience of suffering
In John 9, the disciples see a man born blind from birth. His disciples ask
Jesus, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (v.2).
• The question is, of course, very self-righteous. It presumes that they are
not sinful or the parents of sinners, since they have their health.
• It is the position of Job’s friends (and even, in the beginning, of Job
himself) that a morally good life deserves a circumstantially good life,
and therefore those without the latter must also lack the former.
• Jesus dismisses the error and says, “Neither… but this happened so
that the work of God might be displayed in his life” (v.3). Jesus shows
that suffering can be so very mysterious that it is not occasioned at all
by either specific sin (Jonah/David) or the general gospel-immaturity
(Job).
• We are all part of nature, which groans under the weight of sin
(Rom.8:18ff) until the Day of the Lord at the end of time. Yet, though a
Christian participates in suffering, she or he can know that suffering in
our lives is carefully shaped by God so as to do his work in us or
through us to others by means of any suffering (John 9:1-2; Rom. 8:28;
Heb. 12:1-14; Phil. 1:12-30).
4. Make a summary list of what you have learned in this study about how to face
suffering and trials.
Don’t be surprised. Much of a person’s misery in any situation consists of his

anger and surprise that the suffering has happened to him. Often, half of the
distressed emotions that people experience in suffering come from the shock
that they are suffering at all. Surprise can be dealt with if a Christian sees
where suffering comes from.
• Many Christians believe that God won’t let really bad things happen to
good people. But Jesus Christ himself disproves that!
117

a) If God allowed a perfect man to suffer terribly (but for an ultimate

good) why should we think that something like that could never
happen to us?
b) We won’t ever suffer infinitely like he did — nor will our suffering
accomplish infinite salvation! But something like that could happen on
a much smaller scale to us.
• John 9:1-5 and Luke 13:1-5 show us that natural disasters and sickness
are not usually punishment for particular sins that we have done.
a) Romans 8:19-23 (cf. Gen. 3:16-18) shows us that the world is filled
with disease, death and natural disasters because of sin in general.
b) It is the curse on the human race. “Dear friends, do not be surprised
at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange
were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the
sufferings of Christ” (1 Pet. 4:12-13).
Receive God’s strength for those in affliction. God will not leave you alone. He is
very near those in trouble. He has special love for those who are suffering. He
will give you strength and patience especially as you work and strive.
• God promises us that the Spirit will help us in our needs (Rom. 8:26).
He cannot help us until we begin to obey.
• Similarly, Phil. 2:12-13 tells us God works as we work.
• In summary, the strength we need for suffering will come in the doing
of what responsibilities and duties God requires.
a) Shirk no commands of God.
b) Read, pray, study, fellowship, serve, witness, obey.
c) Do all your duties that you physically can and the God of peace will
be with you.
Understand God’s instruction/discipline. Suffering reveals our weakness and is
an important opportunity to see one’s sin more closely and experience God’s
grace more deeply. It is a time to draw much closer to God, to experience Him.
He has hidden purposes in everything that happens. (Rom. 8:28 – God works all
historical circumstances together for your good, if you are a Christian.)
• At the foot of the cross, many people may have thought: “How could
God let this good man die? How could God bring any good out of this?”
God will work all things together for good, but he does not promise to
show exactly how any one incident fits into the complex fabric of
history.
• We must not try to figure out exactly “what he’s up to.” It is unlikely
that we will ever see even a fraction of it. To try to show us that would
be like trying to pour a million gallons of truth into a one ounce brain.

He has revealed purposes in suffering. In Hebrews 12:1-10 and elsewhere, the

Bible teaches us that we should not try to guess at God’s hidden purposes in
tragic incidents, but rather seek his revealed purpose, namely, that we grow in
grace. God uses suffering to:
• Break our self-confidence and pride.
a) Suffering doesn’t really make us helpless and dependent on God. It
just shows us that we always have been vulnerable and dependent
and forces us to acknowledge the fact.
• Make us examine ourselves.
a) Suffering and trials will bring out the worst in us. Our weak faith,
sharp tongue, laziness, insensitivity to people, worry, bitter spirit and
other weaknesses in character will become evident to us (and
others).
b) We will be forced to see and work on these faults.
• Strengthen our loyalty to God.
a) In suffering, we will be tempted to rebel against God. In times of
health and prosperity, it is easy to obey, but when it costs us to obey,
we waver.
b) During trials, we hear God say: “Oh! Were things all right between
us as long as I waited on you hand and foot? Now we can see if you
are really out to serve me or whether you only expect me to serve
you!”
• Make us more compassionate.
a) When we have suffered, we become more tender-hearted and able
to help others in suffering. We become more useful (2 Cor. 1:3-4).
• Enable us to witness for Him.
a) The world will be impressed by a Christian’s uncomplaining
endurance of suffering. They will say, “Well! He must have quite a
God to take all this. His God must be real.”
b) “Christ suffered — not that we might not suffer, but so that in our
suffering, we might become like Him” – Amy Carmichael (often
quoted by Elizabeth Elliott).
c) “His wise love feeds us with hunger. It fattens us with famine. Lord!
Spoil my fool’s heaven here below, that I might have thy true heaven
forever” – Samuel Rutherford, Letters.
Admit one’s own weakness and sorrow. When Christians face suffering, the two
most common responses are either to fall apart or to “keep a stiff upper lip”
119

(stoicism). But while stoicism looks strong and noble, it is often a way to avoid
the spiritual growth that comes through a new discovery of just how weak and
fragile you are.
• Many Christians assume this posture, saying breezily: “I’m just trusting
in him!” or “I know God will bring something good out of this!”
• But stoicism is a kind of defiance which simply says: “I WON’T let this
get to me! I WON’T let this defeat me!” It is basically a self-absorbed
and self-sufficient response. Often it is a form of denial, in which you
won’t admit to yourself how desperate you really feel.
• The way of and to spiritual maturity is when suffering gives you a new
revelation of your need for God and your impotence without him.
Suffering then becomes a path to deeper knowledge of self and God.
Recognize God’s own suffering in Christ.
Grasp God’s perspective. All the important things — salvation, adoption,

guarantee of heaven — are all safe. This is small compared to what Jesus
suffered for you. This is small compared to what glory we will have.
• God is wise and there are purposes here that no one knows. Balance
suffering’s duration against eternity. Compared to the endless billions of
“years” of eternity without suffering, our troubles are brief.
• If we think of our lives as only 70 years long, suffering will loom large; if
we think of our lives as endless, suffering is a fleeting thing. A
billionaire will hardly feel a theft of the $1,000 from his pocket. A middle
class man will feel it sorely. Christians are billionaires in glory.
• Balance suffering’s severity against glory. When people tell sufferers
that “it’s not so bad; it could be worse,” they help little. When, instead,
we compare our suffering now to the joy and glory of heaven, suffering
is “outweighed” (2 Cor. 4:17-18). When Stephen caught a glimpse of
heaven, he got so excited that he seemed to forget the small matter of
his execution (Acts 7:55-56)!
• One second of glory will outweigh 1000 years of pain. To get suffering
in perspective takes meditation on God’s Word.
5. Share an example of difficulty or trial in your own life that illustrates any of
the principles that have been covered in this study.

1 Alvin Plantinga, “A Christian Life Partly Lived” in Philosophers Who Believe ed. Kelly James Clark, (IVP,
1993), pp.72.
2 D.M. Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Causes and Cure
3 John Newton, Letters of John Newton
4 Elisabeth Elliott, A Path through Suffering
5 Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
6 David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion ed. Richard Popkin (Indianapolis: Hackett Pub,
1980) p.63.
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Gospel Christianity
Race and embrace
Study 7 | Course 3
KEY CONCEPT – RECEIVING ONE ANOTHER

you.
Embracing those whose beliefs oppose ours
The need
In our pluralistic world, how can we live and work together harmoniously with
those whose beliefs are extremely different or even offensive to us? The
answer of our society is tolerance.
• Many today say, “We will only get along if we all agree that no one has
the right religion or moral values.” But this can be just a new way to
exclude people.
• “No one has the right moral values” is a very European Enlightenment
view of reality which is being touted as superior to everyone else’s.
• Today those who speak publicly about the truth of their religion or
traditional moral values may be denounced as intolerant or even as
engaging in hate speech. This isn’t progress from intolerance to
tolerance.
• Rather, those who our society once excluded now have the power to
exclude. There must be a better way! There is.
Receptive grace
In Romans 14:1, Paul calls Christians to “receive the one who is weak with
respect to faith.” When Paul calls the person “weak” spiritually he gives him a
somewhat negative evaluation. Yet then he says, “Bear the weaknesses of the
weak and not please ourselves.” (Rom. 15:1).
• Modern tolerance refuses to do any evaluation, but also refuses to let
others impinge on their individual freedom. It says: “I accept all people
— but I’m not going to let anyone affect the way I want to live.”
• But Paul is calling us to something far beyond toleration. It is almost the
opposite. He says that we should evaluate the beliefs and practices of
others, but then we should love them and engage them. (And Paul calls
us not only to have this attitude with other Christians but with our
neighbors – cf. Rom.15:2).
• We should be sympathetic, caring, open and non-judgmental even with
people whose beliefs you evaluate as very wrong. Why? When Jesus
died on the cross, he made a negative evaluation of us — we are
sinners!
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notes RACE AND EMBRACE
• But though we were weak and sinful he entered into our situation,
cared for us, made room in his life for us, and died for our sins. If we
follow a man like that, how can we ever treat our opponents disdainfully
or oppressively even though we negatively evaluate their beliefs and
practices?
Affirming one another across racial and cultural barriers
The need
In every society there is a pecking order of power, wealth and status, with
some races, classes and cultures on top. The Bible calls Christians to affirm one
another’s equal importance in Christ and not to reproduce those orders inside
the church.
• We deliberately practice the building of relationships with believers
across cultural barriers as a sign of the future kingdom (Eph. 2:11-22; cf.
John 17:21, 23).
• At Pentecost, the gospel was preached in all languages, showing that
no one culture is the right culture and that in the Spirit we can have a
unity that transcends all national, linguistic and cultural barriers.
Distance and Belonging
Christians are a “new ethnic” (1 Pet. 2:9). Our relationship to others in Christ is
to be stronger than our relationship to other members of our own racial and
national groups.
• The gospel makes us all like Abraham, who left his home culture but
never arrived in another one.
• So, for example, Chinese Christians do not leave their “Chineseness”
to become something else, yet the gospel gives them critical distance
from their own culture, enabling them to critique their own idols.
Receptive grace
How can we be free from racial prejudice? When Paul saw Peter as a Jew
refusing to eat with Gentile believers, he said that Peter was “not acting in line
with the gospel” (Gal. 2:14). Racial prejudice denies the very principle of
salvation by grace and not through works. The gospel roots out racial pride.

RACE AND EMBRACE notes
BIBLE STUDY #1
Romans 14:1-15:7
1. 14:2-3, 5, 14, 20-21 What are the differences of opinion between the “Strong”
and the “Weak?”
Verses 2-3 say the dispute had to do with eating. Some felt that as Christians,
they could not eat meat. Verse 5 indicates that some felt that they had to
observe certain days as holy.
• In Col. 2:16, Paul speaks of Christians who still held to Old Testament
feast days. That could very well be what is in view here.
• Verses 14 and 20 indicate that the some believed certain foods were
unclean. This is a pretty clear reference to Old Testament ceremonial
laws about clean and unclean foods (See Lev. 11 and Deut. 14). These
were part of the Old Testament regulations which qualified or
disqualified you as fit for entering worship in the tabernacle or temple.
• In short, some of the people in the church were still following the Old
Testament dietary kosher laws and they believed all Christians should as
well.
Who, then, were the Strong and who were the Weak? One party insisted that
everyone shun the foods forbidden by Jewish custom, while other Christians
did not think there was anything wrong with eating the full range of food.
• Some ask, “Are these the Judaizers of Galatians, who insisted that it
was still necessary to obey the Old Testament law in order to be
saved?” The answer must be “No.” Paul refused to consider such
people Christians at all (Gal. 1:8). He did not merely call them “weak in
faith.”
• Therefore, we have something different here. These are Christians,
accustomed to certain customs of eating and observance based on the
Old Testament, who look down on Christians who don’t join them in
such practices.
2. Compare this dispute with 1 Corinthians 8:1-13. What is the same in both
situations? What is different? (Hint: What racial/ethnic group was more likely
to have been “weak” in Rome and in Corinth?)
What is the same in both situations?

It is interesting to compare the Romans dispute to the one described in 1
Corinthians 8. That was also a conflict between two parties, one of which he
calls Strong and the other Weak. But the dispute in Corinth was over whether
Christians could buy and eat meat offered to idols.
124

• Some Christians had decided that they could never eat food that had
ever had an invocation to a pagan god or idol said over it. (Much food
sold in the market and offered in public meetings was dedicated to
some pagan god.) Other Christians did not think there was anything
wrong with eating such food.
• In the Corinthian situation, the Strong would have been Christians who
said, “There’s nothing wrong with eating it — idols aren’t real.” While
the Weak were people who felt not only that they should refrain from
eating it but that all Christians should refrain as well.
Let’s summarize what is the same in both situations:
Who were the Weak?
• In Rom. 14:3, Paul says the man who does not eat everything must not
condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. This indicates
that the Weak in both cases were the Christians who were forbidding
and abstaining from various sorts of food.
• They were Weak because they wanted no gray areas; they wanted to
know whether each and every food or practice was right or wrong.
They wanted lots of rules and boundaries in order to bolster their weak
consciences, and they tended to be very narrow-minded and judgmental
of those who didn’t obey all the rules.
• The Epistle to the Romans “As the discussion shows, he does not
mean a person who trusts Christ but little, the man of feeble faith (cf.
4:19). Rather, the person he has in mind is the one who does not
understand the conduct implied by faith… he does not understand that
when the meaning of justification by faith is grasped, questions like the
use of meat and wine and special days becomes irrelevant.” – Leon
Morris, The Epistle to the Romans
• Paul is not saying that Weak Christians aren’t saved, or even that they
don’t trust Christ. In fact, the Weak are people who generally are the
most fervent and diligent in trying to please Christ.
• Where they are Weak is that there are some remnants of a legalistic
spirit still clinging to them. They have not worked out the implications of
the gospel.
• If you are saved by grace alone, there is no need to feel you can
somehow keep God’s favor through rules and regulations.
Who were the Strong?
• In both situations, the Strong were the broad-minded who had a better
grasp on the gospel.
a) In Corinth, they understood that in the gospel there was freedom in
matters not prescribed by the Scripture.

b) In Rome, they understood that Christ had made obsolete the older
ceremonial law.
• Paul himself identifies with them, saying that “we who are strong”
know that idols are nothing (1 Cor. 8:4) and so there was nothing wrong
with eating the meat.
• The Strong were not superstitious like the narrow-minded in Corinth nor
legalistic like the narrow-minded in Rome.
What is different in both situations?

What is interesting about the comparison of the two situations is that the two
ethnic groups within the churches — Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians
— reverse roles. Most commentators note that beneath the theological issues
(the nature of idols and the status of the Old Testament dietary laws) was a
racial-cultural issue.
• In Corinth, the Weak would almost certainly have been Gentile believers
— former pagans with sensitive consciences about idols — while the
Strong would have been the Jewish Christians who thought of the
Greek gods as non-entities. (We see that Paul, a Jew and former
Pharisee, talks about the Strong as “we” who are sure that there are no
gods behind the idols.)
• On the other hand, in Rome, the Weak would almost certainly have
been Jewish Christians, and the Strong would have been Gentile
believers who knew that in Christ they were no longer bound to the old
clean laws and ceremonial regulations.
• The important point: in one situation, cultural sensibilities made one
group blinder to aspects of the gospel, while in another situation, those
same cultural sensibilities made the group wiser about the implications
of the gospel.
So the situation was remarkably difficult. These were not simply theological
disputes or racial divisions; they were extremely complex combinations of both.
3. What criticism does Paul give the Strong? What criticism does he give the
Weak? What is the mark or sign of both of these ways that people deny the
gospel (14:3)?
What criticism does Paul give the Strong?

First, to our surprise, Paul saves his sharpest criticism for the Strong in both
situations. Paul refuses to look at either dispute simply as a theological issue.
Even though Paul acknowledges that the Strong are theologically right (by
calling them the Strong!) and have a better grip of sound gospel theology — he
nonetheless criticizes them because they look down upon and disdained the
Weak (cf. Rom. 15:7). So though one side was right and the other wrong
(theologically) the subtle racism of both groups was exerting itself in different
ways. How so?
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• The Weak were letting their cultural biases distort their understanding
of the gospel (as we noted above), but the Strong were also letting their
cultural biases strangle the gospel in their lives. How?
• The gospel of grace means we are all equally sinners and equally
accepted freely. That should remove self-righteousness.
a) But the Strong were refusing to alter their behavior though it was
being misconstrued and harming people. That is, the Jewish
Christians refused to spend the time gently helping the superstitious
Gentile members get more educated about the gospel.
b) They just went ahead and ate the meat with the attitude ‘’I can’t help
it if this offends those superstitious Gentiles” 1 Cor. 8:9-11.
c) So the Strong, who congratulated themselves on understanding the
gospel, were acting just as self-righteously and narrow-minded as the
Weak (though in a different way).
• In short, though this group of Christians was theologically Strong it
wasn’t relationally, culturally and spiritually Strong. It understood the
gospel of grace intellectually enough to come to the right position in the
theological dispute, but it did not understand the gospel of grace
practically enough to treat the other racial-cultural group with humility
and love.
What criticism does Paul give the Weak?
First, he says the Weak are simply wrong about food and drink! Paul very
bluntly shows the weak that their position is unbiblical. “As one who is in the
Lord Jesus I am fully convinced that no food is unclean in itself.” (v.14)
• Paul may be referring to Jesus own words here, for he argued with the
Pharisees against the maintenance of the “clean” and “unclean” laws
(Mark 7:14ff) and he gave a word to Peter about this, too (Acts 10:15,
28).
The reasons for this are at least two-fold:
First, God did not create any material thing as evil.
• All things are good; it is only our own sinful hearts that use material
things in such a way as to produce evil. (See 1 Tim. 4:1ff)
• The other is probably that the clean-unclean laws were ways for God to
teach the Israelites that they could not just come into his presence, but
that there needed to be a purity.
• But in Christ, we are brought to God’s presence holy and without
blemish (Col.1:22). Therefore, to hold on to a squeamishness about the
use of any material thing is a failure to realize the full implications of the
doctrine of creation and/or the doctrine of redemption.

Second, they cannot distinguish between matters of basic principle and of

individual preference.
• Verse 1b says not to “pass judgment on disputable matters.” The weak
do not know when they are in the area of what Paul calls “disputable”
and when they are in the area of “indisputable” issues.
• The Greek word used in v.1b is dialogismoi. Traditionally, these have
been called matters of conscience. A matter of conscience is a practice
about which God has not specifically spoken in his word. He has not
clearly forbidden it nor clearly commanded it.
• Today, one might say, an extreme liberal is one who thinks (wrongly)
that nearly every area is a disputable matter of conscience, while the
extreme conservative is one who thinks (wrongly) that hardly any area is
a disputable matter of conscience.
What is the mark of both?
Both of these groups of people fail to grasp the implications of the gospel of
grace — they just do it in different ways.
• But the mark of both is self-righteousness, an attitude of superiority,
and a condemning attitude — rather than a humble and loving one.
• “The man who eats everything [the Strong] must not look down on him
who does not, and the man who does not eat everything [the Weak]
must not condemn the man who does — for God has accepted him”
v.3.
• This means that any haughty, condemning, judgmental spirit shows
either the Strong-form of denying the gospel or the Weak-form.
This is a very important test. Jonathan Edwards preached a sermon in the
1740s entitled “Love is Contrary to a Censorious Spirit.” (The old word
“censorious” meant an intolerant, condemning spirit.)
• In the sermon, he points out that it is not censorious to make sharp,
negative evaluations. Rather, he says, what makes you censorious is if
you enjoy making negative evaluations even if you only make them
deep within your heart. The question is:
a) Do you enjoy contrasting your own views and practices with those of
others?
b) Do you enjoy despising other people, even if you don’t say anything
outwardly?
c) Do you enjoy seeing those others trashed in books and reviews?
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• This is a sign, says Edwards, that your own heart has not been changed
by the grace of God… “The reason both the despising and the
condemning of a fellow Christian are wrong is that God has accepted
him (v.3). How dare we reject a person whom God has accepted?
Indeed, the best way to determine what our attitude to other people
should be is to determine what God’s attitude to them is. This principle
is better even than the golden rule. It is safe to treat others as we
would like them to treat us, but it is safer still to treat them as God
does. “ – John Stott, Romans
4. What does Paul mean by “accept one another as Christ accepted you?” (Rom.
15:7)? How does Christ’s acceptance of us compare with modern notions of
tolerance?
What does Paul mean in Rom. 15:7?

Paul calls both the Strong and the Weak to “accept one another just as Christ
accepted you.” (Rom. 15:7). What does that mean?
• Notice first of all what this does not mean. This is not the modern
notion of tolerance. The modern notion of tolerance in our secular
society:
a) On the one hand, refuses to make any evaluations of others’ behavior
or beliefs. If you say someone is sinning or wrong, you are
considered intolerant in our society.
b) On the other hand, refuses to let anyone else affect or hinder the
way they want to live. The attitude is: “I don’t condemn you. But if
what I am doing upsets or offends them, that’s their problem!” I
have the right to live my life as I want to live it.
But Paul is calling Christians to almost the exact opposite of modern tolerance;
he is calling them to gospel-powered humble service and love.
• This same verb (translated “accept” in 15:7) is used in Romans 14:1
when Paul tells the Strong to “receive the one who is weak with
respect to faith.”
a) Notice that Paul calls the person “weak!” He is weak — spiritually
and theologically; he does not understand God’s grace. So Paul gives
a negative evaluation of the person’s character and beliefs.
b) Yet Paul calls us to accept, to receive — to welcome into deeply
engaged relationship those that we evaluate as mistaken or weak.
• What does that mean? In Romans 15:1, Paul calls the Strong literally to
“bear the weaknesses of the weak and not please ourselves.” What
can that mean?

a) It surely cannot mean we are to adopt the errors of the weak. One
commentator writes, “They are to sympathetically ‘enter into’ their
attitudes, refrain from criticizing and judging them, and do what love
would require toward them. Love demands that the Strong go
beyond the distance implied in mere toleration.” (Douglas Moo, The
Epistle to the Romans, p.866.)
So here we see that humble love is almost the opposite of modern tolerance.
Tolerance refuses to do any evaluation, but also refuses to let others impinge
on their individual freedom. It says: “I accept all people — but I’m not going to
let anyone affect the way I want to live.”
• But Paul says that we should evaluate the beliefs and practices of
others, but then we should lovingly engage them by changing our
behavior in order to make room for them in our lives.
• We should be willing to change things that we would otherwise do in
order to have diverse people living together in the same Christian
community.
Summary: Tolerance — don’t evaluate others and don’t let them affect or
impinge on how you live. The gospel — do evaluate others but do let them
affect or impinge on how you live.
Christ and tolerance.
How is this possible? Christ makes this possible.
• When Jesus went to the cross he was making one of the most
negative evaluations of us possible! When He died on the cross, He
was saying, “You’re so lost that nothing less than the death of the Son
of God will save you.”
• But at the same time He was entering into our condition, making
himself vulnerable to us, making room in his life for us, sacrificing for
us.
There are enormous resources in the gospel for being receptive and loving to
people with whom we deeply differ.
• If you build your identity on what Jesus did for you, you will become
something far better than tolerant. You will be able to disagree with
people honestly and sharply and yet do so without the slightest bit of ill
will, without the slightest need to exercise power in those relationships
and friendships, without the slightest bit of superiority.
• We will be able to sharply disagree with all love, respect, deference and
humility.
We ought to be showing the world the way here. Secularism does not have the
ability.
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• Secularism says, “Let’s all be tolerant our way! You’ve got to adopt our
epistemology or else you’re dangerous.
• Christianity says, “You just have to be alive and we’ll receive you. You
don’t have to come and obey this and do this and this. We’ll receive you
if you’re willing to have a relationship with us.”
• If we follow Christ here and let the world see how it reshapes our
power relationships, then they will start to say “What have you got?”
5. What specific practical advice does he give both the Strong and the Weak in
chapter 14 (What courses of action does he prescribe for each)?
To the weak:
First, keep your views to yourself.
• “So, whatever you believe about these things, keep between yourself
and God” (v.22).
• Here he tells the Weak to recognize when some practice is in a
disputable area, when it is among the dialogismoi. When something is
not clearly forbidden or commanded in Scripture, don’t press or loudly
display your views and practices on the subject. Keep them to yourself.
• We must not press this to an extreme — Paul is not saying that you
cannot give your opinion if it is asked for! Paul is not saying that you
can never make an evaluation. After all, Jesus told us to watch out for
false prophets, etc.
• Rather, Paul means that once we recognize that this is a disputable
area, we should mind our own business.
Second, get a more mature view of the kingdom of God.
• In v.14, Paul tells the weak that they are plainly mistaken about created
things, and in v.3 he hints that they have not worked out the full
implications of the doctrine of justification. (See remarks on this above.)
• In other words, Paul warns them against a legalism tendency. He brings
this out in v.17: “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and
drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
• They must see that following rules and regulations about material things
misses the point of the kingdom. The point is transformed character —
joy, peace, wisdom, love.
Third, think through and get convinced about the rightness or wrongness of any
practice.

• Verse 5 is quite interesting and important: “Each one should be fully

convinced in his own mind.” In other words, Paul says that we need to
reflect upon and think out our behavior.
• First, we need to see whether the Bible really enjoins/forbids or leaves
the conscience free in some area.
• Then, even if the Bible leaves us free, we may decide to abstain from
some practice because it leads us as individuals to sin, or it leads others
to sin.
• So determining all this takes thought! Paul is especially telling the weak
to do this — because many people with a tendency to legalism are full
of scruples because they haven’t studied the Bible or thought things
out. “Alongside this explicit instruction not to violate the conscience,
there is an implicit requirement to educate it.” – John Stott, Romans
• But they cannot practice in that area unless they have thought it out and
are firmly convinced in their mind that it is right.
• Notice, Paul even gives some idea of how to think out whether a
practice is do-able or not. “He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he
gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord, and
gives thanks to God” (v.6).
• So the Christian must look at any practice and say, “Can I do this before
Christ? Can I do it with an eye upon him? Can I do it in his name,
thanking him for it?”
Fourth, until you are convinced something is right, avoid it.
• Why? Paul says several times that if you are doubtful about something,
it is important to avoid it. “If anyone regards something as unclean,
then for him it is unclean” (v.14b). “The man who has doubts is
condemned if he eats” (v.23). Refer to the story above under question
#4 about the girl who wore make up.
• If a person proceeds to do something when the conscience is against it,
it damages that person spiritually. Indeed, it is a sin to do something if
you think it is a sin. Why? Even if you are mistaken about what God’s
will is, it is a sin to put your will above his.
To the strong:
First, receive the weak brethren.
• In 14:1, the word “receive” (Greek, proslambano) means more than
simply acquiescence. A better translation would be “to welcome,” for
the word means to receive someone into one’s circle and into one’s
love.
• This is very important, because the tendency of the Strong is to
become more distant to the Weak who disapprove of their behavior.
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Paul insists that there be an effort to keep up the relationship, and to

not let the difference come between them.
• This is re-stated in v.19 when Paul says to make every effort to do what
leads to peace and mutual edification. In short, Paul says that the strong
must not avoid or write off the weaker brethren but seek to stay close
to them.
Second, seek to respectfully convince him.
• Here we have an example in Paul himself. In v.14, he tells us that he is
one of the Strong — he can eat anything! Well, what does he do with
the Weak?
• Notice that the whole of chapter 14 is, in a sense, a model of how the
Strong should approach the Weak. He seeks to respectfully persuade
the Weak to re-examine their position. In vv.14 and 17, he reminds
them about the nature of the kingdom of God.
• In other words, he is trying to help the weak to think through and
become convinced of the broader, more mature position. But, if the
Weak does come to a different position, Paul clearly shows a
willingness to refrain from the offensive behavior.
• In v.5, Paul says that people need to carefully think through, Biblically
and personally, their practice as Christians.
Third, refrain from a practice if weaker brethren are possibly stumbling.
• “It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that
will cause your brother to fall” (v.21). We must be careful here. To
stumble or fall does not mean just to bother the weaker brothers. A
grumpy Christian could blackmail a whole church in that case.
• Some churches have Christians who are very weak and who have an
enormous number of scruples. They are constantly getting irritated and
upset because other church members are offending their sense of what
is proper Christian behavior.
• The Strong do not have to refrain from anything that upsets anyone
else. But if the Weak have a very deep and settled conviction, if they
are convinced and if they clearly are being tempted to bitterness or
spiritual confusion, then the Strong out of love should refrain.
• A good example of this is worship forms. If a Strong person can enjoy
and use a variety of music/worship forms, but a Weak person can only
utilize one, then the Strong should defer to the Weak.

BIBLE STUDY #2
Acts 10:24-34; Galatians 2:11-14; 1 Peter 2:9-10; 1 Corinthians 1:22-24
1. What do the Acts 10 and Galatians 2 passages teach about the relationship of
the gospel to race and racism?
The classic example of how the gospel changes our attitude toward our
racial/cultural heritage is seen in comparing Acts 10-11 with Galatians 2.
• In Acts 10-11, God showed Peter that anyone, regardless of race and
culture, was equally lost in sin and equally loved in Christ, because
salvation is totally by grace. Peter said, “God has shown me that I
should not call any man impure or unclean… I now realize how true it is
that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation
who fear him and do what is right” (Acts 10:28, 34).
• Yet sometime later, Paul saw Peter refusing to eat with Gentile
Christians and he confronted him about his racism. But how? He did not
say, “You are breaking the rule against racism.” He said Peter was “not
acting in line with the gospel” (Gal. 2:14).
• To act “in line with the gospel” is to take the fact that we are sinners
saved by sheer grace and draw out the implications and live in total
consistency with that.
a) Racial prejudice is wrong because it is a denial of the very principle of
grace vs. works. Racism is a form of works-righteousness.
b) How so? The Bible tells us we were built to worship and know God
but we live independent of him as our own masters. This effort at
independence creates a sense of anxiety and shame since we know
down deep we owe him allegiance (Rom. 1).
c) In response, we have to “cover our nakedness” (Gen. 3) and
insecurity in various ways with some self-justifying belief system and
behavior. We have to find ways to justify our existence, to feel
acceptable and worthwhile.
• One of the most common self-justifying systems is to convince yourself
of the superiority of one’s culture and race. It is a way to feel superior
and to cover up the sense of our nakedness.
In daily life, this happens when we attach moral significance to things that are
only matters of cultural preference. For example, Anglo-Europeans are much
stricter about time schedules than other cultural groups.
• If there is a wedding between an Anglo and a Hispanic, often the
Hispanic family and friends are 30 minutes later in arriving to the event.
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• This is merely a cultural preference and custom difference, but many of

the Anglos will endow it with moral significance and accuse (in their
hearts) the Hispanics as being undisciplined and irresponsible.
• Meanwhile, the Hispanics consider the Anglos cold and uptight. The
gospel radically undermines all this.
At Pentecost, the outpouring of the Spirit upon the church, and the preaching of
the gospel in all the various human languages at once, was a dramatic reversal
of the curse of Babel (Gen. 11). In the confusion of Babel, God declares that if
people will not acknowledge him, their human community will split and
fragment.
• At Pentecost, God shows that, in the Spirit, people can have a unity that
transcends their national, linguistic and cultural group and overcomes all
human barriers. Jesus insists that the unity of Christians will be a major
way we witness to the world that God sent his Son (John 17:21, 23).
• So one of the most crucial ways that the Christian church embodies the
gospel is in the unity of Christians who are different from one another--
economically, culturally, and racially.
• In general, the job of the church is to show the world that people who
cannot live in love and unity outside of Christ can do so in Christ.
2. What do the 1 Peter 2 and the 1 Corinthians 1 passages teach about the effect
the gospel has on the Christian’s relationship to his or her culture/ethnicity?
1 Peter – Equality in Christ

All the early churches of the Mediterranean world were multi-ethnic, consisting
of at least Jews and Greeks but often Africans and Asians (see Acts 13:1ff). Yet
over and over again, the Bible calls Christians “fellow citizens with God’s
people” (Eph. 2:19) and a “holy nation” (1 Pet. 2:9). Peter here speaks of
Christians as a:
a) chosen people (literally race)
b) holy nation (literally ethnic)
c) royal priesthood
d) people belonging to God
Except for the reference to priesthood, these terms all tell us that despite our
different ethnicities and cultures, Christians are, literally, a “new ethnic.” This
means our relationship to each other in Christ is to be stronger than our
relationship to other members of our racial and national groups. When you
become a Christian, you are not primarily from Ohio or Germany or Asia; you
are not primarily Anglo, African-American, Asian, Hispanic, you are not primarily
WASPy white collar or blue collar. We are citizens of God’s nation.

The Bible says some remarkable things about race when it tells us that the only
real division in the human race is that of faith.
• There are only two nations or peoples on earth (1 Pet. 2:9-10).
• Believers are adopted by grace into God’s spiritual and legal family, with
rights as children (John 1:12; Rom. 8:14ff).
• God forbids marriage between unbelievers and believers (2 Cor. 6:14-16).
• The reason — because that is the only way to marry outside your
“people” (2 Cor. 6:17-18)!
In Numbers 12:1-16, we have an amazing example of all this. Moses’ wife is a
Cushite — someone of the black race — and a believer in the Lord.
• Miriam opposes the interracial marriage and God punishes her by
turning her leprous, “white as snow” (v.10). God punishes her prejudice
by making her whiter!
• Thus, Christians have a special test for racism. If racial differences are
more important to you than religious differences, you are moving
toward (or you are in) racism.
• Put another way: if you would rather your Christian friend/relative marry
a non-Christian of the same race than a solid Christian of a different
race, your racial prejudices have not been gospel-cleaned.
1 Corinthians - But not equivalency in Christ

Despite the clear teaching that all Christians are equal in Christ regardless of
race, class or culture, it is also clear that we are not all equivalent or
interchangeable.
• For example, Galatians 3:28 is often used to indicate (or imply) that
cultural differences are erased inside the church — “There is neither
Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female — for you are all one in
Christ.”
• But notice 1 Corinthians 1:22ff: “Jews demand miraculous signs and
Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling
block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has
called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom
of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the
weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.”
• Notice that Paul tells us that he does not preach Christ as much as the
true Wisdom of God to the Jews, but to the Greeks. And he does not
preach Christ as much as the true Power of God to the Greeks, but to
the Jews. What is going on here?
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Here we see Paul distinguishing between Jewish culture (more concerned with
practical action) and Greek culture (more concerned with abstract reasoning).
• On the one hand, the gospel confronts both cultures in different ways
(the cross is too weak for the Jews and too foolish for the Greeks).
• Yet, for the Jews and Greeks that are converted, Paul hints that their
Christianity each has a different cultural perspective. For the Jewish
Christian, the cross becomes true power; for the Greek who is
converted, the cross becomes true wisdom.
• The gospel recreates Christianity in the soil of each culture.
The Bible, then, indicates that racial-cultural distinctives are not superficial.
• For example, we are told that the eternal City of God in the final state
will be enriched because, “the kings of the earth will bring their
splendor into it” and “the glory and honor of the nations will be brought
into it” (Rev. 21:24,26).
• In other words, each culture and race brings peculiar honors, particular
gifts, to the glory of God.
• When Jesus was raised from the dead and received his resurrection
body, he maintained all his human particularities. That is, he was still
male (not female). He was still Jewish (not African or Asian or Gentile).
• This seems to indicate that our different cultures and races have
different abilities, glories and splendors (analogous to the differing gifts
of the Body of Christ). These differences don’t simply melt away when
God returns to make the world new.
It is, then, a mistake (that especially dominant cultural groups make) to think
that racial-cultural differences are all superficial and to say, “Here in the church
we need to drop all our cultural distinctives and just be Christians together.”
There is no such thing as an expression of Christianity that is not embedded in
a particular human culture. There is no neutral, culture-free, pure expression of
Christianity.
• Jesus didn’t come to earth as a generalized being; by becoming human
he had to become a particular human. He was male, Jewish and
working-class. If he was to be human, he had to come as a socially and
culturally situated person. He couldn’t be a general person.
• In the same way, actual Christian practice must have a Biblical form or
shape as well as a cultural form or shape.
a) For example, the Bible clearly directs us to use music to praise God
— but as soon as we choose music to use, we enter a culture.

b) As soon as we choose a language, as soon as we choose a

vocabulary, as soon as we choose a particular level of emotional
expressiveness and intensity, as soon as we choose even an
illustration as an example for a sermon, we are moving toward the
social context of some people and away from the social context of
others.
• At Pentecost, everyone heard the sermon in his or her own language
and dialect. But since Pentecost, we can never be all things to all
people at the very same time. So adaptation to culture is inevitable.
So if the leaders of a church say to Christians of a minority group, “Drop your
cultural distinctives — let’s just all be Christians together,” they are really asking
them to adopt their cultural distinctives and become and think just like them.
Summary: The gospel gives us neither an absolutist approach to culture and
ethnicity (i.e. that there is an absolutely pure Christian culture) nor a relativist
approach (i.e. that all cultural forms are neutral and equally valid). Christianity
can take diverse cultural forms and yet bring a core of trans-cultural absolute
values in that judges and transforms each culture.
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READINGS
you.
The courage to break his cultural and familial ties and abandon the gods of his
ancestors out of allegiance to a God of all families and all cultures was the original
Abrahamic revolution. In the same way, Christians depart from their original culture.
Christians can never be, first of all, Asians or Americans, Russians or Tutsis, and
then Christians. Christians take a distance from the gods of their own culture
because they give the ultimate allegiance to the God of all cultures and his
promised future.
But [now in Christ] departure is no longer a spatial category; it takes place within
the cultural space one inhabits. It involves neither a modern attempt to build a new
heaven out of the world nor a postmodern restlessness that fears to arrive
anywhere. When they respond to the call of the gospel they put one foot outside
their culture while the other remains firmly planted in it. Christian distance is not
flight from one’s original culture, but a new way of living within it because of the
new vision of peace and joy in Christ… To be a child of Abraham and Sarah and to
respond to the call of their God means to make an exodus, to start a voyage,
become a stranger… at the very core of Christian identity lies an all-encompassing
change of loyalty, from a given culture with its gods to the God of all cultures. A
response to a call from that God entails a rearrangement of a whole network of
allegiances… Departure is part and parcel of Christian identity.
– Miroslav Volf 1
Those who are not secure in Christ cast about for spiritual life preservers with
which to support their confidence, and in their frantic search they cling not only to
the shreds of ability and righteousness they find in themselves, but they fix upon
their race, their membership in a party, their familiar social and ecclesiastical
patterns, and their culture as means of self-recommendation. The culture is put on
as though it were armor against self-doubt, but it becomes a mental straitjacket
which cleaves to the flesh and can never be removed except through
comprehensive faith in the saving work of Christ.
Christians who are no longer sure [or nominal Christians who never were!] that God
loves and accepts them in Jesus, apart from their present spiritual achievements,
are subconsciously radically insecure persons… Their insecurity shows itself in
pride, a fierce defensive assertion of their own righteousness and defensive
criticism of others. They come naturally to hate other cultural styles and other races
in order to bolster their own security and discharge their suppressed anger… Once
faith is exercised, a Christian is free… to wear his culture like a comfortable suit of
clothes. He can shift to other cultural clothing temporarily if he wishes to do so, as
Paul suggests in I Corinthians 9:19-23, and he is released to admire and appreciate
the differing expressions of Christ shining out through other cultures.
– Richard Lovelace2

2. The Volf quote tells us that the gospel gives us distance from our
cultural/ethnic identity and yet keeps us within that identity. Discuss the ways
this works out in practice.
Miroslav Volf says we are all to be like Abraham, who was called to depart from
his family and people, but who stays a pilgrim. Volf concludes that this means
every Christian must get distance from his or her home culture, yet stay
connected to it as well.
• A Chinese Christian must not think to “arrive” in some other culture —
i.e. leave one’s Chineseness to take up some other world culture. Yet
he or she must get critical distance, must be willing to critique the
Chinese culture by identifying its idols.
• One of the main ways we do this is through exercising accountability
and love with other Christians across racial and cultural lines to the
fullest degree possible.
• Other brothers and sisters can help you see your own culture’s idols.
You must not be defensive when they do.
This shows us a crucial distinction that must be made. As we have seen above,
our self-justifying hearts use racial/cultural superiority in a sinful way. Yet it also
may be that racial and cultural distinctions are a creation by God that enrich the
human race as differing gifts enrich the Body of Christ.
• This means that we all have cultural prejudices that we should lose
through the gospel, but also, that we all have cultural perspectives that
we can’t and shouldn’t lose.
• The great issue in the church then — is how do we understand the
difference between prejudices and perspectives?
• For example, African Christianity today is filled with emphasis on spirits
and the demonic and exorcism. Most American Christianity is not.
African Christians can easily say: “Your European Enlightenment culture
has blinded you to what is all through the Bible — the reality of the
demonic and spirit world!” So your cultural prejudice has distorted your
Christianity.
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• But European and American Christians can just as easily insist that the
Africans’ pre-Christian culture was superstitious and now their
Christianity has been distorted by their culture.
• Who is right? Probably the reality is that both forms of Christianity are
distorted by cultural prejudice and yet at the same time both forms
embody a legitimately different cultural perspective. Each culture is
mixed with grace-elements and sinful elements.
• Every form of Christianity is to a degree over-adapted to a human
culture. Every church has to some degree brought some elements of
culture uncritically (un-processed by the gospel) into its form of
Christianity.
• Individualistic cultures miss out on the communal aspects of
Christianity. Authoritarian cultures miss out on the freedom of
conscience and grace aspects of Christianity.
• None of us get it right!
This concept of distance and belonging has three practical aspects.
• First, the gospel makes it less necessary for us to point with pride to
our ethnic/cultural distinctives to feel noble and good. Thus, the gospel
loosens the grip of our own culture on us and opens us up to others
outside our own identity. We can now be more open to people who are
very different from us.
• Second, the gospel gives us a new set of upside-down values that
provide a way for us to judge and evaluate the idols of our own culture.
• Third, the gospel points us to an incarnate Christ. He became a
particular human being, with a particular nationality, gender and
ethnicity. (There are no other kinds of human beings!)
• Christians are not called to become aliens to their own culture by
retreating to an alternative Christian subculture disconnected from the
outside world (this is one of the major failings of Fundamentalism) or to
become part of some other culture (since all cultures are mixtures of
grace and idolatry).
• We continue to belong to our own culture. The gospel calls for an
incarnational Christianity that is “of” a culture yet distinct from it.
• As Jesus put it, we are to be “salt and light” to the world.
How might this work out in an individual’s life?
Identity is a complex set of layers, for we are many things. Our occupation,
ethnic identity, etc., are part of who we are. But we assign different values to
these components and thus Christian maturing is a process in which the most
fundamental layer of our identity becomes our self-understanding as a new
creature in Christ along with all our privileges in him.

For example, imagine a NYC man who is a Scottish immigrant who has become
a lawyer. His identity is mainly based on his ethnic pride and his pride in having
become a lawyer.
• His Christian profession (Presbyterian of course!) is part of his self-
understanding and has certainly had some effect on him, but it is largely
connected to his ethnicity, his sense of being Scottish.
• But imagine he becomes soundly converted. That shuffles things
around. Now his identity in Christ becomes the most important part of
his self-understanding. His “Scottishness” is demoted (see the next
section) and as a result he begins to become less prickly and grumpy
about other nationalities and racial groups.
• His Christianity could also make him become more family-minded and
civic-duty minded as well. He loses his pride in his income and social
standing.
5 – Democrat 5 – Lawyer
4 – Christian But through conversion 4 – Democrat
3 – Father come to: 3 – Scottish
2 – Lawyer 2 – Father
1 – Scottish 1 – Christian
As our Christianity moves down deeper into the foundation of our identity, we
find ourselves less shaken by any professional, social, relational changes. We
are less driven at work. We overcome racial prejudices and become more open-
minded about politics, etc.
3. The Lovelace quote says that those secure in Christ and saved by grace will
not hate those of other races and cultures. How can we explain the fact that so
much racism has and does exist inside the Christian church?
Lovelace’s argument is not that anyone who believes in the doctrines of

Christianity will not be a racist, but only those “secure in Christ.” He is talking
about people who have let the gospel actually affect how their heart and their
identity works.
• Think. If your identity and self-worth are mainly based on how hard you
work, you have to despise those who you perceive as lazy.
• Or if your identity and sense of significance is mainly based on your
morality, then you must look down on those who you perceive as
immoral.
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• Or if your main source of significance is that you are a tolerant, inclusive

person working for the rights of others, you must look down upon
those who in your view are intolerant or bigoted.
• But a Christian says, “I am loved because when I believed all the wrong
things, Jesus came and entered into my reality, took on the weakness
of my human nature, radically readjusted his life for me, and died for
me.”
• A Christian’s self worth is based on the One who was excluded for us —
Jesus was socially and spiritually cast out. Now we are free to disagree
even sharply with people and yet do so without any ill will, without the
need to withdraw or exercise power in relationships with them.
• You have the power to disagree with love, respect, deference and
humility, with no inner need to win the argument.
Martin Luther King Jr. did not speak to white Americans and say, “You will have
to loosen your grip on Christianity if you are going to overcome your racism.”
Rather, he called them to tighten their grip on their faith, to really look at what
the Bible teaches, to realize the implications of the gospel. He called them to
be more true to their faith. That is how he sought to overcome racism. He
quoted the Bible, he quoted the prophets, he quoted Jesus. So the greatest
champion of racial justice in our era knew that the antidote to racism was not
less Christianity but more and truer Christianity.
4. Discuss some practical ways you can become truly Strong in your attitudes
and relationships with others who are different from you?
Recognize that one of the effects of our self-justifying hearts is a desire to stick
with people who are just like us culturally. We should use the gospel on
ourselves (ala Gal. 2:14) to resist this.
• Don’t be too quick to deny racism in yourself. You may be relatively free
of conscious forms, but prejudice can be subtle.
a) Do you have trouble finding spokespersons of other races credible?
b) Do you make little snap judgments about someone based on their
race?
c) Do you find the idea of intermarriage creepy?
• This internal, individual self-examination is important. I would be so bold
as to say that if you don’t see any racial and cultural superiority in
yourself, then you aren’t looking very deeply.
a) This is true even if you are a member of a historically victimized group.
b) Groups that have been persecuted can become self-righteous and feel
morally superior to the dominant groups.

Become the Strong truly — as Paul calls the Strong to be. The Strong in any
congregation are those who are willing to stretch culturally to make others feel
more at home. They refrain from or change some of their normal cultural
practices in order to make those who are culturally different feel less alien. (See
above under the “Strong and the Weak.”) Why? Because the deeper the
gospel goes into you, the more foundational Christ is to your identity, the less
rigid you will be culturally yourself.
• Different cultures have somewhat different definitions of basic Christian
virtues. For example, a young Asian-American pastor was candidating at
a “1st Generation” Asian church for a position on staff. Things were
going along fine until he asked, “What is the salary?” Immediately he
was rejected. The search committee concluded that anyone who cared
about the salary was greedy and uncommitted to the ministry of Jesus
Christ.
• Who was right here? Both brought an important cultural perspective.
The individualism of western culture sees that the 1st Generation Asian
church is potentially exploitative. Under the cloak of demanding sacrifice
and commitment, they could exploit the young man and truly pay him
an unjustly low wage. (The Bible speaks of unjust wages.)
• On the other hand, the collectivism of traditional Asian culture sees how
deeply selfish western culture is. Many U.S. churches have stopped
even thinking about greed. By any Biblical standards, many Christians
are spending far too much money on themselves.
• Are not both partially correct? You are truly Strong if you see the
legitimate cultural perspectives as well as the cultural prejudices and
dangers. Our cultural hang-ups always have an element of truth in
them, but they need to be gospel-cleaned and balanced.
• For example, in that church situation, if the leaders were truly Strong
they could have spoken to and worked with the young man to see if he
was truly greedy and selfish. Since none of us are looking at anyone
else from a culture-neutral position, we must be slow to condemn and
patient with others.
• What happens when there are tensions in a church that are as much a
product of culture as of theology? Paul’s answer is that the more
gospel-cleaned and mature you are (the Strong), the more you will be
the group that flexes to make others feel at home, the more you will be
the group who is not upset and offended.
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How do you become the Strong, practically speaking? According to Doug Moo,
to “accept one another as Christ accepted you” means “to sympathetically
enter into their attitudes, refrain from criticizing and judging them, and do what
love would require toward them.”
First, it means to “enter into” with the understanding.
• You should try to honestly understand why the other side thinks as they
do. You should try to see things from his or her perspective as
sympathetically as possible.
• If they are ever going to grow or change, it will be as you listen to them
and learn to understand them in that way. You expect to learn some
things from them, to get some insights you didn’t have.
Second, it means to “enter into” with the heart.
• It means to care for them and be willing to inconvenience yourself for
them. This was Paul’s big complaint about the Strong at Corinth.
• There the Strong brother, knowing that idols are nothing, goes ahead
and eats idol-meat right in front of a Weak person whose conscience is
not oriented toward the love and grace of God (1 Cor. 8:10-11).
• Now consciences cannot turn on a dime. If a practice makes you feel
guilty, then it will take education, reflection, worship and counsel before
you can eventually engage in it with a clear conscience.
• But the Strong in Corinth did not want to wait. Their attitude was: “I’m
not going to let your small minds stop me from doing what I want to
do. If you misconstrue this or get offended, that’s your problem.”
• Paul tells the Strong, however, that they are to make room in their lives
for the Weak. They are not to do things that would be misconstrued or
be too “in their face.”
• So to enter into a relationship with the Weak does mean you let
yourself be inconvenienced. You refrain from statements or practices
that lead to distress and misunderstanding.
Third, it means you make space in your life for them by being patient—patient
with them when they do misunderstand or misconstrue what you are saying or
doing.
• Or you must be patient with the pace of God in their lives even if it
seems very slow.

Conclusion
Racism, classism and cultural imperialism must be rooted out of our hearts with
the gospel. To the greatest degree possible, every individual congregation
should model the coming unity of all races and cultures in Christ. And across a
whole city, the Body of Christ should reach out to and include every people
group and find ways to celebrate our diversity. This will only occur when
individual Christians become Strong and “accept one another as Christ
accepted you.”
“If the Church is to be effective and advocating a new [kingdom]… order… it must
itself be a new social order. The deepest root of the contemporary malaise of
Western culture is an individualism that denies… that we grow into true humanity
only in relationships of faithfulness and responsibility toward one another. The local
congregation… stands in the wider community of neighborhood and nation not
primarily as the promoter of programs for social change (although it will be that) but
primarily as itself the foretaste of a different social order. Its members will be
advocates for human liberation by themselves being liberated. Its actions for justice
and peace will be, and will be seen to be, the overflow of a life in Christ, where
God’s justice and God’s peace are already an experienced treasure.”
– Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society
1 Miroslav Volf, “Distance and Belonging” from Exclusion and Embrace (Abingdon, 1996)
2 Richard Lovelace, The Dynamics of Spiritual Life (IVP, 1979) p.190-191,198
146

Gospel Christianity
Integrity and our words
Study 8 | Course 3
Key concept – FAITHFULNESS

you.
The purpose of speech

John Calvin asks, “Why God created our tongues and gave us speech...if not
for our mutual support and charity? God has given us [speech] for the purpose
of nurturing tender love and fraternity.” 1 God is a community of persons who
are completely inter-dependent and loving. Therefore:
• Father, Son, and Holy Spirit only speak truth (Heb. 6:18; John 18:37;
16:13; 18:37).
• They hide nothing from each other (Matt. 11:27; 1 Cor. 2:11).
• They use their speech to build up and glorify one another (John 17:4-5).
We were made in the image of this God, and so the purpose of speech is to
become more interdependent (build community) and to build each other up
(empower them by showing them more of reality) — all by speaking the truth in
love.
Sins of the tongue

One way we can fail to use speech as it was designed is through:
Untruthful speech
We are not to “bear false witness” (Exod. 20:16).
• Jesus made it clear that Christians must not operate on different levels
of truthfulness. Every “yes” and every “no” we utter in daily life should
be as truthful as if we were swearing on a stack of Bibles.(Matt. 5:33-
37)
• And lying is more than simple factual inaccuracy. It is possible to give a
factual accuracy in such a way as to misrepresent reality to the listener.
• The Hebrew word for false witness means “insincere.” The essence of
lying is deceiving — intending to mislead the listener as to the nature of
reality. St. Augustine, in his treatise, “On Lying,” defines it as:
“Speaking… with the intention of deceiving.” 2
• There are many forms of lying, including self-deception. To even be
ignorant, mistaken and deceived about some aspect of reality is to be
living in untruth, and, therefore, out of community with the God of truth,
with yourself, and with others.
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notes INTEGRITY AND OUR WORDS
Unfaithful speech
We are to make and keep promises, even when that hurts (Psa. 15:4).
• We said earlier in this course that there have always been relationships
that were consumer in nature. In these you relate to the vendor only as
long as your needs are being met at an acceptable cost.
• But the Bible expects our personal relationships — to our neighbor,
friends, family, and brothers and sisters in Christ — to be covenantal in
nature. In these you commit to the good of the other whether your
individual needs are being met or not. In our culture, even personal
relationships are now based on the consumer model.
• But the Bible expects us to conduct most of our relationships on the
covenantal model. We make promises when we join a church, get
married, enter many economic contracts and offer our children for
baptism.
Christian integrity
Psalm 15 speaks of the man who speaks truth from his heart (v.2).
• The English word “integrity” is based on the word “integer” or “whole
number.”
• People of integrity are not fractured; they are the same with one crowd
as with another, the same in private as in public, the same in what you
say as in what you mean.
The God of truth

God is the source of all truth because truth is knowing reality as it is, and God
is the source of all reality.
• It is not that it is true that 2+2=4 and God knows it, but because God
knows it, it is true that 2+2=4.
• Jesus does not say, “I know the truth” or even “I can show you the
truth” but “I am the truth.”
a) The Lord is the real in contrast to the fictitious;
b) he is the absolute in contrast to the relative;
c) he is the ultimate in contrast to the derived;
d) he is the substantial in contrast to the ephemeral;
e) he is the solid in contrast to the shadow.

INTEGRITY AND OUR WORDS notes
• To be a Christian is to live with a God of Truth. This is the ultimate

reason Christians tell the truth and keep our promises.
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BIBLE STUDY #1
Proverbs and James
Read Proverbs 12:13-14, 17-19; 15:4; 16:24, 27-28; 18:8; 29:5;
James 1:26; 3:1-6
1. What do you learn from these verses about the importance of our words?
Some of the reasons that words are so important include the following:
They penetrate to the heart.
• What is done to you is of less account than what is done within you,
and words tend to get into your heart and soul even more than mere
actions. Flattery can ruinously inflate the self-esteem so that you are set
up for a fall and out of touch with reality (Prov.29:5).
• On the other hand, a person’s confidence and hope can be as killed by
words as can a body by sword (Prov.12:18). Words can kill a
relationship, destroying the love that was there (Prov.16:28).
• Ill-meant (or dishonest) words, once we hear them, most definitely
become part of us (Prov.18:8) — it will affect the way we see and
regard people.
They have power over, not only the hearer, but the speaker.
• The hearer of good words can be healed of sorrow, guilt, despair
(Prov.15:4; 16:24).
• But they can also either develop the speaker’s character and bring
him/her good things (Prov. 12:14), or do the opposite (Prov.12:13).
They have a power to spread.
• Words are like a fire; false, unkind words (or even true but unkindly
meant words) spread rapidly and can ruin reputations and alienate
people (Prov.16:27-28).
• James’ image of a forest fire (Jam. 3:5-6) is vivid.
In short, the old schoolyard saying is wrong. A more Biblical version of it would
be: “Sticks and stones can only break my bones, but words can pollute and
defile and distort our very souls.”
• Terrible, harmful words can echo in our memories and in the deep
places of our psyches for the rest of our lives. Impulsive, ill-timed,
hostile, cruel words can destroy confidence, relationships, marriages,
families and can even trigger a suicide or an entire literal war.

• A single innuendo or impulsive word can lead to the breakup of a

marriage or to suicide or even to a literal war. Words can be bombs or
toxic chemicals that seep into the soil of our hearts and relationships
and poison them for years to come.
Finally, they are a crucial indicator of where the heart is.
• Jesus says, “Out of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matt. 12:34). The
tongue reveals what is at the core of our being. As the nature of the
root determines the fruit of the tree, so one’s heart determines the
words.
• James also says that understanding and controlling the tongue is tightly
connected to understanding and controlling the heart (Jam. 3:2). Some
think he means that if you control your tongue you also control your
emotions and heart attitudes.
• Others think he means that by listening to your tongue you can come to
understand your deepest heart motives. Probably James means all of
this and then some.
• An abrasive tongue, a lying tongue, a foolish tongue — all of these are
signs of a person who does not understand his or her own heart. James
1:26 warns that if you find that your mouth is producing false and/or
harmful words, the problem is much more than a general “lack of self-
control.”
• Rather, you are deceived as to the nature of your heart (“deceives his
heart”) and of the very foundations of your hopes and life (“his religion
is worthless”). If you are blind to un-health in your words, you are
likewise blind to the un-health in your heart.
Read Proverbs 11:12,13; 12:17-20, 22-23, 25; 15:1,23; 17:27-28; 18:13; 25:11-12,15
2. What do you learn in these verses about the will of God for our words?
Some of the characteristics that words are to have:

Honesty (vs. deceptiveness)
• In Prov.12:17, 19, 22, we are told that God delights in truthfulness and
honesty. But in v.20, we see truthfulness contrasted with deceit.
• This sheds very important light on God’s understanding of honesty.
Dishonesty is deceiving others. If words are technically factual, but
stated in a way to mislead, then they are still dishonest — perhaps even
more so.
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• Often the most deceptive statements are those which are not
technically false but are put in such a context or done with such timing
as to misrepresent things and keep the listeners in the dark.
Kindness and gentleness. (vs. ill-will or harshness)
• It is not enough for words to be truthful. They must also be kind and
loving in their intent (Prov. 12:25) and in their tone and manner (Prov.
15:1). We should not ever tell the truth simply to hurt someone or put
them in their place.
• Nevertheless, Prov.25:15 shows us that kind, gentle words can and
must still be direct and pointed.
Aptness (carefully chosen vs. carelessness)
• Prov.12:18a warns that our words must not be “reckless” — impulsive,
uncontrolled. As we saw above, words have powerful effects. Unkind
words can lodge in our hearts or the hearts of others and poison it for
years.
• Rather, our words should be:
a) marked by right timing (Prov.15:23);
b) well-informed, shaped by lots of listening (Prov.18:13);
c) controlled and restrained — we must not say everything we feel like
saying (Prov. 17:27) — the less you say the wiser you will both
appear and be! (Prov. 12:23; 17:28);
d) and as eloquent and as elegant as possible (Prov.25:11-12).
Forthrightness (vs. cowardice)
• We saw above that even a gentle, kindly meant word can still be
pointed and lead the hearer to change. (It can “break a bone” Prov.
25:15b).
• So our words, though loving, should be straightforward, open, and even
bold.
• Prov. 25:12a tells us a rebuke if done properly can actually be a thing of
beauty (“like an ornament of fine gold”).

Read James 4:10; 5:9; Prov. 11:13; 16:2, 28; 17:9; 18:8, 17; 25:7b-10, 23.
3. What do you learn in these verses about what gossip and slander are? About
what we should do if we hear it?
What is gossip and slander?

Gossip and slander do not have to be passing along false information. Prov.
11:13 speaks of obviously true information about someone that should have
been kept confidential.
• Gossip is negative information designed to make the speaker and the
hearer feel superior to the person. That is why we enjoy it so much —
why it is seductive (Prov. 18:8).
• This is confirmed in James 4:10-11: “Humble yourselves before the
Lord. Brothers, don’t slander or attack one another.” The verb “slander”
here simply means to “speak against” (kata-lalein). It is not necessarily
a false report, just an “against-report” — one that undermines the
listener’s respect and love for the person being spoken about. (As the
north wind brings rain, so slander brings angry looks – Prov 25:23.)
• The link of slander to pride (v.10) in James shows that slander is not the
humble evaluation of error or fault, which we must constantly be doing.
Rather, in slander the speaker speaks as if he never would do the same
thing himself.
• Non-slanderous evaluation is gentle, guarded and always shows that the
speaker senses how much they share the same frailty, humanity and
sinful nature with the one being criticized.
• It always shows a profound awareness of your own sin. It is never
“against-speaking.”
Gossip can be quite subtle. Jam. 5:9 — “Don’t grumble (literally don’t groan
and roll your eyes) against one another.”
• This refers to the kind of against-speaking that is not as specific as a
focused slander or attack. It is hinting with not only words but body
language.
• It means shaking heads, rolling eyes, and re-enforcing the erosion of
love and respect for someone else. e.g. “You know how they do things
around here!” But it accomplishes the same thing. It brings angry looks.
It undermines love and respect.
Gossip destroys reputations.
• It weakens respect, affection, and admiration for another (Prov. 25:23).
It ruins relationships (Prov. 16:28).
What should we do when we hear a bad report?
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Proverbs 17:9 – “He who covers over an offense promotes love, but whoever
repeats the matter separates close friends.” The first thing to do when hearing
or seeing something negative is to seek to cover the offense rather than speak
about it to others. That is, rather than letting it pass in, you should seek to keep
from letting the matter destroy your love and regard for a person. How?
• First, by remembering your own sinfulness. Prov. 16:2 – “All a man’s
ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the Lord.” To
know this automatically keeps you from being too sure of your position
and of speaking too strongly against people on the other side of a
conflict. You realize you may not be seeing things well. Your motives are
never as pure as you think they are. To know this automatically keeps
you from being too sure of your position and of speaking too strongly
against people on the other side of a conflict.
• Second, by remembering there is always another side. Prov. 18:17 –
“The first to present his case seems right, till another comes forward
and questions him.” You never have all the facts. You are never in a
position to have the whole picture and, therefore, when you hear the
first report, you should assume you have far too little information to
draw a conclusion.
In summary, when you hear a negative report about another person, you must
keep it from passing into you. If you’re not able to, though, then go to the
person, so as not to permanently lose respect in your heart. You don’t let it
pass in too far.
What happens if you think the injustice is too great or grievous for you to
ignore?
In Derek Kidner’s commentary on Prov. 25:7-10, he writes that when you think
someone has done wrong we should remember that “one seldom knows the
full facts (v.8) and one’s motives in spreading a story are seldom as pure as one
pretends (v.10). To run to the law or to the neighbors is usually to run away
from the duty of personal relationship — see Christ’s clinching comment in
Matthew 18:15b.” In short, if you feel the problem is too great and you can’t
keep it from destroying your regard for the person, you must go to them
personally before you go to anyone else.
In summary, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, the principle is
this: if you hear a bad report about another Christian you must either cover it
with love or go to them personally before speaking of it to any others. The first
thing to do is to simply suspend judgment. The second thing to do is cover it in
love. The last thing to do is go and speak to them personally. What you should
never do is withdraw from them, and pass the negative report on to others.

BIBLE STUDY #2
Ephesians 4:15-16, 22-32
What can we learn about God’s will for our speech from verses 25-32?
First, we see that God wants us to refrain from any lying and wants us to speak
truth to our neighbor (v.25). Why?
(1) For the sake of community — “because we are members of one body”
(v.25). Truth-telling interweaves us with one another. It builds community. Lying
isolates us from one another, puts distance between us. Community cannot
survive without trust.
“Imagine a society in which no one trusted another to keep a promise, in which
every leader was expected to lie as a matter of course, in which every teacher was
suspected as an academic cheat and every preacher a moral fraud, in which
contracts were [never[ expected to be honored… No partner could ever bank on the
loyalty of another. No one could make decisions in assurance of having the facts in
hand… Life would be brutalized. Without trust we change from a community to a
pack, from a society to a gang.” 3
This is Paul’s point in verse 25. We are members of a body — interdependent.

Lying makes us independent, cutting us off from one another. Our speech is
part of our creation in the image of God. As Calvin noted, we are to use speech
to nurture community and interdependence, not to exploit and deceive and
move away from one another.
(2) For the freedom of your neighbor — “only what is helpful for building others
up” (v.29). The word translated “edifying” or “building up” literally means to
strengthen, to help grow in power and freedom.
“If I lie to my neighbor, I take reality away from him. I force him to decide on the
basis of falsehood, unreality. If I tell a person who wants to buy my car that it is in
splendid mechanical shape, although… it needs a valve job, I rob him of the
freedom to decide on the basis of reality. If you pretend that you are pleased with
your daughter’s report card when in fact you are furious because she has not been
studying and her grades show it, you rob her of the freedom to respond to your
anger and force her to respond to a charade instead. Thus, lying demeans our
neighbors. We treat them as non-persons…” 4
“There are lies of gossip, which make haters out of us; lies of advertising which
make money out of us, lies of politicians which make power out of us.v
When Paul says that our speech must be truthful (v.25) and must “build-up”
(v.29), we can conclude by way of negation that lying dismantles, weakens and
dehumanizes others. As Smedes says, we treat them as non-persons, non-
equals.
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(3) For God’s sake and for truth’s sake — “to put on the new self, created to be
like God… therefore… speak truthfully.” In vv.22-23, Paul speaks of how every
Christian is to be growing into God’s likeness (v.24). That is, we are to be
renewing the image and likeness of God in us that has been marred by sin.
After calling us to become like God, Paul says “Therefore… speak truthfully”
(v.25). The connection is impossible to miss. We are to be truthful if we are to
be like God.
a) God cannot lie (Titus 1:2; Heb. 6:18).
b) His word is truth (John 17:17).
c) God always keeps his promises (2 Cor. 1:20).
d) He always means exactly what he says and says exactly what he
means — he cannot be inconsistent with himself. So should we
(Jam. 5:12).
Above all, Jesus himself is the Truth (John 14:6). He narrates or reveals God,
the ultimate truth, perfectly (John 1:18; Heb 1:3).
Second, we see that mere truth-telling is not enough. God also wants us to
refrain any un-loving speech (v.15), from angry speech (v.26), or from any
speech at all that is not intended to benefit and meet the needs of others
(v.29).
The word “unwholesome” (v.29) means more than simply lying. The word
means to be decaying, putrefying, as in meat or a dead body that has gone bad.
Paul is prohibiting harmful speech of any kind at all (cf. Col. 3:8; Eph. 5:4) —
whether it be disdainful, misleading, or failing in any way to help the listener
find what he or she needs.
In short, all speech must have a ministry motive; you must never simply “run at
the mouth.” Jesus even says we will be judged for every careless word (Matt.
12:36) — a word that simply means “undeliberate, useless.” This is the highest
possible standard!
Do you see why it is not enough to simply tell the truth? God wants you to look
at why you are telling the truth. Is it:
a) To win an argument?
b) To punish or pay back by embarrassing?
c) To resist something else the person is trying to say?
d) To defend your pride?
e) To complain?
f) To make yourself look good?

Paul says your motive must always be “that it may benefit those who listen…
according to their needs” (v.29). That is, you must tell the truth:
a) To show appreciation.
b) To express commitment.
c) To help another person achieve illumination and understanding (even
if they don’t want it — but they truly need it!).
d) To remove distance and barriers between you and the other person.
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READINGS
you.
A commandment that forbids me to lie compels me to be truthful. It obligates me
to be faithful to what I think, what I believe, what I feel — and so to be faithful to
the person with whom I am communicating… Respect for truthfulness [however]
does not compel us to reveal our minds to everyone or on every occasion… [But]
the commandment sends us into all human relationships with a bias toward
truthfulness. 6
Why make promises at all? And if you do make them, why keep them? Why not
tune in to growth and change and the maximizing of your feelings? The answer to
the nettlesome whys of promise-making is this, to paraphrase Hannah Arendt (The
Human Condition) — the only way to overcome the unpredictability of your future is
the power of promising. If forgiving is the only remedy for your painful past,
promising is the only remedy for your uncertain future… When I make a promise I
bear witness that my future with you is not locked into… the fateful combinations
of X’s and Y’s in the hand I was dealt out of my parents’ genetic deck. When I
make a promise, I testify that I was not routed along some unalterable itinerary by
the psychic conditioning visited on me by my slightly wacky parents. I am not fated.
I am not determined. When I make a promise to anyone I rise above all the
conditioning that limits me… No German shepherd ever promised to be there with
me. No home computer ever promised to be my loyal help. Only a person can
make a promise, and when he does, he is most free.
– Lewis Smedes 7
“When a man takes an oath, Meg, he is holding his own self in his hand, like water.
And if he opens his fingers then he needs to hope to find himself again.” (In Robert
Bolt’s play “A Man for all Seasons” this is Thomas More speaking to his daughter
Meg who is begging him to save his own life by renouncing an oath he had once
mad.)
When I married my wife, I had hardly a smidgen of sense for what I was getting
into with her. How could I know how much she would change over the years? How
could I know how much I would change? My wife has lived with at least five
different men since we were married — and each of the five has been me. The
connecting link with my old self has always been the memory of the name I took
on back there: “I am he who will be there with you.” When we slough off that
name, lose that identity, we can hardly find ourselves again. -- Lewis Smedes 8
The future of the human family rides on… a promise spoken and not forgotten. A
man named Abraham strode off into his unpredictable future as he gambled on the
reliability of a promise uttered by a Presence he had scarcely begun to feel. And so
the new possibility for history began. Moses tried to get a better fix on the identity
of this Presence… “What is your name?” he dared to ask. And the answer came…
“I am he who will be there with you.” (Exod. 3:14)… Then a man from Galilee

talked to his friends about sealing this ancient promise in his blood and a day later
he spilled it… on a mound they called Golgotha. “I am he who will be there with
you” was there with us, dying, then rising, and then being with us to the end of the
world… Human destiny rests on a promise freely given and reliably remembered.
Whenever you and I make and keep a promise, we are as close to being like God
as we can ever be. When you say to anyone that you will be there with [him or her
or them], you are only a millimeter beneath the angels.
– Lewis Smedes 9
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2. The first quote by Smedes raises the age-old question — is it ever the loving
thing to tell a white lie?
Because of the strength of the Bible’s emphasis on truth, we should (as

Smedes says) have a strong bias toward full disclosure and truthfulness in
every relationship and interaction. Many of the white lies are not really as
harmless as we often make them out to be.
Some of the “harmless” lies are:
a) Polite lies – You say “I would like to go but I will be out of town that
day.” but you really won’t be.
b) Euphemisms – You say “Your writing is too sophisticated for our
audience” but you really mean it stinks.
c) Word inflation – “It’s the best! It’s such a blessing!!”
d) Exaggeration – “He always… He never…”
e) Half-truths.
The problem with harmless, white lies is that they erode our sense of reality.
Smedes says that “the ‘white lie’ is to communication what Valium is to stress.
Used in emergencies they might be detours around trouble we are not
equipped to cope with today. But as a habit, they become patterns of evasion.”
(Mere Morality, p.227).
The habitual “white liar” is simply a coward, always avoiding unpleasant but
necessary direct speech. He deals with a problem in a relationship by simply
numbing the pain rather than dealing with it. Almost always, the white lie
causes more pain later, when your true feelings come out. Today, the corporate
cultures of many businesses, companies, organizations, and political structures
are completely devoted to white lies as listed above. But, as time goes on, this
breeds great cynicism and alienation.
However, what about lies that literally save lives? Was it sinful for the Allies to
deceive Hitler about their plans as to the time and place of their invasion of
Europe? Some Christian thinkers believe that the Bible teaches that evil-
intentioned people forfeit their right to the truth. 10

One example of this is how God counsels Joshua to sack the city of Ai through
an ambush — a deception (Josh. 8). The most famous example of this is the lie
of Rahab to save the spies in Joshua 2 for which she is commended in James
2:25.
This seems to support the principle that evil people can forfeit their right to the
truth, but this is not a guideline we should use very often, and we should never,
ever make a decision to do so on our own. Who has the right to decide if a
person has lost their right to the truth? It would be extremely easy to use this
against all sorts of people. In other words, this kind of guideline should be used
in only the most extreme situations and only after a great deal of reflection with
others in order to be sure you are not being self-deceived as you exploit others.
Probably we should only use the guideline when someone is literally trying to
kill you or someone else. “Hitlers do arise on the surface of the earth’s scum,
to be sure, and lies may be necessary to drown them… But we cannot live
with an ethic that invests every man with the right to decide when the people
around him are good enough to deserve truthfulness” (Smedes, Mere Morality,
p.233).
3. Application project on general sins of the tongue
Tongue-sins regarding yourself

“May I never boast except in the cross our Lord Jesus Christ.’ – Gal.6:14
a. Boasting or defending yourself. We should not brag or try to show
how great we are. We should not always be blowing our own horn.
And if we are criticized or if we fail in some way, we should take
responsibility calmly and not run at the mouth trying to show why it
wasn’t your fault or how many mitigating circumstances there were,
and so on. In short, we should speak humbly and sparingly about
ourselves, and apologize without lots of excuses when necessary.
Tongue-sins regarding others

“If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be
destroyed by each other.” – Gal.5:15
b. Talking unkindly of others. We should not make fun of others, talking
disdainfully or contemptuously to others. This should not even be
done by public figures or groupings of people we don’t know
personally. We should instead speak compassionately even when
talking about something negative.
c. Talking unkindly to others. Don’t speak abrasively or coldly or even
indifferently to people when talking about where you think they have
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done something wrong. Not only that, pro-actively look for sincere
ways to complement the people around you. When criticism must be
done, lovingly attack the flaw, not the person.
Tongue-sins regarding life

“But the fruit of the Spirit is… joy, peace, patience… faithfulness,
gentleness…” – Gal.5:22-23
d. Complain or “murmur.” Don’t “murmur” against life as if it were not a
gift laced with many mercies. This is not “Pollyanna” optimism, but a
putting all things in the context of God’s grace. Let your everyday talk
be filed with tones of gratitude, appreciation, and praise.
In which of the four areas do you have the most problem? (Which kind of
“tongue-sin” do you struggle with most?) What could you do to improve?
1 Quoted in S.Hauerwas and W.Willimon, The Truth About God (Abingdon, 1999) p.119.
3 Lewis Smedes, Mere Morality (Eerdmans, 1983) p.223.
4 Lewis Smedes, Mere Morality (Eerdmans, 1983) p.223
5 Joy Davidman, Smoke on the Mountain (Westminster, 1953), p.111
6 Lewis Smedes, Mere Morality (Eerdmans, 1983) p.215-216.
7 Lewis Smedes, “The Power of Promising” Christianity Today (January 21, 1983.)
10 See John Murray, “The Sanctity of Truth” in Principles of Conduct (Eerdmans, 1957) pp.138-141

Gospel Christianity
Guidance and wisdom
Study 9 | Course 3
Key concept – WISDOM

you.
What is wisdom?
Gerhard Von Rad defined wisdom as competence with regard to the realities of
life.
• Wisdom is not mere knowledge; it is applying knowledge so as to
choose the most practical course of action.
• Wisdom is not mere obedience; it is choosing the most right and true
course of action when there are no stated rules for a situation.
• Some decisions require only knowledge (like the medicine to take)
while some require only obedience (like whether to commit adultery or
not).
• But most decisions — who to marry, whether to break up, what job to
take, whether to move, whether to continue education, whether, when
and how to confront a person — require wisdom.
Biblical wisdom, more particularly, is skillful living based on insight into:
a) the ways and purposes of God,

b) the human heart (especially your own), and
c) the times and seasons.
Various Hebrew words for wisdom in Proverbs show this.
Discipline (musar – Prov. 1:2a, 3a) refers to the habits of mind and character
that come from lots of practice and training.
• As an athlete only gets competent physically from rigorous training, so
wisdom comes hard-won.
• We get wisdom either from the discipline of painful experience or the
discipline of careful study and self-examination.
• Wisdom is not impulsive behavior but cool-headedness.
Discernment (bina – Prov. 1:2b) is the ability to notice distinctions and shades of
difference where others see only a blur.
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notes GUIDANCE AND WISDOM
• Discernment rightly interprets the minds and hearts of the people

around us, knowing what they really mean and are up to.
• Discernment is the ability to recognize multiple options and courses of
action when others can only imagine one or two.
• Most of all, discernment is the ability to discern between the best, the
good and the bad.
Discretion (haskel – Prov. 1:3a; orma – Prov. 1:4a) is often translated
“prudence” or “shrewdness.” It is to be strategic, to know practical steps that
will bring a goal into reality. It is the ability to solve problems rather than create
them.
• While discernment is a form of insight into hearts, so discretion is a
form of foresight — knowing what courses of action will lead to what
result.
Guidance and wisdom

God promises to counsel and guide us on the way we should go (Psa. 32:8;
Rom. 8:14). God does have an overall plan for our lives. It includes allowing
difficulties and suffering (Heb. 12:7-11) but the purpose for everything is our
good (Rom. 8:28) and to make us useful to God and others (Eph. 2:10).
Many conceive of guidance or discovering God’s will as a process of trying to
guess what is in God’s plan for fear that they will miss it. But surely our failures
and mistakes and even sins are included in God’s plan for us (Rom 8:28 – “all
things work together for good”).
Instead, God calls us to learn how to make good decisions by developing
wisdom.
• Secure in the knowledge of God’s sovereign love — that we can’t
ultimately mess up his plans for us — we should become the kind of
person who makes wise choices.
• The Bible does not talk so much about how to get guidance but about
what kind of person is guided through wisdom.
• Moderns want techniques for guidance — but the Bible calls us to
character. Pagans looked for signs and omens, and read the stars, for
they wanted impersonal knowledge of what was going to happen.
• The Bible instead directs us to know personally the one in charge of the
world, and then, through wisdom, “He will direct your paths” (Prov. 3:5, 6).

GUIDANCE AND WISDOM notes
How to get wisdom
• Knowing God is the beginning of wisdom (Prov. 9:10), since he is

ultimate reality.
• Saturate yourself in the Word to get sensitive to his mind and heart
(Psa. 119).
• Learn from suffering, especially looking at your own weaknesses (Prov.
3:11).
• Have wise friends in community and get advice (Prov. 13:10; 17:10).
• Use prayer to cleanse your motives to seek God’s will (John 7:17), not
to get feelings or promptings.
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BIBLE STUDY #1
Psalm 25:1-22
1. What basic, main petitions does David make? What are the broad categories
under which his various requests fall?
• The first category has to do with David’s enemies. They are mentioned
in vv.2-3 and again in vv.19-21.
• The second category is for guidance.
a) This is probably the major thrust of the Psalm.
b) The first request is in vv.4-5, but then vv.8-10 and 12-15 are almost
completely concerned with his need for God’s leading.
• The third category keeps popping up briefly but persistently throughout
the Psalm. They have to do with petition for forgiveness and the
removal of guilt over past sins.
a) These cries occur in vv.7, 11 and 18.
• The fourth category is the subtlest and is easily missed, for they are
indirect. He is asking God for general protection and refuge.
a) At the beginning and the ending of his prayer, David is asking God
himself to be his “trust” (v.1), “refuge” (v.20), and “hope” (v.21).
b) Kidner says that to “hope” in God is the same as to “wait” for God
(D.K., p.117). To wait is to obey despite the lack of any apparent
action on God’s part, and thus it is to accept not simply God’s word
but also his timing.
c) He cries “turn to me” (v.16) but by the end of the Psalm, there has
not been any answer. So David is (indirectly) seeking patience and
submission to God’s will in this prayer, as he prays.
2. What do we learn about guidance from David’s prayer? What do we learn from
vv.4-5, vv.8-9, vv.10, 12, vv.14-15?
This is the main burden of the Psalm, and we learn much about the Bible’s
understanding of divine guidance. Though there are many ways to divide up
David’s prayer for guidance, we will divide them into four basic parts — vv.4-5,
8-9, 10 and 12, and 14-15. These are not all petitions per se that directly
address God. But they are all statements of praise and declaration about God’s
leading in the Lord’s presence. They are David’s ways of reminding his own
soul of how God guides. Therefore, they are all ways that David seeks guidance
in prayer.

David’s first petition for guidance is in vv. 4-5 where he asks for guidance “in
your truth.”
• This is not simply a request to be led into sound doctrine or belief, since
the petition is to find God’s “ways” and “paths” which ordinarily
indicate practical living. Therefore, in this first petition he is seeking for
God to instruct him in general in his will for human beings.
• This is not a request for specific help in a specific decision. It is rather
an expressed desire for a mind and heart matured and seasoned by
God’s truth so they are habitually able to discern the good and wise
from the evil or foolish.
• This is the first building block in a life that is regularly led and guided by
God. It is a deep and pervasive knowledge of God’s truth.
David’s second statement regarding guidance is in vv.8-9, where he says, “He

instructs sinners in his ways” (v.8).
• This is more than the simple truism that “everyone is a sinner.” Rather,
it is David’s way to say that God guides only those who know they are
sinners. The proof of this interpretation is the parallel phrase in v.9 —
“he guides the humble in what is right.” This means at least that we
will never sense or know God’s guidance if we are proud.
• A dependent spirit and a mistrust of one’s own wisdom are necessary.
How does this work itself out practically? An over-confident person
assumes they know what to do and therefore takes no time to reflect.
Without time to reflect, and without a willingness to consider all sorts
of alternative courses of action, God is not given room to guide our
thoughts and heart.
• However, David may not simply be saying that we are guided if we
know that we are sinners in general, but that we are guided if we know
about the particular sins our heart is subject to.
• Blindness to our biases and our tendency to deny particular truths are
all major obstacles to wise living. For example, an inordinate need for
people’s approval continually leads into over-commitments and
overestimating what you can accomplish in a given amount of time. So
does a love of power or wealth.
• So here we see the second building block in the life that is regularly led
and guided by God. It is an intimate knowledge of one’s own heart.
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David’s third principle regarding guidance can be seen in v.10 and v.12. In v.10,
David says, “All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful for those who keep
the demands of his covenant.”
(These two verses on guidance are interrupted by one of David’s cries for
forgiveness. Though we should look at these cries by themselves, we now
realize why these are not truly changing the subject from guidance. It is only
the humble and penitent person who is led of God.)
• The “ways of the Lord” are either the events and circumstances of life
where God takes you, or the deeds and practices he calls you to do.
• But in any case, this is a remarkable promise. It is an Old Testament
version of Romans 8:28 — “All things work together for good to those
who love God…” It is saying that, if you are in an obedient, personal
relationship (i.e. “covenant”) with God, then whatever happens to you
is part of God’s loving and faithful purposes.
• What relevance does this have for the person who is seeking God’s
guidance in her or his life? First, it tells us to relax!
a) This is very important to people seeking God’s guidance in a time of
decision-making. Ironically, we often make poor decisions because
we are so afraid of making a poor decision.
b) An inordinate fear of failure or a strong feeling that “it is all up to
me” can lead you to rash action. David is almost saying, “Guided is
the one who knows he is going to be guided, ultimately, despite
himself.”
c) The second parallel verse — verse 12 — confirms this. God
“chooses” the way for us and then shows it to us. Even if we don’t
see it — it is still chosen for us.
• Second, it tells us that the most important prerequisite for guidance is a
clear conscience and an obedient life (“keep the demands of the
covenant”). If you have this, you are much less likely to make poor
decisions.
• So then the third building block in the God-led life is a confidence and
knowledge of his sovereignty.
The fourth principle for guidance is laid down in vv.14-15, and it may not
immediately leap out at the English reader, though the NIV gives strong hints.
In v.14, David says that the Lord “confides” in “those who fear him.”
• “Confides” is a remarkable word. It conveys the sense of intimacy and,
of course, confidence. We confide something which is usually rather
secret, and we only give it to trustworthy friends.

• On the other hand, as we have seen previously in these Psalm studies,

the “fear of the Lord” does not to be scared of God. To “fear” God is to
move beyond head knowledge to awe and delight before God (cf.
Psa.130:3-4).
• Verse 15 says that David’s “eyes are ever on the Lord.” This cannot be
a statement that David believes in God or believes God exists. To “look
for” God is to seek his presence. It is to seek an experience of his
glory, presence and grace.
• So David is talking of fellowship with God — the difference between
knowing about God, and knowing God.
• The NIV translates as “confide” the Hebrew word sodh — a word that
can mean both “counsel” and “council.” Derek Kidner tells us that the
word can be translated secret or (maybe best of all) “friendship”
because it refers to “both the circle of one’s close associates and the
matters that are discussed with them” (D.K., p.116).
• What then is David saying here? He is saying that in intimacy of prayer
and fellowship with God, we learn wisdom and insight. This is the
closest he gets to saying that God may, in prayer, give us fairly specific
guidance about particular questions and decisions.
• But it is more likely that David is telling us that prayer and communion
with God gives us God’s “whole counsel” — an illuminated mind that is
sensitive to God’s heart, the human heart, and the times and seasons
well enough to make informed decisions.
• So this is the fourth building block of a guided life — personal fellowship
with the Lord.
Summary: The overall thrust of this Psalm is striking.
• Essentially, David never tells us how to get guided, but what kind of
person gets guided. In summary, he says if we:
a) have a mind filled with God’s word,
b) and a heart that knows its own flaws very well,
c) and a life that is generally obedient without major areas of non-
compliance to God’s will,
d) and a soul that is basically at peace, knowing that God in his grace
will work his will out for me, even through my failures,
e) and a life of prayer in which God regularly provides illuminating
insights, then you will generally make wise decisions. You will not be
foolish and rash.
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We need to admit that this is not the way most modern people seek guidance
from God. We usually are extremely functional — we want to know the specific
way to read God’s mind about a specific issue. But Psalm 25 tells us that
guidance does not happen like that. God does not want you to read his mind.
God wants to give you his mind — to put his wisdom, truth, peace and self-
perspective in you so that you become a wise, guided person.
Kidner adds: “This whole approach to divine guidance is personal and mature,
unlike the basically pagan search for irrational pointers and omens (cf. Isa.
47:13).” (D.K., p.116).
3. This Psalm of petition does not end with an answering touch as in Psalm
28:6ff. (See also Psa. 6:8; 20:6). How can he nonetheless live in confidence that
he will never be put to shame (v.3)?
David makes a rather remarkable categorical claim: “No one whose hope is in
you shall ever be put to shame.” Does he mean that every believer will
automatically be answered in prayer — that no believer will ever suffer
humiliation, failure, defeat or major loss? I don’t think he could be saying that.
He is too wise for that.
• What David is saying may be more like what he says in Psalm 24:4 and
elsewhere, where he tells us not to “lift up your soul to an idol.” He
may be saying that when we “put hope” in anything but God, “shame”
(black despair of bitter disappointment) is the inevitable result.
• In other words, if we are able, in prayer, not simply to make our
petitions, but to shift our priorities, we can guarantee that, in the
ultimate sense, we will not be put to shame. If, for example, we are
asking God to save our reputation from slander, we must also at the
same time be sure in our prayer to wean our hearts off of our
reputation.
• We should remember the one who “made himself of no reputation” for
us. We must remember that it is the “praise of God” that is the only
honor we really need (cf. John 12:42-43).
• If we do that, we are shifting the focus of our hope, even as we make
our petition. Thus, we come out ready to avoid the deep shame that
only comes from false, inordinate hopes. We are fortified regardless of
God’s answer.
We can put this in an illustration.
• If you are in a boat on a river, and up looms a huge rock out of the
water that will crush your boat — how will you pray? You can pray:

a) “Lord, remove the rock!”

b) “Lord, raise the level of the water over the rock”
c) “Do either one — it’s alright with me!”
• The first prayer is like a petition for a change of circumstances; the
second is like a petition to change the heart to be able to handle the
circumstances with poise and peace.
• Every prayer of petition should contain both, “Thy will be done” and
“Give us this day our daily bread.”
In summary, one way that prayer makes us confident is when we get a sense
that he will answer. The other way is when we reorient priorities in our hearts.
4. What did you learn in this Psalm that you most need to apply to yourself?
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BIBLE STUDY #2
Romans 8:28-30
1. v.28 In what ways does a belief in the promise of v.28 affect the way we face
a) the good and, b) bad circumstances, and even c) the failures and sins of our
lives?
The Good
It leads us to gratitude and joy for even the routine good things in life.
• Notice, Paul does not say “things” work together for good by
themselves! Only God makes the factors of life turn to our good.
Christians do not believe the world is a nice place nor that life by nature
will be happy.
• Many people are shocked and disillusioned by the tragedies and
hardness of life. Not Christians. We don’t expect things in life to “work
together” for good. When we find things working out beneficially for us,
it is all God, all grace, all him.
• When things work out, Christians never say, “Of course, that’s as it
should be!” Rather, they wonder and praise God for it.
• Sum: Christians can maintain a positive view of life without adopting a
saccharine, sentimental and unrealistic view of things.
The Bad
First, it removes general fear and anxiety.
• If God is “working” in “all things,” then it means his plan includes what
we would call little things or senseless things. Ultimately there are no
accidents.
• Compare Proverbs 16:33: “The lot is cast into the lap, but the disposal
thereof is from the Lord.” God must be working in even flips of a coin.
• This must lead to some ability to relax! We are not in the grip of blind
chance or fate. The Greeks thought that even Zeus was subject to the
fates — not us! The universe is not a mechanism run by blind chance,
but is run by a person--the Father.
• Sum: We don’t need to fear life and circumstances.
“..it is one of the most glorious things we can ever know about ourselves. Do you
know that as a Christian all things are working together for good for you? Do you
know that God is over-ruling everything in the whole cosmos for your good?… You
cannot know it and be depressed at the same time; for such knowledge and
depression are mutually exclusive.”
– D.M.Lloyd-Jones, Romans 8:28-30

Second, it helps us see God’s purpose in difficulties.

• If God is working for our “good” in everything, then we see that both
the good things and the bad things all serve the purpose of furthering
the good in our life.
• This wonderful text leads to the following logical deduction by John
Newton made years ago: “Everything is necessary that he sends;
nothing can be necessary that he withholds.”
• This means that if we think we require some good thing that God has
withheld from us, in reality, we don’t absolutely need it.
• It also means that if we feel our life has been ruined by some bad thing,
in reality, it is playing some very important role in your life. It is teaching
you, molding you, enriching you, humbling you, and so on.
• Sum: We learn to look at troubles in our life as part of God’s loving
purposes for us.
Third, it gives us a balanced view of suffering.
• This verse shows us a balance that people have seldom maintained
toward suffering. On the one hand, there are people who despair in
suffering and say, “Nothing good can come out of this!” This text
denies that.
• On the other hand, there are people (including many Christians) who
embrace suffering. They see it as a good thing — to make them noble
or feel more virtuous than others.
• But the text does not say that the “things” are good but that God
works them “for the good.” Difficulties are not to be enjoyed or
welcomed! They are not good, but their results can be.
Our Failures
It gives us confidence that we cannot really ruin God’s good purposes for us.
• “All” really means all. That means we have to say that it includes even
our backsliding and our sin. Now to sin is always bad, always a terrible
thing, and we will always live to regret the painful consequences in our
lives that sin always brings.
• But God is so great that he weaves it into our ultimate good. He can
use even our sins and failures to humble us and teach us what we need
to do to bring us to our final glory.
• He makes use of sin to show Christians our weakness, frailty and
fallibility.
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2. v.28 What does Paul say are the two conditions for receiving this promise?
What does each term mean?
It is easy to overlook that the promise that “all things work for good” is made
only to “those who love him, who have been called.” There are two ways to
describe the same people (Christians), but they are both important.
“Those who love him” ordinarily, in the Bible, means people who have made a
commitment to live for him. A commitment means to serve God out of
recognition and appreciation of who he is in himself. “He that has my
commandments and does them, he it is that loves me” (John 14:21).
• Love in the Bible is never merely theoretical (only intellectual) nor
merely sentimental (only emotional) nor merely volitional (only duty).
• Love is setting the heart on God so that in all you do you determine to
please him.
• “I believe that Paul had a special reason for using the term ‘love’ rather
than the term ‘believing’ at this point. One of the best ways whereby
we can decide immediately if we really love God or not is our reaction
to adversity… there are many people who… when trials and tribulations
arise… they give up. They feel they have been let down.”
– D.M. Lloyd-Jones, Romans 8:28-30
• If you love God for who he is in himself, you make a commitment and
you endure difficulty. If you are using God, then when suffering comes
you bail out.
“Those who are called according to his purpose” probably does not mean
everyone who has ever heard the message or the challenge of the gospel.
• Anyone who has ever heard the gospel has, in a general sense, been
called. But it would not make sense that anyone who has ever heard of
Christ would get this promise.
• As verse 30 shows, a certain number of people are “called.” That is,
God has brought us to himself.
3. v.28 What does this text imply is the effect of “all things” on those who don’t
love God? Why do you think the effect is different on them?
Since Paul says that the entirety of life’s circumstances (all things”) work for
“the good” of only those who love God, there is the strong implication that
they do not work for the good of those outside God. Since the text says that
both the good and the bad things of our lives have a good effect on us because
of how God overrules and uses them in our lives, it looks as if both the good
and bad things that happen to a non-Christian work ill for those outside God.

• How could that be? Paul very directly says about the rebellious that God
“gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts” (Rom. 1:24). This
is startling. Paul is saying that on eof the worst punishments God gives
people is to let them have the desires of their sinful hearts. He lets
them have what they want.
• This means that “good” things are bad for those who don’t love God.
Why? People outside of God already have the illusion that they are self-
made people who are in control of their lives. At least bad
circumstances wake us up to our true humanity and our actual condition
as dependent, mortal, contingent creatures.
• But when an unbelieving heart experiences a string of successes and
pleasures, it only reinforces this illusion and can make the worst sins in
the human heart — pride, over-confidence, self-centeredness, etc. —
grow and take over.
• “Good” circumstances, therefore, can harden and delude, and develop
weak, selfish character and set a person up for disaster; “bad”
circumstances can humble and educate and develop strong,
compassionate character and prepare a person better for life.
• Good circumstances can be terrible for you and bad circumstances
wonderful for you. An example: “Lest I should be too puffed up through
the abundance of the revelations I received, there was given me a thorn
in the flesh” (2 Cor. 12).
There is a proverb that applies to this — the same sun that melts wax, hardens
clay. In other words, what makes a life “good” is not a particular set of
circumstances but how they interact with the heart. All by itself, this is a major
principle for understanding and living life. Shakespeare was getting at it when
he said, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves.” It is not as
important to change our circumstances as it is to change our heart’s attitude
and stance toward them.
4. vv.29-30 How do vv.29-30 explain what God’s ultimate purpose in history is,
and also what our ultimate good is in v.28?
The word “for” shows the close connection to v.28. Verses 29-30 are actually
Paul’s explanation of what God’s purpose actually is — what God is working out
in all the circumstances of life. Why did Paul add verses 29 and 30 instead of
leaving us only v.28?
• Verse 28 is not meant to tell us that when we have troubles, they will
just work out in some general or abstract sense. Rather, he means
everything that happens to us is working out for our final and ultimate
sanctification and holiness and salvation.
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• Everything is working together so we will be “conformed to the

likeness of his Son.” This shows us that “the good” that God is always
working for us is character change. He is making us loving, noble, true,
wise, strong, good, joyful and kind, just as Jesus is.
• This is an extremely important interpretation of v.28. Some people read
v.28 as teaching that God gives more good things or different kinds of
circumstances to Christians over non-Christians, but he is not really
saying that.
• Paul is not promising Christians an easier or more comfortable life. He
is not saying that Christians will have a higher percentage of pleasant
over unpleasant circumstances than unbelievers.
• Rather, Paul says that “all things” — the same basic range of good and
bad things that happen to all people — God uses in our hearts so we
are taught, humbled and refined into the likeness of Christ.
• As we said above, the same circumstances have a different effect on
unbelievers.
So God’s purpose for all of history is seen in this phrase, “to be conformed to
the image of his Son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” It is
an astounding statement. It teaches:
He is “conforming” us.
• It means God has a master design or form (“his Son”), and now every
circumstance is designed to shape, polish, melt, smooth, sculpt, frame,
cast and contour us into that master design. He is re-pouring us into the
mold of Christ’s perfect greatness.
• The idea of “form” does not mean a superficial likeness, but something
total. We are being remade from the inside out, from the depths. It is a
likeness of essence.
• Compare: “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory,
are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which
comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18).
We will be his “brethren.”
• We are not just legally adopted into God’s family (see 8:15), but we are
also getting his “family resemblance.” We are told that when we are
born again, we get God’s very nature, his “DNA.” (2 Pet. 1:4 – “You
may participate in the divine nature.”)
• Through the circumstances of life, God is drawing that out and shaping
us into brothers and sisters of Christ, who resemble him and our Father.
“In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and
through whom everything exists, should make the author of their
salvation perfect through suffering. Both the one who makes men holy

and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not
ashamed to call them brothers. He says: ‘I will declare your name to my
brothers; in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises”
(Heb. 2:10-12).
• “Ultimately, the proof of a right approach to these doctrines is that you
find in them the greatest urge to holiness and sanctification. If your
belief of these doctrines has not driven you to holiness you are in a
dangerous condition… You are misusing them to say, ‘Well, it is all right
with me, it matters not therefore what I do. I am saved…’ No one can
truly see these doctrines without being humbled”
– D. M. Lloyd-Jones, Romans 8:28-30 (p.202).
5. v.28-31 Why can Paul use the past tense, “glorified,” when speaking of a
Christian? What does this tell us about the certainty of our final salvation?
Here are some quotes from some commentators on Romans:

“The tense in the last word [‘glorified’] is amazing. It is the most daring anticipation
of faith that even the New Testament contains.”
– Denney
“The Apostle deliberately uses this aorist [past] tense in order to give us this final
unshakeable assurance. In the mind of God, [glorification] has already been done —
it is as certain as our justification… Glorification is irrevocable, it is absolutely
certain. Nothing can cause it to fail, for it is the action of God.”
– Lloyd-Jones
“…the past tense being used, as the other past tenses, to imply the completion in
the divine counsel of all these — which to us, in a state of time, seem so many
steps — simultaneously and irrevocably.”
– Alford
In short, Paul can use the term “glorified” in the past tense because it is just as
certain as any other part of the purpose. The links in the chain (foreknow-call-
glorify) cannot be broken. They all go together.
“Things future, nor things that are now,
Nor all things below or above,
Can make Him His purpose forego,
Or sever my soul from his love.”
– A. Toplady
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READINGS
you.
Isaac knew of God’s birth oracle of Gen. 25:23 [where God had told him that Jacob,
not Esau would be the one to lead the family and inherit God’s blessing], yet he set
himself to use God’s power to thwart it [when he sought to bless Esau in the name
of God to give him the birthright] in Gen. 27:29. This is the outlook of magic, not
[faith.] Esau, in agreeing to the plan broke his oath to Jacob in 25:33. Rebekah and
Jacob, though with a just cause, made no approach to God or man, no gesture of
faith or love [and deceived the old blind Isaac, dressing Jacob up as Esau]. They
reaped the appropriate fruit of hatred. [But] these rival stratagems only succeeded
in doing “whatsoever [God’s] hand and… counsel foreordained” (cf. Acts 4:28). As
a crowning touch, at a moment when Isaac was in no mood to care whom Jacob
might marry, Jacob found himself thrust out of the nest he had feathered, to seek
refuge and a wife among the very kinsmen to whom Abraham had turned in
obedience to the vision (Gen. 24:3ff).
– Derek Kidner 1
When we seek to “find” God’s will for us, we are [often] attempting to discover
hidden knowledge by supernatural activity. If we are going to find his will on one
specific choice [that the Bible has not directly spoken to], we have to penetrate the
divine mind to get his decision. “Finding” in this sense is really a form of divination.
It was the preoccupation of pagan kings. Most of our texts from the ancient Near
East pertain to divination. The king would never act in something as important as
going to battle until he had the mind of the god as to whether he should go to
war… The New Testament gives no explicit command to “find God’s will”… in this
way, to get a glimpse of the mind of the Almighty. Christ criticized the perverse
generation that always asks for a sign from God.
– Bruce Waltke 2
When all the [sheep and rams] had been shut inside the gate… one by one John
seized them by their curled horns and flung them into the vat of antiseptic. They
would struggle to climb out the side and Mack [a sheepdog] would snarl and snap
at their faces to force them back in. Just as they were about to climb up the ramp
at the far end, John caught them by the horns with a wooden implement, spun
them around, forced them under again, and held them — ears, eyes, and nose
submerged for a few seconds. I’ve had some experiences in my life which have
made me feel very sympathetic to those poor rams — I couldn’t figure out any
reason for the treatment I was getting from the Shepherd I trusted. As I watched
the struggling sheep I thought, “If there were some way to explain! But such
knowledge is too wonderful for them — it is high, they cannot attain unto it.” So far
as they could see, there was no point whatsoever… The glory of God’s will for us
means absolute trust… it means the will to do his will; and it means joy. Can you
lose? Certainly you can. Go ahead and lose your life — that’s how you find it! “My
life,” Jesus said, “for the life of the world.” What is your life for?
– Elizabeth Elliot 3

2. What does the story of Jacob’s deception of Isaac tell us about God’s
sovereignty, according to Kidner? What are the implications for those who are
afraid of missing God’s will? (You may wish to review Genesis 27.)
The story of Jacob’s deception of Isaac is remarkable.

On the one hand, Jacob and Rebekah’s sin poisons the family.
• When Esau hears that Jacob has stolen his birthright he vows to kill
him. His murderous grudge leads to the family’s complete breakdown.
• Jacob is forced to flee back to his mother’s family to save his life. He
never sees his mother again. The sin of Jacob haunts and distorts his
life for years to come.
And yet, though Jacob’s sin was wrong and he reaped the consequences of it
for the rest of his life, God used the sin in a remarkable way.
• This was how God got Jacob to return to his relatives’ tribe to find a
wife, rather than choosing a wife among the Canaanites. There he met
the love of his life and had the children through whom Jesus was
descended.
• And not only did Jacob’s long sojourn in Haran get him the family he did
need to have, it was a refining and humbling time in which Jacob finally
begins to grow in character.
• This is one of the most important teachings of the Bible: God does not
just work out his plan in spite of human sin but even through it.
• The choices are completely sinful and completely our responsibility, and
yet God weaves our sinful motives and behavior into history in such a
way that his purposes — his goals of his glory and our good — are only
more established.
Many people believe that if we sin — or if we even make one wrong decision
— we somehow force God to give us a secondary course in life, a “Plan B.”
• But look at Jacob — because of his sin he meets the love of his life and
gets the family from whom the Messiah is descended. How could that
be “Plan B?”
• Jacob met exactly who he had to meet and marry in order to bring
Jesus into the world. He went exactly to the place he had to go in order
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to learn humility and faith and become the head of God’s family and
people.
• None of this would have happened if Jacob hadn’t sinned. Does that
mean God made him sin, so that he couldn’t help himself? No. His sin
was his choice and the consequences were terrible. He shouldn’t have
done it.
• And yet, when you belong to God by his grace, your sins cannot screw
up your life and put you on “Plan B.”
This gets us into an area of mystery. How can God be in charge of our actions
and yet we are still responsible for our choices? The Bible doesn’t explain how
that is true — only that it is.
• We must not fall into an unbiblical fatalism (our destiny is fixed despite
our choices) or an unbiblical humanism (our choices determine history
— God doesn’t).
• Rather, we must keep the two together (God works out his will infallibly
through our free choices). The most vivid example of this is Paul in the
storm in Acts 27. During the storm, Paul prophesied to the passengers,
“There shall be no loss of any man’s life among you, but we will lose
the ship” (v.22). Through revelation he revealed God’s plan. Their
preservation was certain.
• Yet in v. 31, Paul warns them not to get into the lifeboat. “Unless the
men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved!” Despite the certainty of
God’s plan, it was equally true that the men were responsible to act and
choose wisely.
• Paul did not say, “Well, God predestined you all to survive this storm,
so it does not matter what you do.” When God appoints a result, he
also appoints the means — our choices and efforts.
• Paul did not have the Greek notion of fate; such statements make no
sense in the fatalistic framework!
“He brings to pass the actions of personal beings in a way that preserves their
freedom and responsibility to the full. Is that inconceivable? We can persuade
others, yet their freedom is preserved when they do what we persuaded them to
do of their own free will. Shall not then God be able to do with certainty what we
without our little power do with uncertainty? Does God who made the soul know
how to move it in accordance with its own nature so that its freedom is not
destroyed?”
– J. Gresham Machen
But, as usual, the ultimate example of this is Jesus Christ himself. In Acts 2:23,
Peter says to the people of Jerusalem, “This man was handed over to you by
God’s set purpose… and you with the help of wicked men put him to death.”

• There it is! Jesus’ death was planned and absolutely certain. God
ordained that he would die in order to save the world. Yet the people
who did the crucifixion were “wicked” and thus responsible for their
behavior.
• So God’s sovereignty and our free responsibility are both true. And it
means that even those who were responsible for the death of Jesus
can be saved by the very thing they did wrong.
• This is Peter’s whole point. He is saying to them: “Though you did
something terribly, horribly evil, God will bring — has brought! — grace
and life out of it! Repent and turn to the one you put to death. There is
all the hope in the world for you.”
In summary — our decisions count! That means wrong decisions can be painful
and have consequences so we should muster all the wisdom and help we can
to make good decisions.
• But on the other hand, you cannot ultimately mess up your life if you
are a child of God. God is at work to weave even wrong choices into his
plan for our good.
• So be concerned enough to be extremely careful and prayerful as you
make decisions. But don’t be so concerned that you are paralyzed with
fear. Come to the best conclusion you can come to.
• Even if you can’t be sure it is the right decision — make it and trust
God.
3. What does the Waltke and the Elliot quotes say to the person who believes
nothing can be God’s will unless “I have a peace about it?”
Bruce Waltke warns about the pagan roots of the belief that we can “divine”
the mind of God through signs and omens. One of the signs often used is inner
peace. It is common to hear people say, “I have no peace about this” and
therefore conclude that the lack of it means God is telling them not to do
something. Many Christians expect a feeling of certainty before a major
decision, and if the certainty is not there, they simply refuse to make a choice.
• But we must be very careful here! In general, as we have noted, the
Bible does not talk so much about how to get God’s guidance, but of
what kind of person gets guidance.
• Wisdom is: a) knowing God and his ways and, b) knowing your own
heart (its strengths and weaknesses), and c) knowing the times and
seasons.
• The more you know these three things, the easier it is to make right
decisions. No one is wise enough to always make the right decisions or
to feel certain as they make their choices. But if, as the Bible indicates,
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God normally guides through wisdom, then it is wrong to wait for a kind
of feeling.
• Basically, Christians make decisions by weighing the alternatives in light
of Christian priorities, and in full view of what we know of God, our own
heart, and the right timing of things.
• Weigh it up, make the choice that most comports with the wisdom
level you have, and then trust that God will use your choice in his plan
for your life.
Elizabeth Elliot reminds us of how often doing God’s will is unpleasant.
• Standing up for Christ can lead to persecution. And if doing the revealed
will of God (the will laid out in God’s Word in the things we are
commanded to do) often is not accompanied by inner peace, then why
would such peace be the sure sign that we had happened onto God’s
secret will for our lives?
• As we said above, God does have a plan for our lives (Eph. 2:10 –
“good works prepared for us to walk in”; Rom. 8:28 – “all things work
together for good”) but the Bible never calls us to guess or divine God’s
secret plan.
• Rather, we are to:
a) grow in wisdom,
b) rest on the promise of God’s sovereign love that we can’ t mess up
his plan,
c) and make wise choices, trusting him to be with us and to work
through our choices, whatever they are.
• Often our wisdom tells us that the best thing to do — in light of God’s
priorities for our lives — is a hard, difficult thing. When we see that, we
should not require inner peace as a prerequisite for action.
This doesn’t mean that “feeling doesn’t matter.” When a person has a
persistent negative or unsettled feeling about a particular alternative, this is
usually an indication that his or her wisdom is saying that this is a poor choice.
• If you have such negative feelings, though, you should try to analyze
and get to the bottom of it, because sometimes such feelings are really
prejudices tying you to the past. You may have an unreasonable
prejudice because of a bad experience you had in the past. So don’t
ignore your feelings. Check them out.
In the end, though, the right choice may be something we never feel good
about. It was right for Jesus to go to the cross, but do we think he had peace
in his spirit about it? On the contrary, we know he did not! In the garden, he
cried out in agony and asked to be relieved of his duty. So if your wisdom (and
the wisdom of others) indicates that a choice is right, don’t insist that you have
a deep peace and conviction about it before you do it.

4. A worksheet for Christian decision-making 4
A. Prayer and meditation

Are you spending adequate amounts of time with God (1) for purifying your
heart from the fear, pride and idolatries that lead to unwise decisions? (2) for
learning the joy of submission to his will? (3) for asking for wisdom (Jam. 1:5)?
B. Weigh the alternatives in light of Christian priorities

Use your wisdom to generate all the options. (Don’t settle for a false either-or
when there are alternatives.) Now which option(s) best:
• Fits with my spiritual, mental, physical growth and well-being?
• Fits with my family’s spiritual, mental, physical growth and well-being?
• Meets the needs of others in the world?
• Provides the best strategic convergence between my gifts and
opportunities to serve God and others?
• Builds up and enhances Christian community?
• List the pros and cons of each option in light of the above priorities.
Which options best accomplish all or most of them? Be sure to list both
long-term pros and cons and short term pros and cons.
a) Rule out any option that is against explicit Biblical teaching.
b) Rule out any option that is enslaving, that supports besetting
idolatries.
C. Counsel of others
Most of the time, decision-makers don’t talk to enough wise people. What do
other mature people who know me well think of my options? Note: If you are a
more intuitive-extroverted type, this may be the main way to make the
decision. See end-note 4.
D. Feelings
If you have persistent negative feelings about an option, try to figure out why
you do. Bring to the surface the motives and reasons of the heart. Once you’ve
made it explicit, judge whether that motive or reasoning fits in with Biblical
priorities or fits with what other wise people say.
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E. Decision
Make the choice that most comports with the wisdom level you have, and then
trust that God will use your choice in his plan for your life.
1 Derek Kidner, Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary (IVP, 1967), p.155.
2 Bruce Waltke, Finding the Will of God (Eerdmans, 1995) p. 11.
3 Elizabeth Elliot, The Glory of God’s Will (Good News Publishers, 1982) p.1-3.
4 People who are analytical are often helped by the discipline of thinking out alternatives, each with its
pros and cons. But people who are more intuitive by temperament will probably find such a procedure
too burdensome and difficult. The more intuitive types often are helped mainly by the very process of
talking aloud to you about the decision and the issues it raises. Use community. Talk about your decision
out loud with a variety of wise people who will ask you clarifying questions like: “Why do you say that?”
“Why is that so important to you?” “Why is that so difficult for you?”

Participants Guide
for Leaders reference
Gospel Christianity
Gospel character
Study 1 | Course 3
KEY CONCEPT – SPIRITUAL FRUIT

you.
The Spirit’s purpose

The ultimate purpose of the Holy Spirit’s work in Christians is not just to give us
general comfort or strength, but to change our character into that of Jesus.
• Romans 8:29 – “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be
conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn
among many brothers.”
• Ephesians 4:13 – “…until we all reach unity in the faith and in the
knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the
whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
The Spirit’s process

The Spirit does not enact this Christ-like character in us all at once, but
gradually. Therefore, becoming like Christ is not a crisis as much as a process,
though growth does not happen evenly, but in “spurts,” as in the biological
realm.
The Spirit’s fruit

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” (Gal. 5:22)
Agape (Love)
Definition: Happy to meet needs of others rather than your own.
Opposite: Fear – trampling on the needs of others to protect your interests.
Counterfeit: Selfish affection – helping others but only because it profits you.
Chara (Joy)
Definition: Delight in God for the beauty and worth of who he is.
Opposite: Hopelessness, despair.
Counterfeit: Elation that rests in blessings not the Blesser! A joy that can be
lost based on circumstances.
Irene (Peace)
Definition: Confidence and rest in God’s wisdom rather than your own.
Opposite: Anxiety and worry that God might not direct things as they should go.
Counterfeit: Indifference, apathy, not caring.
185

Makrothumia (Patience)
Definition: Ability to suffer trouble without blowing up or giving up.
Opposite: Resentment toward God and/or others.
Counterfeit: Hardness. “This is too small to be bothered about.”
Chrestotes (Kindness)
Definition: Compassion that offers true friendship not just help.
Opposite: Self-absorbed obliviousness to the needs and hurts of others.
Counterfeit: Cowardly fear of upsetting anyone, or self-congratulatory charity.
Agathosune1 (Integrity)
Definition: Honesty, transparency. Being the same in all situations.
Opposite: Phoniness, hypocrisy.
Counterfeit: Truth without love. “Getting it off the chest” without love or
wisdom.
Pistis (Faithfulness)
Definition: Loyalty and courage. To be principle-driven, utterly reliable, and true
to one’s word.
Opposite: Fair-weather friend.
Counterfeit: Love without truth. Refusing to confront or challenge out of
misplaced loyalty.
Prautas (Humility)
Definition: Self-forgetfulness
Opposite: Superiority – self-absorbed self-aggrandizement. And envy, unable to
rejoice in joy of others.
Counterfeit: Inferiority – self-absorbed self-consciousness.
Egkrateia (Self-control)
Definition: Ability to choose the urgent over the important thing.
Opposite: A driven, impulsive, uncontrolled person.
Counterfeit: Willpower through pride or desire for approval, power, comfort.
The Unity of the Fruit

The fruit of the Spirit always grow together, since they all proceed from the
Spirit’s work of applying the gospel to our hearts (Col. 1:6-8).
• For example, some are sweet and accessible (gentleness) but are not
bold and courageous (i.e. they lack faithfulness). That is not, then, real
Spirit-produced humility, but just a sanguine temperament.
• If the fruit of the Spirit are not all there (at least in some measure), they
are not really there at all.

2. The last paragraph states that the fruit of the Spirit always grow together.
a) Experience shows us that some people are very strong in some of these
characteristics yet very weak at others at the same time. How do you account
for that?
b) Think of some ways in which each of the spiritual fruit would depend on the
others.
c) If the fruit of the Spirit really only grow together, what practical difference
does that make to us?
187

BIBLE STUDY
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
1. In verses 1-2, Paul makes a list of talents or spiritual gifts. What are they?
What does this tell us about the Corinthian church to which he is writing?
2. What does Paul say in vv.1-2 is possible about such brilliant, talented people?
Why is this so surprising?
3. In verse 3, Paul makes another short list. This isn’t a list of talents: what is it?
What does Paul say is possible for these kinds of people?

4. Notice that Paul does not actually say “be patient, kind.” He personifies love in
verses 4-7. He speaks of it as if it is a person. What is he trying to get across
with this language?
5. How is Jesus Christ’s love for us on the cross the main means by which we
grow into loving character?
189

READINGS
you.
There is something which unites magic and [modern technology] while separating
both from the wisdom of earlier ages. For the wise men of old, the cardinal
problem of human life was how to conform the soul to objective reality, and the
solution was wisdom, self-discipline, and virtue. For the modern, the cardinal
problem is how to conform reality to the wishes of man, and the solution is a
technique.
– C.S.Lewis 2
Many bad men have had these spiritual gifts. “Many will say on the last day ‘Lord,
Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name, and in Thy name cast out devils, and in
Thy Name done many miracles?’ “ And Jesus will say to them, “I never knew
you.” [Matthew 7:21) Such as these have had gifts of the Spirit but had no special
saving work of the Spirit in their lives. Gifts, [talents, and abilities are excellent
things but they are not things which are inherent in the nature like true grace and
holiness. [They] are, as it were, precious jewels which a man carries about him. But
true grace in the heart is, as it were, the preciousness of the heart by which the
soul itself has become a precious jewel. The Spirit of God may produce effects on
many things to which He does not communicate Himself. So the Spirit of God
moved on the face of the waters but He did not communicate Himself to the
waters. But when the Spirit by His ordinary influences bestows saving grace, He
imparts Himself to the soul. Thus grace, as it were, is the holy nature of the Spirit
of God imparted to the soul.
– Jonathan Edwards 3
It is seldom that any of our [bad habits or flaws] disappear by a mere process of
natural extinction. At least, it is very seldom that this is done through the
instrumentality of reasoning… or by the force of mental determination. But what
cannot be destroyed may be dispossessed — and one taste may be made to give
way to another, and to lose its power entirely as the reigning affection in the mind.
It is thus that the boy ceases at length to be a slave of his appetite, but it is
because a [more ‘mature’] taste has brought it into subordination. The youth ceases
to idolize [sensual] pleasure, but it is because the idol of wealth has… gotten the
ascendancy. Even the love of money can cease to have mastery over the heart
because it is drawn into the whirl of [ideology and politics] and he is now lorded

over by a love of power [and moral superiority]. But there is not one of these
transformations in which the heart is left without an object. Its desire for one
particular object is conquered — but its desire to have some object… is
unconquerable… The only way to dispossess the heart of an old affection is by the
expulsive power of a new one… It is only… when admitted into the number of
God’s children, through faith in Jesus Christ, that the spirit of adoption is poured out
on us — it is then that the heart, brought under the mastery of one great and
predominant affection, is delivered from the tyranny of its former desires, and the
only way that deliverance is possible. Thus… it is not enough… to hold out to the
world the mirror of its own imperfections. It is not enough to come forth with a
demonstration of the evanescent character of your enjoyments… to speak to the
conscience… of its follies… Rather, try every legitimate method of finding access to
your hearts for the love of Him who is greater than the world.
191

2. Discuss the Edwards quote. Read both Matthew 7:21-23 and 1 Corinthians
13:1-7. a) What is Edwards’s very stunning point? b) How could God use
people who have little or no spiritual fruit?
3. Jonathan Edwards says in “common morality” one does good because it

benefits you, but in “true virtue” one does good out of love to God. How does
the Chalmers quote illustrate this?

4. Look over the list of the spiritual fruit on the first page of this study.
a) In which one or two have you seen growth lately?
b) In which one or two do you most need to grow right now?
Go to someone who knows you well and ask them questions about your growth.
• Ask if you are a kinder person than you were two years ago?
• Are you a happier person than you were two years ago?
• Are you a more patient person?
• Are you a less self-pitying person?
• Can you take criticism now with joy without needing to bite back?
• Are you a more peaceful person?
• Do you worry less?
193

1 Of all the words in the Galatians 5:22-23 list of spiritual fruit, this one is the hardest to define, since it
is so general and is seldom used in other Greek literature. Since goodness and truth are often used
synonymously in the Bible, we will use this term as a basis for reflecting on the importance of integrity.
2 C.S.Lewis, The Abolition of Man (MacMillan, 1943) pp.87-88.
3 Jonathan Edwards, Charity and Its Fruit (Banner of Truth, 1975) (Sermon Two)
4 “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection,” from The Works of Thomas Chalmers (New York: Robert
Carter, 1830) vol. II

Gospel Christianity
Love and friendship
Study 2 | Course 3
KEY CONCEPT – RELATIONSHIPS IN PROVERBS1

you.
Neighbor-love
• We are to be disarmingly kind and peaceable, not quarrelsome (not
bringing our neighbors ‘hastily into court’ – 25:8).
• We are not to gossip (16:28) or harm reputations but are to speak
directly to anyone with whom we have a complaint (25:9).
a) And this should not be frequent, since ‘love covers a multitude of
sins’ (10:12 cf.1 Peter 4:8).
• We must not have a critical, complaining spirit (11:12).
• Not only should we not give bad reports about our neighbors, but we
are not to receive them either (17:9).
a) There’s always another side to the story (18:17) and therefore we
should not draw negative conclusions about a person’s character
from second-hand accounts.
b) Even when you see a neighbor who has failed in some way, you
should respond with compassion and help rather than contempt
(21:10).
• Nevertheless, neighbor-love is not undiscerning, unprincipled or
sentimental.
a) Some neighbors may be malicious, hot-tempered and corrupt.
b) And if non-vindictive, equitable efforts to correct them (25:9) fail, you
may need to keep your distance. They might corrupt you (22:24, 25)
or exploit you (6:1-5).
c) It is not kind to people to make it easy for them to sin against you
(12:26).
Friend-love
There have always been consumer-vendor relationships in which you relate to
the vendor only as long as your needs are being met at an acceptable cost. And
there have always been covenantal relationships in which you commit to the
good of the other whether your individual needs are being met or not. In
modern culture the marketplace has become so dominant that even personal
relationships are now based on the consumer model. But Proverbs rejects this
model for friendships.
195

• Constancy – Friends love at all times and, especially during adversity

(17:17), they stick closer than a brother (18:24).
a) The counterfeit is a fair-weather friend who drops out when your
prosperity, status or influence drops off (14:20; 19:4, 6-7).
• Transparency – Friends open to each other and speak intimately and
personally.
a) On the one hand, real friends encourage and affectionately affirm one
another (27:9; cf.1 Sam. 23:16-18).
b) On the other hand, real friends offer gentle but firm critiques (27:6 –
faithful are the wounds of a friend) and refuse to simply flatter and
use one another (29:5; cf.1 Kings 1:16).
c) Real friends know that their critique might not be appreciated until
later (28:23) but they are willing to wait.
d) Friends make decisions together, through a healthy clash of
viewpoints (27:17).
• Sympathy – Proverbs asserts that a few close friends are better than
huge networks of contacts and acquaintances (18:24).
a) You cannot force someone to become your close friend. (See 25:17;
27:14; 25:20. These passages speak of imposing your presence and
your heartiness on someone who doesn’t want it.)
b) Friendships arise between people with common passions and
commitments. (See “Readings”)
Enemy-love
The attitude toward opponents that we see in the New Testament and pre-
eminently in the cross is foreshadowed in Proverbs.
• We are not to either hate our opponents, gloating when they fail (24:17)
nor are we to secretly envy their power (24:19).
• Instead we are to look for every opportunity to be kind to them (25:21,
22).

2. Proverbs gives us a simple rule of thumb about gossip. If you have something
negative to say about another person, say it to him or her, not to others.
a) What do you think of it? b) Is this a realistic standard?
197

BIBLE STUDY #1
Galatians 5:26-6:3
1. What does it mean to be conceited and, according to verse 26, what are the
two possible effects of conceit on relationships?
2. How could conceit and pride lead to both superiority and inferiority
complexes?
3. Do you have more of a tendency to provoke or to envy in relationships?

How can you use the gospel to overcome your tendency, whatever it is?
4. 6:1. What principles does Paul lay down in this verse? How does v.2 shed light
on v.1?
5. How do you think your particular small group or church community is at the
restoration of 6:1?
What could you do practically to be better at 6:2? At 6:1?
199

BIBLE STUDY #2
1 Samuel 18:1-5; 23:15-18; John 15:9-15
What are the marks of friendship according to these Biblical passages?

READINGS
you.
Friendship arises… when two or more… discover that they have in common some
insight or interest… Lovers seek for privacy. [But] friends find this solitude about
them, this barrier between them and the herd, whether they want it or not… as
Emerson said, “Do you love me?” means “Do you see the same truth?” — Or at
least, “Do you care about the same truth?” The man who agrees with us that some
question, little regarded by others, is of great importance, can be our Friend…
Hence we picture lovers face to face but Friends side by side; their eyes look
ahead. That is why those pathetic people who simply ‘want friends’ can never
make any. The very condition of having friends is that we should want something
else besides friends. Where the truthful answer to the question, “Do you see the
same truth?” would be “I don’t care about the truth — I only want [you to be my]
friend.” no friendship can arise. Friendship must be about something, even if it
were only an enthusiasm for dominoes or white mice. Those who have nothing can
share nothing; those who are going nowhere can have no fellow-travelers.
Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to
make sure of keeping it intact, you must give it to no one, not even an animal.
Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements.
Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe,
dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become
unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The only place outside Heaven where you
can be perfectly safe from all the dangers of love is Hell.
It is probably impossible to love any human being simply too much. We may love
him too much in proportion to our love for God; but it is the smallness of our love
for God, not the greatness of our love for the man, that constitutes the inordinacy.
People who believe themselves to be free from class snobbery may be devoured
by the desire in another form. It may be the very intensity of their desire to enter
some quite different Ring which renders them immune from all the allurements of
high life. An invitation from a duchess would be very cold comfort to a man
smarting under the sense of exclusion from some artistic or communistic coterie.
Poor man — it is not large, lighted rooms, or champagne, or even scandals about
peers and Cabinet Ministers that he wants: it is the sacred little attic or studio, the
heads bent together, and the delicious knowledge that we four or five all huddled
here — are the people who know… As long as you are governed by that desire you
will never get what you want. Until you conquer the fear of being an outsider, an
outsider you will remain.
– C. S. Lewis, “The Inner Ring”
201

There are no ordinary people. You’ve never talked to a mere mortal. Nations,
cultures, arts, civilization, these are mortal and their life is to ours as the life of a
gnat. It’s a serious thing to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting
person you talk to, may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would
be strongly tempted to worship. Or else a horror and a corruption such as you now
meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping
each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these
overwhelming possibilities, with the awe and circumspection proper to them that
we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, loves, play, and
politics. Next to the Blessed Sacrament, your neighbor is the holiest object
presented to your senses
– C.S.Lewis, The Weight of Glory

2. What basic principle for building and maintaining friendship can you
extrapolate from each of the first three quotes from C. S. Lewis?
3. What is Lewis warning us about in the fourth quote? What are the forms of it
that you have seen working within your own life?
203

4. In the final quote, Lewis asks us to remember something and asks us to do

something. What are these two things? How can you practically carry out
what Lewis urges?
1 This study is heavily based on Derek Kidner’s The Proverbs: An Introduction and Commentary (IVP,
1964) “The Friend” p.44.

Gospel Christianity
Joy and peace
Study 3 | Course 3
Key concepts – PEACE

you.
Jesus says “My peace I give you. Not as the world gives it, do I give it to you.
Don’t be troubled or afraid” (John 14:27). When Jesus meets his disciples after
the resurrection he continually says “Peace” to them (John 20:19, 21, 26).
Under these circumstances it is obvious that the term “Peace’” is
extraordinarily packed and pregnant. What is the peace Jesus gives us?
Peace in the Old Testament

The background to Jesus’ words is the Hebrew word shalom, an extraordinarily
rich word. It refers to multi-dimensional flourishing and fulfillment — spiritual
physical, emotional, social and cultural.
• Peace has to do with wholeness in relationships.
a) Peace is lost when our relationship with God is broken, leading to
psychological, social and physical alienation. (We are out of
relationship with our selves, one another, and the physical world and
our own bodies.)
• Shalom is the restoration of all these relationships under the power and
reign of God. Therefore, shalom is perhaps the basic characteristic of
the future kingdom of God, when the Lord comes to heal all that is
wrong with the world (Num. 6:26; Ps. 29:11; Isa. 9:6-7; 52:7; 54:13;
57:19; Ezek. 37:26.)
Peace in the New Testament

The New Testament speaks about this peace as well but shows us that it
comes through Jesus. The gospel of Jesus is “the gospel of peace” (Eph. 6:15;
Acts 10:35; Eph. 2:17). The kingdom of God is already but not yet —
characterized by peace (Rom. 14:17; 1 Cor. 14:33).
In the New Testament this peace of Christ has several facets.
It has both an individual aspect and a corporate aspect.

• In Philippians, it garrisons the individual heart against anxiety, difficulties
and sorrows (Phil. 4:4-7). The God of peace sanctifies us, growing us
into Christ-like character and maturity (1 Thess. 5:23; cf. Gal 5:22).
205

notes JOY AND PEACE
• In Colossians, it keeps Christians in unity and love though they wrong

each other and rub each other the wrong way (Col. 3:13-15).
• In Ephesians, Christ is our peace and by his death on the cross removes
racial barriers (Eph 2:11-20.)
It has both an objective aspect and a subjective aspect.

• In Romans, it is the objective peace with God that comes from
justification by faith (Rom 5:1-2).
a) There was a barrier between God and humanity, but Jesus paid the
debt and now there is peace. This peace cannot increase or
decrease.
b) Though in ourselves we are actually “wicked,” in Christ we are
“justified” and accepted (Rom 4:5).
c) So we have a legal standing before God. We are “holy and blameless
in his sight” (Col 1:22).
d) In a sense, we are as loved now as we will be a billion years from
now when we are glorified and perfect. This is peace with God.
• In Philippians 4:12-13, we are told that it is possible to have a peace so
deep that it makes us content in any circumstances, even in times of
great difficulty.
a) It is the opposite of worry and anxiety (Phil 4:6-7).
b) The peace of Christ is so closely related to joy (notice John 14:27 and
15:11; Rom. 15:13) that we might say that joy is peace when it gets
exercised.

JOY AND PEACE notes
BIBLE STUDY #1
Romans 5:1-11
1. What are the results of justification by faith, according to vv.1-2?
2. vv.3-4. How does Paul answer the question: “But what good are these benefits
if we are still going to suffer?” (Hint: Why does Paul say we should rejoice in
our suffering, not for them?)
3. By what two ways can we know that God loves us according to vv.5-8? How
secure is the future for a Christian and why (according to vv.9-10)?
207

notes JOY AND PEACE
4. On the basis of all that we saw, what can you learn from the text about the
nature of this peace that is mentioned?
5. v.11 What are the signs that you are rejoicing in your reconciliation and
enjoying your peace with God?

JOY AND PEACE notes
BIBLE STUDY #2
Philippians 4:4-12
1. Where is Paul when he makes his call in verse 4? How does that help us
understand what he is exhorting us to do?
2. What are we called to do in vv.5-6?
3. What will be the results if we do this (v.7, v.9, v.12)?
209

notes JOY AND PEACE
READINGS
you.
There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains,
Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he
looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear
and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and
passing thing: there was light and high beauty forever beyond its reach. His
[courage before] had been defiance rather than hope; for then he was thinking of
himself. Now, for a moment, his own fate and even his master’s ceased to trouble
him… Putting away all fear he cast himself into a deep untroubled sleep.
– J. R. R. Tolkien 1
I am trying to rip open the inconsolable secret in each one of you — the secret
which hurts so much that you take your revenge on it by calling it names like
Nostalgia and Romanticism and Adolescence… Wordsworth’s expedient was to
identify it with certain moments in his own past. But… if Wordsworth had gone
back to those moments in the past, he would not have found the thing itself… The
books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we
trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and was only longing.
If these things are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking
the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the
scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news
from a country we have never yet visited… But if we are to take the imagery of
Scripture seriously, we believe that God will one day give us the Morning Star and
cause us to put on the splendor of the sun… At present we are on the outside of
the world, the wrong side of the door. Someday, God willing, we shall get in. When
human souls have become as perfect in voluntary obedience as the inanimate
creation is in its lifeless obedience, then they will put on its glory, or the greater
glory of which Nature is only the first sketch… Our Lord finds our desires not too
strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and
sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to
go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the
offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
– C. S. Lewis 2

JOY AND PEACE notes
I pity celebrities. No, I do… When God wants to play a really rotten practical joke on
you, he grants you your deepest wish and then giggles merrily when you suddenly
realize you want to kill yourself. Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis and Barbra
Streisand fervently… wanted fame… The night each of them became famous they
wanted to shriek with relief. Finally!… All their fantasies had been realized, yet the
reality was still the same. If they were miserable before, they were twice as
miserable now, because that giant thing they were striving for, that fame thing that
was going to make everything okay, that was going to make their lives bearable,
that was going to provide them with personal fulfillment, and (ha ha) happiness, had
happened. And nothing changed. They were still them. The disillusionment turned
them howling and insufferable.
– Cynthia Heimel 2
Assurance [of salvation] goes far… It enables you to feel that the great business of
life is a settled business, the great debt is a paid debt, the great disease is a healed
disease, and the great works a finished work; and all other business, diseases,
debts and works are then by comparison small. In this way assurance makes you
patient in tribulation, calm under bereavements, unmoved in sorrow, not afraid of
evil tidings, in every condition content, for it gives you a fixedness of heart…
– J. C. Ryleiv
211

notes JOY AND PEACE
Tolkien quote from Lord of the Rings?
Lewis quote? What does he warn us against doing? (cf. with Heimel)

JOY AND PEACE notes
1 J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings Book VI chapter 2 (The Return of the King)
2 C. S. Lewis The Weight of Glory
3 Cynthia Heimel, “Tongue in Chic” column in The Village Voice, January 2, 1990.
4 J.C. Ryle, “Assurance” in Holiness: It’s Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots.
213

Gospel Christianity
Humility and self-image
Study 4 | Course 3
Key concepts – HUMILITY

you.
The Greek word tapnophorosune — translated “humility” or “lowliness” —

was used infrequently in Greek literature and then only in the most derogatory
sense of servility or shameful weakness. The Greco-Roman world despised
weakness and did not value sensitivity or gentleness. Yet, remarkably, in the
Bible some form of this word occurs 270 times.
• God’s saving work in history is to lift up and exalt “the humble” (Luke
1:54), referring especially to the poor and those of low estate.
• We can only receive Christ through meekness and humility (Matt 5:3, 5).
• Christians are to serve Christ in humility (Acts 20:19) and are to regard
others with humility and service (Eph. 4:2; 1 Pet. 5:5; Col. 3:12).
• God gives special grace (strength and blessing) to the humble (Jam. 4:6;
1 Pet. 5:5). Therefore, all believers are to humble themselves (Jam.
4:10; 1 Pet. 5:6).
• It is a principle of life that those who humble themselves are exalted
but those who exalt themselves are brought down (Luke 14:11; 18:14).
Most remarkable of all is that this concept — so scorned by the world —
expresses the character and work of Christ.
• Jesus says he is “gentle and lowly in heart” (Mt. 11:29) and Paul says
that Jesus humbled himself (Phil. 2:8) and was exalted (v.9).
• It is the humbling and exaltation of Jesus that is the whole basis for the
Christian life. We are saved not by pointing to our goodness but by
humbly admitting our lack of it.
• We find our true selves only when we stop seeking self-fulfillment and
seek to serve God and others (Mark 8:35).
• Only by dying to our own independence can we find true freedom (John
8:31-32).
Paul tells every Christian to adopt the “humility of mind” toward one another
(Phil. 2:3) which he contrasts to two things.
• First, he contrasts it with “selfish ambition.” This could be called a
superiority complex. It means to take the needs of others very lightly
and make your own concerns the center of the universe.
214

• Second, Paul contrasts it with “vain conceit.” The Greek word here is
literally “empty-glory”; it means someone who seeks glory and honor
out of hunger for it, to fill one’s own inner emptiness as it were. This
could be called an inferiority complex.
• Out of an excessive desire for glory and recognition, a person maintains
a distorted self-image. One must deny character flaws and exaggerate
one’s strengths.
• Self-centeredness and self-absorption, then, can take the form of either
a superior or an inferior attitude. (Both are, to some degree, present in
us all.)
What then is humility? Humility is not self-consciousness or behaving abjectly
before a “superior” or hating yourself. Nor is it self-aggrandizement.
• Humble people in Christ have a new confidence not based on their
performance but on the love of God in Christ (Rom. 3:22-23). Thus, they
are no longer looking at themselves all the time.
• Christian humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of
yourself less. It is self-forgetfulness.
• And because a humble person is neither self-absorbed nor “empty of
glory” on the inside, they are free to count the concerns of others more
important than their own (Phil. 2:3b).

BIBLE STUDY #1
Philippians 2:1-11
1. What problem is Paul addressing in vv.2-4?
2. What are the four motives for unity and humility that he lists in verse 1?
3. Verses 6-11 have been described as a symphony in three movements. What are
the three movements?
216

4. How does Paul urge us to apply the career of Christ to our own lives (v.5)?

BIBLE STUDY #2
1 Corinthians 3:3-7; 3:21-4:7
1. What problem in the Corinthian church is Paul addressing (see 1 Cor. 3:3-7)?
2. What is the root cause of the strife? What is boasting? What things might we
boast in? What are the results of boasting? Does Paul preclude all boasting?
3. Compare Paul’s warning about boasting with today’s popular teaching on the
importance of self-esteem.
218

4. How does what Paul says about his own self-regard in 4:2-4 compare to
today’s understanding of self-esteem?

READINGS
you.
I now come to that part of Christian morals where they differ most sharply from all
other morals… There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault
which we are more unconscious of in ourselves… The vice I am talking of is Pride
or Self-Conceit: and the virtue opposite to it is called Humility. According to
Christian teachers… Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God
state of mind… How is it that people who are quite obviously eaten up with Pride
can say they believe in God and appear to themselves very religious? I am afraid it
means they are worshipping an imaginary God. They theoretically admit themselves
to be nothing in the presence of this phantom God, but are really all the time
imagining how He approves of them and thinks them far better than ordinary
people… Pride can often be used to beat down the simpler vices. Teachers often
appeal to a boy’s Pride, or, as they call it, his self-respect, to make him behave
decently: many a man has overcome cowardice, or lust, or ill-temper, by learning to
think that they are beneath his dignity — that is, by Pride. The devil laughs. He is
perfectly content to see you becoming chaste and brave and self-controlled
provided he is setting up in you the Dictatorship of Pride
Pride is essentially competitive — is competitive by its very nature — while the

other vices are competitive only, so to speak, by accident. Pride gets no pleasure
out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say
that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not.
They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others… It is the
comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest… Pride is
spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even
common sense… If we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are
good-above all, that we are better than someone else — I think we may be sure
that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil. The real test of being in
the presence of God is that you either forget about yourself altogether or see
yourself as a small, dirty object. It is better to forget about yourself altogether.
If you want to find out how proud you are, the easiest way is to ask yourself, “How
much do I dislike it when other people snub me, or refuse to take any notice of me,
or shove their oar in, or patronize me, or show off?”… It is because I wanted to be
the big noise at the party that I am so annoyed at someone else being the big
noise… Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most
people call ‘humble’… who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody.
Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed cheerful [and] took a real
interest in what you said… He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be
thinking about himself at all.
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To love and admire anything outside yourself is to take one step away from utter
spiritual ruin; though we shall not be well so long as we love and admire anything
more than we love and admire God… In God you come up against something
which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God
as that — and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison — you do not
know God at all. As long as you are proud, you cannot know God. A proud man is
always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are
looking down, you cannot see something that is above you… If anyone would like
to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realize
that one is proud. And a biggish step, too. At least, nothing whatever can be done
before it. If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited
indeed.
– C. S. Lewis 1

2. According to Lewis, why is it so important to understand the nature of pride

and humility?
3. According to Lewis, what is pride and humility? Define them.
222

4. According to Lewis, what are some of the tests by which you can discern pride
and humility?
5. According to Lewis, how can humility be cultivated?
1 C. S. Lewis from the chapter “The Great Sin” in Mere Christianity

Gospel Christianity
Self-control and emotions
Study 5 | Course 3
KEY CONCEPT — SELF-CONTROL

you.
‘Self-control’ in the New Testament by the Greek word egokratia (1 Cor 7:9,
9:25; Gal 5:23) which literally means self-rule, self-command.
• “Self-control” is to master our emotions and desires rather than

allowing them to master us.
• The most obvious failure of self-control is seen in the great range of
addictions that can beset us. But all of us have serious trouble with this
in some area — whether it is with control of our tongues or our time or
our thoughts.
• If we do not learn self-control then anger, fear, and sadness, envy,
ambition, and sexual desire will eventually strip us of jobs, marriages,
friendships, and even our physical lives.
In ancient times emotions and desires were seen as ‘lower’ and attached to our
physical nature, while our reason was seen as ‘higher’ and attached to our
spirits.
• Ancient cultures advised self-control as an act of the will to follow our
higher nature and repress our lower.
• Modern society, however, counsels ‘self-actualization’ rather than self-
control.
a) It sees repression as the cause of uncontrolled addictions rather than
the cure.
b) It advises identifying our deepest desires and re-arranging our lives to
affirm and fulfill them.
The Biblical approach to self-control is quite different than either ancient or
modern approaches. The Bible does not identify our body as being more fallen
and sinful than the reason or the spirit, nor does it divide us into ‘higher’ reason
and ‘lower’ feelings.
• In a more wholistic fashion, the Bible recognizes that our thinking (Gen
6:5; Rom 1:21), our willing (Prov 6:14; Rom 2:5), and our feelings (Prov
14:13; Rom 9:2) are all rooted in ‘the heart’ from which flows
everything in your life (Prov 4:23).
• Why? Our thoughts, feelings, and actions all flow out of our hearts’
loves. They are all controlled by what we love and find the most
beautiful, valuable, and good.
224

• So Augustine said the Christians life is ‘the right ordering of our loves.’
A lack of ‘self-control’ comes when we love some things (usually
personal pleasure, recognition, etc) more than the other things (the
common good or God himself.)
• Self-control in the area of X then does not come from repressing our
love for X but in loving God more.
Christian self-control then does not consist mainly in direct repression of
feelings in favor of thinking, nor of naked will-power. Foolishness, lust,
ambition, envy, despair are as much a matter of thinking as of feeling — and
they all result from what the heart has most fixed itself on as the most
beautiful, true, and good. The Biblical way to self-control is then very ‘wholistic.’
• It entails deepening one’s worship and adoration of God.
• It requires changes in the thinking — identifying false beliefs (“if I don’t
have this my life is a failure!”)
• It requires accountability to others for our behavior. The Bible does not
envision Christian character as something that can come about through
individual effort and will power. It develops only in a Spirit-filled
community.
• Finally it requires a very different approach to our feelings.
a) While traditional culture tells us to simply repress feelings and
modern culture to express them, the Psalms (in particular) call us not
to ventilate or to suppress but rather to pray our emotions.
b) We are often amazed at the intensity of the Psalmists’ emotional
expression but we should notice they are prayers. Emotions are not
denied but they are ‘processed’ before the face of God.
c) Our feelings are honestly owned but in the context of adoration,
confession, and petition to God. That always changes how we
experienced them.

BIBLE STUDY #1
I Corinthians 9:23-10:13
1. What does Paul say is the reason that athletes in training are so self-
controlled? What does this tell us about ‘how self-control works’?
2. How is this athletic image an analogy for Christian self-control? What is our
‘prize’ or ‘crown’?
3. What are some practical guidelines in 10:11-13 for self-control?
226

BIBLE STUDY #2
Romans 7:14-25
1. v.14-25. Is Paul speaking in these verses of an unbeliever’s struggle with sin, or

is he talking about a believer’s struggle with sin? What is the evidence (in the
text) for your answer?
2. vv.14-25. What does Paul tell us here about a) what has changed b) what has
not changed, c) what our need is, d) what our hope is as Christians?
3. If this is the Apostle’s present experience, how does this both warn and
comfort us in our own struggles for self-control?

READINGS
Read and mark “?” – question to raise “!” – insight or helpful to you
“True Christianity is a fight… Do we find in our heart a spiritual struggle? Are we

conscious of two principles within us, contending for the mastery? (Gal.5:17) Do we
feel anything of war in our inward being? Well, let us thank God for it! It is a good
sign. It is strongly probable evidence of the great work of sanctification. Anything is
better than apathy, stagnation, deadness, and indifference. We are in a better state
than many. The most part of so-called Christians have no feeling at all....I say again,
let us take comfort. The children of God have two great marks — they may be
known by their inward warfare as well as by their inward peace.”
– J.C. Ryle 1
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to
say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright
and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope — the
glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for
us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his
very own, eager to do what is good.
– Titus 2:11-14 2
Salvation by grace, salvation by free grace, salvation not by works but according to
the mercy of God is indispensable to godliness. Retain a single shred or fragment of
legality with the Gospel and you take away the power of the Gospel to melt and
conciliate. On the tenure of “do this and you will live”, a spirit of fearfulness is sure
to enter; and the man striving to be square and even with his Creator is, in fact,
pursuing all the while his own selfishness instead of God’s glory. It is only when, in
the Gospel, acceptance is bestowed as a present, without money and without
price, [that he can then] repose in Him as one friend reposes in another… rejoicing
in the impulse of gratitude, by which he is awakened to the charms of a new moral
existence. And never does the sinner find within himself so mighty a moral
transformation, as when under the belief that he is saved by grace, he feels
constrained thereby to offer his heart a devoted thing, and to deny ungodliness.
228

[Why is this grateful love so important?] It is seldom that any of our [bad habits or
flaws] disappear by a mere process of natural extinction. At least, it is very seldom
that this is done through the instrumentality of reasoning...or by the force of mental
determination. But what cannot be destroyed may be dispossessed. We only cease
to be a slave of one appetite because another has brought it into subordination. A
youth might cease to idolize sensual pleasure but it’s only because the idol of
material gain and career success has gotten the ascendancy. There is not one
personal transformation in which the heart is left without an ultimate object of
beauty and joy. It’s desire for one particular object may be conquered but its desire
to have some object is unconquerable. The only way to dispossess the heart of an
old affection is by the expulsive power of a new one. It is only when admitted into
the number of God’s children, through faith in Jesus Christ, that the spirit of
adoption is poured out on us — it is then that the heart, brought under the mastery
of one great and predominant affection, is delivered from the tyranny of its former
desires, and the only way that deliverance is possible. Thus… it is not enough… to
hold out to the world the mirror of its own imperfections. It is not enough to come
forth with a demonstration of the evanescent character of your enjoyments… to
speak to the conscience… of its follies… Rather, try every legitimate method of
finding access to your hearts for the love of Him who is greater than the world.

2. Titus 2:12 tells us that the grace of God ‘teaches us to say no’ to things and
lived self-controlled lives. How do you think the knowledge we are saved by
sheer grace helps us to ‘say no’ to stubborn habits?
3. The long Chalmers quote is basically an exposition of Titus 2:11-14. How does
the gospel ‘melt and conciliate’? Make a list of ‘methods of finding access to
your hearts for the love of Him who is greater than the world.”
230

1 J.C.Ryle, “The Fight” in Holiness

2 Thomas Chalmers, “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection”

Gospel Christianity
Patience in suffering
Study 6 | Course 3
KEY CONCEPT – SUFFERING AND THE GOSPEL

you.
A heart that understands and remembers the gospel knows:

• it is completely undeserving of God’s blessing,
• yet is completely forgiven and accepted.
A heart that misunderstands or forgets the gospel thinks:
• it is somewhat deserving,
• yet it is not at all sure it is acceptable and lovable.
What practical difference does this make when suffering comes? It makes all
the difference in the world.
• A heart forgetting the gospel has a problem with both guilt and anger.
a) If you have been living a pretty good life (in your estimation) when
suffering comes, then you will mainly feel great anger toward life and
God.
b) You feel you deserve a better life, and that will lead to tremendous
bitterness.
On the other hand, if you have not been living a good life (in your estimation)
when suffering comes, then you will mainly feel great guilt, feeling you
probably are some kind of failure and God has rejected you.
But, since we are trying to earn our salvation without the gospel, we always
struggle with both a sense of deserving and an insecurity about our
acceptability, so we have both guilt (“I hate me”) and anger (“I hate Thee”)
churning away in our stomach when we suffer.
But the gospel, on the one hand, takes away our surprise and pique over
suffering.
• We know that we deserve to be eternally lost but by mercy we will
never get what we deserve. This eliminates self-pity.
On the other hand, we know God could not be punishing us for our sin since
Jesus paid for our sins, and God cannot receive two payments.
232

• This means whatever suffering we are receiving is not retribution, but

instruction.
In Romans 5:1, Paul says, “Since we have been justified through faith,” not
works.
• Then Paul immediately says, in vv.3-5, that now suffering leads to
“perseverance” (which means single-mindedness, right priorities),
“character” (which means “testedness,” confidence and poise), and
“hope” (which means assurance of one’s relationship of love with God).
• Then he adds that from this character and hope, we experience “love
poured out into our hearts.”
Here’s the amazing assertion of Paul.
• When he shows that suffering starts a chain reaction that leads to
hope, which is one of the fruits of justification, he is saying that the
benefits of justification are self-propagating. They are not only, not
diminished by suffering, but they are enlarged by suffering.
• In other words, if you face suffering with a clear grasp of justification by
grace alone, your joy in that grace will deepen, but (as he implies) if you
face suffering with a mindset of justification by works, the suffering will
break you, not make you.

BIBLE STUDY
Psalm 3:1-8
1. What progression do you see through the four sections of the Psalm (vv.1-2,
3-4, 5-6, 7-8)? How does the last section give us tests by which we can tell that
we have triumphed over suffering, even if we are still grieving?
2. vv.1-2. What are the two basic ways that his enemies were opposing David? (If
you wish, read the account of Absalom’s rebellion in 2 Sam. 15-18.) How are
the troubles you face similar to David’s?
3. vv.3-4. How does David find assurance and confidence in the face of the
physical attacks? Are we to believe that God will never let anything really bad
happen to a believer?
234

4. vv.3-4, 8. How does David find assurance and confidence in the face of the
accusation? What makes him think that God will not finally forsake him? How
can we know God won’t forsake us? (Hint: Read v.3 Christo-centrically.)
5. In what ways can a Christian pray against enemies like David does in v.7? In
what ways can we not do so? (Read Rom. 12:17ff)
6. What have you learned in this Psalm that can help you “pray your difficulties”
better?

READINGS
you.
Why does God permit all this evil…? Christians must concede that they don’t
know… But our grasp of the fundamental way of things is at best limited...and so
there is no reason to think that whatever God’s reason is for permitting the evil that
we would be the first to know… But as the Christian sees things, God does not
stand idly by, coolly observing the suffering of his creatures. He enters and shares
our suffering… Christ was [sent] to endure the agonies of hell itself… This does not
answer the question, “Why [exactly] does God permit evil?” But it helps the
Christian trust God as his loving Father… His aims and goals my be beyond our
ken, but he himself is prepared to share much greater suffering than we in the
pursuit of those ends.
– Alvin Plantingai 1
The Christian is not one who has become immune to what is happening around
him. Grief and sorrow are something to which the Christian in subject… the
absence of a feeling of grief… savors more of the stoic or psychological states
produced by a cult than of Christianity… [Christians] have something that enables
them to rise above these things… though you feel them. It is not an absence of
feeling.
– D.M. Lloyd-Jones 2
All shall work together for good; everything is needful that he sends; nothing can be
needful that he withholds… You have need of patience, and if you ask, the Lord will
give it. But there can be no settled peace till our will is in a measure subdued…
fight against every thought that would represent it as desirable to be permitted to
choose for yourself. When your spirit is overwhelmed within you; he will not leave
you to sink. And keep close to the throne of grace. If we seem to get no good by
attempting to draw near him, we may be sure we shall get none by keeping away
from him.
– John Newton 3
Christ suffered — not that we might not suffer, but so that in our suffering, we
might become like Him. We may group God’s reasons for suffering into four
categories. First, we suffer for our own sake: That we may learn who God is
(Ps.46:1; Dn.4:24-37), That we may learn to trust (2 Cor.1:8-9) and obey (Ps.119:67-
71) Him. That we may bear fruit (Jn.15:3) and be shaped into Christ’s image
(Rom.8:29) and reach maturity of character (Jas.14; 2 Cor.9:2,12:9; Rom.5:3-4;
Heb.12:1-13). Second, we suffer for the sake of God’s people: That they may have
courage (Phil.1:14) and grace (2 Cor.4:15). That because of ‘death’ working in us, life
may work in them (2 Cor.4:12; Gal.4:13; 1 Jn.3:16). Third, we suffer for the world’s
sake: That it may be shown what love and obedience mean (Jn.14:31; Mt.27:40-43).
That the life of Jesus may be visible in ordinary human flesh (2 Cor.4:10). Fourth,
we suffer for Christ’s sake: That we may identify with him (Gal.2:20). That we may
share in his sufferings and glory (1 Pet.4:12-13; Phil.1:29, 2:17, 3:8,10; Rom.8:17-
18; Heb.2:9-10; 2 Cor.4:17).
– Elisabeth Elliott 4
236

The other gods were strong, but Thou was weak.
They rode, but Thou didst stumble to a throne.
But to our wounds only God’s wounds can speak,
And not a god has wounds but Thou alone.

– Edward Shillito (quoted in E.Elliott)
I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the
humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage, like
the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small Euclidean mind of
man, that in the world’s finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so
precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all
resentments, of the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, of all the blood shed;
that it will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened.
– Fyodor Dostoevsky 5

2. How effective is Plantinga’s answer to those who say, “I can’t believe in God
because of all the suffering in the world?”
3. While we may not know the ultimate reason for suffering, Elliott’s quote
shows us there are a number of penultimate reasons that we suffer. Think of
Job, Jonah, David, and the man born blind (John 9). How did each of these
examples exhibit some of these penultimate reasons?
238

4. Make a summary list of what you have learned in this study about how to face
suffering and trials.
5. Share an example of difficulty or trial in your own life that illustrates any of
the principles that have been covered in this study.

1 Alvin Plantinga, “A Christian Life Partly Lived” in Philosophers Who Believe ed. Kelly James Clark, (IVP,
1993), pp.72.
2 D.M. Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Causes and Cure
3 John Newton, Letters of John Newton
4 Elisabeth Elliott, A Path through Suffering
5 Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
6 David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion ed. Richard Popkin (Indianapolis: Hackett Pub,
1980) p.63.
240

Gospel Christianity
Race and embrace
Study 7 | Course 3
KEY CONCEPT – RECEIVING ONE ANOTHER

you.
Embracing those whose beliefs oppose ours
The need
In our pluralistic world, how can we live and work together harmoniously with
those whose beliefs are extremely different or even offensive to us? The
answer of our society is tolerance.
• Many today say, “We will only get along if we all agree that no one has
the right religion or moral values.” But this can be just a new way to
exclude people.
• “No one has the right moral values” is a very European Enlightenment
view of reality which is being touted as superior to everyone else’s.
• Today those who speak publicly about the truth of their religion or
traditional moral values may be denounced as intolerant or even as
engaging in hate speech. This isn’t progress from intolerance to
tolerance.
• Rather, those who our society once excluded now have the power to
exclude. There must be a better way! There is.
Receptive grace
In Romans 14:1, Paul calls Christians to “receive the one who is weak with
respect to faith.” When Paul calls the person “weak” spiritually he gives him a
somewhat negative evaluation. Yet then he says, “Bear the weaknesses of the
weak and not please ourselves.” (Rom. 15:1).
• Modern tolerance refuses to do any evaluation, but also refuses to let
others impinge on their individual freedom. It says: “I accept all people
— but I’m not going to let anyone affect the way I want to live.”
• But Paul is calling us to something far beyond toleration. It is almost the
opposite. He says that we should evaluate the beliefs and practices of
others, but then we should love them and engage them. (And Paul calls
us not only to have this attitude with other Christians but with our
neighbors – cf. Rom.15:2).
• We should be sympathetic, caring, open and non-judgmental even with
people whose beliefs you evaluate as very wrong. Why? When Jesus
died on the cross, he made a negative evaluation of us — we are
sinners!
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• But though we were weak and sinful he entered into our situation,
cared for us, made room in his life for us, and died for our sins. If we
follow a man like that, how can we ever treat our opponents disdainfully
or oppressively even though we negatively evaluate their beliefs and
practices?
Affirming one another across racial and cultural barriers
The need
In every society there is a pecking order of power, wealth and status, with
some races, classes and cultures on top. The Bible calls Christians to affirm one
another’s equal importance in Christ and not to reproduce those orders inside
the church.
• We deliberately practice the building of relationships with believers
across cultural barriers as a sign of the future kingdom (Eph. 2:11-22; cf.
John 17:21, 23).
• At Pentecost, the gospel was preached in all languages, showing that
no one culture is the right culture and that in the Spirit we can have a
unity that transcends all national, linguistic and cultural barriers.
Distance and Belonging
Christians are a “new ethnic” (1 Pet. 2:9). Our relationship to others in Christ is
to be stronger than our relationship to other members of our own racial and
national groups.
• The gospel makes us all like Abraham, who left his home culture but
never arrived in another one.
• So, for example, Chinese Christians do not leave their “Chineseness”
to become something else, yet the gospel gives them critical distance
from their own culture, enabling them to critique their own idols.
Receptive grace
How can we be free from racial prejudice? When Paul saw Peter as a Jew
refusing to eat with Gentile believers, he said that Peter was “not acting in line
with the gospel” (Gal. 2:14). Racial prejudice denies the very principle of
salvation by grace and not through works. The gospel roots out racial pride.

BIBLE STUDY #1
Romans 14:1-15:7
1. 14:2-3, 5, 14, 20-21 What are the differences of opinion between the “Strong
and the “Weak?”
2. Compare this dispute with 1 Corinthians 8:1-13. What is the same in both
situations? What is different? (Hint: What racial/ethnic group was more likely
to have been “weak” in Rome and in Corinth?)
3. What criticism does Paul give the Strong? What criticism does he give the
Weak? What is the mark or sign of both of these ways that people deny the
gospel (14:3)?
243

4. What does Paul mean by “accept one another as Christ accepted you?” (Rom.
15:7)? How does Christ’s acceptance of us compare with modern notions of
tolerance?
5. What specific practical advice does he give both the Strong and the Weak in
chapter 14 (What courses of action does he prescribe for each)?

BIBLE STUDY #2
Acts 10:24-34; Galatians 2:11-14; 1 Peter 2:9-10; 1 Corinthians 1:22-24
1. What do the Acts 10 and Galatians 2 passages teach about the relationship of
the gospel to race and racism?
2. What do the 1 Peter 2 and the 1 Corinthians 1 passages teach about the effect
the gospel has on the Christian’s relationship to his or her culture/ethnicity?
245

READINGS
you.
The courage to break his cultural and familial ties and abandon the gods of his
ancestors out of allegiance to a God of all families and all cultures was the original
Abrahamic revolution. In the same way, Christians depart from their original culture.
Christians can never be, first of all, Asians or Americans, Russians or Tutsis, and
then Christians. Christians take a distance from the gods of their own culture
because they give the ultimate allegiance to the God of all cultures and his
promised future.
But [now in Christ] departure is no longer a spatial category; it takes place within
the cultural space one inhabits. It involves neither a modern attempt to build a new
heaven out of the world nor a postmodern restlessness that fears to arrive
anywhere. When they respond to the call of the gospel they put one foot outside
their culture while the other remains firmly planted in it. Christian distance is not
flight from one’s original culture, but a new way of living within it because of the
new vision of peace and joy in Christ… To be a child of Abraham and Sarah and to
respond to the call of their God means to make an exodus, to start a voyage,
become a stranger… at the very core of Christian identity lies an all-encompassing
change of loyalty, from a given culture with its gods to the God of all cultures. A
response to a call from that God entails a rearrangement of a whole network of
allegiances… Departure is part and parcel of Christian identity.
– Miroslav Volf 1
Those who are not secure in Christ cast about for spiritual life preservers with
which to support their confidence, and in their frantic search they cling not only to
the shreds of ability and righteousness they find in themselves, but they fix upon
their race, their membership in a party, their familiar social and ecclesiastical
patterns, and their culture as means of self-recommendation. The culture is put on
as though it were armor against self-doubt, but it becomes a mental straitjacket
which cleaves to the flesh and can never be removed except through
comprehensive faith in the saving work of Christ.
Christians who are no longer sure [or nominal Christians who never were!] that God
loves and accepts them in Jesus, apart from their present spiritual achievements,
are subconsciously radically insecure persons… Their insecurity shows itself in
pride, a fierce defensive assertion of their own righteousness and defensive
criticism of others. They come naturally to hate other cultural styles and other races
in order to bolster their own security and discharge their suppressed anger… Once
faith is exercised, a Christian is free… to wear his culture like a comfortable suit of
clothes. He can shift to other cultural clothing temporarily if he wishes to do so, as
Paul suggests in I Corinthians 9:19-23, and he is released to admire and appreciate
the differing expressions of Christ shining out through other cultures.
– Richard Lovelace2

2. The Volf quote tells us that the gospel gives us distance from our
cultural/ethnic identity and yet keeps us within that identity. Discuss the ways
this works out in practice.
3. The Lovelace quote says that those secure in Christ and saved by grace will
not hate those of other races and cultures. How can we explain the fact that so
much racism has and does exist inside the Christian church?
247

4. Discuss some practical ways you can become truly Strong in your attitudes
and relationships with others who are different from you?
1 Miroslav Volf, “Distance and Belonging” from Exclusion and Embrace (Abingdon, 1996)
2 Richard Lovelace, The Dynamics of Spiritual Life (IVP, 1979) p.190-191,198

Gospel Christianity
Integrity and our words
Study 8 | Course 3
Key concept – FAITHFULNESS

you.
The purpose of speech

John Calvin asks, “Why God created our tongues and gave us speech...if not
for our mutual support and charity? God has given us [speech] for the purpose
of nurturing tender love and fraternity.” 1 God is a community of persons who
are completely inter-dependent and loving. Therefore:
• Father, Son, and Holy Spirit only speak truth (Heb. 6:18; John 18:37;
16:13; 18:37).
• They hide nothing from each other (Matt. 11:27; 1 Cor. 2:11).
• They use their speech to build up and glorify one another (John 17:4-5).
We were made in the image of this God, and so the purpose of speech is to
become more interdependent (build community) and to build each other up
(empower them by showing them more of reality) — all by speaking the truth in
love.
Sins of the tongue

One way we can fail to use speech as it was designed is through:
Untruthful speech
We are not to “bear false witness” (Exod. 20:16).
• Jesus made it clear that Christians must not operate on different levels
of truthfulness. Every “yes” and every “no” we utter in daily life should
be as truthful as if we were swearing on a stack of Bibles.(Matt. 5:33-
37)
• And lying is more than simple factual inaccuracy. It is possible to give a
factual accuracy in such a way as to misrepresent reality to the listener.
• The Hebrew word for false witness means “insincere.” The essence of
lying is deceiving — intending to mislead the listener as to the nature of
reality. St. Augustine, in his treatise, “On Lying,” defines it as:
“Speaking… with the intention of deceiving.” 2
• There are many forms of lying, including self-deception. To even be
ignorant, mistaken and deceived about some aspect of reality is to be
living in untruth, and, therefore, out of community with the God of truth,
with yourself, and with others.
249

Unfaithful speech
We are to make and keep promises, even when that hurts (Psa. 15:4).
• We said earlier in this course that there have always been relationships
that were consumer in nature. In these you relate to the vendor only as
long as your needs are being met at an acceptable cost.
• But the Bible expects our personal relationships — to our neighbor,
friends, family, and brothers and sisters in Christ — to be covenantal in
nature. In these you commit to the good of the other whether your
individual needs are being met or not. In our culture, even personal
relationships are now based on the consumer model.
• But the Bible expects us to conduct most of our relationships on the
covenantal model. We make promises when we join a church, get
married, enter many economic contracts and offer our children for
baptism.
Christian integrity
Psalm 15 speaks of the man who speaks truth from his heart (v.2).
• The English word “integrity” is based on the word “integer” or “whole
number.”
• People of integrity are not fractured; they are the same with one crowd
as with another, the same in private as in public, the same in what you
say as in what you mean.
The God of truth

God is the source of all truth because truth is knowing reality as it is, and God
is the source of all reality.
• It is not that it is true that 2+2=4 and God knows it, but because God
knows it, it is true that 2+2=4.
• Jesus does not say, “I know the truth” or even “I can show you the
truth” but “I am the truth.”
a) The Lord is the real in contrast to the fictitious;
b) he is the absolute in contrast to the relative;
c) he is the ultimate in contrast to the derived;
d) he is the substantial in contrast to the ephemeral;
e) he is the solid in contrast to the shadow.

• To be a Christian is to live with a God of Truth. This is the ultimate

reason Christians tell the truth and keep our promises.
251

BIBLE STUDY #1
Proverbs and James
Read Proverbs 12:13-14, 17-19; 15:4; 16:24, 27-28; 18:8; 29:5;

James 1:26; 3:1-6
1. What do you learn from these verses about the importance of our words?
Read Proverbs 11:12,13; 12:17-20, 22-23, 25; 15:1,23; 17:27-28; 18:13; 25:11-12,15
2. What do you learn in these verses about the will of God for our words?

Read James 4:10; 5:9; Prov. 11:13; 16:2, 28; 17:9; 18:8, 17; 25:7b-10, 23.
3. What do you learn in these verses about what gossip and slander are? About
what we should do if we hear it?
253

BIBLE STUDY #2
Ephesians 4:15-16, 22-32
What can we learn about God’s will for our speech from verses 25-32?

READINGS
you.
A commandment that forbids me to lie compels me to be truthful. It obligates me
to be faithful to what I think, what I believe, what I feel — and so to be faithful to
the person with whom I am communicating… Respect for truthfulness [however]
does not compel us to reveal our minds to everyone or on every occasion… [But]
the commandment sends us into all human relationships with a bias toward
truthfulness. 6
Why make promises at all? And if you do make them, why keep them? Why not
tune in to growth and change and the maximizing of your feelings? The answer to
the nettlesome whys of promise-making is this, to paraphrase Hannah Arendt (The
Human Condition) — the only way to overcome the unpredictability of your future is
the power of promising. If forgiving is the only remedy for your painful past,
promising is the only remedy for your uncertain future… When I make a promise I
bear witness that my future with you is not locked into… the fateful combinations
of X’s and Y’s in the hand I was dealt out of my parents’ genetic deck. When I
make a promise, I testify that I was not routed along some unalterable itinerary by
the psychic conditioning visited on me by my slightly wacky parents. I am not fated.
I am not determined. When I make a promise to anyone I rise above all the
conditioning that limits me… No German shepherd ever promised to be there with
me. No home computer ever promised to be my loyal help. Only a person can
make a promise, and when he does, he is most free.
– Lewis Smedes 7
“When a man takes an oath, Meg, he is holding his own self in his hand, like water.
And if he opens his fingers then he needs to hope to find himself again.” (In Robert
Bolt’s play “A Man for all Seasons” this is Thomas More speaking to his daughter
Meg who is begging him to save his own life by renouncing an oath he had once
mad.)
When I married my wife, I had hardly a smidgen of sense for what I was getting
into with her. How could I know how much she would change over the years? How
could I know how much I would change? My wife has lived with at least five
different men since we were married — and each of the five has been me. The
connecting link with my old self has always been the memory of the name I took
on back there: “I am he who will be there with you.” When we slough off that
name, lose that identity, we can hardly find ourselves again. -- Lewis Smedes 8
255

The future of the human family rides on… a promise spoken and not forgotten. A
man named Abraham strode off into his unpredictable future as he gambled on the
reliability of a promise uttered by a Presence he had scarcely begun to feel. And so
the new possibility for history began. Moses tried to get a better fix on the identity
of this Presence… “What is your name?” he dared to ask. And the answer came…
“I am he who will be there with you.” (Exod. 3:14)… Then a man from Galilee
talked to his friends about sealing this ancient promise in his blood and a day later
he spilled it… on a mound they called Golgotha. “I am he who will be there with
you” was there with us, dying, then rising, and then being with us to the end of the
world… Human destiny rests on a promise freely given and reliably remembered.
Whenever you and I make and keep a promise, we are as close to being like God
as we can ever be. When you say to anyone that you will be there with [him or her
or them], you are only a millimeter beneath the angels.
– Lewis Smedes 9

2. The first quote by Smedes raises the age-old question — is it ever the loving
thing to tell a white lie?
3. Application project on general sins of the tongue
Tongue-sins regarding yourself

“May I never boast except in the cross our Lord Jesus Christ.’ – Gal.6:14
a. Boasting or defending yourself. We should not brag or try to show
how great we are. We should not always be blowing our own horn.
And if we are criticized or if we fail in some way, we should take
responsibility calmly and not run at the mouth trying to show why it
wasn’t your fault or how many mitigating circumstances there were,
and so on. In short, we should speak humbly and sparingly about
ourselves, and apologize without lots of excuses when necessary.
257

Tongue-sins regarding others

“If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be
destroyed by each other.” – Gal.5:15
b. Talking unkindly of others. We should not make fun of others, talking
disdainfully or contemptuously to others. This should not even be
done by public figures or groupings of people we don’t know
personally. We should instead speak compassionately even when
talking about something negative.
c. Talking unkindly to others. Don’t speak abrasively or coldly or even
indifferently to people when talking about where you think they have
done something wrong. Not only that, pro-actively look for sincere
ways to complement the people around you. When criticism must be
done, lovingly attack the flaw, not the person.
Tongue-sins regarding life

“But the fruit of the Spirit is… joy, peace, patience… faithfulness,
gentleness…” – Gal.5:22-23
d. Complain or “murmur.” Don’t “murmur” against life as if it were not a
gift laced with many mercies. This is not “Pollyanna” optimism, but a
putting all things in the context of God’s grace. Let your everyday talk
be filed with tones of gratitude, appreciation, and praise.
In which of the four areas do you have the most problem? (Which kind of
“tongue-sin” do you struggle with most?) What could you do to improve?

3 Lewis Smedes, Mere Morality (Eerdmans, 1983) p.223.
4 Lewis Smedes, Mere Morality (Eerdmans, 1983) p.223
5 Joy Davidman, Smoke on the Mountain (Westminster, 1953), p.111
6 Lewis Smedes, Mere Morality (Eerdmans, 1983) p.215-216.
10 See John Murray, “The Sanctity of Truth” in Principles of Conduct (Eerdmans, 1957) pp.138-141
259

Gospel Christianity
Guidance and wisdom
Study 9 | Course 3
Key concept – WISDOM

you.
What is wisdom?
Gerhard Von Rad defined wisdom as competence with regard to the realities of
life.
• Wisdom is not mere knowledge; it is applying knowledge so as to
choose the most practical course of action.
• Wisdom is not mere obedience; it is choosing the most right and true
course of action when there are no stated rules for a situation.
• Some decisions require only knowledge (like the medicine to take)
while some require only obedience (like whether to commit adultery or
not).
• But most decisions — who to marry, whether to break up, what job to
take, whether to move, whether to continue education, whether, when
and how to confront a person — require wisdom.
Biblical wisdom, more particularly, is skillful living based on insight into:
a) the ways and purposes of God,

b) the human heart (especially your own), and
c) the times and seasons.
Various Hebrew words for wisdom in Proverbs show this.
Discipline (musar – Prov. 1:2a, 3a) refers to the habits of mind and character
that come from lots of practice and training.
• As an athlete only gets competent physically from rigorous training, so
wisdom comes hard-won.
• We get wisdom either from the discipline of painful experience or the
discipline of careful study and self-examination.
• Wisdom is not impulsive behavior but cool-headedness.
Discernment (bina – Prov. 1:2b) is the ability to notice distinctions and shades of
difference where others see only a blur.
260

• Discernment rightly interprets the minds and hearts of the people

around us, knowing what they really mean and are up to.
• Discernment is the ability to recognize multiple options and courses of
action when others can only imagine one or two.
• Most of all, discernment is the ability to discern between the best, the
good and the bad.
Discretion (haskel – Prov. 1:3a; orma – Prov. 1:4a) is often translated
“prudence” or “shrewdness.” It is to be strategic, to know practical steps that
will bring a goal into reality. It is the ability to solve problems rather than create
them.
• While discernment is a form of insight into hearts, so discretion is a
form of foresight — knowing what courses of action will lead to what
result.
Guidance and wisdom

God promises to counsel and guide us on the way we should go (Psa. 32:8;
Rom. 8:14). God does have an overall plan for our lives. It includes allowing
difficulties and
2suffering (Heb. 12:7-11) but the purpose for everything is our good (Rom.
8:28) and to make us useful to God and others (Eph. 2:10).
Many conceive of guidance or discovering God’s will as a process of trying to
guess what is in God’s plan for fear that they will miss it. But surely our failures
and mistakes and even sins are included in God’s plan for us (Rom 8:28 – “all
things work together for good”).
Instead, God calls us to learn how to make good decisions by developing
wisdom.
• Secure in the knowledge of God’s sovereign love — that we can’t
ultimately mess up his plans for us — we should become the kind of
person who makes wise choices.
• The Bible does not talk so much about how to get guidance but about
what kind of person is guided through wisdom.
• Moderns want techniques for guidance — but the Bible calls us to
character. Pagans looked for signs and omens, and read the stars, for
they wanted impersonal knowledge of what was going to happen.
• The Bible instead directs us to know personally the one in charge of the
world, and then, through wisdom, “He will direct your paths” (Prov. 3:5, 6).

How to get wisdom
• Knowing God is the beginning of wisdom (Prov. 9:10), since he is

ultimate reality.
• Saturate yourself in the Word to get sensitive to his mind and heart
(Psa. 119).
• Learn from suffering, especially looking at your own weaknesses (Prov.
3:11).
• Have wise friends in community and get advice (Prov. 13:10; 17:10).
• Use prayer to cleanse your motives to seek God’s will (John 7:17), not
to get feelings or promptings.
262

BIBLE STUDY #1
Psalm 25:1-22
1. What basic, main petitions does David make? What are the broad categories
under which his various requests fall?
2. What do we learn about guidance from David’s prayer? What do we learn from
vv.4-5, vv.8-9, vv.10, 12, vv.14-15?

3. This Psalm of petition does not end with an answering touch as in Psalm
28:6ff. (See also Psa. 6:8; 20:6). How can he nonetheless live in confidence that
he will never be put to shame (v.3)?
4. What did you learn in this Psalm that you most need to apply to yourself?
264

BIBLE STUDY #2
Romans 8:28-30
1. v.28 In what ways does a belief in the promise of v.28 affect the way we face
a) the good and, b) bad circumstances, and even c) the failures and sins of our
lives?
2. v.28 What does Paul say are the two conditions for receiving this promise?
What does each term mean?
3. v.28 What does this text imply is the effect of “all things” on those who don’t
love God? Why do you think the effect is different on them?

4. vv.29-30 How do vv.29-30 explain what God’s ultimate purpose in history is,
and also what our ultimate good is in v.28?
5. v.28-31 Why can Paul use the past tense, “glorified,” when speaking of a
Christian? What does this tell us about the certainty of our final salvation?
266

READINGS
you.
Isaac knew of God’s birth oracle of Gen. 25:23 [where God had told him that Jacob,
not Esau would be the one to lead the family and inherit God’s blessing], yet he set
himself to use God’s power to thwart it [when he sought to bless Esau in the name
of God to give him the birthright] in Gen. 27:29. This is the outlook of magic, not
[faith.] Esau, in agreeing to the plan broke his oath to Jacob in 25:33. Rebekah and
Jacob, though with a just cause, made no approach to God or man, no gesture of
faith or love [and deceived the old blind Isaac, dressing Jacob up as Esau]. They
reaped the appropriate fruit of hatred. [But] these rival stratagems only succeeded
in doing “whatsoever [God’s] hand and… counsel foreordained” (cf. Acts 4:28). As
a crowning touch, at a moment when Isaac was in no mood to care whom Jacob
might marry, Jacob found himself thrust out of the nest he had feathered, to seek
refuge and a wife among the very kinsmen to whom Abraham had turned in
obedience to the vision (Gen. 24:3ff).
– Derek Kidner 1
When we seek to “find” God’s will for us, we are [often] attempting to discover
hidden knowledge by supernatural activity. If we are going to find his will on one
specific choice [that the Bible has not directly spoken to], we have to penetrate the
divine mind to get his decision. “Finding” in this sense is really a form of divination.
It was the preoccupation of pagan kings. Most of our texts from the ancient Near
East pertain to divination. The king would never act in something as important as
going to battle until he had the mind of the god as to whether he should go to
war… The New Testament gives no explicit command to “find God’s will”… in this
way, to get a glimpse of the mind of the Almighty. Christ criticized the perverse
generation that always asks for a sign from God.
– Bruce Waltke 2
When all the [sheep and rams] had been shut inside the gate… one by one John
seized them by their curled horns and flung them into the vat of antiseptic. They
would struggle to climb out the side and Mack [a sheepdog] would snarl and snap
at their faces to force them back in. Just as they were about to climb up the ramp
at the far end, John caught them by the horns with a wooden implement, spun
them around, forced them under again, and held them — ears, eyes, and nose
submerged for a few seconds. I’ve had some experiences in my life which have
made me feel very sympathetic to those poor rams — I couldn’t figure out any
reason for the treatment I was getting from the Shepherd I trusted. As I watched
the struggling sheep I thought, “If there were some way to explain! But such
knowledge is too wonderful for them — it is high, they cannot attain unto it.” So far
as they could see, there was no point whatsoever… The glory of God’s will for us
means absolute trust… it means the will to do his will; and it means joy. Can you
lose? Certainly you can. Go ahead and lose your life — that’s how you find it! “My
life,” Jesus said, “for the life of the world.” What is your life for?
– Elizabeth Elliot 3

2. What does the story of Jacob’s deception of Isaac tell us about God’s
sovereignty, according to Kidner? What are the implications for those who are
afraid of missing God’s will? (You may wish to review Genesis 27.)
3. What does the Waltke and the Elliot quotes say to the person who believes
nothing can be God’s will unless “I have a peace about it?”
268

4. A worksheet for Christian decision-making 4
A. Prayer and meditation

Are you spending adequate amounts of time with God (1) for purifying your
heart from the fear, pride and idolatries that lead to unwise decisions? (2) for
learning the joy of submission to his will? (3) for asking for wisdom (Jam. 1:5)?
B. Weigh the alternatives in light of Christian priorities

Use your wisdom to generate all the options. (Don’t settle for a false either-or
when there are alternatives.) Now which option(s) best:
• Fits with my spiritual, mental, physical growth and well-being?
• Fits with my family’s spiritual, mental, physical growth and well-being?
• Meets the needs of others in the world?
• Provides the best strategic convergence between my gifts and
opportunities to serve God and others?
• Builds up and enhances Christian community?
• List the pros and cons of each option in light of the above priorities.
Which options best accomplish all or most of them? Be sure to list both
long-term pros and cons and short term pros and cons.
a) Rule out any option that is against explicit Biblical teaching.
b) Rule out any option that is enslaving, that supports besetting
idolatries.
C. Counsel of others
Most of the time, decision-makers don’t talk to enough wise people. What do
other mature people who know me well think of my options? Note: If you are a
more intuitive-extroverted type, this may be the main way to make the
decision. See end-note 4.
D. Feelings
If you have persistent negative feelings about an option, try to figure out why
you do. Bring to the surface the motives and reasons of the heart. Once you’ve
made it explicit, judge whether that motive or reasoning fits in with Biblical
priorities or fits with what other wise people say.
E. Decision
Make the choice that most comports with the wisdom level you have, and then
trust that God will use your choice in his plan for your life.

1 Derek Kidner, Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary (IVP, 1967), p.155.
2 Bruce Waltke, Finding the Will of God (Eerdmans, 1995) p. 11.
3 Elizabeth Elliot, The Glory of God’s Will (Good News Publishers, 1982) p.1-3.
4 People who are analytical are often helped by the discipline of thinking out alternatives, each with its
pros and cons. But people who are more intuitive by temperament will probably find such a procedure
too burdensome and difficult. The more intuitive types often are helped mainly by the very process of
talking aloud to you about the decision and the issues it raises. Use community. Talk about your decision
out loud with a variety of wise people who will ask you clarifying questions like: “Why do you say that?”
“Why is that so important to you?” “Why is that so difficult for you?”
270

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Gospel

Leaders Guide | Course 3

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it,

Tim Keller | Redeemer Presbyterian Church | 2007

1 Study 1 Gospel character 185

61 Study 4 Humility and self-image 214

83 Study 5 Self-control and emotions 224

101 Study 6 Patience in suffering 232

122 Study 7 Race and embrace 241

147 Study 8 Integrity and our words 249

163 Study 9 Guidance and wisdom 260

Copyright © Timothy J. Keller, and Redeemer Presbyterian Church 2007

KEY CONCEPT - SPIRITUAL FRUIT

The Spirit’s purpose

The Spirit’s process

The Spirit’s fruit

Copyright © Timothy J. Keller, and Redeemer Presbyterian Church 2007

The Unity of the Fruit

2 Study 1 | Gospel Christianity Course 3

Copyright © Timothy J. Keller, and Redeemer Presbyterian Church 2005

1. Which statements impressed you and why?

Copyright © Timothy J. Keller, and Redeemer Presbyterian Church 2007

Real self-control dependent on joy

4 Study 1 | Gospel Christianity Course 3

Copyright © Timothy J. Keller, and Redeemer Presbyterian Church 2005

Real integrity dependent on love

Real gentleness dependent on love

Real forgiveness depends on several of the fruit

Copyright © Timothy J. Keller, and Redeemer Presbyterian Church 2007

• If your finances or people’s approval is a greater source of joy to you

First, it means that even our strengths have to be renewed.

6 Study 1 | Gospel Christianity Course 3

Copyright © Timothy J. Keller, and Redeemer Presbyterian Church 2007

• Paul speaks about “speaking in the tongues of men and of angels”

Copyright © Timothy J. Keller, and Redeemer Presbyterian Church 2007

8 Study 1 | Gospel Christianity Course 3

Copyright © Timothy J. Keller, and Redeemer Presbyterian Church 2007

Copyright © Timothy J. Keller, and Redeemer Presbyterian Church 2007

10 Study 1 | Gospel Christianity Course 3

Copyright © Timothy J. Keller, and Redeemer Presbyterian Church 2007

c) Children are only weaned off of their native self-centeredness as they

Jesus’ dying love on the cross as an example is actually a crushing burden. If

Copyright © Timothy J. Keller, and Redeemer Presbyterian Church 2007

12 Study 1 | Gospel Christianity Course 3

Copyright © Timothy J. Keller, and Redeemer Presbyterian Church 2007

Copyright © Timothy J. Keller, and Redeemer Presbyterian Church 2007

14 Study 1 | Gospel Christianity Course 3

Copyright © Timothy J. Keller, and Redeemer Presbyterian Church 2007

1. Which statements impressed you and why?

a) What is Edwards stunning point?

Copyright © Timothy J. Keller, and Redeemer Presbyterian Church 2007

• If you have a gift of teaching, for example, the classroom situation

16 Study 1 | Gospel Christianity Course 3

Copyright © Timothy J. Keller, and Redeemer Presbyterian Church 2007

Copyright © Timothy J. Keller, and Redeemer Presbyterian Church 2007

3. Jonathan Edwards says in “common morality” one does good because it

13What motivates people to good, moral, and virtuous behavior? Jonathan

18 Study 1 | Gospel Christianity Course 3

Copyright © Timothy J. Keller, and Redeemer Presbyterian Church 2007

b) You are doing an ingenious form of judo on yourself. (Judo depends

Copyright © Timothy J. Keller, and Redeemer Presbyterian Church 2007

• Then Chalmers depicts him making another change. He comes to see

20 Study 1 | Gospel Christianity Course 3