Brothers, We Are Not Professionals:
a plea to pastors for radical ministry
John Piper
Preface
Insulated Western Christianity is waking from the dreamworld that
being a Christian is normal or safe. More and more, true Christianity
is becoming what it was at the beginning: foolish and dangerous. (1
Cor. 1:23, John 16:2)
The rise of radical Islam simply intensifies the ever-present truth:
preaching Christ crucified ruins professional pastoral politeness and
wakens us to the wreckage of relativistic pluralism.
Professional peacemakers rush to the podium to announce the
common ground of monotheism and everybody’s high regard for the
prophet Jesus.
One Sunni Muslim says, “Muslim believe that Allah saved the
Messiah from the ignominy of crucifixion much as Allah saved the
Seal of the Prophets from ignominy following Hijra.” And another
adds, “we honor him [Jesus] more than you do. . . . Do we not honor
him moer than you do when we refuse to believe that god would
permit him to suffer death on the cross? Rather, we believe God
took him to heaven.”
The issue is not whether Islam is monotheistic. The issue is not
whether the Islam tries to honor Jesus. The issue is: Does Islam or
any other faith besides Christianity – cherish the crucifixion of the
God-Man, Jesus Christ, as the only ground of our acceptance with
God?
Beware of replacing real truth-based tolerance with spurious
professional tolerance. Once upon a time tolerance was the power
that kept lovers of competing faiths from killing each other. It was
the principle that put freedom above forced conversion. It was
rooted in the truth that coerced conviction is no conviction. That is
true tolerance. But now the new professional tolerance denies that
there are any competing faiths; they only complement each other. It
denounces not only the effort to face force conversions but also the
idea that any conversion may be necessary.
Chapter 1: Brothers, We Are Not Professionals
The more professional we long to be, the more spiritual death we
will leave in our wake. For there is no professional childlikeness
(Matt. 18:3); there is no professional tender heartedness (Eph. 4:32);
there is no professional panting after God (Ps. 42:1)
Chapter 2: Brothers, God Loves His Glory
God’s first commitment is to His glory and that this is the basis for
ours. God does everything for His glory, and that is why we should.
The role of the Holy Spirit is to burn in me what He has been burning
with for all eternity: God’s love for God. Or more precisely, God the
Father’s delight in the panorama of His own perfections reflected as
a perfect image in His Son.
Who is the most God-centered Person in the universe? – God is.
Is God an idolater? – No, He has no other gods before Him.
What is the chief end of God? – God’s chief end is to glorify God and
enjoy His glory forever.
“[God] had respect to himself, as his last and highest end, in this
work; because he is worthy in himself to be so, being infinitely the
greatest and best of beings. All things else, with regard to
worthiness, importance, and excellence, are perfectly as nothing in
comparison of him. . . . All that is ever spoken of in Scriptures as an
ultimate end of God’s works is included in that one phrase, the glory
of God”
- Jonathan Edwards, The End For Which God Created The
World.
God loves His glory more than He loves us and that this is the
foundation of His love for us.
The foundation, the means, and the goal of God’s agape for sinners
is His prior, deeper, and ultimate love for His own glory. Therefore,
brothers, tell your people the great ground of the gospel: God loves
His glory!
Chapter 3: Brothers, God is Love
Spiritual leadership – knowing where God wants people to be and
taking the initiative to get them there by God’s means in reliance to
God’s power.
God wants people to be where He is going – God loves His glory and
He aims to magnify His glory in all He does.
Goal of Spiritual Leadership – to muster people to join God in living
for God’s glory.
Objection: God is self-centered egomaniac who seems never to act
out of love.
Holy – He is one of a kind. There is none like Him. He is in a class by
Himself. (Ex. 15:11; 1Sam. 2:2; Isa. 40:25; Rev. 4:8-11; Isa. 6:3; Hab.
3:3; Lev. 10:3). The holiness of God is the absolutely unique and
infinite value of His being and His majesty. To say that our God is
holy means that His value is infinitely greater than the sum of the
value of all created things.
Righteousness – He has a right assessment of His own ultimate
value. He has a just regard for his own infinite worth, and He brings
all His actions into conformity to this right judgement of Himself.
God would be unrighteous and unreliable if He denied His
ultimate value, disregard his infinite worth, and acted as though the
preservation and display of His glory were worth anything less than
His wholehearted commitment. God acts in righteousness when He
acts for His own name’s sake. For it would not be right for God to
esteem anything above the infinite glory of His own name. (Ps.
143:11; 31:1,3; Dan. 9:16-17) For God to be righteous, He must
devote Himself 100 percent, with all His heart, soul, and strength, to
loving and honouring His own holiness in the display of His glory.

Love – does not contrary to His holiness and righteousness but is

demanded. His holiness is the absolute uniqueness and ultimate
value of His glory. His righteousness is His unswerving commitment
always to honor and display that glory. And His all-sufficient glory is
honoured and displayed most by His working for us rather than our
working for Him. And this is love.

Test: “Do you feel most loved by God because He makes much of
you, or because He frees you to enjoy making much of Him
forever?”

God is loved because He is infinitely valuable (His holiness) and is

committed to displaying that value for our everlasting enjoyment
(His righteousness). God is the one being in all the world for whom
the most loving act is self-exaltation. For it is He and He alone who
will satisfy our hearts.

There is no absolute interpretation for the absolute truth - R.A.

Torrey, Evangelist

2 Law
Law of Morality – Exodus
Law of Grace – Leviticus

God sends the Picture before He sends the Person

Shemah: hear O Israel the Lord is God, the Lord is One.

Western dichotomized things.