As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
“I’m not saying that you should… purposefully inconvenience yourself just so you can say you’re suffering. Rather, simply beware that the blessings that God provides with the many creature comforts we enjoy can become an idol.” - Credo
“everyone who does any kind of work will be heavy laden. No one is exempt from the curse God pronounced on work after Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:16-19). This is true for believers and unbelievers.” - IFWE
“I’ve been told that ‘Leemers’ is a term used by naval aviators to describe a gut feeling that something is wrong, even if there’s no definitive proof…. it’s a brilliant concept and something we need to consider in our work.” - Phil Cooke
“In today’s digital world—and especially in an election year—it’s heartbreaking to see God’s people become a bickering, angry mob.” - Randy Alcorn
“The easiest way to not be afraid of anything is to be ignorant….The second easiest way to not be afraid of anything is to not love anything….These are sub-Christian options.” - TGC
“Can we please God? Should we try to? Is there a place for striving in the Christian life? Can God be disappointed with the Christian? Does the gospel make any demands? These are good questions that require a good deal of nuance and precision to answer well.” - Kevin DeYoung
“Such daily showing up, Dyck argues, may not look like much at first glance, but it is quietly revolutionary. It is the key for healthy marriage and family life, for building friendships, and for growing spiritually.” - Mere Orthodoxy
I recently wrote a brief defense of the importance of personal effort (or “trying harder”) in God’s gracious design to transform His saints. My central claim was that we put ourselves at odds with the NT if we understand or teach the dynamic of sanctification in a way that devalues or strongly cautions against hard work.
But that doesn’t mean emphasizing hard work has no attendant hazards.
Bob Hayton wrote of one of these pitfalls in a post: Particular Pitfalls of Independent Baptists: Performance-Based Sanctification.
Work hard, feel good; blow it and feel terrible. Where is the confidence in God’s grace in this model? The secret to living victoriously for Christ is gritting your teeth, doing more, and not doing the things you shouldn’t do. Try, try, try. Harder, harder, harder! Don’t quit. Keep going. We say that salvation is by grace, but growing in Christ is about the will power, the commitment and the determination.
This can lead to despair or a terrible form of pride.
The solution Bob advocates (citing Terry Rayburn and Tim Kellar, in part) is to reject trying harder, and focus exclusively on faith. Several Reformed leaders have emphasized a similar perspective in recent years (with a burst of back and forth on the Web beginning in the summer of 2011, see the table posting tomorrow), Tullian Tchividjian and Sean Lucas among them.
My purpose here is to explore the problem Bob and others have described. Perhaps we can come to more fully understand it.
“The first category is books to read slowly….The third category is books to read for fun….The second category sits between them: books to read quickly.” - Challies
“I wonder if we’ve made it a little too abstract, a little too inactive, and perhaps a little too solitary. What is meditation? Meditation is pondering the words of the Bible with the goal of better understanding and sharper application.” - Challies
Discussion