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He Delights More in Simple Sincerity than Grand Acts of Pride

Jonathan Edwards takes 1 Corinthians 13:3: ‘If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing,’ along with Mark 9:41: ‘For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward,’ and comes to this conclusion:

God abominates the greatest things without sincerity, but he accepts of and delights in little things when they spring from sincere love to himself. A cup of cold water given to a disciple in sincere love, is worth more in God’s sight than all one’s goods given to feed the poor, yea, than the wealth of a kingdom given away, or a body offered up in the flames, without love.

-from Chapter 3 of Charity and Its Fruits

If we accept this conclusion (and I think we have to), then we can never underestimate the value of small acts performed out of sincere love for Christ. In that sense, there is more cosmic significance in the Jesus-loving housewife changing her child’s dirty diaper than in the religious man burning in flames of martyrdom for his pride. He delights more in the loving mopping of the janitor than in the grand politicking of the prideful leaders of the masses. He delights more in the modest hymning of the loving country church member than in the grandiose singing of the loveless tenor.

Let that fact encourage you, as it has me, in the midst of the mundane.

Blogging Through Charity and Its Fruits

This is one Edwards book that I have wanted to read for quite a while but never quite gotten around to. I am beginning a sermon series on 1 Corinthians 13 this coming Sunday (I plan to preach maybe 15 sermons on the chapter) and decided that it would be wise to turn to Edwards as I prepare. FYI, I rank Edwards in the top 5 of people who have most influenced me in my life and theology. I couldn’t imagine what I would be like had I never picked up a book by Jonathan Edwards.

Charity and Its Fruits is Edwards’ 13 sermon exposition of 1 Corinthians 13 (the great New Testament chapter on ‘love’). I have been reading a sermon a day for the past three days and have already found it extremely helpful. I will continue posting about Technopoly for the next couple of weeks, but will also begin posting quotes and thoughts from Charity and Its Fruits.

It is interesting that studying Edwards alongside modern ideas of technology, science, and culture can be quite illuminating. For a fascinating demonstration of this, watch George Marsden’s presentation of how Edwards’ Christianity intersects with, and speaks to, modern culture HERE.

 

Jonathan Edwards’ Fountain Analogy of Creation

Thus it is fit, since there is an infinite fountain of light and knowledge, that this light should shine forth in beams of communicated knowledge and understanding; and, as there is an infinite fountain of holiness, moral excellence, and beauty, that so it should flow out in communicated holiness. And that, as there is an infinite fulness of joy and happiness, so these should have emanation, and become a fountain flowing out in abundant streams, as beams from the sun…
…The diffusive disposition that excited God to give creatures existence, was rather a communicative disposition in general, or a disposition in the fulness of the divinity to flow out and diffuse itself…
Therefore, to speak strictly according to truth, we may suppose, that a disposition in God, as an original property of his nature, to an emanation of his own infinite fulness, was what excited him to create the world; and so, that the emanation itself was aimed at by him as a last end of the creation.

– A Dissertation Concerning the End for which God Created the World, from The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 1 (Banner of Truth), p. 100 (Read it for free HERE).

Summary: God’s glory relates to his fullness (in Hebrew it denotes weight). By way of analogy, God is brimming with beauty (holiness), love, and joy; and this love, beauty and joy, as it were, overflows into the act and substance of creation.

The danger here is Pantheism. If God is like a fountain, and creation is the overflow of that fountain, then creation itself is God (as though God were extending his being into creation). This is where the analogy fails. The point to make here is that God’s way of overflowing is through speech.

  • Psalm 33:6 By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.

Jesus says that it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks (Mat. 12:34, Luke 6:45). In Greek, the word abundance here indicates an overflowing. The abundance of the heart overflows into the speech of the mouth. Whatever the heart is full of tends to come out in words. Using Edwards’ analogy, and relating it to Jesus’ words, the true analogy becomes clear. Out of God’s abundance he speaks creation into being. It is the overflow of his heart (who he is in himself) coming out of his (metaphorical) mouth.

Thus we avoid pantheism. The fact that creation is the overflow of God does not mean that it is God. Rather, creation belongs to God in the same way that our own speech belongs to us. Our words reflect who we are and our words belong to us. God’s words, which make the worlds, reflect his fullness (glory) and they belong to him.

Reading for the New Year

At the beginning of each new year I read the same three things:

1. Psalm 90

2. Ephesians 5

3. The Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards

I also remind myself of the words of Charles Spurgeon: ‘He who marries today’s fashion is tomorrow’s widow.’

I would also encourage readers (if you aren’t already working through the Bible systematically) to start a plan to read the Bible at least once this year. There are multiple resources available to help you. For those who really want to get after it, I recommend the three month plan HERE. I followed this plan through a few years ago and managed to read the Bible four times that year. I eventually figured out that I could do this without the exact plan so long as I read about 25 minutes a day. I have settled in on three times a year for the past couple of years, that seems to work best for me. I am to the point where I do this by feel, and don’t need to follow a concrete layout, but there  is a structured four month plan available HERE. I will also provide a link to Robert Murray M’Cheyne’s one year plan HERE.

Whatever you do, be persistent. Expect setbacks, and do not let them deter you. This is not something that you do in order to be accepted by God, so there is no external pressure. This is something for the good of your own soul. If you miss a meal, you just eat a little more at the next one. That’s the way it works.

A Few Resources I Recommend

It dawned on me today that, since I devote most of my posts on the blog to particular things I’m reading, I don’t actually share links and resources that often. I thought I would post links to a few resources that you may find helpful (or at least that I’ve found helpful).

AUDIO BIBLES

First, I’ve meant to share this before, but my absolute favorite audio recording of the Bible is available HERE. The translation is actually the World English Bible, which isn’t too bad and is available for free because it’s in the public domain. The only downside with this site is that you have to listen to each chapter of the Bible individually and click a link for each new chapter. But I actually like that feature until you get to Psalms. I use this audio Bible literally every day.

If you don’t care for that one, you can use my number two choice HERE. You can pick the translation and from various readers. I like to listen to Max McLean personally. The reason I prefer the David Field audio to this one is the speed. Field reads a bit faster. I generally use this version for the psalms and if I want to hear how McLean pronounces a word.t

PRAYER

Next, I want to recommend (again) a recording of some of the pastoral prayers of Martyn Lloyd-Jones. While we have many of the great sermons of the great preachers left in print, we do not have many of their prayers. Here we have the blessing of hearing the Doctor pray in his own voice. You can listen to them HERE.

You can also read a good number of Charles Spurgeon’s prayers HERE. I also have a little book of prayers by John Calvin that I read fairly regularly, and have for years. The closest thing to it I’ve found online is HERE. A great overall site for prayer, based on Matthew Henry’s Method for Prayer, can be found HERE.

COMMENTARIES

As far as commentaries, I have Calvin’s commentaries in my library, but I often use the easily accessible online version found HERE. I also frequent the online version of Matthew Henry’s commentary HERE (you can choose from a number of classic commentaries on the page).

SERMONS

As far as reading sermons, for printed sermons I usually go HERE for Spurgeon and HERE for others. The second site linked here is Monergism, which I highly recommend. Another great resource is Yale’s Jonathan Edwards page HERE.

For audio sermons I frequent the MLJ Trust (Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ audio sermon archive) HERE, Redeemer’s free audio page HERE (sermons by Tim Keller), and Desiring God (John Piper) HERE. I also occasionally visit HERE to search for audio readings of the sermons of Spurgeon, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and others.

BOOKS

Finally, for free audio books I frequent Books Should Be Free, which can be found HERE. I’ve listened to several G.K. Chesterton books via this site, as well as some John Owen and John Calvin. In addition to that, I have listened to several fairy story books with my children.

AUDIO JOURNALS

I highly recommend Mars Hill Audio. I can’t imagine what my life would be like had I never been introduced to their audio reports and conversations. There is some free content on the site, but most of it isn’t free. Everything I have ever purchased from them has been well worth the price. Ken Myers is about as thoughtful a Christian as we have these days, and he speaks with people who have thought deeply about the various topics they discuss. There are many great resources available on C.S. Lewis, reading, philosophy, culture, and all sorts of other things. You can create an account to get a free sample of their audio journal HERE.

POETRY

I usually read poetry from a few massive volumes I have bought at library book sales. There is, however, a great online source HERE.

A WORD ON BOOK SALES

Speaking of library book sales, let me encourage avid readers to find out if their libraries have such sales. Our local library has one the first weekend of every month, and other libraries in our area have similar sales from time to time. You can usually get paperbacks for a quarter. If you live in a metropolitan area, thrift stores like Goodwill or Salvation Army are a great resource for cheap books. I have found some of the greatest books that I’ve every read at so-called junk stores.

As a matter of fact, just a couple of months ago I was at one such store and discovered that, apparently, a large chunk of a minister’s library had been donated. There were books on Hebrew and Greek and all sorts of other books on sale for a quarter each. I bought a whole collection (8 volumes) of G. Campell Morgan sermons, two Francis Schaeffer books, some C.S. Lewis, and several other books as well, for less than 5 dollars.

That’s all for now, happy reading.

The Christian Sight-Seer: Enjoyment Without Attachment

  • Hebrews 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14 For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.

In his sermon, The Christian Pilgrim, Jonathan Edwards delivers one of the most helpful analogies that I have ever read. As a matter of fact, it may be the most helpful that I’ve ever read outside of the Bible. One of the word-pictures he paints of the Christian pilgrim is as follows:

A traveler is not wont to rest in what he meets with, however comfortable and pleasing, on the road. If he passes through pleasant places, flowery meadows, or shady groves, he does not take up his content in these things, but only takes a transient view of them as he goes along. He is not enticed by fine appearances to put off the thought of proceeding. No, but his journey’s end is in his mind. If he meets with comfortable accommodations at an inn, he entertains no thoughts of settling there. He considers that these things are not his own, that he is but a stranger, and when he has refreshed himself, or tarried for a night, he is for going forward. And it is pleasant to him to think that so much of the way is gone.

So should we desire heaven more than the comforts and enjoyments of this life. The apostle mentions it as an encouraging, comfortable consideration to Christians, that they draw nearer their happiness. “Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” — Our hearts ought to be loose to these things, as that of a man on a journey, that we may as cheerfully part with them whenever God calls. “But this I say, brethren, the time is short, it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as not abusing it; for the fashion of this world passeth away.” (1 Cor. 7:29-31) These things are only lent to us for a little while, to serve a present turn, but we should set our hearts on heaven, as our inheritance forever (from Jonathan Edwards’ sermon, The Christian Pilgrim)

The beauty of this analogy of the Christian as a traveler is that it demonstrates how the Christian can be detached, in some sense, from the pleasures of this world, while at the same time enjoying those pleasures more than non-Christians. I could not help but connect this analogy with modern ideas of tourism and sight-seeing in some ways (not that those ideas are entirely modern). Edwards’ context didn’t involve the idea of tourism in its present form. Tourism for him was a ride through a flowery field, not a cruise to some island in the Caribbean.

Perhaps tourism per se is a bad term for the analogy, so let me flesh out what I mean. My example is this: When I travel to my original hometown I have to pass through Memphis, Tennessee. I have always had a certain fondness for Memphis. There is a romance about it in my mind. Strangely, most of the people I know who actually live in Memphis don’t share these romantic ideas. But that’s the whole point.

I stop there when I travel. I’ve spent the night there on several occasions. I eat the bbq. I stop at Tops BBQ every time I drive through town and I hit up Rendezvous every time I get the chance as well. I walk down Beale. I go to a sporting event. I think about Johnny Cash and Elvis and Jerry Lawler (I loved Memphis wrestling as kid). I appreciate the city far more than many people who live there – precisely because it’s only a place I pass through. I have no attachment. I don’t own anything there. There’s no sense of permanence to it for me. If I moved far away and never went back I would have fond memories and yet be perfectly fine and feel no deep sense of loss. It’s nice, but it’s not home (at least for me). It’s just a pleasant stop (with really good food) on the way home that serves as a mile-marker as much as anything else. I eat my full and then I’m ready to pack up and hit the road again without looking back.

And that, says Edwards, is an analogy of the Christian life as a pilgrimage. And it’s a good one.

Read his entire sermon HERE or listen to it online HERE.