I listened a little while ago to a talk from John Piper entitled "Whatever is Not From Faith is Sin".
The title is a reference to Romans 14:23, which reads like this in the ESV:
For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
This passage comes out of the context of Paul talking about what is allowable to eat (bearing in mind that the majority of the very early Church to whom Paul was writing was Jewish, and had lived most their lives under strict food laws). Paul declares that no food is unclean in and of itself (Romans 14:14), but then points out that that fact is effectively irrelevant.
The complementary doctrine is that, just as much as no food is unclean in and of itself, everything is sin unless it stems from faith. In other words, it doesn't matter if what you're eating, or what you're doing is not unclean (or sinful) in and of itself, what matters is whether your heart is directed towards God.
Piper says:
The most penetrating and devastating definition of sin that I am aware of in Scripture is the last part of Romans 14:23: "Whatever is not from faith is sin." The reason it is penetrating is that it goes to the root of all sinful actions and attitudes, namely, the failure to trust God. And the reason it is devastating is that it sweeps away all our lists of dos and don'ts and makes anything, from preaching to house-painting, a candidate for sin... Anything, absolutely any act or attitude which is owing to a lack of trust in God is sin, no matter how moral it may appear to men. God looks on the heart.
This was the mistake of the Pharisees (Luke 11:42) - focusing on a list of "good actions" and a list of "bad actions", and utterly failing to love God. Everything they did then, came out of a desire to do everything on the good list, and avoid everything on the bad list; and so somehow make themselves sufficiently pleasing to God so that he might free their nation from Roman rule. The problem? It would never, ever work:
And without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6)
The mistake of the Pharisees is a mistake I own, time and time again. I want to honour God in the small things, and in the attempt, I make honouring God about the small things. Jesus said about this:
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. (Matthew 23:23)
This week I want to remember first to love God, and follow God out of a love for Him. Anything less is faithless, and whatever is not from faith is sin.
This song by The Glorious Unseen doesn't really express how I'm feeling right now - but is beautiful, and expresses exactly how I've felt on many, many occasions.
Thought I'd post it here in case it fits where you are.
God of the broken, God of the weak
Be a light in my darkness.
Breathe life into me.
Father, come speak your truth.
I offer my life, I give it to you.
Lord, take from me all my unbelief.
Where are you when I feel alone?
When I try to find arms
that are strong enough to hold,
all that I am and ever will be,
I give unto you, my Jesus, my king.
God of all comfort,
I'm wrecked and I'm torn.
Would you use me in weakness?
Would you speak to this storm?
All that you are is all that I need.
Father, release yourself please.
My spirit is at war with a dark enemy.
Oh Lord, will you come breathe life into me?
By the amazing grace of God, I've been set free, and
... if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:36)
Therefore, I should:
live as people who are free... (1 Peter 2:16)
The first time I do something that I know pleases God, I feel alive, like I'm doing the very thing I was made to do: when I sit down in the study and open my Bible in the evening, not because I know I should, but because I want to; when I talk to God on my walk to the station in the morning; when I spend time talking to someone about following Jesus.
Then I decide to make a habit of it. The second time I feel alive, but a little less so. Gradually, the habit sucks out the life from the thing I was doing, until it becomes a duty; a habit.
This journal is an obvious example - I started off writing pretty regularly, but gradually I've left it, and it's been unwritten for a month or two. When I first started writing these entries on my train journeys to and from work it was something I really looked forward to. Partly it was that I was spending time with God at the time, and I had things I wanted to write about, to help me process them; but partly it was because it was new and therefore exciting to me.
Bible study has, at various times over the last 5 years gone through a similar cycle. I get back in the habit of reading the Bible, and for a time it is the most exciting thing in the world. I learn from what I'm reading, and I grow in my walk with God. Then comes the second day/week/month, and gradually it gets stale, and my eyes gloss over the passage when I sit down to read. The passage finishes, and I close my Bible and get on with my day. Gradually, the habit dies, and I stop reading my Bible. A little time passes (generally around a month or two), I pick it up again and the cycle restarts.
Right now, I'm about half-way through the cycle - I'm reading my Bible, but it's a real struggle to take things in, and to hear what God has to say to me through it.
So this is my question - how do you remain free? How do you spend time with God each day without it becoming a ritual? How can I be in my Bible each day without getting bored?
I know that God set me free from the law (Romans 6:14; Galatians 5:1; 18), but I still know I should be spending regular time with God. How does that work?
If this is something you find hard, I'd value hearing that too!
N.B. Comments welcome via Facebook, or drop me an e-mail (try putting dominic@ before the domain name you're looking at).
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Col 3:2-3)
When I stop, I generally think about work. It occupies me my day-to-day life for some 45 hours a week. It occupies my thought-life for probably more like 60. When My mind gravitates to thinking about work when I come to rest. I'm not saying this is all bad - part of it comes from the fact that, on the whole, I really enjoy my job - I really enjoy problem solving, making things quicker, more elegant, more feature-rich, occasionally less buggy (for those who don't know - I'm a software engineer, which is a fancy-sounding title for a computer programmer).
I just wonder whether I would more profitably spend my time thinking about other things. Partly, I generally find thinking about work outside of work unhelpful - generally I go over and over the same thought patterns, without getting anywhere. I reach the same conclusions, and wait until I'm physically at work before I can do anything about them, at which point I've usually forgotten what it was I was thinking about.
Matthew Henry wrote this, in comment on Colossians 3:
We must make heaven our scope and aim, seek the favour of God above, keep up our communion with the upper world by faith, and hope, and holy love, and make it our constant care and business to secure our title to and qualifications for the heavenly bliss. (Matthew Henry's Commentary)
What if instead of tending towards work and labour, my mind tended towards God and rest? What if when I am still, instead of puzzling things out, I talked to God?
There is a river, there is a road
A place of holy riches untold
It's where I'm supposed to be
Where I'm supposed to be
My Heavenly
Heavenly, by Jars of Clary
"I have stilled and quietened my soul." (Psalm 131:2)
I've been busy lately. Last week was a busy week - Ozone, Church meeting, home group. When I wasn't out, I was busying myself with doing things. I find genuinely stopping hard. Not in the sense of relaxing, I spend plenty of time relaxing, but I all too rarely spend time reflecting, stopping to think, to listen to God, to meet with God.
All this means when I do stop to spend time with God, my mind is still racing through the challenges of the day. I'm thinking how to overcome the next hurdle in whatever I'm working on; I'm trying to remember what I need to do this evening; I'm mentally going through what I'm doing in the coming week.
All this because I'm out of the habit of stopping. I rush from task to task, activity to activity.
I've tried to change this in the way I work. This week I've been closing out of my e-mail programs and notifiers, except to check every few hours. At the cost of being slightly less connected I am slightly less frenetic. I spend too long each day trying to switch between lots of different thoughts and jobs, which means that my mind is still frantic when I come home. Closing out of my e-mail means I don't feel the need to read things the moment they arrive, regardless of what I'm thinking about at the time.
I want to know the peace of God. I want to know that centredness that comes from having spent time quietening my mind.
The only way to do it? Stop.
I need to stop doing the things I do not need to do. I need to simplify - to find ways to relax that help me meet with God. I love spending time learning by reading God's word. I used to love talking to God, walking in quiet streets in the evening. It's not as if I don't have time - I spend a lot of my free time right now doing things that help me relax, but which do not help me find quiet, and rest.
Older entries are available in the archives.