Functional Faith
We don’t want to get the idea that justification (our standing as righteous in the sight of God) is by works, or by faith plus works. But we do want to get the idea that while we are saved by faith alone it is not by faith that is alone. Genuine, saving faith carries in it the seeds of new life in Christ, and they will bear fruit.
For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. (James 2:26, ESV)
Like all good preachers, James provides his audience with examples to drive home his point. His point is “faith apart from works is dead” (v. 20). He brings to bear two figures of Old Testament history to illustrate.
“Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?” (James 2:21–25)
In these two figures, James wants us to see a functional faith, a faith that shows itself in practical ways.
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The Vertical, Horizontal, and Inward Realities of Sin
So sin is a lose (offends God), lose (hurts people), lose (hurts you). Nobody is perfect. But if we think more deeply about the multi-dimensional impact of sin, we’d be more eager to avail ourselves to the means of grace to grow in love for our Savior and hatred of our sin.
Vertical (offends God)
First and foremost, your sin — whether in act, attitude, or nature — is an affront to a holy God. “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. . .,” (Psalm 51:4) King David says, after his adultery with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah. Before we talk about how sin hurts the people in your life or is a form of self-infliction, we must say that sin offends God. Commit one sin, and you are guilty of violating the entire Law (James 2:10). As born sinners (Psalm 51:5), sin doesn’t just involve the wrongs we commit (sins of commission), or right actions we neglect (sins of omission), but also involves our nature, our very being. We are totally depraved, born as rebellious, God-haters, self-lovers, glory thieves who rightly incur the wrath of God apart from a Savior. Of the five points of Calvinism, total depravity is the easiest to prove.
Horizontal (hurts people)
Sin is willful treason that offends a holy God but also hurts the people in your life. The more you sin, the more people you hurt. The more influence you have, the greater the effects your sin will have on others (hence, why it’s particularly hurtful when sinned against by a leader).
Let me say this a different way. Your unrighteous anger hurts your children.
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What Jordan Peterson Can Teach the Church About Men and Meaning
Peterson’s message is not sufficient to rescue anyone–including him–from God’s righteous judgment. But it has proven a strikingly effective antidote to the spiritual chaos men face in today’s world. The church should take notes, even as we pray Peterson follows the meaning he preaches to its true source.
I recently wrote something on Facebook to the effect that I would rather my boys (ages seven and five) listen to Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson’s lectures on The Lion King than many sermons and small group lessons I’ve heard addressed to men in church. Given that I am a Christian and Jordan Peterson is not, this may seem like an odd thing to say. But I don’t think it is. Peterson’s ongoing appeal, especially among young men, is a loud reminder that our spiritual needs are not limited to salvation, and that sometimes a thoughtful unbeliever can have a better grasp of those needs than most Christians do.
Since he rose to fame in 2017, Peterson has been an enigma for religious readers. On the one hand, he gives moral counsel it would be tough for anyone to disagree with: “Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world.” “Do not allow yourself to become resentful, deceitful, or arrogant.” “Pursue what is meaningful, not what is expedient.” Proffering this and similar advice in his bestselling books, Twelve Rules for Life and Beyond Order, he has become what one writer called “a societal father figure.” In a time of growing aimlessness, despair, nihilism—and yes, fatherlessness—his message centers on finding meaning, taking on responsibility, and overcoming adversity. These are all themes that appeal on a visceral level to disaffected men.
Yet Peterson’s ambiguity about religion understandably troubles some Christians. He quotes Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung more readily than Jesus Christ. He says he’s not willing to place himself “in a box” by professing orthodox faith. He certainly doesn’t give altar calls. Even so, people regularly say his work saved their lives or gave them new purpose. For those accustomed to proclaiming the gospel as the solution to human sin and misery, this apparently redemptive effect of Peterson’s message can seem odd or even threatening. After all, we Christians have the answer to the world’s deepest problem! If Peterson is offering something different and apparently quenching people’s spiritual thirst, doesn’t that make him a false teacher—a peddler of a self-help gospel?
The answer really lies in whether Peterson is, in fact, peddling a gospel. He doesn’t seem to think he is. Rather, he is teaching readers and audiences what he has taught patients as a clinical psychologist for decades: how to be a human well, how to create order out of relational chaos, how to aim one’s passions toward a purpose, and how to navigate difficult and confusing lives without falling prey to despair. In doing so he is offering all who pick up his work a life-giving alternative to the anything-goes mentality of our age, and is teaching a truth all too rarely acknowledged in Christian churches: that conversion is not the answer to every problem we face, and that pursuing this-worldly meaning is core to how we are created.
Learning from Nature
Peterson teaches people (especially men) how to be human well because he doesn’t believe our nature is malleable. He believes it can be understood, and that thriving comes from following the “maps of meaning” laid down deep in our subconsciousness and even our bodies. This is why he famously begins Twelve Rules for Life by explaining what the endocrine systems of lobsters can teach us about our own minds. Though it’s easy to crack jokes about this or get lost in his evolutionary jargon, we shouldn’t miss Peterson’s point: human beings have a hardwired nature, and living in accordance with that nature—even through acts as simple as standing up straight with your shoulders back—can reduce misery and improve our characters. You will not learn any of this at an altar call, nor in simplistic admonitions to be “Christlike.” Young men in particular, searching as they are for the blueprints to the good life in a world that tells them to draw their own, need more detail than that.
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How to Read the Pastoral Epistles
As is displayed in Acts and his other letters, Paul’s love and compassion for others overflows in the Pastoral Epistles. He refers to Timothy as “my son” and as “my beloved child.” He calls Titus “my true child in a common faith.” But we especially see Paul’s heart for others at the end of his last letter, 2 Timothy. We hear his heartbreak over those who abandoned him. But we also see his love for other colleagues and friends, such as Timothy, Luke, and even Mark, with whom he has evidently been reconciled. The Pastoral Epistles make it clear that Paul’s deep love for Christ overflows in his love for others.
The three Pastoral Epistles are unique among Paul’s thirteen letters because they were written to Paul’s co-workers, Timothy and Titus, who were exercising pastoral oversight of churches. Both men were dealing with false teachers and other trials that made pastoral duties challenging. Although addressed to Timothy and Titus, the letters end with Paul’s benediction, “Grace be with you,” with “you” in the original Greek being plural. Thus, they are, in a sense, semi-public. Paul expected the letters to be read to the entire church. With this in mind, let’s look at four tips for reading the Pastoral Epistles.
1. Read the Pastoral Epistles with reference to the corporate body of Christ and your participation in it.
Many Christians today have lost a sense of the importance of the church. To them, the Christian life is more focused on their personal relationship with Christ than on being an active member of the body of Christ. Paul’s concern in the Pastoral Epistles is for the health and faithfulness of the church. It is the place where God’s people are nurtured and grow in faith. This is why Paul spends time detailing qualifications for godly leaders, including both elders (1 Tim. 3:1–7; Titus 1:5–16) and deacons (1 Tim. 3:8–13). It is also why Paul repeatedly exhorts Timothy to devote himself to the teaching and preaching ministry of the church. A healthy church requires God’s people to be fed the manna of the read and preached Word of God.
The Pastoral Epistles, although written to individuals, aim to build up Christ’s church and encourage active corporate life together. This includes worship together (1 Tim. 2; 4:13), working and serving together (2 Tim. 2:21; Titus 3:1), generosity to others in the church (1 Tim. 6:17–19), and serving one another faithfully. In the Pastoral Epistles, Paul presents the church as central to the Christian life, not an afterthought or add-on.
2. Recognize the danger of false teaching and the necessity of combatting it.
Paul takes up more time in the Pastoral Epistles combatting false teaching than any other subject. In 1 Timothy, he devotes three passages throughout the letter to false teachers. In fact, at the beginning of the letter, instead of the standard section of thanks that normally follows the opening greeting in Paul’s letters and which was customary in his day, he immediately addresses the false teachers at Ephesus (1 Tim. 1:3–11).
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