Audio Transcript

Good Monday. Thank you for listening to the podcast. We’re going to start the week looking at your most recent book, Pastor John: Come, Lord Jesus: Meditations on the Second Coming of Christ (Crossway, 2023). I’m holding it in my hands right now. It’s a beautiful volume.

On Friday, you shared what you called five misconceptions about the timing of the end times: that the second coming of Christ is far out into the future, or that it already happened, or that it will never happen, or that there are no events on earth yet to happen before his return, or that his coming will unfold in two stages. That was all in Friday’s episode.

But your book is far less about controversies, and much more about the life applications we can draw from Christ’s return. He is coming back — maybe very soon. Maybe today? So with the possibility of his soon return as our hope, how do we live our lives today? How do we respond right now? The entire final third of this new book is all about how we should live in the light of the second coming. One of the chapters in that section stands out because of its brief and simple title — chapter 21: “Go to Work, Go to Church.” Is there a biblical basis for these simple directives? And, if so, explain what you write in that chapter, because it seems like a lot of people are curious.

Yeah, it’s amazing that in almost all the interviews I’ve done — and I’ve done four or five — all of them pick up on that chapter. I evidently touched a nerve by saying, “Go to work, go to church.” And I’m happy I did, because I like it. I like simplicity and bluntness.

The answer is yes, there is a biblical basis for those simple directives. In fact, I was struck as I worked on this book over how many straightforward links there are between our expectation of the second coming and its practical effect on the way we live. So not only do you have “go to work” and “go to church,” but I would add “pursue purity,” “be gentle,” “suffer with joy.” All five of those are simple, straightforward exhortations explicitly connected to the second coming of Christ. So maybe it would be helpful just to take them one at a time and give a verse and a comment to go with each one so people can see that I’m not making this up.

1. Go to Work

Many times in my life — especially while I was a pastor, but now too — I have pondered the question, “What do I want to be found doing when the Lord comes, should he come in my lifetime?” (And I think he could, even now at age 77. Read the book and you’ll find out how I think that way.) There are a lot of things I don’t want to be found doing. I don’t want to be walking in any sin. But what do I want to be found doing when the Lord comes?

Here is the text from which I got “go to work.” This is Matthew 24:44–47: Jesus said, “You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” And then he tells us how to be ready: “Who then is the faithful and wise servant?” Now that’s what we want to be.

That’s what I want to be when he comes: a faithful, wise servant.

Who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed [I want to hear that word] is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.

In other words, you will be blessed at the second coming if you’re doing what the Master assigned you to do with your life. So my paraphrase is, “Go to work.” In other words, if you believe that the job you have right now is God’s will for your life, then keep on doing it. Do it faithfully. Do it in his name. Do it for his glory. Do it in reliance on his power. Do it the way he wants you to do it. And when he comes at ten o’clock in the morning while you’re doing your work, he’ll find you so doing what he’s given you to do, and you will be blessed.

So, the first end-time exhortation is this: go to work.

2. Go to Church

I wonder how many Christians take church — the assembly of God’s people in corporate worship — seriously enough to say, “The Lord is coming soon — I need to go to church. I need to be in fellowship with other Christians in a healthy church in worship and service.” How many people make that connection? Well, here’s the connection.

Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another [and here’s the key phrase] and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:24–25)

“As the day of Christ’s coming draws near, it becomes increasingly important not to neglect meeting together.”

Wow. The Day drawing near is the day of the Lord, the coming, the near coming of the second coming of Christ. So Hebrews is saying that as the day of Christ’s coming draws near, it becomes increasingly important not to neglect meeting together with other Christians. I think we ought to let that sink in. There’s a reason for that. And the natural understanding of these verses would be that this is just an ordinary, healthy church — worship, service, fellowship, gathering together.

It’s just an amazing statement that Jesus would say — and I think this is why we dare not forsake the assembling of ourselves together — that in the last days, “the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12). Now, when a glowing coal is taken out of the fireplace and put by itself, it goes cold, doesn’t stay hot, but when you leave the coals together in the firepit, they stay hot. So there is a connection between becoming a recluse, a loner, and growing cold and indifferent to the second coming. And Jesus says, “That’s going to happen. The love of many is going to grow cold because they’re not going to church. They’re not in good, solid, healthy, loving, Bible-saturated fellowships that help each other stay hot.” So go to church.

3. Pursue Purity

Now that may be the clearest of all in the way it’s connected to the second coming because of 1 John 3:2–3: “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.” Wow. I love clarity. “Anyone who thus hopes . . .” — hopes for what? What does that refer to? Well, it refers to the hope of seeing Jesus as he is and, by that amazing sight, being transformed into his pure and holy image.

“You can’t long to be pure when you see Jesus and be indifferent to purity as you wait for Jesus.”

And then he says, “If you really hope for this, if you want this, if you’re longing for this, if this event is your passion and you love it, you’re going to purify yourself.” You’re not going to wait. You’re not going to be indifferent as to whether your life has the purity now that you’re hoping for then, when in the twinkling of an eye you are going to be changed into the pure likeness of Jesus. It can’t be otherwise. You can’t long to be pure when you see Jesus and be indifferent to purity as you wait for Jesus. You can’t do it. So if you love the Lord’s appearing, go to work, go to church, pursue purity.

4. Be gentle.

That is, don’t return evil for evil. Here’s what Paul says: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything” (Philippians 4:4–6). “Be gentle. The Lord is at hand.” Amazing. What’s the logic? What is he saying? I mean, what’s the connection between “be gentle” and “the Lord is at hand”?

I think the logic is this: The Lord is ready to step into history. Nothing hinders him but his own wise timing. He knows what he’s doing. He’s at the gates. Any delay is not owing to forces outside him preventing him from doing what the Father wants him to do. He will step in at the perfect time. And when he does, he will settle all accounts justly. No wrong will go unpunished. No right will go unrewarded. So you don’t need to take vengeance on your brother; you don’t need to avenge yourself. You can leave it to him and return good for evil. That is, be gentle.

And that’s exactly the way Paul argues in Romans 12:18–19: “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably [that is, gently] with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay.’” Well, when is that going to happen? It’s going to happen when the Lord steps in and breaks into history and settles all accounts. And so, the Lord is near. And when he steps into this world, vengeance is his. He’ll settle accounts. You don’t need to. So you can love his appearing and be gentle.

5. Suffer with joy.

First Peter 4:12–13 says, “Do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.” Now, “when his glory is revealed” refers to the second coming. So the point is this: when God calls you to walk with Christ through suffering now, remember its connection with the glory at the second coming and rejoice now, because your experience of Christ in joy now through suffering will intensify and enlarge your joy when his glory is revealed.

So, this is what I ask all my readers and myself; this is why I wrote the book: Do you love the Lord’s appearing? If so, go to work. Go to church. Pursue purity. Be gentle. Suffer with joy.

http://rss.desiringgod.org/link/10732/14875448/how-does-anger-give-place-to-the-devil

My wife and I ask each other a routine question about technology — and it may not be what you expect. Yes, we ask if the other heard us, and we ask to put down the phone for a while during family time. We, like most families in the digital age, have a ways to go to instill better technology habits in our homes. But the most frequent question we ask each other is, Did you see this online?

While that may seem like an odd question to ask, it reveals a much deeper issue with technology, one we often fail to consider amid concerns about screen time, app limits, and Internet filters. The question reminds us that we live in a personally curated and expertly crafted world of information, driven by algorithms that often wield significant influence over our lives and our outlook on the social and ethical issues of our day. The world you see online is often very different than what I might see, which in turn makes it difficult to address many of the root problems of our day.

Is Technology Neutral?

In this past year, many Christians are beginning to wake up to the reality that technology is not a neutral tool that we simply choose to use for good or ill.

From the ways that misinformation and conspiracy theories alter our perception of truth and reality, to the massive exposés of major social media companies about how their products are changing our social fabric, it has become clear that technology is not simply a tool; technology is a force that can radically shape our lives, often by pushing us toward specific ends that clash with the goals of the Christian life.

Take, for example, the ways these tools push us to comment on every breaking news story or cultural event the moment they happen. We are encouraged (and often far more than encouraged) to immediately share our opinion, often without context or knowledge of a particular issue. Instead of cultivating wisdom and restraint (James 1:19), technology often pushes us toward gut-level reactions, partisan talking points, and appeals to our tribes, all while we craft and manicure our online identities.

These technological goals and ends can be seen in the writings of the French sociologist and Protestant theologian Jacques Ellul (1912–1994), in which he describes technology as a movement that captures humanity in its grip and transforms everything in the name of efficiency (The Technological Society, 80). We perceive this move toward the technical and this drive toward efficiency in the ways we are constantly encouraged to see technology as only making our lives easier, increasing our productivity, and facilitating our abilities to form connections with others online.

Almost everything in life is touched by technology. And because it has become so ubiquitous, we are losing the ability to think critically about its role in our lives. We often fail to see how these very tools, especially algorithms, are shaping our view of the world, including how we see ourselves and our neighbors.

Algorithmic Catechism

One of the most prevalent forms of technology that subtly alters how we see the world around us, including our neighbors, is artificial intelligence (AI), or what is popularly referred to as the algorithm. While basic algorithms are a set of coded instructions, AI is a broader term encompassing dynamic systems that allow for a machine to adapt along the way through the use of highly sophisticated algorithms and machine learning. Often in conversation, AI sounds more like an element in the plot of a science-fiction movie than the driver of the common devices of social media platforms that we use each day, sometimes for the better part of the day.

“Whether we realize it or not, algorithms are discipling each of us in very particular ways.”

Whether we realize it or not, algorithms are discipling each of us in very particular ways — by curating the news we see, the things we purchase, the entertainment we enjoy, at times functioning in ways that seem almost human — all feeding the sense that this world is ultimately all about you. While AI may seem innocuous at first, it can also have devastating effects on our relationship with God, our spouse, roommates, those in our local church, and our broader communities as we opt for efficiency over wisdom and the virtual over the embodied.

Assumed and Assimilated

Over the past year, we saw countless calls to rein in “Big Tech,” a term focused on the outsized influence of certain technology companies like Meta’s Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, Google, and others. On both sides of the political aisle, a focused effort began to alter how these companies do business and how much influence they have over the digital public square.

Behind many of these calls for regulation is a sense that these companies, including their algorithms, negatively shape us as a society or censor certain views to increase profit margins. While these issues are obviously complex (and Christians will disagree on the nature and boundaries of various proposals), one reality is increasingly understood: technology is often assumed and assimilated, rather than questioned and examined, in our lives. We need to take a hard look at these tools and seek to navigate them with biblical wisdom and insight.

One of the most effective tools used to keep us constantly connected and online these days is the algorithm. It serves a perfectly curated and personalized world for us each time we log in or scroll through our social media feeds. Many of us have been hooked by these systems that create these intricate and curated online experiences to keep us engaged and constantly connected. While these personalized experiences are beneficial to an extent in terms of convenience, they also run the risk of isolating us from one another and further exacerbating the striking divides we face throughout society.

Impulsive Urge to Check

You know that nagging feeling or impulsive drive to check your phone one last time before you doze off to sleep? Or the seemingly mechanical urge to check what you missed overnight before your feet even hit the ground?

In our digital age, we also regularly feel an urge to check these devices even without any notification or sign of something we may have missed. From “phantom vibration syndrome,” where we feel like our device is vibrating even if it isn’t, to our proclivity to see everything around us as a potential status update, we are being profoundly shaped by technology every day.

“We have been conditioned to relentlessly check our devices, and many of us struggle to simply disconnect.”

This point is aptly illustrated in the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma, where one expert interviewee stated that the question isn’t if you check Twitter in the morning after waking, but whether you check it before or while you use the bathroom each morning. We have been conditioned to relentlessly check our devices, and many of us struggle to simply disconnect. In the digital age, it’s far too easy to begin to see others as mere cogs in a giant machine rather than as individual and embodied souls with moral agency and accountability.

How Is Technology Shaping You?

While technology has obvious benefits and can be harnessed to love God and love our neighbor (Matthew 22:37–39), it has become increasingly difficult to step back and evaluate these tools with ethical clarity and biblical insight.

Amid the good of technology, Christians need to recognize the ways that algorithms are constantly expanding our moral horizons by opening options we never thought possible and allowing our sinful hearts to use these technologies to exploit others, manipulate truth, and stoke division. While common vices like anger, greed, lust, and arrogance are not new, they are nevertheless exacerbated in a digital-first world where we have new opportunities to indulge them and in turn abuse these technologies in ways that treat our neighbors as nothing more than a means to an end.

One of the dangerous tendencies is to shift our moral responsibility with these tools to others by refusing to acknowledge our roles, not only in their development, but also in how we use them. Wisdom calls us to evaluate the design and the goal of the tools we interact with each day because of the profound ways that we are being shaped and formed with each use.

True change won’t come until we admit these technologies did not arise, and do not operate, in a morally neutral vacuum — but within a pervasive environment of sin and a society-wide desire for complete moral and personal autonomy. While there is some truth to the view that technology mediates much of our experience online, we simply can’t abdicate our moral responsibility and blame the rise of fake news, polarization, and other social maladies solely on these technologies, without acknowledging that these tools function like jet fuel poured on a society already aflame with self-seeking sin and pride.

Two Steps Forward

What are we to do in this age of algorithmic influence? First, knowledge may be half the battle. Often, we simply fail to understand how these tools are shaping us and how they are conditioning us toward their end goals of higher engagement and time spent glued to our devices. Having a biblical view of technology can help retrain our minds to question these advances before simply assuming that they will always align with our values and goals for life.

There is a growing library of resources to aid you in this battle ranging from classic authors like Jacques Ellul, George Grant, and Neil Postman to contemporary thinkers such as Andy Crouch, O. Alan Noble, Jeffrey Bilbro, John Dyer, and Tony Reinke. While each engages these issues with different perspectives, they can each help us expand how we think about the role of technology in our lives as well as how we use technology wisely and responsibly.

Second, by recognizing how we are being formed, we can seek to counter that transformation through cultivating realistic and healthy habits with technology. Technology isn’t going away, and so bold claims of ridding our lives of these tools may not be the most effective long-term solution. As Paul reminds us in Ephesians 4:17–24, the Christian life involves more than putting off old habits; it also involves putting on new habits directed at forming us to be more like Christ.

These habits will range from family to family and person to person, but the goal is to shape our mind and heart to become more like Christ, who is the very wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24). A one-size-fits-all checklist may seem efficient in the short term, but it does not take into account different personalities and maturity levels. Our goal is to become wiser and more mature, not just better rule followers.

Algorithms Do Not Rule

Being trained in wisdom may mean limiting screens, turning off recommendation algorithms and notifications, taking regular sabbaths from social media apps, or even removing some digital distractions from your life — for a season or entirely. Wisdom may mean different practices for different people, but in an age like ours, it will always mean focus and restraint.

While it’s true that algorithmic technologies have the power to not only respond to our behavior but to modify it, conditioning us to act in troubling ways to greater and greater degrees, we are not powerless pawns, and our behavior online is not a foregone conclusion, no matter how subtle and powerful the algorithms may become.

Under God, humans chose to develop these tools, and we can choose how to use them — or not. Indeed, the biggest question for Christians in this algorithmic age — given what we know of the nature of our sin and our vulnerability to temptation — is not if these tools are shaping us, but rather if these technologies are transforming us to be more like Christ, or if we are being discipled into conformity to this world (Romans 12:2).