We all want more of God. Anyone who professes to be a Christian will acknowledge a sense of sorrow and disappointment when they consider how little they know of God and how little they experience of his presence. Every Christian or Christianesque tradition acknowledges this reality and offers a means to address it.
Mystics may promise that a deeper experience of God can be had through contemplation. Monastics may promise that a deeper experience of God can be had through practicing his presence. Roman Catholics may promise that a deeper experience of God can be had through the Mass. Proponents of Higher Life theology may promise that a deeper experience of God can be had through a second blessing. Pentecostals may promise that a deeper experience of God can be had through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Though the means are different, the core issue is the same—we feel intuitively that we do not know God or experience his presence as completely as we wish to. We live out our Christian lives with a sense of longing for more—more of God, more of knowing him, more awareness of his nearness and power.
I write here for other Christians who hold to Reformed theology and especially for younger ones. I want you to know that you make yourself spiritually vulnerable when you determine that your spiritual longing necessarily indicates a weakness in your faith or practice. For every longing there is a tradition, a church, a book, or a program that promises to satisfy it and people like you can often become spiritual nomads, sojourning among the various traditions to try their solutions. Or you can become spiritual hybrids, integrating a bit of this, a bit of that, and a bit of the other thing, even when they are mutually contradictory. You may even be tempted to reject Reformed theology and practices altogether in favor of something else. But I want to encourage you to be patient, to be wise, and to be content.
You make yourself spiritually vulnerable when you determine that your spiritual longing necessarily indicates a weakness in your faith or practice.Share
Here is something that needs to be said about any tradition: None of them will ultimately satisfy us. None can or will actually deliver us to a higher plane of spiritual experience and none will fully satisfy our longing for more. Why is that? Because the longing is unresolvable at the present time. We can certainly know God better than we do now and can certainly have a deeper experience of his power and presence, but we will never experience it to the degree we long for. At least, not until we are finally welcomed into God’s immediate presence.
In contrast to so many other traditions, the Reformed tradition offers no higher tier of Christian living. Neither does it offer rapturous experiences or second blessings. Rather, it looks carefully to Scripture and offers ordinary means of grace—means that are equally available to all of us as we participate in the local church and live out our faith through a personal relationship with the Lord.
I know the word “ordinary” sounds very plain and uninspiring. What are ordinary means when compared to extraordinary visions or ecstatic experiences? But this is what we need to understand: God does not owe us anything other than complete separation from him. Anything more than being eternally banished from his presence is breathtaking evidence of his mercy and kindness. Though we deserve to be forever separated from God’s presence, he lovingly offers us means through which we can relate to him and through which he lavishes his grace upon us so we grow in joy and sanctification and satisfaction in him. Because of what we have done, it is God who now sets the terms of our relationship. The question is: Will we be content with this or will we demand more? Will we accept what he has so graciously given us or will we demand the right to relate to him on our terms? Will we invent or adopt means he has not prescribed or endorsed?
I hold to Reformed theology and am convinced it is most consistent with Scripture. I understand why many people believe that Reformed theology works itself out in a faith that is coldly intellectual instead of warmly experiential. We have probably all known people who have exemplified that aloof intellectual approach to the faith. But this is not the way it has to be and not the way it is meant to be. Reformed theology is experiential, but crucially, it constrains itself to the experiences the Bible permits. Perhaps you would do well to read up on experiential theology which “teaches that Christianity is not only a creed and a way of life but also an inner experience resulting from personal fellowship with God through the indwelling Spirit.” Instead of resenting the tradition or walking away from it, fully embrace it! If you have been discouraged by the examples you have seen, go deeper into the tradition and resolve to display what it means to live a life that flows out of the soundest doctrine.
With all that in mind, let me speak to you as a kind of spiritual older brother. My call to you is to remain resolute in pursuing God through the means that he has prescribed. Come to see that when we speak of ordinary means, we are not indicating the means are plain, pedestrian, or prosaic. They are ordinary in the sense that all of us can ordinarily expect God to bless them and sanctify them to his purposes. God has granted them to us and it now falls to us to receive them gratefully and practice them faithfully. It falls to us to resist looking for solutions that will deliver a higher life, a second blessing, or a mystical rapture, and to resist being swayed by those who promise there is so much more to be had if only we will follow this ancient discipline or subscribe to that modern program. Instead, I’d call upon you to embrace the reality that your longings will never be fully satisfied on this side of the grave, that so much of what you desire today is the right longing, but at the wrong time.
This is not a call to apathy but a call to remain steady and resist chasing what will always remain out of reach. Acknowledge that your sense of longing is part of God’s will for you right now and that it cannot be resolved in this world. And embrace this reality: that you can only be spiritually content when you admit, identify, and accept your spiritual discontentment. Instead of trying to satisfy that discontentment in ways God does not invite or permit, let it deepen your longing for the day when you will finally be in God’s presence—the day when you will at last know and experience God in all the ways your heart has ever longed for.

This week the blog is sponsored by Zondervan Academic. Their excellent ZECOT commentary series has just expanded to include a volume on Proverbs written by Reformed scholar Chris Ansberry. You can buy it now!

Let’s be honest: we’re pragmatic people. Things are valuable insofar as they are useful. And knowledge is valuable insofar as it is useful. As Scripture, the book of Proverbs is useful (2 Tim 3:16). Its diverse materials are designed to cultivate wisdom and virtue, specifically intellectual virtue (Prov 1:2, 4), moral virtue (Prov 1:3b), and practical virtue (Prov 1:3a). In fact, the arrangement of the book mirrors the arrangement of our educational curricula. Off the back of its syllabus (Prov 1:2–7) and an extended introduction intended to move readers to embrace wisdom (Prov 1:8–9:18), the book eases us into a course on elementary wisdom (Prov 10:1–15:33) before ushering us into courses on intermediate wisdom (Prov 16:1–22:16), vocational wisdom (Prov 22:17–24:34), advanced wisdom (Prov 25:1–29:27), and applied wisdom (Prov 30–31). To state the obvious, Proverbs seeks to cultivate wisdom and virtue in its readers. That’s useful. We’re left with a pragmatic question: how? How does Proverbs cultivate wisdom and virtue in its readers?

Put simply, Proverbs forms readers through its poetic forms. These poetic forms are diverse; and they form us in diverse ways. The poetic forms of Proverbs traffic in distinct pedagogical strategies, such as rebuke (Prov 1:20–33), fearmongering (Prov 6:20–35), seduction (Prov 7:1–27), wooing (Prov 8:1–36), and carrot-and-stick (Prov 22:17–24:22). Among the poetic forms in the book, the pedagogical potency and formational potential of the sayings in chapters 10:1–22:16 and 25:1–29:27 are often overlooked. The value of these sayings tends to be limited to the promises or principles that they offer. More specifically, their usefulness tends to be restricted to the advice that they offer on various matters, ranging from parenting and speech to business ethics and interpersonal relationships. But the pithy sayings in Proverbs are more useful than this. On one level, these sayings may be read as propositional statements, describing the way the world is or the way the world ought to be. On a more fundamental level, these sayings are purveyors of perspectival wisdom. They do not describe the way world is or the way that world ought to be per se. They operate under moral judgments and ethical evaluations (e.g., wise and foolish, righteous and wicked). Each saying offers a way of seeing people, actions, or situations. That is, each saying provides a way of seeing-as.

Proverbs seeks to cultivate wisdom and virtue in its readers. That’s useful. We’re left with a pragmatic question: how? How does Proverbs cultivate wisdom and virtue in its readers?Share

If the sayings in Proverbs provide perspectival wisdom, then they offer ways of seeing that train our vision. They train our vision in at least two ways. First, the sayings and character types of Proverbs create habits of sight. By focusing on common characters, the sayings not only train us to see certain attitudes and actions, but also how to evaluate these attitudes and actions. In basic terms, they teach us to see and evaluate people and actions as wise/righteous or foolish/wicked. They provide a perspectival lens, shaping our sight. 

Second, the sayings and character types of Proverbs afford practice in forming our sight. Consistent attention to specific character types, attitudes, and actions not only molds our vision; it also produces the conditions for practice. Generic sayings are the primary means by which Proverbs gives us practice. Generic sayings do not name a specific character type. Instead, they focus on an undefined person or an ambiguous phenomenon. In so doing, they invite us to use the qualitative reflections of the book to name that person or define that phenomenon. And they provide us with certain clues for this task. Proverbs 14:12 is a representative example.

There is this: a way that is straight before a person;but its end, ways to death.

The initial line foregrounds an apparent reality for reflection: “a way that is straight before a person.” Elsewhere in Proverbs, straight ways are good ways. They are established by the Lord (Prov 3:6), paved by righteousness (Prov 11:5), and embodied by a person of understanding (Prov 15:21). The sayings of Proverbs have trained our vision to perceive a way that is straight as a way that is good, as a way that stands in opposition to the crooked paths of the wicked. But the second line of Proverbs 14:12 bursts the bubble of this reading: the end of this straight way is “ways to death.” This end alerts us to the “false lead” of the initial line invites us to circle back and re-read the saying. The straight way before a person is not so straight after all; rather it is a way that seems straight to a person. The person is the aphorism is not named; its generic subject and generic situation afford the reader practice and correction, shaping their sight and perception.

Together with generic sayings, some well-known sayings in Proverbs are designed to train the reader’s sight. Take, for example, Proverbs 22:6:

Train a youth according to his way,even when he becomes old he will not depart from it.

The initial line may be read in at least three ways. First, it may be interpreted as an ironic warning against teaching a child in accord with their juvenile taste: “Train a youth in the way that he wants.” Second, the line may be rendered as a directive to teach a child in a manner appropriate to their aptitude or age, that is, “Train a youth in a way that is suitable for him.” Alternatively, third, the line may be read as a command to instruct a child in a moral way of life, that is, “Train a youth in the right way – the way he ought to go.” The terse line is patient with each of these readings. If Proverbs’ sayings are read as purveyors of perspectival wisdom rather than as propositions, then we need not pick one of the three options. Each provides us with a different way of seeing. That is, each forms our moral vision, nurturing the imagination and sharpening the powers of discernment.   

The same is true of the well-known saying in Proverbs 27:17:

Iron sharpens iron,and a person sharpens the face of his neighbor.

Is the image of iron sharpening iron positive or negative? It depends how you see things. Many interpret the image positively. It captures the way in which a person sharpens the character or wits of another. But others interpret the image negatively. The negative construal emerges from the process of iron smithing in the ancient world. This process required a hammer, which was used to pound a soft, heated piece of iron into a weapon or vessel. This violent act of smithing is applied to interpersonal relations in the second line through the expression “sharpens the face.” Although the expression is not found elsewhere in the Old Testament, it is comparable to descriptions of sharp eyes, a sharp lip, or a sharp tongue – parts of the face that attack others. When the smithing process in the initial line is applied to interpersonal relations in the second, it appears that just as a smith pounds soft iron into a sharp instrument for battle, so also a person may pound one’s neighbor, causing him to attack. The pregnant image in Proverbs 27:17 is patient with different readings. These readings operate under different perspectives. They offer different ways of seeing. 

How we see things is significant in the life of Christian discipleship. Scripture does not merely provide Christians with propositional truths. It provides Christians with perspective, with a way of seeing life and the world. This is the case with the pithy sayings in Proverbs. They train our sight. They hone our evaluations. They rearrange our mental furniture. They renew our minds. And in so doing, they cultivate wisdom and virtue.

Buy your copy of this new commentary on Proverbs at Amazon, Logos, or wherever else good books are sold.

I apologize to anyone who received yesterday’s email multiple times. The newsletter service I use experienced a glitch. I believe it has now been resolved and shouldn’t happen again, but if it does, please bear with me.
Today’s Kindle deals include some excellent picks like Dream Small by Seth Lewis and The Future of Everything by William Boekestein.
(Yesterday on the blog: Unexpected, Unwanted, and Unwelcome)
Book Brief: My Only Comfort is a slight but effective reimagining of the Heidelberg Catechism. In place of the standard Q&A presentation, it offers the content formatted much like The Valley of Vision. It makes an ideal devotional supplement.

No one has this issue completely solved, but some have at least taken good steps. Here’s how one family navigated the smartphone and social media issues as well as they knew how.

This is worth reading and considering. “I’ve found that for a growing number of people there is an assumption that to be a human is to need therapy. We’re all maladjusted, and the purpose of therapy is to adjust us so that we’re high-functioning members of society, living flourishing, mentally healthy lives. In this model, therapy is something like a weekly medicine we all need to mentally survive a hostile world.”

The title of this article may be a bit silly, but it opens up some interesting avenues of discussion. “As AI enables more devices to become more capable, I’m led to reconsider another favorite question that I often ask Christian audiences: What technology do you think will—or won’t—be in heaven? More specifically, why (or why not) would there be Roombas in heaven? And what does our answer tell us about our relationships today with technology, work, and time?”

You have probably noticed, as I have, that progressivism seems to destroy everything it touches. Andrew Walker explains why this is.

“We think transformation will be quick, and sometimes it is. But generally speaking, God isn’t in a rush. There’s a certain kind of holiness and beauty that develops only after decades of walking with God. You can’t microwave it. But when you see it, it’s a beautiful thing.”

Yes, there are so many blessings that come as we pray together. “Many have had negative experiences with corporate prayer. Perhaps people droned on about distant relatives’ needs and little time was spent in prayer. Or maybe you experienced an emotionally manipulative prayer gathering. There are many ways that corporate prayer can go wrong. But when it goes right, there are few things more spiritually invigorating.”

…we need to keep the heart, tend the heart, guard the heart, and feed and satisfy the heart with good spiritual nourishment.

I have reason to praise him for my trials, for, most probably, I should have been ruined without them.
—John Newton