John writes this gospel for us, so that we believe and continue to believe and know real life in his name. After all, this “faith,” Jude tells us, was delivered to the “saints” (Jude 1:3). So, do not rest on your believing as a past action. Continue to read the gospel story. Reflect. Rehearse. Marvel. Wonder. And believe.

Why does John place the story of “doubting Thomas” at the climax of his gospel? Because John’s whole purpose is to call people to believe in Jesus of Nazareth—his claims about himself, his ministry, his death for sin, and especially his resurrection from the dead—even though they have never seen him.
In fact, out of about 250 times the New Testament uses the verb “believe” (pisteuō), nearly 100 of them occur in John’s gospel alone. And what is even more interesting is that John never uses the noun form, “belief” or “faith” (pistis). For John, belief is always an active idea, a verbal idea.
But John is not merely interested in instilling belief in those who have not yet embraced the good news. He is just as interested in strengthening the belief of those who are already followers of Jesus as well.
We can see this emphasis in the Gospel of John through the way John emphasizes the faith of Jesus’s own disciples at the beginning of the gospel and later toward the end and climax of the gospel. The first person in the Gospel of John who believes is Jesus’s disciple Nathanael.
Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these” (John 1:49–50).
The next time believing is mentioned it is Jesus’s disciples who believe after the miracle of the water turned to wine.
This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him (John 2:11).
Later, in John 2, after Jesus cleanses the temple and declares, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19), John forecasts the fact that Jesus’s disciples would later remember that he had said those words and believe:
When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken (John 2:22).
After this passage, however, John’s Gospel turns away from the issue of the disciples believing, and gives attention solely to others believing—Nicodemus (John 3), the woman at the well (John 4), the Pharisees (John 5), the 5000 (John 6), the people at the Feast of Tabernacles (John 7), the man born blind (John 9), Martha at Lazarus’s tomb (John 11), to name a few.
But after the people of Israel in general refuse to believe in him (John 12:37), John turns our attention once again to Jesus’s own disciples. Often in the private conversation that Jesus has with his disciples in John 13–16 the subject turns to their believing in him (e.g., John 14:1, 10–12; 16:25–33). Twice Jesus tells his disciples what is about to happen to him in his passion “so that” when it does happen they will remember what he told them and believe (John 13:19; 14:29).

One of the reasons we often wither in the faith, become susceptible to temptation, or simply “get into a rut” is a lack of regular fellowship with Christians outside of our own family. Make it your habit to meet with Christians, of the same sex, for regular fellowship and seek out Christians who are further along in their walk to be your mentors. Often in scriptures like Titus 2 we see it taken for granted that older Christian women will mentor younger Christian women, and that older Christian men will mentor younger Christian men. These brothers and sisters will pray for you, exhort you, teach you, and stir you up to love and good works. They will also keep you accountable in ways the world NEVER will.

1) Read Your Bible Before you read your email, log in to Face Book, turn on the radio, etc.
Far too many of us spend time in the world, before we spend time in the Word and as a result we begin the day with the wrong frame of mind and perspective, and not having “broken our fast” by partaking of the bread of heaven. For many people, this means that they begin the day having partaken of things that cause them to be irritable, anxious, or distracted, rather than filled with the things that promote peace, contentment, and knowledge. If we wonder why we are weak in the faith, it might just be because our primary diet consists of things that are not spiritual food. Let your first meal in the morning be the milk and meat of the Word of God!
“Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies; For they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, For Your testimonies are my meditation.” (Psalm 119:97-99)
2) Start attending the church events you normally miss
If there is one thing we learn from the Apostolic church, it is that they never missed an opportunity to worship together. “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.” (Acts 2:42) This should still be the fondest desire of every Christian’s heart. “I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go into the house of the LORD.” (Psalm 122:1) But it is also something that we desperately need for our growth. Indeed, the Christians who are growing the most in the faith are almost invariably the ones who spend the most time in worship and study. Sometimes people really are providentially hindered from attending the services of the church, but more often than not we have simply made a decision not to go. There are many excuses we can generate for not coming to both worship services on Sunday or the Bible Study or the Prayer Meeting, but how often can we honestly say, “Lord, the thing that I am doing instead of going to church is more important than worshipping you with the saints and is better for my spiritual growth?” Do we really think that the eternal blessings that we gain from attending on the means of grace will not outweigh the temporary hassles of traveling to church? Do we expect that in heaven we will say, “I’m glad I didn’t go to church more often?” or that if we did attend all the church services we could that we will regret doing so?
Finally, before you protest that you would be physically exhausted if you attended more of the services of the church, make sure that there aren’t other activities you could cut out that would enable you to get more rest. Often church is the first thing we remove from our schedule rather than the last. Christians are by definition people who hope to spend eternity in the corporate worship of the Lord, and we need to begin living now as we mean to continue forever afterwards. Remember, we can suffer from a lack of grace, but it is impossible to suffer from having gotten too much of it!
“not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Heb. 10:25)
3) Begin and Stick to a Pattern of Daily Family Worship
Properly understood there are three different spheres in which worship should take place; privately, as we do our personal devotions, corporately, as we assemble for worship with the other saints on the Lord’s Day, and household, as families assemble to worship together on a daily basis.
While all the different spheres of worship have declined in modern times, perhaps none has suffered quite so much as family worship, and I believe that the results of this decline can be seen in the exodus of covenant children from the church. Simply put, an hour of corporate worship or even an hour of corporate worship and a youth program like AWANA cannot ever replace daily household worship and instruction. Fathers, you and not your pastor, youth pastor, or Sunday school worker have been charged with bringing up your children in the training and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4). You simply cannot do this without following that daily pattern of instruction and worship set out in Deuteronomy 6. Additionally, Family Worship is a bulwark of any marriage, and you will find that although it is a cliche, there is a LOT of truth to the saying “The Family that Prays Together, Stays Together.” Indeed, it isn’t surprising to see that as family worship has declined, divorce rates have increased. In 10 years of pastoring, I have yet to encounter a family that kept a regular pattern of daily family worship that was on the verge of divorce.
Many families are intimidated by the thought of starting a pattern of family worship because they were not brought up doing it themselves, and were thus never taught how to worship at home. The keys to starting off a successful program of family worship are simplicity and consistency. If you have never done it before, I would recommend you start this way.
First, pick an event that the entire family already does together, such as eating a meal like then covenant that as soon as you have finished your meal you will assemble together for family worship. Keep your family worship simple and brief, and make your family wish there were more of it rather than wish that it would finally end. A sample pattern for worship might include:

Father or Mother Prays
Father reads a short selection from the Bible (no more than a chapter!) that he is familiar with and can explain, or from a good family devotional like the ones written by Jim Cromarty.
Father explains the text and asks the children some questions about the text designed to stimulate thought and conversation
The family closes by praying together and offering up their individual praises and requests to God

Later, after your worship has grown consistent, you can begin gradually adding in other items like singing and reciting the Shorter Catechism, Lord’s Prayer, Ten Commandments, etc.
“We will not hide them from their children, Telling to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, And His strength and His wonderful works that He has done. For He established a testimony in Jacob, And appointed a law in Israel, Which He commanded our fathers, That they should make them known to their children; That the generation to come might know them, The children who would be born, That they may arise and declare them to their children, That they may set their hope in God, And not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments” (Psalm 78:4-7)
4) Start Reading Systematically Through the Bible
One of the trends that has emerged over the years is that while Christians read email, text messages, magazines, novels, and Facebook, they rarely read the bible. The bible reading that does go on is either needs based (I have to read this for a bible study) or random. The result of this is that bible knowledge amongst Christians is declining at a precipitous rate. As an example of that, one seminary president pointed out that while it used to be the case that only 1/3 of the incoming class failed the English bible exam, now only 1/3 of the incoming class pass the English bible exam.
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The nature of truth is under attack in our culture and we are woefully unskilled in debating truth. Truth is debated in the public square with snarky memes. I’ll admit that I like snarky memes, but let’s be honest, memes do not educate or persuade. We need church leaders who will stand for truth regardless of whether truth is popular in the larger culture. Further, we need church leaders who will teach about how truth is established. Archbishop Welby has failed us in this regard.

Who better than the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to report on a conference of Anglican bishops? The BBC is satisfied that the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has brokered a compromise on one of the most controversial issues of the day, namely, which sexual expressions the churches in the Anglican Communion should countenance.
How does one compromise irreconcilably different positions? Archbishop Welby’s solution is that the traditional doctrine remains on paper, but those who flout the doctrine will not be sanctioned. So, everyone is happy?
In a piece headlined, “Lambeth Conference: Welby unites bishops with compromise on sexuality,” the BBC states that the archbishop has “found the formula for now,” which suggests that even the BBC knows the compromise will not stand the test of time. Indeed, archbishops from Nigeria, Rwanda, and Uganda chose not to attend the Lambeth Conference, believing that compromise was inconsistent with the truth-preserving role of the church.
The bishops from these and other African countries support maintaining traditional teaching while those bishops who want to liberalize the church’s teaching are from Western nations. This same geographic divide prevails in parallel debates within the United Methodist Church. It is not unique to Anglicanism. And therein is a significant spoiler alert: the United Methodist Church has begun splitting over such issues. Past compromises to preserve traditional teaching on paper but not in behavior have not unified.
As the BBC explains the situation, the positions of both the African churches and the Western churches can be best understood by understanding the surrounding cultures in which they serve. Thus, the African churches will be most respected by those in their surrounding culture if they maintain traditional teachings about sexuality while the Western churches will have more respect from their cultures if their teaching is liberalized.
Missing from the BBC analysis is a consideration of how bishops, or anyone else, knows what is true. What is truth? Both the BBC and Archbishop Welby seem to argue for the position that truth must be acceptable to the larger culture. Experiencing “derision” or “contempt” would be dangerous for the church.
Yes, Christians are to avoid antagonizing the larger culture for the sake of antagonizing it. We should not bring suffering upon ourselves by doing evil. But Jesus told us that as the world hated Him, it would hate us. Neither approbation nor condemnation from the larger culture determine the truth of Christian doctrine.
Fidelity to Biblical teaching is the standard by which doctrine must be judged. It is disappointing that the BBC does not even consider the possibility that doctrine should have a Biblical foundation. An educated reader, however, should understand that historically Christians have used the Bible as the foundation for church doctrine.
I am not sure the BBC is demonstrating ignorance or neutrality with its news report. Rather, I think the BBC is showing a complete disregard of the claim that the church offers truth authored by God; truth that applies in all times and cultures. The BBC is going beyond disagreeing with the African bishops. The BBC is undermining the relevance of the African bishops and the faith they represent by pretending that the church makes no meaningful truth claims.
The BBC would have the church promote whatever makes people in each time and place feel warm and safe. This appears to be Archbishop Welby’s approach, too. But this has never been the church’s mission. Jesus was not crucified because he made everyone feel warm and safe.
Ultimately Welby’s compromise will please no one for more than a moment. Worse, the archbishop has weakened the church’s claim to be a possessor of cross-cultural timeless truths and has undercut a historical approach to ascertaining the truth.
The nature of truth is under attack in our culture and we are woefully unskilled in debating truth. Truth is debated in the public square with snarky memes. I’ll admit that I like snarky memes, but let’s be honest, memes do not educate or persuade. We need church leaders who will stand for truth regardless of whether truth is popular in the larger culture. Further, we need church leaders who will teach about how truth is established. Archbishop Welby has failed us in this regard.
The issue of truth has implications that go beyond an international gathering of bishops. We must consider what our schools and colleges are teaching about truth. Is truth knowable, and if so, how is truth knowable? Education should move us to a more sophisticated understanding than memes can provide. May God bless us with more institutions that educate well.
Dr. Joseph J. Horton is professor of psychology at Grove City College and the Working Group Coordinator for Marriage and Family with the Institute for Faith and Freedom. He is also a researcher on Positive Youth Development. Used with permission.
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