What are some popular phrases regarding "effort" in the Christian life?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Semper Fidelis

2 Timothy 2:24-25
Staff member
I don't know quite how to phrase the question but I'm looking for popular Christian statements about the Law of God or Christian living or obedience to the Law.

Specifically, I'm trying to create some illustrations to address sloth in the Christian life that we justify by the lingo the broader Christian community uses. There's a general apathy toward effort and discipline where many see anything as being "hard" in the Christian life as inherently bad. Whether we're called to pray or to study or to give battle to sin, what are the wiggle phrases that many of us use?

Here are some examples I've heard recently:

Many people say "That's legalistic" when something is inconvenient and may challenge a moral deficiency.

"Let's cuss a little every day to show that we're justified."

"We can't speak of any imperative unless we infuse Gospel-driven or Christ infused in front of it."

"There wasn't any grace in that sermon..." when describing a sermon that exposited a passage that included the Law.

"Gratitude is the only proper motivation for obedience."
 
This may not be what you are looking for, it may be more an antidote:

We are saved by faith alone, but by a faith that is never alone.
 
I would say this kind of criticism just reflects the "moralism" of the age. In our age morality is seen as relative, spontaneous, the authentic person responding to the situation, etc. Concepts like duty, constancy, self-discipline, are not in vogue. So in effect the charge of legalism for seeking to make an effort in the Christian life is nothing other than the mindset of Mr. Worldly-Wise man adapted to the 21st century.
 
I would say this kind of criticism just reflects the "moralism" of the age. In our age morality is seen as relative, spontaneous, the authentic person responding to the situation, etc. Concepts like duty, constancy, self-discipline, are not in vogue. So in effect the charge of legalism for seeking to make an effort in the Christian life is nothing other than the mindset of Mr. Worldly-Wise man adapted to the 21st century.

Or advocating unwavering adherence, with accompanied judgment for dissidents, in something that is dubious like "carbon footprint management" while only offering lip service or less to evils like abortion and homosexuality.
 
"I don't know quite how to phrase the question but I'm looking for popular Christian statements about the Law of God or Christian living or obedience to the Law."

"Be killing sin, or it will be killing you." (John Owen)!

But really, the only statements that will be effective may be the Scriptures themselves. "Be holy, for I am holy." "Let no unwholesome speech..." etc. Some may be determined to perceive the pursuit of holiness, and the exertion Scripture commands, as legalism.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
"I just looove those indicatives, but don'r give me those imperatives"

"He majors too much in the imperatives and neglects the indicatives"

"His preaching is imperative-heavy"

"Once saved, always saved" with the implication that it doesn't't matter how you're living now.

You can have Christ as Saviour without having Him as Lord."The Lordship Controversy", apart from showing how heterodox some areas of evangelicalism were, implied you could have your cake and eat it; have the crown without the cross.

Sent from my HTC Wildfire using Tapatalk 2
 
Classic examples of Christians confusing God's preceptive and decretive will,

"I feel that God is calling me to do this."

"Just tell me what you want me to do!"


And the carnal solution,

"What does your heart say?"
 
"Let go and let God have His wonderful way' was coined by French Quietists who took their bottles of whiteout and (virtually) removed anything sounding like discipline, strain, or toil in the Christian life form their view of the normal Christian experience.

Having said that there are times when one should just 'stand and see the salvation of God' and times when one should make diligent use of the disciplines of grace. Monergism pertains to salvation where God is the one worker,:candle: after salvation there are two workers where we are dependent workers ( and so the Bible speaks of co-laboring with God and Paul as agonizing in prayer ). Don't substitute human effort for something that's God's job but don't neglect disciplines of grace.

From the end of Colossians... “Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bondslave of Jesus Christ, .... Then he adds, “I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for all
 
Last edited:
"Gratitude is the only proper motivation for obedience."

Help me to understand what is wrong with this statement.
 
"Gratitude is the only proper motivation for obedience."

Help me to understand what is wrong with this statement.

I think this is the point: gratitude is a proper motivation for obedience, but is it the "only" one?

How about righteous fear? Isn't a child's fear of displeasing his parents also "proper?" Isn't that sort of fear proper to Christians? If we are obedient because we fear God, is that "improper?" And so on.
 
"Gratitude is the only proper motivation for obedience."

Help me to understand what is wrong with this statement.

If you look through the NT alone, leaving the OT aside for the moment, you will find a number of biblical motivations for sanctification and good works, including the Heavenly rewards.

An examination of Scripture and the WCF ( On Good Works) shows that we do not obtain these rewards by intrinsic merit, but that God is pleased to graciously reward our good works in Christ, which He graciously produces in and through us.

Sent from my HTC Wildfire using Tapatalk 2
 
The gospel, in fact, transforms us precisely because it’s not itself a message about our internal transformation but about Christ’s external substitution.

The Gospel saves the Law only condemns.

Jesus + Nothing = Everything.

The gospel is a victory announcement. It never tells us something to do. That is the business of the law. Rather, the gospel tells us something that has been done.

Christians are totally depraved.

Christian growth (sanctification) is looking away from self and looking to Jesus and His performance for us.

“The hard work of Christian growth, therefore, is to think less of ourselves and our performance and more of Jesus and his performance for us. Ironically, when we focus mostly on our need to get better, we actually get worse. We become neurotic and self-absorbed. Preoccupation with our effort instead of with God’s effort for us makes us increasingly self-centered and morbidly introspective. (95)

Again, think of it this way: sanctification is the daily hard work of going back to the reality of our justification. It’s going back to the certainty of our objectively secured pardon in Christ and hitting the refresh button a thousand times a day.

Some of these quotes are taken from here. Depraved Christianity may be Antinomian Christianity Part 2 | RPCNA Covenanter
 
Q. 95. Of what use is the moral law to all men?
A. The moral law is of use to all men, to inform them of the holy nature and will of God,g and of their duty, binding them to walk accordingly;h to convince them of their disability to keep it, and of the sinful pollution of their nature, hearts, and lives;i to humble them in the sense of their sin and misery,k and thereby help them to a clearer sight of the need they have of Christ,l and of the perfection of his obedience.m

Q. 97. What special use is there of the moral law to the regenerate?
A. Although they that are regenerate, and believe in Christ, be delivered from the moral law as a covenant of works,r so as thereby they are neither justifieds nor condemned;t yet, besides the general uses thereof common to them with all men, it is of special use, to show them how much they are bound to Christ for his fulfilling it, and enduring the curse thereof in their stead, and for their good;u and thereby to provoke them to more thankfulness,w and to express the same in their greater care to conform themselves thereunto as the rule of their obedience.

Doesn't the 'duty' aspect of the law only convince us of our disability thereby driving us to Christ? Once we have Christ then the 'duty' aspect of the law provokes to more thankfulness?

It seems awkward to say there can motivations to obedience which do not involve a measure of gratitude.
 
Thanks for the contributions everyone.

Ken: As Vic pointed out, if gratitude is the only proper motivation to obey then Paul is improperly motivating children by promising reward (or for that matter, the 5th Commandment itself).

There is no question that a believer ought to be grateful, the point is whether God is somehow impotent to sanctify us except when our motives are not perfectly aligned to a sufficiently grateful status. In Hebrews 12, for instance, the author explicitly motivates the readers to remember that they're surrounded by a cloud of witnesses or that they ought to consider that they haven't yet resisted to the point of bloodshed. There is also a "kick in the rearend" motivation of the fear of falling into the hands of the Living God.

It would be interesting if someone has done a study of all the ways (because there are many) that the Lord uses to "motivate" His children to obedience. As I noted in another thread, when we zoom out and see our sanctification in light of our union with Christ as our Mediator (Prophet, Priest, and King) we stop thinking that our progress is somehow stilted by our motivations. I think Hebrews even switches metaphors to a father and son analogy in Hebrews 12 even though he's been talking about how Christ's mediatorial work perfects us. The analogy is apt because a good father doesn't wait for a child's obedience to determine whether a child will "live" in a given situation. The pain level may be increased in any given situation to preserve life and to ensure the child continues to mature. I rather think that Christ has pulled me out of "moving traffic" a number of times using some pretty varied motivations to keep me from sinning to include fear of the loss of a job or destroying my children if I gave into a certain sin.

From the standpoint of the Lord, whatever motivation He used to keep us from sinning is "proper" even if our own motivations were mixed.
 
Thanks Rich. I have never considered other motivations in distinction from gratitude. Even Heb 12 implies that we should be grateful for God's chastening. That said, I can see what you mean. I do think it would be hard for me to counsel people that if they aren't grateful, they should obey out of fear or hope of reward instead.
 
David Wells writes of phrases that emergent churches use. "Christianity is about the search, not about
the discovery,". "Christianity is about the spiritual journey, not about arriving." "Knowing beyond doubt
is not what Christianity is about." "We should not make judgments."
Such waffle removes motivation and stimulates uncertainty, God gave revelation that we might know
and follow His directives, not the guesswork and opinions of men.
 
I do think it would be hard for me to counsel people that if they aren't grateful, they should obey out of fear or hope of reward instead.

The difficulty with saying gratitude is the foundation shows up when you deal with those whose assurance is weak. I've seen this emphasis lead people into despair because they believe they have not generated enough gratitude. Gratitude itself becomes a condition of salvation, and none of us are sufficiently grateful for very long to assure it.

We have to rewind and remember the command: "Repent and Believe"; "This is My Son, Hear Him"; "obey the Gospel."

If one can say, "yes, God grant that I can believe and obey. Give me a thankful heart," now we can discuss gratitude, for he has been given ears to hear the Son and a heart to love Him. But even gratitude flows from obedience to the Gospel.
 
One of my main motivations for obedience is the fact that it pleases God and makes him happy. I do admit that fear might be a motivation in that as I fear he wouldn't be pleased with me. When I was young I got great pleasure when my Dad was pleased with me and our relationship was affectionately close.
 
Thanks to all for helping me understand everyone.

Ken, I really appreciate the question because it caused me to undergo a fair amount of reflection.

As Rich pointed out, God can use many means to sanctify us. I was thinking about personal experiences that led me to remember to be grateful, but did not start with gratitude.

For example, I am tempted almost every day to be slothful and to neglect my particular duties. I've got things that must be done. I cannot say I'm always up for performing them. I admit, with chagrin, that what spurs me on in the immediate sense is not a Love of God, but rather a fear of being exposed as a slacker or a hack. So my pride and fear of exposure kick in and I double down and get the work done. I'm obedient on the face of things because I am doing the work my Lord has put before me, but my motivation at the time is my own sinful self-interest.

Yet, very often, while I'm in the thick of "getting it done," the flash of gratitude appears: I find myself praising God that I'm in the middle of whatever turmoil or struggle he has put before me, and that he has forced me to work, because it ultimately is to his glory. And I thank him for whatever goad he might use to prod me along.

So, even my sinful pride is turned against me to protect me. Repentance and gratitude, in those cases, come after apparent works-obedience.

It is so important for us to remember one of the lessons of Hebrews: "yes, you believe, yes you profess, now go act like it..."
 
Even Heb 12 implies that we should be grateful for God's chastening.
Don't want to pile on here Ken but, strictly speaking, "...at the moment..." no discipline seems pleasant is what the author communicates. I think Hebrews 12 is a good example of how we ought to look at things "zoomed out" from God's perspective. Certainly we can be grateful to God for it but another feeling about it is to consider that God is making us holy as another motivation. Also, as he points out, in any particular moment the Lord's discipline may be very unpleasant. The author isn't really prescribing how we are to "feel" about handling giving situations. His important note to the recipients is to press on.

I think it can be very encouraging to think that Christ is perfecting me in many situations without my fully and properly motivated self being a necessary element to His success.
 
What motivates gratitude? If it is not love for the Giver of the benefit, the "gratitude" will be something very different from the "grace" of which the Scriptures speak.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top