Author: Greg Pickle

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20 Years of God’s Grace

On January 5, 2003, I showed up to a new church at the long-standing invitation of a Christian friend. He had not been content to let me just not attend church while I maintained a profession of faith in Christ. Occasionally and graciously, but determinedly, he continued to invite me, despite my excuses. Eventually, after a very discouraging year, and resolved to make the new year a happy one, I finally decided to accept the invitation, and I got up on Sunday morning and went. 

To say that what began that Sunday was life-changing would be to sell it far short. Of course, I didn’t realize anything like that at the time; in fact, the only thing I can visually remember from that day is coming home to an empty apartment and watching a crazy ending to a crazy 49ers-Giants playoff game. 

But that Sunday began for me a practice of hearing God’s word being set forth as the standard of what a Christian was to know and do. Every Sunday morning, and every Sunday night, and even Wednesday night as well, I sat and listened and learned from people who believed and taught that Scripture is inerrant and authoritative, and that we need to know it and to follow it as well as we can. And that the heart of that message of Scripture is the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ for sinners and his resurrection from the dead that grants forgiveness of sins and eternal life to all who call upon his name. Hearing these things taught with conviction and clarity simply rocked my world. 

It was only many months later that I began to realize something else, though: that my understanding of what makes someone a Christian had been entirely lacking. It involves faith and repentance, not mere assent to facts and wanting to avoid hell. It results in a life that tries to follow Scripture – not just a claim of knowing Jesus, or a baptismal certificate, or being able to point out the date of a fearful prayer. It is a commitment that is followed by change; a heart and life that grows in godliness because, by God’s saving power, it has been made new and is no longer what it once was. 

And so I saw that not only had my life been changed in the most general sense, but that God’s grace had caused me to be born again (1 Peter 1:3) and that I had passed from spiritual darkness into light (Col. 1:13) and from spiritual death into life (John 5:24). I had not just made some life changes; I had been saved from my sins, and actually made a new creature in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Twenty years later, I’m still far from what I ought to be. But I praise God that, because of his abundant kindness revealed to me two decades ago, I have been given more grace than I could ever repay. 

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Christmas

Immanuel – God with Us

“‘…and they shall call His name Immanuel’, which translated means, ‘God with us.’” (Matthew 1:23)

It has always been God’s design to dwell with his people. 

In the very beginning, after God had made everything good, and before the fall of man into sin, God walked in the Garden of Eden where he had placed the very first man and his wife (Genesis 3:8).

The sin of the man and the woman created in God’s own image interrupted mankind’s perfect fellowship with God, and set them at a kind of distance from God. But God was not done in seeking to dwell with man – in fact, he had barely just begun the process. 

The LORD God showed his determination to walk among his people in his words to the nation Israel, whom he had called to himself (Leviticus 26:12). It was for this very purpose of making his presence to dwell among them that he not only commanded their holiness (Deut. 23:14), but also set up a system of religious structures, sacrifices, priests, and ordinances – a system which seems, to the casual observer, to be intentionally and primarily restrictive. But this system was actually designed (in part, at least) to allow a holy God to dwell in the midst of a people who on the one hand needed God’s presence, but on the other hand whose sinfulness would otherwise have prevented it (Ex. 33:5, 15-17).

In fact, even when Israel had rejected God over and over again for centuries, he left them with a promise of hope that his glory would one day return to dwell in their midst (Eek. 43:1-5).

And yet while God made his presence to dwell among Israel by means of his “glory” dwelling among them, this could not compare to the ultimate expression of God dwelling among his people: the Son of God becoming flesh and dwelling among us in the person of Jesus Christ: 

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14)

The message of Christmas is, among many other things, a message that God unswervingly intends to dwell among his people, and that even such an act of sending his own Son into the world in human flesh is not too much for him in order to make this happen. 

Moreover, God does this all despite our turning away from him to our own way – time and again choosing our sin over his perfect and righteous will. 

And so the question is not whether God is willing to dwell with us. It is, rather, whether we are willing to dwell with God.

And so we must answer, with Christmastime being as fitting a time as ever: Will we welcome God’s presence with us by embracing the Son of God through faith (John 1:12)? And will we value the promise of God’s presence with us above all by rejecting our unholy desires (2 Corinthians 6:16-18, Revelation 3:20)? 

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COVID-19 and the Idol of Autonomy

At the heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the reality that all men are sinners who have defied their creator and, accordingly, are are desperate need of redemption. No small factor in this defiance of God is our desire for autonomy – our wish to be self-governed on an individual level, with no moral requirements outside of our own self-determined standard – which aligns with our own malleable desires.

A major element, then, of a person turning to Christ as Lord is the rejection of such autonomy; it is a shift from self-will and self-governance to a heart that willingly (even if with great difficulty) submits to the authority and Lordship of Christ.

This submission to Christ brings with it what logically follows: submitting to Christ’s commands concerning submission to human authority (Titus 3:1; Ephesians 6:1, 5; 1 Timothy 6:1-2; Romans 13:1-7).

But when authorities of any type challenge our will, it’s easy for the flesh to revert to this pursuit of autonomy and to justify it on the basis of any number of reasons.

COVID-19 and its accompanying governmental responses has challenged the will of many people, including Christians, with respect to their desire for autonomy. They don’t like the restrictions and rules placed upon them, whether it be with regard to masking, “social distancing”, curfews, or other procedures and limitations (and, really, who does?). And, to be sure, some of these restrictions are difficult, if not outright harmful; official COVID-19 deaths are not the only casualties of the pandemic. But often, no matter how insignificant the restriction, rather than go along with the mandates of those who are placed in authority over them, people often choose to chart their own path, even with regard to the most mundane requirements.

There is no freer person than the Christian, who is free even if he is a literal slave (1 Cor. 7:22). But even this great freedom is to be exercised with a submission to God-ordained earthly authority.

The apostle Peter tells his readers to “Act as free men” (1 Peter 2:16); but he then immediately warns them in this way: “… and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God.” What does this mean? He has just told them two verses earlier: “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right.” (1 Peter 2:13-14).

Peter even goes on to tell believers that they should submit to authorities who are unreasonable: “Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable.” (1 Peter 2:18). Peter knew a little bit about unreasonable authority, as he was writing to a group of readers who were suffering as the result of actual government persecution by a literal dictator of a literal empire (Rome). And yet he said that even such rulers were to be followed in such matters despite perhaps appearing in and of themselves to be unworthy of such obedience by God’s people.

Government leaders exist to make certain decisions and laws that are not intrinsically pleasing to the ones who have to follow them. These decisions and laws are within their purview as God-ordained servants toward the populace as a whole. This is their right and their responsibility (the very existence of such a thing as “law enforcement” implies as much). And because of this we are obligated to follow these rules, even when we don’t like them.

There are, of course, times when Christians must disobey human laws, because there are cases when the commands of Scripture explicitly contradict these laws, and we have to pick one or the other. But in many cases, it’s not a matter of man’s law vs. God’s law; it’s a matter of man’s law vs. our self-will.

So it may be that you think that masks are stupid; that they are uncomfortable, that they don’t work, that they make you a sheep, or even that they are the last step before conceding to totalitarianism.

You might think that the “experts” are fools or that they are misleading people on purpose, and often you might be right.

You might think that government leaders are acting out of purely self-preserving or self-promoting dishonesty, and there’s a decent chance that’s true of some of them.

You might think that many government restrictions are unreasonable and not following actual science, and there is a good case to be made for that in many places.

All of that could be true – and yet, despite all this, it still doesn’t give you a free pass to do whatever you want with what they require you to do.

Why? Because Christians, despite being free in Christ, do not ever possess full autonomy, even if we happen to be American citizens.

So yes, question the wisdom of government decisions, and vote accordingly if you wish. Discern what type of laws and orders are harmful to you or to others and proceed with legal challenges where necessary. And recognize where submitting to government action may in fact go so far as to directly contradict biblical faithfulness.

But also be careful to distinguish this: where you are acting in principle, versus when you just aren’t getting to do what you want.

For those with latent tendencies toward self-will and individual autonomy, COVID-19 has been a great opportunity to identify and put to death the sin of self-government. So before it’s too late and the pandemic has passed with all its restrictions and accompanying challenges to our self-driven desires, make sure to take advantage of it!

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Remember Those in Isolation

“Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body.” – Hebrews 13:3

Since nearly the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people have chosen to isolate themselves completely or in large part, due to concerns about contracting the virus or spreading it to others. Many of us have directly felt the effects of that isolation, especially with our loved ones (I, for example, haven’t seen my 95-year-old grandmother since this all began). It has been a strange and difficult season. 

Included in this number of those who are isolating from others are some fellow believers from our own churches. And whether you think such isolation is absolutely essential or a complete overreaction, or somewhere in between, the fact it is that it is happening. So what does God’s word call us to do? The exhortation above from the author of Hebrews provides one very important element of that response.

Voluntary social isolation isn’t the same thing as being a prisoner, of course, or as someone who is ill-treated. The suffering that came with those situations was intense. In comparison to such things, isolating in one’s own home is an easy lifestyle in many ways. 

But not in every way. Self-isolating believers today share one key challenge with the imprisoned Christians of that day: they are missing the privilege of direct interaction with other believers. 

It’s all too easy for many things in our lives to be “out-of-sight, out-of-mind.” Sadly, that also easily includes those with whom we are united in Jesus Christ as members of the same body (1 Cor. 12:12-26). 

So what can we do for those who are isolated? The challenge from Hebrews 13:3 is an appropriate one for us to take on:

  • We are to remember them – to keep them in mind, to think about them, and to not simply let them drift out of our head until they may show back up one day. 
  • To remember them as though in isolation with them. This means that our heart toward them is not one of condescending judgmentalism (even if you think that it’s necessary to challenge someone’s reasons for isolation!). Rather, our heart should overflow with sympathy toward their isolation. 

As I heard one person in our church wisely say early on during the pandemic, there are plenty of understandable and non-sinful reasons why someone might choose not to attend church during a season such as this, but we can’t pretend that it won’t have an effect. We as fellow believers in Christ should strive to mitigate and overcome that effect for those who can’t attend, and to show love to those who are part of the body of Christ with us. And a major way we do this is by remembering them as if we are in isolation just like they are. 

Here are a few ways you might remember those who are isolated:

  • Calling and/or texting them on a regular basis, or even just once
  • Finding ways to visit with them that they are comfortable with
  • Asking them about the hardships and the joys of the past several months
  • Scheduling video hangouts 
  • Interacting with them on your church’s worship service livestream (but not during the sermon, of course!)
  • Delivering items to them or for them 
  • Praying for them 

Let’s not just go about our business and forget our isolating brethren. Let’s instead demonstrate the love of Christ by making the effort to remember them as if we were in their position ourselves!

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Contentment and the Idol of Optimization

Christmas is over, and for many, though that bring sadness, it also brings with it some relief. Decorations, cooking, gatherings, wrapping presents… it’s a lot to handle, even with a reduced schedule in other areas.

One of the most challenging parts of Christmas might be buying gifts for others. Not the act of spending money – which is a joy to do for those you love – but the act of finding just the right thing.

Remember the days when Christmas lists were simple? A doll, a rocking horse, a BB gun… how could you go wrong?

Not so today. Instead of a world where anything that fits the general category will do, we live in an “Amazon wishlist” world – a world where failing to follow the exactly hyperlink provided on a digital wishlist results in a sad child, a disappointed gift-giver, and a long wait in line at the UPS store to return the “wrong” gift in exchange for the “correct” one. To be fair, gift-givers generally delight to find exactly what a recipient wants, and this kind of specificity helps; but it also reflects the fact that there seems to be an endless array of options for any possible item someone could want.

This is a product of our times, where, paradoxically, choices are seemingly infinite, and yet it is increasingly rare for someone to be able to satisfactorily find exactly what they are after.

We exist in a world light years removed from that of the Ford Model T, which Henry Ford said could to be offered, during a large portion of its lifespan, in any customer a color wanted – that is, “so long as it is black.” In contrast to this approach, product developers today seem to go out of their way to offer as many custom options as possible.

The list of possibilities is dizzying. The Sonic Drive-In website boasts “1063953 fountain drink and slush combinations to choose from”; and while I’m tempted to break out my rusty knowledge of permutations to fact-check such an audacious claim, for my current purposes it’s enough to acknowledge that businesses are keen to cater to customers’ desire for ever-increasing choice. “Have it your way” is no longer Burger King’s slogan (literally, they changed it a few years back) – but it is now the mantra of a huge number of business all over the world. Customization and choice are the name of the game, and only the most confident entities stand firm against the approach of featuring a broad array of product options in the name of widespread customer attraction.

For all the benefits this can bring, though, there are some drawbacks as well. On the surface, there is the problem of “paralysis-by-analysis”: having to choose from 100 menu options instead of just buying a hamburger can definitely become a burden.

But even more than this, and of direct concern for Christians who want to please the Lord, an environment of extreme choice and customizability brings in a more subtle and sinister enemy: discontentment.

How does this discontentment manifest itself? What dangers to our soul should we watch out for in a world of endless choices and custom options?

Dissatisfaction over things that we should be thankful for

In a world filled with choices, what ought to be a reason for us to thank God for his gracious provision to us (1 Tim. 4:4) often transforms into an occasion for grumbling and complaining (Phil. 2:14)

What would have been a perfectly fine Instant Pot that brings great joy and usefulness turns out to be something that nags at you because you got the 7.5-quart version instead of the 8 and because it only has 9 customizable settings instead of 11. Instead of a blessing that you explicitly take to God in thankful prayer, all you can think about is how you wish it were better.

The shirt you have is comfortable and durable, but ugh, why can’t the sleeves be just the tiniest bit less bulky!

The home you have is great, but what about the one down the street that has that one feature you don’t have?

The car you bought is slick, high quality, and fun to drive – most of the time! It’s just that the turn radius is just a little wider than the car you’re used to having and you won’t be able not to notice every time you try to make a U-turn, park in a small space, or do donuts in the parking lot (…if you’re so inclined).

We have to be on guard to fight for thankfulness for what we’re tempted to see as sub-optimal things. Otherwise, as soon as the purchase is made, and often even before, the item that God has provided as a blessing and a provision (or even an unnecessary but enjoyable luxury) is something we’re not even happy with. Instead of something to rejoice over, it’s something we merely settled for.

Greed to never be content with what we have

We live in a world ruled by comparisons and reviews. We don’t just want to find a toaster that will work; we want the best one for the money. We don’t just want a hotel to stay in; we need to make sure we find the best hotel we can find for our budget. We don’t want to miss any opportunity to squeeze maximum joy out of our opportunities, purchases, and experiences.

The problem is: if you are always optimizing, always researching, always trying to find out what is the best, there is a real possibility that you are often acting out of greed.

The author of Hebrews tells us: “Make sure that you character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have” (Heb. 13:5).

It can be easy for someone to convince himself that he isn’t greedy simply because he isn’t always hustling and trying to make more money. But the same greedy heart can manifest itself simply by trying to squeeze every bit of utility out of the money you already have.

To be sure, there is a lot of wisdom to be had in avoiding bad deals and in not making reckless, foolish purchases. But the danger of greed lurks quietly on the other side of this kind of shrewd shopping – a greed that is only satisfied if one maxes out the resource-acquiring capacity of his bank account.

Money buys things. And we are tempted to love money because we are tempted to love to have more things. If what drives our hearts is a constant desire for more or better things, it really doesn’t matter whether we’re obsessed with doing it through bringing home more money or through using the money we have more shrewdly. The bottom line is that we’re discontent with what we have.

And, by the way, Scripture directly equates greed with something we must always flee from: idolatry (Col. 3:5).

Obsession with the things of this world

Vastly increased options and vastly increased awareness of these options causes us not only to be discontent, thankless, and greedy with what we do have or could have, but also to spend a lot of time making sure that we never come into that dreaded state of making a mistake on an investment of our resources.

I’ll be the first to admit that when I want to get something, I’m inclined to go directly to researching it at length. Far from risking the danger that I might buy the “wrong” item, I want to make sure it is absolutely the best thing possible and that I won’t regret the purchase. From that point, it’s easy to spend far more time learning about and thinking about this pursuit than is probably wise to do.

If I were to act in wisdom, however, I would realize that I generally miss out on much more by obsessing in my research than I would if I severely limited my investigation and instead spent the recovered time invested in things of spiritual and eternal value, including cultivating the relationships I have.

The Apostle John loves us not to “love the world” (1 John 2:15-16); and though much of what we try to optimize doesn’t fall into the broad categories of evil that he warns about, part of the basis for avoiding such a love applies across every type of temporal matter, whether it is intrinsically moral or amoral: “The world is passing away.” (1 John 2:17)

What may seem like a very wise stewardship of divinely-given resources may actually be a clever use of resources but spent on the entirely wrong type of project – one which will not bring an eternal return.

Instead of this, what if we were content to settle for the less-than-optimal in our temporal activities and acquisitions? And what if we were, instead, to apply the same level of diligence and rigorous inquisition into the state of our soul and the best things we could do to enable us us to grow in godliness? My assertion is that it would be a far wiser use of our energy and possessions than making sure to optimize our temporal resources.

So let’s trade in our never-satisfied quest for the perfect set of possessions and experiences, and instead dive deeply into a pursuit for contentment from the God who enables it in every circumstance (Phil. 4:11-13).

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Physical Exams, Scheduled Maintenance, and Seeking Spiritual Help from Others

Last month, I went to see my doctor for my yearly physical exam. I thought I was doing better with my health than the year before, having lost a few pounds and maintaining more consistency in my exercise routine. However, even though these things were true, my bloodwork found an upward trend continuing in my LDL cholesterol. Nothing too scary at the moment, but something that definitely calls for action. Starting as soon as I left the office, I started to see my diet and physical lifestyle differently, and it has been very helpful in making some necessary changes. 

It was a little bit disappointing and not entirely pleasant to be told that I need to be aware of a potential problem and make some changes. But, since this issue was there anyway, I’m extremely glad for the yearly routine of getting checked out. 

One another note, when I was in high school, I vividly remember sitting in Environmental Science class and overhearing a girl in the class talking about her car beginning to smoke while heading down the road. After she pulled over, and someone examined the cause of her dire situation, it turned out that she had literally no engine oil in the car. Ever since, whenever my “maintenance required” light turns on, it doesn’t take me long before I’m booking an appointment with my mechanic to make sure I never encounter a similar fate. 

Not everyone is faithful to carry out these types of “preventive maintenance” (and, if I’m honest, neither am I, as there are a few things around the house that my wife would attest should have been dealt with long ago). However, no one thinks poorly of me for tending to these things before the problem comes. They don’t see me going to the doctor and say, “Wow, what a failure.” They don’t look at me visiting the auto mechanic and say “Couldn’t he just diagnose and fix that problem himself?”. Of course not! Instead, they say things like, “That’s great” or even, “Yeah, I really need to get in there myself.” 

Yet in the spiritual realm, this kind of preventive maintenance practice is all-too-often neglected, especially when it comes to things that we can’t do by ourselves. 

And indeed, Christians, for whatever reason, seem to have the idea that we should basically be able to do everything themselves. we should know how to interpret every passage; we should be able to work through and solve all of our relational problems on our own; we should be able to get out of a sticky rut of sin; all without having to get anyone else to help us. And if we find that we can’t do this, we’d rather leave it unresolved than do that dreaded thing that has such a horrible stigma: go get help from someone else. 

Through self-sufficiency, independence, pride, or just not wanting to be a bother, we don’t like to ask other people for help. And maybe this is because it’s particularly difficult to expose one’s own weakness to the gaze of others in areas that aren’t really about skill but rather about morality. We’re ashamed to be doing something sinful, so we shy away from getting help.

Yet this is exactly the opposite path from what we should take. 

The body of Christ exists to bear one another’s burdens (Gal. 6:1-2). The church is given God’s word for every dimension of godly exhortation (2 Timothy 3:17). The church has leaders for the sake of watching over our souls (Heb. 13:17). When we place ourselves in the care of others who love us and know God’s word, we give ourselves the best chance at finding and addressing the spiritual problems that would otherwise continue to plague us. 

If your soul care is all private and self-sufficient, there’s a decent chance that there’s an undetected issue growing, or perhaps a “spiritual oil leak” that won’t be noticed until something is on fire. It would be much better to go ahead and catch it now, rather than spend the next however-many-years struggling through it on your own.

Additionally, in many cases, no matter how much you may be able to change from the point when something finally does come to a head or get exposed, and it has to be dealt with, there is so much damage already done that all the problems that could have been prevented if addressed earlier can’t necessarily be fixed. When we reap what we sow spiritually (Gal. 6:7-9), an ounce of prevention is worth even more than a pound of cure. 

So what should you do? My recommendation is this: Don’t just have a steady devotional life or do all your maintenance alone. Don’t just get the best information you can from the internet. Don’t be a self-taught, self-diagnosing, self-reliant spiritual guru for your own soul. 

Instead, take advantage of the local body of Christ you’re a part of, and talk to your pastors and other spiritually-mature Christians on a regular basis to get help with your areas of weakness. In fact, much like getting bloodwork or a scan of some kind, which catch what might go undetected in your day-to-day life, these other people may be able to see things you can’t see despite your best efforts. Ask these people what they perceive to be your areas of spiritual weakness. Demand answers from the Scriptures and subject yourself to the Bible’s authority on every point you find, making the changes you need to make.

True shame doesn’t come from humbling yourself and seeking help (Gal. 6:2, Isa. 66:2) but from hardening your heart, even unknowingly, in patterns of sin and immaturity (Rom. 6:21). So get your maintenance appointment on the schedule, and keep things running well and growing in your spiritual life. 

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An Election Day Meditation

On the day when our nation will determine its next set of elected government officials, we, as God’s redeemed people through Christ, are grateful to know this: that though we vote as a nation, no person becomes a ruler or ceases to be a ruler apart from the active, sovereign hand of God. As the prophet Daniel said:

Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever,
For wisdom and power belong to Him.
It is He who changes the times and the epochs; 
He removes kings and establishes kings; 
He gives wisdom to wise men
And knowledge to men of understanding (Daniel 2:20-21)

We are further comforted by the knowledge that the hearts of even the most powerful rulers in the world are subject to the sovereign involvement of the LORD: “The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever he wishes.” (Proverbs 21:1). As the Scriptures show time and again – through Pharoah, king of Egypt (Exodus 10:1); through Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon (Daniel 4:34-45); through both Cyrus and Darius, kings of Persia (Ezra 1:1; 6:22) – even the innermost thoughts and decisions of a king are completely under God’s divine rule. No President of the United States, or congressional representative, nor any other ruler, stands outside of God’s infinite capacity for directing all things. 

In light of God’s sovereign rule, where then should we look for our help and our hope? Who is our shelter and our protection? We should remember the words of the Psalmist who said: 

My help comes from the LORD
Who made heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot to slip;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, he who keeps Israel
Will neither slumber nor sleep. (Psalm 121:2-4)

We are most certainly blessed and thankful to have a say in who serves as our governmental authorities. And we are even more thankful when those authorities look out for what is right in God’s sight and beneficial to the church’s mission. But we also understand that these rulers are neither our ultimate defenders nor our saviors, and we remember the admonition in Psalm 146:

Do not trust in princes, 
In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation.
His spirit departs, he returns to the earth;
In that very day his thoughts perish.
How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, 
Whose hope is in the LORD his God,
Who made heaven and earth,
The sea and all that is in them;
Who keeps faith forever;
Who executes justice for the oppressed;
Who gives food to the hungry. 
The LORD sets the prisoners free. (Psalm 146:3-7)

Knowing these things about our God and his complete and total rule over the kingdoms of the world give us the confidence and encouragement to anticipate and respond to the results of days like today with utter trust and comfort. 

So as we act today – whether in our vote, in our words, or in the attention or response we give to the outcome of today’s elections – we remember these things, and find our constant and immovable hope in the character, promises, and working of the God who loves us with an unchanging love. 

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A clarification and a correction on voting

After considering some helpful feedback on my previous post, I would like to clarify and correct some unhelpful material that I wrote there.

First, a clarification: in attempting to communicate the small relative significance of the political world – that voting is to be a relatively small part of the Christian life in comparison to other things we have to do – I spoke in sloppy terms (“it doesn’t matter that much”) that could imply that God doesn’t really care at all about our vote. In reality, there are a lot of “small things” we do that may not have the kind of large-scale impact we wish for, but that doesn’t mean that they are insignificant in God’s sight. We don’t have to change the world for our action to be pleasing to God.

I would like to clarify, then, that voting doesn’t end up being meaningful only if we cast the deciding vote; everything we do matters before God, including this activity.

Second, a correction: while speaking of the impact of an individual vote, I should not have spoken as if the world only consists of individual voters. Yes, it may be true that one vote is unlikely to be the deciding factor. However, collective groups of people can do things that matter even when their own personal part seems insignificant, or would actually be insignificant on its own. Few single soldiers ever won a battle on their own (David and Goliath may be the biggest exception!), and yet each soldier’s individual part in such efforts is significant in contributing toward the whole. When we aren’t the only one involved, we shouldn’t necessarily consider our own individual impact alone. So it is with lots of other things, including voting.

Combining this with the idea I acknowledged in the post, that elections can be quite consequential (albeit only directly in a temporal sense), I was wrong to dismiss the significance of a single vote in a way that could easily be construed to say that we should simply stay home because our vote has no impact.

To put these points another way: I’m not telling anyone they have to vote, but I’m also not telling anyone not to vote!


What I did originally hope to communicate were the things that can actually be drawn out and defended biblically, including these primary ideas:

– Our attention to politics, and our concern for how we vote, should be much less than what it often is for many people.

– We should not follow the influences around us in determining how much value and time we give to a matter, but rather, we should be intentional, and driven in our decisions, based on what the Bible says about it.

– There are many other things that we should not neglect for the sake of giving attention to matters surrounding our voting, because they are things that God has spelled out explicitly in Scripture.

– We should beware of assigning a moral right or wrong assessment to matters which are not clearly defined or implied as such by God’s word.

– We should be alert against developing ungodly attitudes that can be caused by inordinate attention to electoral matters (or anything else!).

So I offer my apologies for these errors and for distracting from my main points in the original post. I hope that this follow-up has framed things in a more helpful way and that the two posts put together have been useful in thinking more biblically about this issue.


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Your Vote (Probably) Doesn’t Matter That Much

(Update: a follow-up post can be found here: A clarification and a correction on voting)

This may at first sound fatalistic or even nihilistic, but I’m here to argue the point anyway: For the Bible-believing Christian in America in 2020, your vote (probably) doesn’t matter very much.

I’m not just saying this because of the lack of difference it is likely to make in the final tally of our upcoming national elections (though it’s part of the picture, as I’ll touch on again shortly). But I’m saying it because I’m eager to see voting and politics put in their proper place within the Christian life.

Now, of course, there are really good reasons for wanting to vote (some of which Chris detailed in his post last week). It is perfectly fitting and good to desire to see the good of one’s own society. When we see things that concern us in one direction or another, it is very reasonable to want to do something about them. It is good to care about the flourishing of our neighbors in their day-to-day lives and consider how to take measures to protect and promote that. It is good to want the law to be upheld; to want the government to play by the same rules as everyone else; and for no one to be taken advantage of by people in power. It is good to want those who are helpless to be protected and those who do wrong to be punished.

When we have such concerns, we naturally want to do something about them. Voting, being the direct way of putting people into authority to tend to such matters, seems like a natural response.

It’s also true that elections themselves can absolutely be consequential. Major shifts in policy and governance can occur by one party or person being elected to power over another. It’s not wrong to recognize that these shifts can have real-world effects upon hundreds of millions of people in our own country and, often, billions around the world.

But rather than tempering our expectations for how effective our vote will be in bringing about the outcome we want, or carefully measuring how much concern we need to give to elections despite their consequences, we often put a disproportionate emphasis on these things in our own personal interest and activity. I want to consider why that’s the case and how to correct it.

Why is this the case? Why do we give voting and politics such a disproportionate position in the Christian life?

One major reason is that there are many loud voices with an interest in getting you to vote. Rather than simply speaking about it as one small thing out of many in your life, these voices want you to think that it is the most important thing you can do. News sites that want you to come back over and over again to click on their articles about every possible facet of the election. Political candidates and parties who want your money and your vote because, after all, this is “the most important election in [some period of time].” And, of course, there is Facebook, who doesn’t seem to realize that I didn’t sign up for that platform in order to be pestered with a random string of numbers and a reminder to register and vote – a practice I’ve already been doing for 20 years.

Another reason voting gets so much attention among Christians (and others) is that political interest is generally easier than the hard work of personal spiritual transformation. In politics, you are the external, sometimes-dispassionate arbiter of who is the best candidate – maybe even the “right” or the “wrong” candidate. You can support and criticize, rejoice and blame – but none of it ever intrinsically requires you to give up a single false belief or ungodly attitude. So of course it’s easier to read about the latest thing that this or that candidate said or didn’t say, rather than to read God’s word or a Bible-based book about how to be gracious in your speech or how to serve your church more consistently. Politics demands essentially nothing more of your effort than your willingness to put your hope in it, and to turn out at the ballot box every two-to-four years.

In fact, there’s just enough morality and impact upon others involved in the governmental system that we can give this kind of attention to it while still justifying it as primarily a matter of ethical interest: We care about politics because we care about our country! This may be partly true. But is it really that simple?

In reality, for many, political interest may actually be little more than entertainment and self-righteousness masquerading as societal concern. We need to examine our own hearts and our reasons for why we pay attention, and see if they measure up to God’s standard.

Thirdly, voting and politics also draw our attention because focusing on and complaining about your circumstances is a lot easier than taking ownership about how you respond to these circumstances. We are a culture that likes to blame others for our problems. Everyone is a victim of what someone else has done to them. If something needs to change, it’s the other people; as Calvin (the comic strip character, not the theologian) once said concerning New Year’s resolutions: “Why should I change? In fact, I think it’s high time the world started changing to suit me! I don’t see why I should do all the changing around here!” A focus on changing our circumstances through government can easily outweigh a concern to do what’s right in the face of whatever circumstances you find yourselves in. Christians should not have this priority, however, and should instead recognize that our personal responsibility to respond in a godly way to whatever circumstances we find ourselves in.

Finally, it’s easier for politics to take a disproportionate place in our life because even the good things we desire – such as wanting government to operate a certain way or wanting good leaders to be elected – can easily tempt us to get out of balance and too focused on certain things over against others.

In response to our temptation to overvalue politics and voting, we should consider several biblical reasons why our individual votes are a lot less important than we might think: 

  • Nowhere in the Bible is voting commanded. 

On the one hand, that’s because of the form of government of the day when the Bible was written. On the other hand… it still isn’t commanded. And unless it’s commanded, it’s difficult to make the case that it is as important as the things God has actually, directly commanded.

For Americans, voting is a civic privilege, not a civic duty or obligation. 

It is not a law in the United States (or the State of Tennessee, where I live) that you must vote. As such, it’s not a matter of disobeying or disobeying the government to choose whether or not to vote in governmental elections. 

In fact, there are many other things that you could do according to the law of our land, but you don’t do.You have the right to speak freely, but you don’t always speak at every chance you get. You have the right to peaceably assemble, but you may not do this every time you have the opportunity. You have the right to bear arms, but you might not always have a gun on you (Okay, though… some of you might!).

You should not feel compelled by God or by legal statute to go cast a vote, or, even more, to agonize and spend countless hours researching and worrying about your vote as if you have to do it. 

  • No national election in our country has ever been decided by the vote of a single individual voter. 

This is a pragmatic reason, but it’s still true.

I was there in 2000 when George W. Bush won the presidential election by defeating Al Gore in Florida by the razor-thin margin of… 537 votes. Quite a number more than one!

The chances of a single vote being the difference-maker in a national election are non-zero, to be sure; and yet they are infinitesimal. But “What if…?“, you ask? It’s true, perhaps your vote may be the deciding one. It’s not technically impossible. But making a decision based on such an astronomical “What if” scenario is almost always an unwise decision. What other things with this small of a chance of happening do you take such care for? Do you stay home every day because there’s some chance you’ll die in a car crash (a greater chance, no doubt, than being the single deciding vote in a presidential race)?

How much time and attention are you going to give to something with an infinitesimal chance of making any functional difference in the outcome? Good stewardship of our time demands that we ask these questions.

Perhaps, then, if our vote is unlikely to directly affect the final outcome, we still need to feel compelled to vote the right way out of principle, right? Not necessarily, because…

  • The Bible doesn’t tell us what a vote implies

People vote for different candidates for many, many different reasons. 

Some look at the character of a candidate and assess what is most trustworthy or competent. Some look at the candidate’s platform and decide how that person will influence legislation and policy. Some look at how likely it is that such a candidate will help appoint other people (i.e. judges) that this voter prefers. Some consider how likely a candidate is to actually keep campaign promises.

Others want someone who follows the voter’s religion. Still others weigh more heavily the potential damage that would be caused by a potential officeholder who has a distorted or hypocritical version of that same religion.

There are still others who think of their vote as a protest against the “establishment”; as an effort to break up the two-party system; or as a long-term play if they think they’ll get 8 years out of a better future candidate from their preferred party rather than 4 years of a bad candidate from their party who causes backlash in the next election cycle.

We must beware of oversimplifications on this point. It is essential that Christians understand that a vote for a particular person is not necessarily an endorsement of that person’s character, insight, policy positions, or any other specific thing about them. Electoral calculus is complicated, and each person approaches voting decisions differently, which is within the range of our liberty as an activity that is neither commanded nor forbidden by God.

Therefore, while there is wisdom to be used in every decision that goes beyond the black and white pages of Scripture, and we can definitely have bad motives for voting one way or another, a vote doesn’t necessarily mean anything one way or another about your faithfulness to God. 

So if all of these things mean that voting has less significance than we might otherwise ascribe to it, what is more important for us to consider? What does God actually care about more than our vote, and what should we give more concern to?

  1. Following the direct commands in Scripture about how to respond to government, including: 
    • Praying for the salvation of government leaders (1 Timothy 2:1-4)
    • Praying for the government to let us freely practice Christianity (1 Timothy 2:1-2).
      • (Note that nowhere are we instructed to vote for this, although it is surely permitted; but we are instructed to pray for it. Are you spending more time praying for this, or worrying about bringing it about through your hopes and vote?)
    • Paying taxes (Romans 13:6-7)
    • Obeying the law (Romans 13:1-5; 1 Peter 2:13-17; Titus 3:1)
    • Speaking honorably of government leaders (Titus 3:1-2)
      • On the basis of Exodus 22:28, Paul himself affirmed that he would not have spoken as he did toward Ananias – an evil man who had just instructed Paul to be struck for no legitimate reason – if he knew that he was a government leader (Acts 23:1-5).

It is all too easy for Christians to neglect these direct commands about government while claiming a moral imperative to vote according to their conscience or according to “biblical principles”.

  1. Spending our time doing what the Bible commands and prioritizes 

If we are in government, then by all means we should prioritize that role as a task that we have to do for that time period in our lives. But, more generally speaking, we have a kingdom that is not of this world, which is far greater than anything that we could establish here (Hebrews 13:14)

  1. Fulfilling our biblical roles and responsibilities – the ones that are explicitly commanded:

Are you a spouse? Are you a parent? Are you an employee? Are you a neighbor? 

Total up the amount of time you spent trying to be informed about what was happening in this election cycle. (And while you’re at it, be realistic as to how likely it was that you were ever going to vote any way other than what you ended up doing! Did you really, honestly need more information?) 

Now think what you might be like as in one of those roles if you had spent the same amount of time reading, thinking, praying, and talking about your attitudes and your conduct as in that role. 

What is your real sphere of influence? And what in those areas are you neglecting out of a disproportionate amount of attention being given to politics? Consider where political interest has caused you to neglect faithfulness to your God-given roles and responsibilities, and repent where you need to.

  1. Trusting God with outcomes

We often invest our concern into elections, even once we have voted, like a sports fan really hoping that his team wins – although, in this case, the real-world stakes are higher. In all this focus upon what the results will be, it is easy to cultivate a neglect of trusting God with what we can more or less do nothing about, and instead to be anxious (Philippians 4:6-9).

While it’s okay to care about things, and having concern for something, or even taking action, doesn’t always conflict with trusting God, we should be careful to ensure that we are doing what God has told us with respect to trusting him no matter what (Habakkuk 3:17-19).

Now, so that you don’t think that I’m telling you not to vote, I should say that I actually plan to go to early voting and to cast my ballot in the next few days. I’m thankful to have the privilege, and I look forward to participating in our election system!

But I have a lot of other things I’m planning to do between now and then that should matter to me a lot more than my vote. And I hope you’ll consider that, for you, the same thing is almost certainly true as well.

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Our Glory and Joy

Our Glory and Joy

“For you are our glory and joy” – 1 Thessalonians 2:20

What does the blog title (Our Glory and Joy) refer to? 

The phrase is drawn from 1 Thessalonians 2:20. Paul and Silvanus (“Silas”) and Timothy had recently been run out of Thessalonica before they could establish the young church there as thoroughly as they desired. They had tried to come back – Paul even multiple times – but were hindered by Satan (1 Thess. 2:17-18). But they wanted the Thessalonians to know that they hadn’t wanted to leave, and that their hearts were bound up in the spiritual stability and growth of these young believers they had come to love. So they asked: “For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? For you are our glory and joy.” (1 Thess. 2:19-20, NASB). 

The heart of the missionaries toward these believers was focused around several things: 

  • The affection they had come to have for them (1 Thess. 2:8)
  • Their stewardship with the gospel of Christ (1 Thess. 2:4)
  • Their focus upon the coming day of Christ (1 Thess. 2:19)
  • Their recognition that constant instruction and exhortation of those who had believed the gospel was necessary in light of that future (1 Thess. 2:11-12)

These attitudes are all in the picture when Paul refers to these believers as his glory and joy. They are his “glory” in that they are his “boast”; but it is not the kind of proud, human boasting that seeks fame and credit for one’s own accomplishments. Paul himself knew all too well that even his precise faithfulness was not the ultimate cause of spiritual fruit (1 Cor. 3:6-7). Instead, it refers to what he gets thrilled about. And for Paul and his fellow workers, it is their spiritual growth in preparation for the coming of Christ which causes excitement. This is what he is – in the best and most humble sense – “proud” of. 

These men also find their joy in the spiritual condition of these believers, and anticipate that they will have even greater joy when they stand together complete at the coming of Christ. And to that end, Paul and the other missionaries see it as essential that they complete the work of establishing the church in such a way as to ensure the spiritual growth and stability of these young Christians. 

This is, of course, not the only time, nor the only church, that Paul felt this way about. He referred to the Philippians as “my joy and my crown” (Phil. 4:1) and spoke of having “reason to glory” in the day of Christ because of the outcome of his labor among them (Phil. 2:16). He even implies that this future thrill will not be simply one-directional, as he tells the Corinthian church, “we are your reason to be proud as you also are ours, in the day of our Lord Jesus” (2 Cor. 1:14)

And it is for this very reason that, when things weren’t going so well – whether the church had been deceived (Gal. 4:19); left inadequately established (1 Thess. 3:2, 10); or simply deprived of the potential help that Paul could bring (Phil. 1:24-25) – Paul longed to be with and to encourage the beloved fellow believers who were under his watchful care. 

All of this reasons explain why we would choose such a name for this blog. Our concern is first and foremost with the gospel of Christ – that all would believe the saving message of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. But we also understand that those who have believed good works must be, as Paul says elsewhere, “careful to engage in good deeds” (Titus 3:8). 

This blog is a place where we can help instruct and encourage our precious fellow believers to do just this in ways that may not be easily done during the normal meeting times of ministry. It’s a way to further exhort and equip believers to do things that honor God. It’s a place to help Christians think carefully according to the mind of Christ rather than human ideas. It’s a forum for addressing issues of sanctification, of theology, of ecclesiology, of practical Christian living, of understanding the times, and more. 

We love the gospel; we love the church; and our focus is to help believers know how to “walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls [them] into his own kingdom and glory” (1 Thess. 2:12). For this reason, we write on behalf of those who are, as it was for Paul and the others, “our glory and joy.”