There is an old saying that says, actions speak louder than words, and so true it is.
I believe there is nothing so powerful to our own sanctification than to see practical Godliness lived out in others (hence the name of this website). In my own personal experience, I have derived the greatest personal sanctification from reading biographies of other great Christians, and from personally witnessing the lives of others who have exemplified Christ-likeness.
Teaching and doctrine are beautiful, no doubt, and are sweet to the soul of the true Christian. Teaching and doctrine are the foundation of our faith, and are absolutely 100% essential to our justification and sanctification. But, teaching and doctrine come alive only when we see it lived out, as only then do the truths of the doctrine truly pierce our hearts.
The great Puritan writer Thomas Brooks once said:
“Oh, that we were as much in love with the examples of good men as others are in love with the examples of bad men…”
And,
“The pious examples of others should be the mirrors by which we should dress ourselves.”
There is a real element of divine truth in these statements. The Apostle John wrote that we are to ‘walk just as He walked’, referring to the command to imitate Christ. And the Apostle Paul emphasized others to ‘imitate me’. But unfortunately, in this day, I believe we have lost an element of this ‘imitate Godly examples’ mindset, as we have run off into our own individualism. For example, consider that:
- Leaders are often ‘anointed’ for the doctrinal knowledge or their accomplishments, instead of because they live holy lives.
- Young men are coming right out of seminary straight into a leadership position in the church, as if their educational degree has anything to do with their qualifications for leadership.
- Men like Mark Driscoll, the former ‘emergent’, admittedly crass pastor in Seattle, are praised for their large churches and passionate messages even though reputation, personal history, and sanctification clearly call their Biblical qualifications into question.
- The great men of old, men like Edwards, Whitefield, Spurgeon, the Puritans, Calvin, Luther, are treated strictly on a ‘pick and choose’ basis, where things we like about them are embraced, and things that we dislike about them, things that might cause us to re-think our fads or our areas of practical obedience, are shunned. The great men of old were strong Calvinists, they were strong Sabbatarians, they passionately loved the law of God from the proper perspective of the gospel, they hated sin like nothing we know of today, and they were meticulous in practical godliness (family worship, fervent private prayer, humble Godliness, strict and disciplined lives, etc.). We love to go to them for certain doctrinal treatises, but how we hate to look at how they lived!
The level of individualism in my own heart concerns me, as does the level of individualism in the modern church. Where are our examples to live by? Yes, we can glean much from the saints of old, and even from the popular pastors of our day (MacArthur, Sproul, Piper, etc.), but can these supplement a real and personal example in our own lives? I believe scripture and experience testify otherwise. For we are too prone to take the saints of old, or the popular preachers of our day, and pick and choose what we like of them, throwing out what we dislike, thus accomplishing nothing.
We have a responsibility to find someone to emulate, and I pray that you will do so fervently. We also have a responsibility to find someone to shepherd, so that they would imitate us. I pray that we would find someone to learn from, and find someone to shepherd, and thus prove that our Christian lives are more than simply about us.
Nathan,
I think I know what you’re saying, but part of this confused me.
You decry a “pick and choose” attitude with reference to what we glean from the biographies of the holy men of old. But, isn’t that what we have to do, unless you’re advocating that we take everything they did and said as Gospel? (With the exception of Spurgeon in your short list, they’d have all been baby-baptizers, for instance.) The best men are in the process of sanctification, not having yet arrived, and so I’m not sure I see the point about accepting their practices as good and godly just because they practiced them. All things must still be examined and tested.
I believe I know you well enough to know that this is not what you intended to convey. I’m guessing you probably meant that if these “better brethren” can teach us theology as well as they do, there’s a fine chance they can also show us what good theology looks like in practice.
Ah yes, Gordan, as I typed that particular sentence, I could hear that argument brewing
You said:
First, it isn’t like they don’t baptize at all. They have their own means of baptism, so that particular disagreement is in methodology of a doctrine we both affirm (like, for example, some churches use grapejuice and crackers, while others use a real loaf and wine).
Secondly, of course I’m not advocating that we take everything they said as gospel. I am simply saying that there are too many who completely disregard some foundational principles that these men held to, while still claiming them to be ‘heroes’ and picking and choosing what they do like about them (often times not even really understanding what they think they like about them). Examples could be given, but I think you get my point.
You said:
Exactly. If we like their theology, why don’t we look at their lives? I didn’t want to take the space writing out the details in my post, but most of these men lived strict, disciplined, and upright lives, which would make even the best Christians today look like lazy and unprofitable.
For example, Whitefield would get up at 4am because he believed that a minister of the gospel shouldn’t sleep later than those who got up early to go about their secular jobs. If their work was worth getting up early for, how much more was his, he reasoned, and he sought to convey this practice to others. Now, today that would be seen as legalism, as overly-strict, etc. I’m not saying we all get up at 4am, but I am saying that far too many people would cry legalism if we took a closer look at some of the foundational principles that these men lived by as an outworking of their theology.
Ah, now that’s better. Confusion all gone.
By the way, I totally agree with the post, then. But I do so painfully because I am one of those you mention whose laziness and time-wasting is utterly condemned by the lives of my better brethren.
By God’s grace, I have repented of that, though. I confess it is their prayer lives that most humiliate me. And their productivity. I am shocked at how much some of them wrote and preached. Shocked, I tell ya. But challenged, as well.
Gotta go…prayer time slipping away.