Seek Knowledge for the Benefit of Your Souls

What is your motivation to know truth? To some, the secret motive to know a lot is to be honored by people as smart. To others, knowledge is only pursued in order to debate and correct others. The Christian is to pursue knowledge for the benefit of the soul and to practice biblically wise living. Jonathan Edwards has a good thought on this:

"Seek not to grow in knowledge chiefly for the sake of applause, and to enable you to dispute with others; but seek it for the benefit of your souls, and in order to practice.—If applause be your end, you will not be so likely to be led to the knowledge of the truth, but may justly, as often is the case of those who are proud of their knowledge, be led into error to your own perdition. This being your end, if you should obtain much rational knowledge, it would not be likely to be of any benefit to you, but would puff you up with pride: I Corinthians 8:1 'Knowledge puffeth up.'"

 

Merciful Lord, Pardon All My Sins

I love my prayer devotional The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions. Consider this prayer asking the Lord to pardon all my sins (Pages 158-159):

MERCIFUL LORD,

Pardon all my sins of this day, week, year,
      all the sins of my life,
  sins of early, middle, and advanced years,
    of omission and commission,
    of morose, peevish and angry tempers,
    of lip, life and walk,
    of hard-heartedness, unbelief, presumption, pride,
    of unfaithfulness to the souls of men,
    of want of bold decision in the cause of Christ,
    of deficiency in outspoken zeal for his glory,
    of bringing dishonour upon thy great name,
    of deception, injustice, untruthfulness in my dealings with others,
    of impurity in thought, word and deed,
    of covetousness, which is idolatry,
    of substance unduly hoarded, improvidently squandered,
  not consecrated to the glory of thee,
      the great Giver;
  sins in private and in the family,
    in study and recreation, in the busy haunts of men,
    in the study of thy Word and in the neglect of it,
    in prayer irreverently offered and coldly withheld,
    in time misspent,
    in yielding to Satan’s wiles,
    in opening my heart to his temptations,
    in being unwatchful when I know him nigh,
    in quenching the Holy Spirit;
  sins against light and knowledge,
    against conscience and the restraints of thy Spirit,
    against the law of eternal love.
Pardon all my sins, known and unknown,
  felt and unfelt,
  confessed and not confessed,
  remembered or forgotten.
Good Lord, hear; and hearing, forgive.

Thomas Watson on Comfort and Joy

Through Christ, the Christian receives mercies abundant and free. In receiving such comforts by the Holy Spirit, the Christian is both humbled and filled with joy. Consider this portion of Thomas Watson's sermon, "Comfort and Joy: The Mourner's Privilege" :

"The comforts of the Spirit are humbling. The more water is poured into a bucket, the lower it descends; the fuller the ship is laden with sweet spices, the lower it sails. The more a Christian is filled with the sweet comforts of the Spirit, the lower he sails in humility. The fuller a tree is of fruit, the lower the branch hangs. The more full we are of "the fruit of the Spirit, joy and peace" (Galatians 5:22), the more we bend in humility. Those who say they have comfort, but are proud, who have learned to despise others and have climbed above ordinances; their comforts are delusions. The devil is able, not only to "transform himself into angel of light" (II Corinthians 11:14), but he can transform himself into a comforter. It is easy to counterfeit money, to silver over brass and put the king's image upon it. The devil can silver over false comforts and make them look as if they had the stamp of the King of heaven upon them. The comforts of God are humbling. Though they lift the heart up in thankfulness, yet they do not puff it up in pride. The comforts reserved for the mourners are "filling comforts" "The God of hope fill you with all joy . . ." (Romans 15:13). "Ask . . . that your joy may be full" (John 16:24). When God pours in the joys of heaven, they fill the heart and make it run over. "I am exceeding joyful . . ." (II Corinthians 7:4)."

 

Forgive Any Complaint

“Bear with one another and forgive any complaint you may have against someone else. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” –Colossians 3:13

Having put off the old self which held onto anger and used our lips for slander and unclean talk to hurt others (Colossians 3:8), the Christian died to the old self and raised by Christ’s resurrection power to a new self clothed with compassionate hearts (Colossians 3:12). As new creations in Christ, the Christian now receives the command to love one another in the church. One fruit of such love is our bearing with one another and forgiving complaints.

If our souls ponder greatly the love of Christ who forgives us, then our souls will richly produce the fruit of forgiving others. If the weight of our burdens are so graciously carried by our Savior, then our load lightened by the Lord’s mercy has room to bear the burdens of others in His easy yoke.

How easy our Savior’s yoke and burden! We can cast our anxieties on Him, for not only is He strong enough to carry our burdens, but He is compassionate enough to relieve us (I Peter 5:7)! Our Savior’s forgiveness is so abounding, He even forgave those mocking and injuring Him while He hanged on the cross like a criminal (Luke 23:34). Consider Stephen’s forgiveness of those murdering him with his final breath (Acts 7:60). The strength to bear with others and forgive all complaints comes by the same humble posture clothed in a compassionate heart to love your enemies.

Our fallen hearts naturally compile lists of complaints against others. Like a creditor who is owed a lot of money, we compile complaints of good treatment we are owed which haven’t been paid. Like the unmerciful servant forgiven an insurmountable debt who threw a debtor in prison, we take our unforgiving hearts with a posture toward others with a list of complaints (Matthew 18:21-35). We ask Jesus just as Peter did, how many times am I to forgive who wrong me? Seven times seems plenty enough. No, says our Lord. Always.

Loving our enemies means we will have enemies to love. Bearing with others means we will be peeved, inconvenienced, even hurt. To forgive any complaints we may have against others in the local church requires a safe place of confession to one another with an easy path of repentance and reconciliation. Such mercies are only enjoyed in Christ whose death and resurrection reconciles us to a holy God.

Are you a humble, compassionate heart easy to reconcile, bearing with others? Or do you refuse to put off the old self? Sinner, how heavy is your heart? Take it to the Lord Jesus. Take His yoke upon you and learn from Him. The full weight of your burdens He carries. All complaints He has against you is relieved. Our loving Savior is longsuffering toward you and bears with you. In His mercies, you will have strength to follow Him in bearing with others and forgiving any complaints.

Heavenly Father, forgive us for holding grudges and refusing to bear with others as our brother’s keepers. May we embrace by faith Your forgiveness for us in Christ who died a criminal’s death though sinless that criminals like us are reconciled to You. Bless us, O Lord, with humble hearts clothed with compassion, and be glorified in Your works in us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

A Full Savior for a Full Sinner

We like to think of ourselves with some goodness and value in ourselves and our works that God must be impressed by. Yet, the Bible describes us as sinners. Full sinners! So it is pride in our hearts that thinks we must add to Jesus' righteousness to justify us before God.
Christ is a full Savior with righteousness and works which cannot be added to by our filthy righteousness. From a sermon on Jesus' words on the cross, "It is finished," John Flavel eloquently describes how Jesus is a full Savior for a full sinner like you and me:

"Did Christ finish his work with his own hand? How dangerous and dishonourable a thing it is to join any thing of our own to the righteousness of Christ, in point of justification before God. Jesus Christ will never endure this; it reflects upon his work dishonourably; he doth not (in this case) affect social glory; not I, and my God; I, and my Christ, did this; he will be all, or none, in your justification. If he have finished the work, what need of our additions? And if not, to what purpose are they? Can we finish that which Christ could not? But we would fain be sharing with him in his honour, which he will never endure. Did he finish the work by himself, and will he ever divide the glory and praise of it with us? No, no, Christ is no half Saviour. O it is a hard thing to bring these proud hearts to live upon Christ for righteousness: we would fain add our penny to make up Christ's sum. But if you would have it so, or have nothing to do with Christ, and your penny must perish together. God gives us the righteousness of Christ as he gave manna to the Israelites in the wilderness. It is said (Deuteronomy 8:16) that "he fed with manna in the wilderness that he might humble them." The quality of the food was not humbling, for it was angels food, but the manner of giving it was so: they must live by faith upon God for it, from day to day. This was not like other food, produced by their own labour. Certainly God takes the right way humble proud nature, in calling sinners wholly from their righteousness to Christ's for their justification."

Burroughs on the Christian's Contentment

Contentment is a word used in the world meaning "settling for something when something else is more desired." So, folks say things like, "well, I guess I will just be content with it." For the Christian, contentment is enjoying the mercies of God as the better portion, truly satisfied. Read this excerpt from Puritan preacher Jeremiah Burroughs' book The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment:

"So be satisfied and quiet, be contented with your contentment. I lack certain things that others have, but blessed be God, I have a contented heart which others have not. Then, I say, be content with your contentment, for it is a rich portion that the Lord has granted you. 

If the Lord should give you thousands in this world, it would not be such a rich portion as this, that he has given you a contented spirit. Oh, go away and praise the name of God, and say, ‘Why, Lord, it is true that I would be glad if I had these and these comforts which others have, but you have cut me short. Though I lack these, yet you have given me what is as good and better, you have given me a quiet, contented heart, to be willing to be at your disposal."

The Christian is a God-Explorer

 I love Tom Wells on the Christian's life and missionary vision as God-explorers teaching others to be God-admirers:

 

"I have said three things about the Christian life.

    1) It is born in the knowledge of God. 

    2) It matures as it grows in the knowledge of God.

3)       3) Its goal is the fullest vision of God’s glory and greatness. Here, in other words, is the meaning of life.

The man who does not know God is dead. The man who knows God, and is coming to know Him better, is powerfully alive. As we have already repeated, Jesus said to His Father,

               This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, whom thou hast sent (John 17:3).

Men must know God. That is the one thing they must do. And this can mean nothing less than that God is eminently worthy to be known in all the length and breadth and height and depth of His character. The Christian is a God-explorer. The Christian vision is the vision of God.

The missionary vision is the vision of God also. It is not something different from the Christian vision. It is the same vision being shared rather than merely enjoyed. It is the same vision being shared with men who have no natural taste for it, in the hope that God will create that taste so that they too will become “God-admirers.” Sharing the vision of God – that is the work of missions.

In this sense – the deepest and truest sense – we are all missionaries. You must not suppose, and I must not imply, that the impulses and inspirations that move our missionaries are at all different from the motives that ought to move every Christian. That must be the furthest thing from our minds. Perhaps we have no thought of going abroad. It may not be the thing for us to do. But that will make no difference. We too must have the highest and best inducements for what to do. And they will turn out to be the same motives that the missionary ought to have, no more, and no less.

But we have come to use the word ‘missionary’ for one who leave his culture, if not his country, to serve Christ. That is the way I will use the word also. The principles, however, will apply to us all.” 

 

Tom Wells, A Vision for Missions (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1985), pages 26-27.