Convicted of Righteousness

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8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. (John 16:8-11 ESV)

I have always felt that these verses in John are quite tricky to understand. From reading some commentaries, it appears that the Greek isn’t straightforward either. The concept of the Spirit “convicting” people of sin is not problematic, but what does it mean that he will convict people of “righteousness”?

One solution that I have heard is to take the word ‘convict’ to mean ‘convince’. i.e. The Spirit will convince people that Jesus is the righteous one. Or he will convince them of their need to be righteous. Not only does this require a modification in the meaning of the word convict between verse 9 and 10, but it is in danger of making the Spirit’s work into a merely intellectual persuasion.

Don Carson offers an interesting alternative take on what it means to convict the world concerning righteousness:

John loves to quote or allude to Isaiah, and Isaiah 64:5 establishes that all the dikaiosyne (righteousness) of the people of Isaiah’s day was as a menstruous cloth. Within the Fourth Gospel, this reading of ‘righteousness’ is eminently appropriate. (The Gospel According to John, PNTC, D A Carson, p537)

What does this make of the clarifying phrase: “because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer”? Carson explains that the Spirit is simply continuing an important aspect of the ministry of Jesus, confronting and challenging religious hypocrisy:

The reason why the Paraclete convicts the world of its righteousness is because Jesus is going to the Father. … [The] Paraclete … drives home this conviction in the world precisely because Jesus is no longer present to discharge this task.

Not all commentators are convinced by this. Köstenberger considers it plausible, but prefers a legal interpretation:

… the Spirit of truth in his legal function of parakletos is said here to prosecute the world on the basis of the righteousness of Jesus, who is declared just and vindicated in court. (John, BEC, Andreas Köstenberger, p472)

However, if Carson is right, this is a very provocative concept. All Christians know what it feels like to be convicted of sin by the Spirit, but have you ever been convicted of “righteousness”? We know the Spirit’s voice telling us that our bad temper, greed or impure thoughts are sinful and we need to repent, but have we ever considered that some of our religious good deeds could in fact require repentance too?

Repentance for empty legalistic ‘righteousness’ would take on a different form to repentance from sin. Repenting from sin involves stopping the wrong behaviour, but repenting from righteousness requires something even deeper. After all, the Pharisees regularly gave alms to the poor and prayed daily. Jesus was hardly intending for them to stop these activities. Repenting from legalism is therefore a change of heart rather than necessarily outward behavioural change.

Like many Christians at the start of a new year, I try to make resolutions concerning things like Bible reading and prayer, as well as other spiritual goals for the coming year. But we need to beware of turning from grace to legalism and doing the right things with the wrong motivation, or before long, we will find the Spirit convicting us of our shallow religious ‘righteousness’ and calling us back to a relationship with God based on delight and not duty.

What Would Jesus Buy?

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29 Some thought that, because Judas had the moneybag, Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor.

(John 13:29 ESV)

I read this verse recently, and it got me thinking about Jesus’ spending habits. The context is that Judas has just left the scene of the last supper to betray Jesus, whose final words to him are “What you are going to do, do quickly.” (v27)

This results in a misunderstanding amongst the disciples. They falsely assume that Judas has been sent out on some kind of financial mission, but I think their suppositions reveal the typical ways in which Jesus spent money.

Feeding Friends

The disciples’ first guess was that Judas had been sent to buy food for the feast. Despite verses that indicate Jesus and his disciples lived frugally (e.g. “the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head”, “Acquire no gold nor silver nor copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, nor two tunics nor sandals nor a staff…”), he does seem to be more than happy to enjoy a good meal with good friends. Perhaps the most notable example would be his miracle to turning the water into wine at the wedding in Cana. It is clear that Jesus was no ascetic when it came to food, despite his 40 day fast in the wilderness.

Feeding the Hungry

Their second guess was that Judas had been sent to give money to the poor. According to Andreas Köstenberger, there was a tradition at this time of allowing the poor to gather in the temple precincts after midnight at Passover time. Perhaps Jesus often gave to the poor at night to put into practice his command to perform such giving in secret:

2 “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,

(Matt 6:2,3 ESV)

Feasting and Philanthropy

Both ways of spending money, whether on feasting or philanthropy, reveal Jesus’ desire to use the little money he did have to bless others. He feasted with not just his friends, but all sorts of people, from tax collectors to prostitutes to Pharisees, all the while seeking to befriend them and point them towards the kingdom of God. And when giving to the poor, he again studiously avoided doing it in a selfish way, simply as a means to get praise, but rather acted out of genuine selfless and sacrificial love.

Reflecting on my own spending over the Christmas period, I think I still have a long way to go before my attitude to money approaches that of Jesus. Perhaps I should start wearing a WWJB bracelet. Now there’s a money-making idea for someone!

Favourite Albums of 2008

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Various bloggers have listed their favourite albums of 2008. Tim Challies lists eight, Neil Bennetts offers four, and Gary Boal can’t think of any.

I don’t buy much music and in recent years it has tended to be simply the live worship album from whatever holiday I went on in the summer. But I have managed to pick out four albums I bought this year that I have particularly enjoyed.

Sovereign Grace – Psalms

Sovereign Grace can always be relied upon to produce theologically sound and Biblically rich songs. I don’t always like their musical style, but this release is one of their best. Definitely worth checking out and their download store is good value for money.

Phil Wickham – Cannons

I really liked Phil Wickham’s first album and this one is even better. He’s another artist that is well worth checking out. He writes devotional songs, but they are not particularly targeted at congregational singing. His lyrics are well crafted and avoid too many typical worship song clichés. True Love is probably my favourite song on the album.

Delirious – Kingdom of Comfort

I’m not really into Delirious. The only other one of their albums I own is King of Fools, released way back in 1997. But I thought I’d give them another try and I liked what I heard. There’s clearly some emerging church influence in the lyrics, but it is good challenging stuff and avoids being preachy.

Advent Songs – Sojourn Music

I was alerted to this one by Emily at Unfurling Flower, and it is the rarest of treats – a Christmas album I actually like. Refreshingly different from the typical batch of carols plus drums churned out by the bucket-load by Christian bands short on ideas. Technically you can get it for free by spamming five friends. I chose to pay $5 for my copy.

I would love to hear from other readers or bloggers what albums they recommend this year. I could do with a bit more variety in my music listening habits.

New Blog Platform

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I have recently had to move my blog to a new server as my ISP was shutting the old one down. I took the opportunity to switch to WordPress and updated the site appearance a little. I have tried to migrate all the posts and comments as best as I can, but there may well be a few broken links around here while I finish tidying up.

If you subscribe to this blog via my feedburner URL (http://feeds.feedburner.com/wordandspirit), then you should experience no interruption in service. Please let me know if you experience any problems.

While I’m at it, I might as well reveal a few interesting facts about my most popular posts over the last year:

1. The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Sand is by far my most popular post ever, and is one of the oldest posts on my blog. Apparently google seems to think I am the authority on it. I preached a sermon on it once.

2. Commentaries and NIV For e-Sword comes second although it is old news now.

3. Biblical Prayer Topics is also very popular – “Prayer Topics” is my top google keyword

4. Commentary Series Reviews – Bible Speaks Today – I have nearly read the entire BST series (perhaps I’ll finish in 2009) and most of them are reviewed somewhere on this blog.

5. Ern Baxter – Life on Wings – this was actually a post to host a friend’s document, but has consistently been one of the most popular items on my blog, and certainly the one I get most email about. Also, Ern Baxter – The Priestly Clothing is equally popular.

6. ESV – A breathtaking translation – is a slightly controversial post where I criticise the ESV (only a little though, it is my translation of choice at the moment and I’m hoping to get an ESV Study Bible for Christmas).

7. Book Review – Prophetic Evangelism – apparently a lot of people get to my blog by searching for Mark Stibbe.

8. The Word of Knowledge – where I ponder what exactly this gift is. Lots of comments on this one!

7. Seven Point Calvinism – not many people blogging about this, so I come near the top of the google hit list.

8. My Reformed Charismatic Journey Part 2 – part of a series where I talked about how I came to be a “reformed charismatic”

9. I do not know Rob Bell – hint for bloggers: write something about Rob Bell. It will be popular.

10. Parachurch Organizations – another slightly controversial one where I dare to question the infallible newfrontiers magazine!

11. My Commentary Recommendations – did I mention that I love reading commentaries?

12. Book Review – Total Church – absolutely brilliant book. Actually got a comment from one of the authors which is a first for my blog!

As for google search words, the top ones are “prayer topics” and an innumerable number of variations on the theme of “the wise man built his house upon the rock” (including one poor soul who got here wanting to know “how to build houses with rocks”). People in the top 20 are Mark Stibbe, Rob Rufus, Ern Baxter, and Simon Ponsonby. There are also a remarkable number of people who arrive thanks to googling a variation on the phrase “is newfrontiers a cult?”. The answer is no.

One person searched for “I was male now I am female”. No, I’m definitely still male. The person who searched for “Simon Ponsonby blog” still has to wait. He’s not even on facebook yet. But my favourite search of all goes to “I love Mark Heath”. Hopefully it was my wife… (and honestly it wasn’t me)

Book Review – Hudson Taylor (Vance Christie)

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Its been some time since I read a biography, and though I have heard plenty of anecdotes about Hudson Taylor, I have never read a complete account of his life. There are, I think, several biographies available and I am not sure whether this is the best available. This one has 19 relatively short chapters, and seems to have been written with younger readers in mind.

But whatever shortcomings the book may have, the life story of Hudson Taylor is a remarkable and fascinating one. What first impacted me was his incredible devotion to his life’s calling, and his willingness to make great sacrifices in order to do what God had called him to do.

His passion to see China evangelised saw him take remarkable steps to prepare himself as he lived in self-imposed frugality, and tried to teach himself to trust God rather than taking his own initiative. Some of this methods might seem unwise or at least a little quaint to our more sophisticated modern ideas about evangelism, and yet his unwavering simple faith in God is a sobering challenge.

The story of his life in China is a humbling tale of perseverance and endurance through much suffering and adversity. Many of his family members and missionary colleagues died of various illnesses, he was often in great danger through persecution, and money was in extremely short supply. It would have been quite understandable if he had given up at any point. Yet he remained single-mindedly devoted to reaching the lost millions of China.

It is interesting to read of a spiritual breakthrough he had in 1869, 15 years after he had first visited China, where he grasps the gospel in greater depth, and learned to rest in Jesus, rather than striving and toiling to be accepted by him. And yet, there was no let-up in his diligence as a result of this. He learned to refresh his own soul in prayer, so he could continue to give of himself to others.

The book is honest about the criticisms he faced, as well as the internal conflicts within the mission society CIM that he founded. It seems to me that a love for God, and a love for the people of China were the prime motivators that enabled him to lose so much and yet still persevere joyfully.

I recommend that anyone who has not read a biography of Hudson Taylor get hold of a copy and allow yourself to be provoked by his example. Let me know in the comments if you know of a particularly good biography, as I suspect that some of the others might be better than this one.

Book Review – Vintage Jesus (Mark Driscoll & Gerry Breshears)

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I didn’t originally intend to read this book as I had listened to a number of the sermons in Mark Driscoll’s Vintage Jesus series, but a friend lent it to me and I’ve been working my way through over the last month. Driscoll co-authored it with Gerry Breshears, but it would appear that Breshears is more of an editor as Driscoll speaks regularly in the first person.

In terms of style, it’s typical Driscoll. Easy to read, funny, contemporary, direct, shocking and borderline offensive in places. I had supposed at first that the book would be presented as an “introduction to Jesus” for non-Christians, and while it may be appropriate for that, it is more of a book form of the sermon series, and so will often rely on proof-texting from the Bible to make various theological points. It is full of fascinating anecdotes and quotes and could be a good source of material for preachers to borrow from, although it is quite America-centric.

The first chapter sets out to prove that Jesus is “God”. I would have thought it might be good to discuss what this means in terms of the Trinity, but the focus is solely on proving Jesus’ divinity. This is then complemented by a chapter on Jesus’ humanity (in Dricoll-speak “Jesus was a dude”). The third chapter, “How did people know Jesus was coming?” deals with all the prophecies and promises concerning Jesus’ coming in the Old Testament. This raised some hermeneutical issues for me, as many of the Scriptures he cites clearly are not straightforward “promises” as he puts it. Rather, I see them as fore-shadowings, things that could be understood after the Messiah coming, rather than being some kind of cryptic crossword clues to be solved in advance. However, I do commend his Christo-centric approach to Scripture:

no matter how many verses are used, the Bible has not been rightly understood or proclaimed unless Jesus is the central focus and hero.

One of the strengths of the book is that each chapter is followed by a set of common questions and objections, and Driscoll don’t duck any hard questions.

His chapter on Jesus as Prophet, Priest and King had some interesting insights into the tendency of Fundamentalism, Evangelicalism and Liberalism to emphasise only two of those roles at the expense of the third.

Then follow some chapters dealing with the subjects of the virgin birth and the atonement, and he takes the opportunity to distance himself from various emerging church leaders who doubt or deny a literal virgin birth and oppose the concept of penal substitutionary atonement. He argues for a multi-faceted understanding of the meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection, which has at its core the penal substitionary model but also includes concepts such as Christus Victor. He lost me a little on his fine distinction between paradise and heaven before and after the cross though.

The chapter on the resurrection presents a variety of evidence for believing its historicity as well as the theological importance and implications. He then turns to consider the importance of worshipping Jesus, and here is some of the strongest material in the book as he explores the various forms of idolatry in Western culture, the chief of which is self-idolatry.

serving people in the name of Jesus and in the character of Jesus is the most satisfying form of worship ever

There is a chapter on the difference Jesus has made in history. This includes a variety of answers to those who suggest that Christianity has made the world worse, not better. He also takes on some of the theologically liberal ideas of the Jesus seminar. The final chapter is on the return of Jesus. Refreshingly he doesn’t set out a timetable of when it will happen (choosing to mock those who do), but rather talks about what Jesus will do when he returns, which includes a frank discussion of judgement and hell, as well as his bringing of recreation and shalom.

Can I recommend this book? Certainly, I think it is a great book for Christians who perhaps are not used to reading more solemn theological tomes, but want to understand more of the Biblical teaching about Jesus. It could also be good read for a non-Christian who has had some exposure to Christianity. Driscoll is to be commended for his willingness to tackle the tough questions, and to challenge and call us to look to Christ and worship him. It’s not a perfect book, and not everyone will appreciate his style, but there could be no more edifying subject matter than the person and work of Christ.

Faith and Truth

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Earlier this year I read a book on epistemology. Not being much of a philosopher myself, some of it undoubtedly went over my head, but it did get me thinking about how I would define my own theory of epistemology. In other words, how do I know what is true? I have no doubt that my thoughts on this matter aren’t original (there is probably even a fancy name for my views). And I am sure that some of my more philosophically savvy readers can blow plenty of holes in this, but I present it here anyway.

My basic idea is that all knowledge is faith based. Everything I believe is based on some kind of trust relationship. The stronger my faith or trust is in something, the more firmly I believe what it tells me.

So for example. I believe I ate cornflakes for breakfast this morning. It is a strongly held belief because I trust my short-term memory. However, if you ask me what my phone number was while I was at university, I think I can remember it, but my certainty is not so high. The strength of my belief is based on the strength of my faith in something (my memory in this case).

Another example. I believe that Arsenal drew 0-0 with Panathinaikos on Wednesday in the Champions League. This belief is solely based on the BBC’s report of the match. I have no other evidence whatsoever for this belief. It is a strongly held belief because I trust the BBC to be truthful reporters (on matters of football results at least).

All of my scientific beliefs are also trust-based. If I believe that the speed of light is a constant, it is not because I have in any way “proved” it, but simply because I trust the superior intellects of the scientific community. If I say that the speed of light is 299,792,458 m/s, it is because I trust Wikipedia. If I perform an experiment to measure it, I must trust the accuracy of the measuring equipment, as well as my own competence to perform the experiment correctly.

So I do not consider my religious beliefs to be any special category of “faith-based” beliefs. They are again the result of a trust relationship. As a Christian, I trust Jesus – meaning that I believe him to be a speaker of truth. This necessitates that I have at least some level of trust in the Bible, first because it is the source of what Jesus said, and second because Jesus himself placed great trust in the Scriptures.

Which brings me onto my second observation, which is about how we acquire, maintain and change our beliefs. As small children we are inherently trusting of what our parents tell us. Later we go to school and believe our teachers. But sooner or later we learn that there are such things as lies, and such things as contradictory viewpoints. When we hear a competing truth claim, or see something that conflicts with our understanding of the truth, then we are forced to re-evaluate our trust relationships.

As an example, let’s return to the BBC. I consider the BBC to be a trustworthy news agency. I am strongly inclined to believe their reports are truthful and impartial. But suppose I am reading a news article about evangelicalism which I judge to be factually incorrect and strongly biased. Now my trust relationship needs to be re-evaluated. I become more cynical and wary concerning what they report.

And the same follows with my religious beliefs. Undoubtedly my early belief in God was based on the faith of my parents, and those at the church I attended. I trusted the Bible simply because I was told it was true. But as I grew older, I came across those who didn’t believe the Bible, and their arguments against it. Each time it caused a re-evaluation of my trust relationships.

Whenever there is a re-evaluation of a trust relationship because it has been challenged by a competing claim, three outcomes can occur. First of all, we might consider our original belief to have survived the challenge. In this case, our trust is likely to become even stronger. Second, we might consider the challenge to have some merit, but not enough to cause us to reject our original belief. We then enter a period of doubt or agnosticism, awaiting more evidence that will sway us one way or the other. The third outcome is that we consider the challenge to be successful. Our original trust-relationship is broken (often causing a cascading effect of tearing down other related beliefs) and a new one is formed.

So in conclusion, I cannot accept the idea often heard from people like Richard Dawkins that true beliefs are those based solely on “evidence” and “rationality”. Evidence must be trusted before we base a belief on it, and my ability to reason flawlessly from premise to conclusion cannot be taken for granted.

So the things I believe are all based on faith. I might trust a scientific theory because I trust the textbook it is written in, but when I perform my own experiments and see with my own eyes that the predictions it makes are valid, then my level of trust in that theory grows. It is exactly the same with faith in Jesus. My level of faith and trust can only grow if I take him at his word and do the things he says. Only then will I see if he is telling me the truth or not, and only then will my faith grow as he proves himself faithful to me.

Politics and Hatred

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Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarrelling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

(Titus 3:1-3 ESV)

I haven’t been actively trying to follow the American election but it has been hard to ignore. Perhaps one of the things that has stood out for me has been the level of hostility in much of the comment I have read. It is not an exaggeration to say that George Bush is "hated" by many, and many of the computer programming blogs I read have expressed their utter contempt for Sarah Palin. On the other side, there are undoubtedly those whose attitude to Barak Obama or Hillary Clinton could also be described as "hatred".

And it’s not just the arena of politics. Any celebrity, or indeed anyone who is in the public eye is apparently fair game these days. They can be freely insulted ("stupid" and "scary" are the favourites at the moment) without fear of comeback.

In short, Paul’s description of a society who are "slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another" seems remarkably up to date.

The challenge for Christians in these days is to refuse to join in with the culture of hatred, and instead "to  speak evil of no one, to avoid quarrelling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people". It is good to see people like John Piper setting an example in this way, speaking out clearly his beliefs (which are not going to be popular with everyone) yet without resorting to inflammatory or insulting language.

Maybe as Christians we are going to be called "stupid" and "scary" a whole lot more in the coming years. But let us make it virtually impossible for us to be accused of hatred because of the gentleness and courtesy that consistently characterise us.

“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.

(Luke 6:27-28 ESV)

Book Review – Revised Expositor’s Bible Commentary on Genesis (John Sailhamer)

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I’ve read several of the newly revised Expositor’s Bible Commentary series, but this was my first Old Testament volume. All the comments I’ve made before about the nice layout of the series apply again here, as does my reservation that it sometimes seems to fall between the gaps, not quite being an exegetical commentary for academics, and not quite being an expositional commentary for preachers.

The Introduction

Sailhamer introduces Genesis as a book concerned with global and ‘family’ matters – it is a book with unity but not uniformity. He briefly surveys different opinions on authorship, and takes on the unwarranted skepticism of some critical scholars and seems to favour a “compositional” view. He believes the purpose of Genesis should be viewed in terms of the purpose of the Pentateuch, which looks forward to a new covenant and a Saviour-King. He observes a pattern of poems concluding significant sections in Genesis, and believes that many of the events are selected to demonstrate that the past portends events in the future. Ultimately the central concern of the Pentateuch is the rule of God among his people and within his creation. It is written as an answer to the failure of the Sinaitic covenant, and points forward beyond itself to the time of the promised “seed” of Abraham and a new covenant.

The Commentary

Naturally I was interested to see what his take on the creation account was. He suggests that a seven day week follows an unspecified amount of time. There are some detailed footnotes which rather irritatingly refer the reader to the first edition for more information! He also detects a polemic against idolatry in the creation account. The recurring description of various creative acts being “good” indicates that these developments are for the “good” of humankind. In Gen 2:15 he rejects the translation that man is to “work and keep” the Garden, but rather is to “worship and obey”. The “knowledge of good and evil” refers to Adam and Eve wanting to decide for themselves what is good and evil.

He has an interesting approach to Cain. He sees the story of the mark of Cain (Gen 3:13-14) as being one of repentance and forgiveness. He demonstrates how lots of these incidents in earlier chapters are reflected in laws given later in the Pentateuch. Here the example is cities of refuge.

The real key to the Pentateuch according to Sailhamer is found in the poems. He takes care to show that the poems link together the seed of Abraham with the coming King from Judah. They are one and the same.

In many ways it felt as though Sailhamer’s main interest in this commentary was not really to explain the meaning of individual passages (though he does do a bit of that), and not at all to suggest preaching points or applications (these come very rarely), but rather to explain why a particular story has been included, and how it fits into the overall scheme of the Pentateuch. He is always looking for links backwards and forwards (which he calls “inter-textuality”). He points out parallels between the lives of Noah and Abraham, between Abraham and Joseph, and even between Eve and Sarah. Abraham is an example of someone who had God’s law written on his heart – he obeyed it even before it was given.

He picks up on the importance of the promise of kings in Abraham’s line. Even though the closing portion of Genesis seems to focus exclusively on Joseph, the author still shows how Judah is “next in line” after the fall from grace of his elder brothers (Reuben, Simeon and Levi). Judah transcends Joseph – he will ultimately be in the royal line even if he now bows the knee to Joseph. I felt at first that he was stretching things to suggest that Judah remains the prominent character in spite of Joseph’s leading role in the narrative, but he did find more evidence for this than I was expecting.

Joseph himself is described as a “second Adam”, and is the only man in the Old Testament who is said to have been filled with the Spirit. Abraham also is a “second Adam” and Jacob’s sons represent a “new humanity”. Genesis also shows repeatedly through the struggles between older and younger brothers that God’s blessing is not based on natural rights. While he doesn’t join up the dots for you, Sailhamer certainly points expositors in the right direction to be able to preach the gospel from the Genesis story.

Strengths and Weaknesses

It was an interesting read, and didn’t tackle the kind of issues I was expecting. Many ethical and theological topics were left unremarked on. I suppose that is inevitable in a mid-sized commentary. The great strength of this commentary is that it takes a big picture approach. It develops a sense of the overall progression of Genesis and how it fits into the Pentateuch. Its weakness is that if you were to use it as a reference to get some insight on a particular verse or passage, you might find many of your exegetical and theological questions haven’t been addressed. But overall I would say it represents good value for money, as you get Exodus and Leviticus in the same volume for little more than the price of a single commentary.

Grumpiness, Money and Idolatry

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Much of my free time in the last few weeks has been spent preparing a sermon on the subject of idolatry, which I am preaching tomorrow as part of a series my church is doing on the Ten Commandments.

I wanted to include some reflection on how we can examine our hearts to see if we are guilty of idolatry. One way of looking at this is to take John Piper’s maxim, "your pleasure is the measure of your treasure". If something brings you great joy, it reveals that you value that thing highly.

But I began to wonder whether the reverse is equally revealing. What are the things that make me grumpy, irritable, miserable, depressed, or angry? Often it is because I have been deprived of an idol or an idol has let me down.

Here are some examples…

  • A football supporter kicks a chair across the room in anger as his team concedes a last minute goal, yet again.
  • A woman lives under a cloud of depression because her dress size is one bigger than this time last year.
  • A teenager sulks the whole family holiday because he will miss an opportunity to attend a concert.

I like to think that money is not an idol for me, but last month when I checked the bank balance, I found that things were considerably worse than I was expecting. I was in a bad mood about it for a few days as I stewed over in my mind how we could reduce our monthly expenditure. I rationalized this at first as simply being concerned about being a "good steward" of my money. But preparing this sermon on idolatry made me realise that something else was at work too. Could I join Habakkuk in rejoicing even when things are not going my way financially…

Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. (Hab 3:17,18 NIV)

Refusal to rejoice in the Lord reveals that something else matters more to us. And that thing, whatever it may be, has become our idol.