Daily Meditation

Emulating the Supreme Model

Ligonier Ministries

God has given great men and women to the church. The biblical giants serve as valuable models—despite their imperfections. Were we to elevate Paul, Abraham, or David above Christ, we would be guilty of idolatry. The same would be true if we exalted Martin Luther, John Calvin, Thomas Aquinas, and others above Christ. We respect these saints, but only insofar as they are faithful to Christ and point beyond themselves to Christ. This was certainly the style of the apostle Paul, who labored tirelessly for the cause of Christ. We love and honor him for that labor. Likewise, we honor the giants of church history. But even the theological “giants” are sub-apostolic, never speaking or writing with an authority equal to an apostle.

At the same time, we recognize that a vast gulf separates Augustine from Jim Jones. People like Augustine and Luther have contributed theological insights of such magnitude that their names are representative of key thoughts. Few in church history are worthy of such recognition. The suffixes “ian,” “ist,” or “ite,” (e.g., “Calvinist”) are valuable to identify truth but have little positive and much negative value when applied to personalities. We know that Augustine, Luther, and Calvin were not crucified for us.

Coram Deo

Thank God for role models who have influenced your life; then thank Him for the Supreme Model who died for you.

Passages for Further Study

2 Thessalonians 3:9
1 Corinthians 10:11
1 Thessalonians 1:7

Escaping the Modern Prison

The Power of Ancient Books

With approach of Advent, we decided to take up again the ancient Christian classic, On the Incarnation by Athanasius. [Translated and edited by Sister Penelope Lawson.  (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1946.)]  C. S. Lewis wrote an introduction to this edition, in which he commends the old books to Christians.  He warns of the dangers of reading modern Christian books exclusively, writing:

A new book is still on its trial and the amateur is not in a position to judge it.  It has to be tested against the great body of Christian thought down the ages, and all its hidden implications) often unsuspected by the author himself) have to be brought to light. . . .

Every age has its own outlook.  It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes.  We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period.  And that means the old books.  All contemporary writers share to some extent the contemporary outlook--even those, like myself, who seem most opposed to it. . . . The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books.  [Op cit., p.xiii.]

But there is nothing magically superior about old Christian books.

People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we.  But not the same mistakes.  They will not flatter us in the errors we are already committing; and their own errors, being now open and palpable, will not endanger us.  [Ibid., p. xiv.]

In the World, But Not Of It

Christianity 

Where Every Foreign Country Is Fatherland and Every Fatherland Is Foreign

Justin Taylor
November 27, 2012

From the unknown author of The Epistle to Diognetus, Chapter 5, written perhaps between 117 and 225 AD, capturing the paradoxical nature of Christian identity and practice:

For Christians are not distinguished from the rest of humanity by country, language, or custom.

For nowhere do they live in cities of their own, nor do they speak some unusual dialect, nor do they practice an eccentric way of life.

This teaching of theirs has not been discovered by the thought and reflection of ingenious people, nor do they promote any human doctrine, as some do.

But while they live in both Greek and barbarian cities, as each one’s lot was cast, and follow the local customs in dress and food and other aspects of life, at the same time they demonstrate the remarkable and admittedly unusual character of their own citizenship.

They live in their own countries, but only as nonresidents; they participate in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners.

Letter to Hadrian

The Christians

. . . . The Christians, O King, have found the truth by going and seeking for it. . . . They do not do to others what they would not have done to themselves.  They comfort those who wrong them and make friends of them: they labour to do good to their enemies. . . . He that has gives freely to him who has not.  If they see a stranger, they bring him under their roof and rejoice over him as if over their own brother: they call themselves brethren, not after the flesh but after the Spirit and in God . . . .

Aristides, Apology, 15 (to the Emperor Hadrian, c130AD)

Compulsion

Not a 'Well Turned Phrase'

. . . . I do not care whether you expect some well-turned phrases today.  It is my duty to give you due warning by citing the Scriptures.  "Do not be slow to turn to the Lord, nor delay from one day to the next, for His anger shall come when you know not." . . . I cannot be silent: I am forced to preach upon it.  Filled with fear myself, I fill you with fear.

Augustine, Sermon in Miscellanea Agostiniana, 1 (1930) 199.