Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 129

Creativity, Theology, the New Earth, and This Year’s Canvas Conference (It’s Not Too Late to Register!)

I highly recommend you attend or send someone to the Canvas Conference coming up August 11-12, in Portland, Oregon. I spoke at last year’s conference, and it was incredibly refreshing to see young creatives assemble in a place where God was exalted, sound doctrine elevated, and the local church uplifted. This is a great and unique conference on both creativity and theology:

We want those attending the Canvas Conference to walk away better artist-theologians and better theologian-artists.  Through our time together, we want to grow deeper in our relationship with the Lord and to understand our place in his kingdom with greater clarity.  We want to show how each of us can reveal God’s image and how he transforms us into the perfect image of his Son, Jesus Christ.  We want every act of our creativity—from writing to painting, from music to parenting—to be enhanced by the reality of the gospel, the hope it affords, and the future it offers.  In short, we want to be worship.  We want to worship with you.  And we want to worship God in a way that changes everything about us and everything we create.

You can check out the highlight reel from last year, and also see this year’s schedule.

Propaganda, my grandson Jake Stump, Sho Baraka, and me at the Humble Beast studio in Portland:

Here’s Jake watching Propaganda do a filming at the Humble Beast studio:

The Canvas Conference is put on by Humble Beast, a nonprofit group whose goal, as a group of creatives, pastors, writers, theologians, and musicians, is to “leverage their talents to see the Gospel go out into the community and transform lives.” I highly recommend this excellent 10-minute video from Thomas Terry, the founder and director of Humble Beast, on the relationship between theology and the arts.

Also, here’s a clip titled “What Creative Acts Will We Be Doing on the New Earth?” from my interview last year.

(You can watch the full interview, “Creativity in the New Creation,” on our site.)

Online registration for the conference ends August 1. Spread the word!

Does Talking About Treasures in Heaven Encourage Legalistic Living?

This week the revised and updated version of my book The Treasure Principle was released. It includes much new material, plus an added chapter and a bonus section addressing frequently asked questions about how to live generously in everyday life. Every paragraph has been carefully edited and updated to make the book more relevant and useful to readers in their journey of generosity. 

As I’ve shared before, The Treasure Principle is a book that has shocked me (surprised isn’t strong enough) in the response it has generated. It has sold nearly two million copies and been distributed in thousands of churches and by hundreds of ministries. Businessmen and financial advisors routinely give it to their clients. The book has been translated into twenty-nine languages, including Chinese, Bengali, Korean, Russian, Serbian, Portuguese, Vietnamese, and Arabic.

I’ve received hundreds of letters and e-mails detailing radical choices, enduring life changes, and greatly multiplied joy as a result of embracing the truths in this book. To revise a book that many people have said changed their lives was daunting. I was altering a book that has traveled farther and wider than any book I’ve ever written (only Heaven would be comparable). I wondered, what if my revision reduces, rather than enhances, the book’s power? But with the new material and making clearer some parts that readers occasionally have misunderstood, I hope I’ve made it better. My prayer is that the revision helps both new and old readers.

Below is an excerpt from the book, one of the questions and answers from an added section. I hope you find it helpful:

Doesn’t talking about treasures in Heaven encourage legalistic living rather than a desire to do good works out of love for Christ?

Paul said, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8, ESV). Since gaining Christ makes everything else seem comparatively worthless, shouldn’t Christ alone be the treasure we seek? Doesn’t focusing on rewards make us self-conscious, not Christ-conscious?

The answer is that the same apostle Paul who said everything is worthless compared to knowing Jesus, also said we should labor for rewards:

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.… They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. (1 Corinthians 9:24–25)

Paul assures Christians, “God ‘will give to each person according to what he has done.’” (Romans 2:6). He writes, “You know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does.” (Ephesians 6:8). The apostle says, “I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7–8).

Paul delights in the reward he will receive in fellowship with the Thessalonian Christians, in whom he invested his life: “For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you?” (1 Thessalonians 2:19). And Paul declared that we should give generously in order to lay up treasures for ourselves in the world to come (1 Timothy 6:18–19).

Whatever Paul was saying in Philippians 3 can’t be contradictory to what he said in these other passages.

Christ, our greatest Treasure, is also our great rewarder. He said, “For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done” (Matthew 16:27). To say Christ is the main treasure we seek is absolutely true. To say He is the only treasure is false, since He himself told us to store up treasures in Heaven.

When I get pushback on this, I point out that I did not make up the term “treasures in Heaven”! If you don’t like it, your argument is with the One who first said it: Jesus.

Pitting rewards against Christ imagines a conflict that simply doesn’t exist. God tells us we “must believe…that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). To believe God is a rewarder is to believe exactly what He tells us.

It’s misguided to regard any motive besides love for God as unacceptable. In His Word, God gives us a variety of motives—including love for people, fear of disobedience, and hope of reward. These should not be seen as mixed, impure motives, but rather as multiple God-given motives. Don’t we need as many motives as possible to do the right thing?

We dare not discount rewards out of fear of legalism any more than we should disregard Bible study, fasting, and prayer because we fear being legalistic about them. Sure, legalism can always enter the picture, but godly people should embrace God’s promise of reward, never rejecting it as unspiritual. Let’s leave it to God to decide what’s spiritual and what isn’t. 

Photo: Unsplash

Jon Bloom on You Become What You Eat

I often read things I appreciate, and frequently those things appear in a Desiring God blog post. I really try to read one or more of them daily. Once in a while I read something that causes me to say, “Yes, yes, yes!” (Sometimes aloud!) More than once I have gotten my Golden Retriever’s attention doing this. 

This blog by my friend Jon Bloom is one of those that I resonated with from start to finish. Hope you enjoy it, and take it to heart. In these days in which we live, it is so true, so relevant, and so important for all of us. —Randy Alcorn

You Become What You Eat

By Jon Bloom

Hope is to our soul what energy is to our body. Just like our bodies must have energy to keep going, our souls must have hope to keep going.

When our body needs energy, we eat food. But when our soul needs hope, what do we feed it? Promises.

Why do we feed our soul promises? Because promises have to do with our future, and hope is something we only feel about the future — about ten minutes from now, or ten months, or ten thousand years.

We’re never hopeful about the past. We can be grateful for the past. The past can inspire or even guarantee a hopeful future for us. But all the wonderful things that have happened to us in the past will not fuel our hope if our future looks bleak.

However, if our future is promising, our soul will be hopeful even if our present is miserable, because hope is what keeps the soul going.

So, we “eat” promises, which our soul digests (believes) and converts to hope.

Toxic Soul Food

When feeding the body, there is “healthy food” and there is “junk food.” Both will, in the short run, produce energy. But healthy food provides the right kinds of energy, enhances the operation of the body’s complex systems, strengthens its resilience against disease, and increases its durability and longevity. Junk food, on the other hand, has essentially the opposite effect in all these areas, and contributes to the breaking down of the body over time.

Similarly, there are “healthy promises” and “junk promises.” Both will, in the short run, produce hope. But healthy promises provide the right kind of hope and promote health throughout the complexities of the human soul. Junk promises prove ultimately toxic and lead to soul-death.

Both physical and spiritual nutrition are important, because we always become what we eat. We must take greater care, though, in what we feed our souls, because so much more is at stake.

The world and the devil are very aware that we feed our souls promises, which is why, like junk food, junk promises are everywhere. They are heavily marketed (notice every temptation to sin is a promise of some kind of happiness), attractively packaged, tasty (though not truly rich), convenient, and have a particular allure when you’re running low on hope. They deliver a fast buzz of false hope and ruin your appetite for truly healthy promises.

But junk promises always disappoint because their buzz is followed by a hope-plunge into guilt, shame, and emptiness. They never deliver the happiness they promise because our souls are designed for a far better hope. And yet, junk promises can be addicting, because our hope-plunge can send us back seeking another fast, false buzz.

Living Food

“Man does not live by bread alone, but . . . by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4). Our souls are designed to be nourished by God’s “precious and very great promises” (2 Peter 1:4).

But these promises are not mere human words; they are living and active (Hebrews 4:12), proceeding directly from the living Word, Jesus Christ (John 1:1). He is the Word of God (Revelation 19:13) and “all the promises of God find their Yes in him” (2 Corinthians 1:20).

What could possibly give more hope to our sinful souls than Jesus’s promises to forgive all of our sins completely, to remove all of the Father’s judgment and wrath against us, to always be with us (Matthew 28:20), and to give us eternal life in God’s presence with full joy and pleasures forever (Psalm 16:11)? Only in him do we find “a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).

This is why Jesus called himself the bread of life (John 6:35). The past grace of his death and resurrection guarantee a never-ending stream of hope-giving future grace for us extending into eternity. To eat these promises is to eat this living bread and live forever (John 6:51).

And Jesus has made the Bible the storehouse of nourishing, living soul food for his saints. It is stocked full of promises, and he invites us to come eat our fill for free (Isaiah 55:1)!

You Can Change

This living soul food is more vital to our ultimate health than bodily food. But learning to eat well for the sake of our body’s well-being has valuable lessons for eating well for our soul’s well-being. And one of those valuable lessons is that our taste preferences can be changed.

Our tastes are conditioned by habits and wrong ways of thinking about food. Like eating healthy food, eating healthy promises requires more work to plan — new habits of discipline that aren’t as convenient and entertaining as junk promises. And if we’ve become conditioned to heavily processed, sugary, empty-carb promises, artificially engineered to be addictive, we may find the taste and texture of true food less enjoyable at first.

But these habit and taste preferences will change as we stick with it and increasingly experience the benefits of substantial, hope-sustaining and deepening benefits.

The only way to break a habit of eating junk food promises is cultivating a taste for rich, nourishing, long-lasting, deeply satisfying, and true promises. It takes eating real food to develop the taste for real food. We must be patient. Old tastes do not diminish and new tastes are not acquired overnight. We might find it helpful to change some bodily food habits at the same time, and let that experience illustrate the spiritual reality. But as we press in, God will meet us and help us “taste and see” that he is good (Psalm 34:8).

“The God of hope” wants us to feast on his promises and be filled “with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit [we] may abound in hope” (Romans 15:13).

This article originally appeared on  Desiring God , and is used by permission of the author.

Photo: Unsplash

Help Relieve Theological Famine in East Africa

Theology isn’t a dried-up system of intellectual affirmations divorced from passion for God; rather, it’s a life-transforming, gospel-centered summary of God’s truth we’re to gladly embrace. Sound doctrine is critically important because how we think about God and God’s Son is critically important. It changes how we live, how we act, what we say, and what we do. Therefore, we need to learn to think deeply and accurately about God.

Concerns over false teaching and lack of sound doctrine aren’t only an issue for the American church. Many African pastors are in desperate need of resources that can train them in biblical doctrine.

As you read below about the need in East Africa, and how you can help, I encourage you to consider giving generously to this project, which I believe will have a ripple effect for decades to come. As pastors gain training in solid doctrine, and preach and plant Bible-believing churches, individual lives and entire families will be changed. What a privilege to further God’s kingdom in East Africa!

The Gospel Coalition: East Africa Theological Famine Relief Project

TGC has a unique opportunity to contribute towards the needs of the African church by providing theologically rich and accessible books to aid in the equipping of church leaders. God has allowed us to build trusted relationships with many key ministries and distribution partners who are enthusiastic about our mission of Theological Famine Relief.

Ken Mbugua, a Kenyan pastor, describes the situation…

The nations of East and Central Africa are afflicted, like much of the continent, by a dearth of biblically faithful, easily accessible, gospel-centered resources. Pastors labor in our hinterlands working with nothing but a tattered Bible and no theological training. They lack the Ksh 500 ($5) that it would take to invest in a new Bible—let alone quality theological materials.

Our Objective

Our goal is to publish upwards of 100,000 copies of a dozen strategic English-language titles, in collaboration with indigenous African church leaders and expat workers. Books are being chosen based on the needs of the indigenous church, and will be donated and distributed through our Theological Famine Relief mission and network.

Giving Goal: We invite you to contribute towards raising $75,000 online, with the first $25,000 being matched by generous givers, to reach a total of $100,000 for this project.

Strategic Distribution

TGC International Outreach has a proven track record of getting biblically sound books into the hands of church leaders around the world. Since June of 2013, we have distributed more than 100,000 books to English-speaking Africa including the following countries: 

Botswana, Burundi, Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan & S. Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Books will include:

Dig Deeper, Beynon/Sachs
Expositional Preaching, Helm
Finding Faithful Elders & Deacons, Anyabwile
The Family Life of a Christian Leader, Fernando
The Whole Story of the Bible in 16 Verses, Bruno
Touchpoints: Heaven, Alcorn
What Is a Healthy Church?, Dever

How You Can Help

Pray: Please ask the Lord to provide an open door for ministry through strengthening church leaders in Africa with solid, biblical resources which are published right there on the continent.
Network: We already have good English books available from our stock in America. Spread the word to your key contacts in Africa to ask short-term and long-term workers to bring resources on their next trip from the United States.
Give: Consider a generous gift to this cause to see church leaders gain access to trusted teaching from the Scriptures in order to impact their own preaching and leading of congregations in Africa.

Our ministry has the privilege of contributing $25,000 in matching funds to the project. If you’d like to partner with us, we invite you to donate to the special fund “East Africa Theological Famine Relief” on our donation page. 100% of the money given to this fund will be passed on to The Gospel Coalition for this project. (You can also donate directly on their website.)

I’m honored that several thousand copies of my book Touchpoints: Heaven will be printed in Africa as part of this project, and distributed so that pastors can study and learn what God’s word has to say about our eternal home!

Was Jesus Capable of Sinning?

This is a question with far-reaching implications. The interpretative problem is how to reconcile two biblical passages:

“Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone”  (James 1:13).

Jesus is the Son of God, part of the eternal triune godhead. Therefore, being God, it would appear Jesus “cannot be tempted by evil.” 

“For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

So, since Jesus is God He cannot be tempted by evil, yet He has been tempted in every way we are (and surely we are tempted by evil!). This is one of many paradoxes in Scripture. Paradoxes are not contradictions, but seeming or apparent contradictions that are unresolved in our minds, but resolved in God’s.

Some translations of Psalm 106:13-15 say “God was tempted” by the rebellion of His people in the wilderness. The better translation is probably tested, or put to the test. His people essentially tested whether God's character was consistent and His promise of judgment would be carried out for their sin. As the passage shows, it was indeed carried out. The word “tempted” would be misleading if we think it meant God was drawn toward being inconsistent with His own holiness. He wasn’t. Someone could have “tested” Einstein by giving him a quiz with second grade addition and subtraction, but the fact that the teacher would give him a test doesn't mean there would be any doubt about whether or not he would pass it.

Christ was tempted in that He had sinful options presented to Him, just as God did when He was tested/tempted in the wilderness by the rebellion of His people. But as God cannot be tempted (drawn toward evil), Jesus was not drawn toward the evil of disobeying His father, but He was drawn toward the good of having bread when He was hungry, and the good of not enduring unnecessary suffering (Luke 22:42).

We are accustomed to believing that in order for human battles and sports competitions to be real, both sides must be capable of losing. God and Satan are at war, but there is no possibility God will lose. Christ’s victory over Satan wasn’t just possible but absolutely certain.

That doesn’t mean the war is not real, nor does it mean it cannot be costly to the winner. Obviously Christ’s redemptive work was costly in the extreme. Satan’s head was crushed but Christ’s heel was badly bruised. At one point Christ’s head, by all appearances, was permanently crushed by death. That's how real the battle was.

Christ was fully capable of suffering, even though not capable of sinning. The Greek words for trial and temptation come from the same root, and in fact the same word is used interchangeably for both. But trials usually come from the outside, and temptations are prompted by the outside but succumbed to on the inside. Christ was tempted like we are in the sense that as He faced life’s full hardships, including temptations in the form of wanting to avoid suffering if He could do so while remaining righteous. He genuinely desired to avoid pain and hunger, and underwent suffering like we do—and even far greater suffering.

It’s possible for a rowboat to genuinely attack a battleship, even though it is impossible for the rowboat to conquer the battleship. Jesus was truly tempted by the devil in the same way that a battleship can be truly attacked by a rowboat. Of course, He was genuinely hurt by His enemies, so by analogy maybe we could say the rowboat’s archers can successfully hit the captain and crew of the battleship with their arrows.

For the attack of Christ's temptation to be real does not require that the attack has the capacity to succeed. Jesus was genuinely tempted, but that does not mean He had a susceptibility to sin. Unlike us in our present state, He had and has a permanently incorruptible nature.

That’s the only way we can know that there will never be another fall, another sin after the resurrection, since we will fully have the very righteousness of Christ. Because He cannot sin and has never been able to sin, we too will never be able to sin once we are glorified and fully like Him.

In other words, the capacity to sin was there in Adam and Eve even before they sinned. Sin for us now is not just a capacity but also a compulsion (Romans 7:19-25). Not that we have to sin, but there is a drive to sin within us. That drive was not in Jesus, who was and is intrinsically righteous.

Here’s a helpful, brief article. This is also a good resource from John Piper. Though he doesn’t deal with Adam and Eve’s first sin that they committed before they had a sin nature, his insights are nonetheless significant.

Photo: Unsplash

Thanking God for 10 Million Books Sold, and for His Amazing Grace in Changing Lives

Over the years, I’ve often thought about the power of brief encouraging words spoken to us and by us. When I was a student at Multnomah Bible College, one of my favorite theology professors, Dr. Joseph Wong, scratched on my term paper: “You should consider being a writer.” I took it to heart, and over 40 years later I’m still grateful.

In the ‘70s, I began writing magazine articles, including for Moody Monthly and Eternity, two then-popular Christian magazines. As a pastor in the ’80s, I started writing a book addressing the problem of sexual immorality among Christians. In 1985, my first book was published, Christians in the Wake of the Sexual Revolution (now out of print). Since then I’ve written over 50 more, the royalties of which are all given away to worthy ministries (nearly $8 million to date). No one is more amazed than I am that there are now 210 different translations of my books in over 70 languages worldwide.

Recently we at EPM realized that our total book sales have passed 10 million. I want to publicly praise God for the team of people at my publishers and at EPM, who’ve played such a major role in helping edit, publish, market, and sell these books. (This doesn’t happen without LOTS of people being involved!)

I also thank God for how He has sovereignly used the books in such surprising ways. He’s touched lives by the power of His Holy Spirit through the words themselves and through the royalties—which fund ministries and in turn enable them to touch lives for Christ.

I think of my prolife books, ProLife Answers to ProChoice Arguments and Why ProLife?, which have been used by God to save an unknown number of children and women from the tragedy of abortion. We’ve heard from many readers over the years, like this one:

Your book on abortion, Why ProLife?, helped me find the courage to talk to a friend and keep her from having one. 

Plus, the proceeds from those books go to prolife efforts that save other lives and help other women. In fact, Prolife Answers was the first book I wrote after I had to resign as a pastor due to lawsuits from an abortion clinic. And that book ended up being widely used to train thousands of prolife advocates. When I think of those abortion clinics, I remember Joseph’s words to his brothers, “You intended it for evil, but God intended it for good, to save many lives” (Genesis 50:20).

My giving-related books, The Treasure Principle, Managing God’s Money, and Money, Possessions, and Eternity, encourage people to share their resources to help the poor and needy. A reader wrote us:

I’m a Business Science student at the University of Cape Town in South Africa and I’ve often wondered how we, as soon-to-be professionals, are to manage our money faithfully. Managing God's Money has really helped me to see how God expects us to use HIS money.

The royalties from those books feed and equip the needy. Over the years, we’re grateful to have been able to give over half a million dollars to relief ministries working to alleviate suffering and poverty.

In all of my books, to different degrees and in different ways, I try to encourage people to think and live in light of eternity, which includes sharing the gospel, giving to missions, and for some, going out as missionaries. A reader of Heaven wrote us to say:

I just finished reading Heaven. It has profoundly changed my life. I had an embarrassingly dismal view of Heaven, and was reluctant to die and leave this earth. I desperately hated to leave beautiful places thinking I would never see them again. In the three days it took me to read your book my knowledge of Heaven now and Heaven to come, my understanding of and relationship with God, my view of this world, the people in it and opportunities for service have been transformed. For the first time in my life I am excited about my future Home, and galvanized to make the most of my days here on earth in preparation for it. 

The royalties from those books also go to support missions and translate God’s word into the languages of formerly unreached people groups. With royalties from the books, we’ve had the joy of funding, by God’s grace, an entire Bible translation for a language spoken by a few million people, with another in progress. I anticipate meeting people one day in the presence of Jesus who will tell us that they came to Jesus through these Bibles in their heart languages.

My novel Safely Home is intended to help readers find their joy in Christ and serve Him with greater joy and abandonment. I also wrote it to open readers’ eyes to the persecution that Christians in many places face, and to encourage them to consider how they can help their brothers and sisters worldwide. (Though the book was first published in 2001, the subject of persecution is as timely as ever. A recent Christianity Today article states that “For the third year in a row, the modern persecution of Christians worldwide has hit another record high.”)

A reader wrote us:

The Lord used Safely Home to draw my heart to the knowledge of our precious persecuted brothers and sisters – and more than that, the worth of Jesus Christ. I can recall this season in 2006 as if it happened yesterday. The sleepless nights and times of prayer (and later trip to China) came from this new awareness and sealed my decision to be spent among unreached and persecuted people in Asia. I am 31 and single, and leave in a few months to give the rest of my life in India.

One hundred percent of royalties from Safely Home go to help persecuted Christians and to spread the gospel in their countries.

I’m profoundly grateful to our prayer team, whose prayers I have often sensed and always treasured as I write these books. Sometimes when someone tells me that they came to Jesus or had their lives changed through one of my books, I think, the prayers lifted up for me as I wrote this book years ago are still bearing fruit today. (If you’d like to receive the occasional emails with requests, check “Prayer Updates” on our contact form.)

Thanks also to all who have supported Eternal Perspective Ministries over the years (some from our very beginning 27 years ago this month). You enable our staff to do their work, including me as I write, freeing us up to continue giving away the royalties to strategic need-meeting efforts across the globe. If you’d like to consider partnering with us in this eternity-changing ministry, you can learn more here.

The greatest joy, and my highest pleasure today, is to know it’s all about Jesus: “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever” (Romans 11:36). 

Does Our Marriage to Christ in Heaven Mean Our Earthly Marriage Partners Won’t Be Important to Us?

One of the most frequent questions I’ve been asked about Heaven over the years is about the nature of marriage there. As I share in my book Heaven, there will be one marriage in Heaven, not many. That marriage will be what earthly marriage symbolized and pointed to, the marriage of Christ to His bride. So we will all be married—but to Christ.

Our marriage to Him is the true Marriage, of which the best of earthly marriages was a symbol and shadow. Those who did not experience marriage or had only a poor marriage on earth will be delighted with their eternal Bridegroom, who has already gone to prepare a place for them. One day all Heaven will attend the ultimate wedding, and we will be His bride (see Revelation 19:7-9).

However, I do envision that people who’ve had important roles in each other’s lives will continue to be friends—and that would include a lot of people who’ve been married. So although married couples’ relationships will look different in Heaven, that certainly doesn’t mean that earthly marriage is unimportant and that God doesn’t use it in our lives in profound ways.

Jesus said the institution of human marriage would end, having fulfilled its purpose. But He never hinted that deep relationships between married people would end.

Here on Earth we long for a perfect marriage. That’s exactly what we’ll have—a perfect marriage with Christ. Nanci is not only my wife, but also my best friend and my closest sister in Christ. Will we become more distant in the new world? Of course not—we’ll become closer, I’m convinced. The God who said “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18) is the giver and blesser of our relationships.

Life on this earth matters. What we do here touches strings that reverberate for all eternity. Nothing will take away from the fact that Nanci and I are marriage partners here and that we invest so much of our lives in each other, serving Christ together.

In their book The Meaning of Marriage, Tim and Kathy Keller write:

What, then, is marriage for? It is for helping each other to become our future glory-selves, the new creations that God will eventually make us. The common horizon husband and wife look toward is the Throne, and the holy, spotless, and blameless nature we will have. I can think of no more powerful common horizon than that, and that is why putting a Christian friendship at the heart of a marriage relationship can lift it to a level that no other vision for marriage approaches.

Have you ever traveled to a mountainous part of the world when it was cloudy and rainy? You look out your windows and you can see almost nothing but the ground. Then the rain stops and the clouds part and you catch your breath because there, towering right over you, is this magnificent peak. But a couple of hours later the clouds roll in and it has vanished, and you don’t see it again for a good while. That is what it is like to get to know a Christian. You have an old self and a new self (Ephesians 4:24). The old self is crippled with anxieties, the need to prove yourself, bad habits you can’t break, and many besetting sins and entrenched character flaws. The new self is still you, but you are liberated from your sins and flaws. This new self is always a work in process, and sometimes the clouds of the old self make it almost completely invisible. But sometimes the clouds really part, and you see the wisdom, courage, and love of which you are capable. It is a glimpse of where you are going.

Within this Christian vision for marriage, here’s what it means to fall in love. It is to look at another person and get a glimpse of the person God is creating, and to say, “I see who God is making you, and it excites me! I want to be part of that. I want to partner with you and God in the journey you are taking to his throne. And when we get there, I will look at your magnificence and say, ‘I always knew you could be like this. I got glimpses of it on earth, but now look at you!’”

Each spouse should see the great thing that Jesus is doing in the life of their mate through the Word, the gospel. Each spouse then should give him- or herself to be a vehicle for that work and envision the day that you will stand together before God, seeing each other presented in spotless beauty and glory.

There is continuity from this life to the next. Married people have shared experiences here on the present Earth, and I think we’ll look back on those times like we were soldiers in the trenches together: we had great times and we had hard times. We should expect those relationships with family to be special and continue forever. I fully anticipate no one besides God will understand me better on the New Earth than Nanci, and there’s nobody whose company I’ll seek and enjoy more than Nanci’s.

The joys of marriage in eternity will be far greater because of the character and love of our Bridegroom. I rejoice for Nanci and for me that we’ll both be married to the most wonderful person in the universe. He’s already the one we love most—there is no competition. On Earth, the closer we draw to Him, the closer we draw to each other. Surely the same will be true in Heaven.

What an honor it will be to always know that God chose us for each other on this old Earth so that we might have a foretaste of life with Him on the New Earth.

Photo: Unsplash

Christ-Centered Stewardship in a Consumer-Driven Culture: An Interview about Money and Giving

Today’s blog is from an interview I did with Joshua Becker, which was originally posted on the Unitive .

Joshua Becker: For over 25 years, you have been writing and speaking, inviting the church to live out Christ’s teachings on money and possessions. Based on your experience, what are some of the most dangerous misconceptions the American Church believes about money?

Randy Alcorn: I believe the most dangerous misconception is the idea our money and possessions belong to us, not God. Many of our problems begin when we forget that God is the Boss of the universe. But in fact He is more than the boss; He is the owner.

From beginning to end, Scripture repeatedly emphasizes God’s ownership of everything: “To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it” (Deuteronomy 10:14).When I grasp that I’m a steward, not an owner, it totally changes my perspective. Suddenly, I’m not asking, “How much of my money shall I, out of the goodness of my heart, give to God?” Rather, I’m asking, “Since all of ‘my’ money is really yours, Lord, how would you like me to invest your money today?”

As long as I hold tightly to something, I believe I own it. But when I give it away, I relinquish control, power, and prestige. When I realize that God has a claim not merely on the few dollars I might choose to throw in an offering plate, not simply on 10 percent or even 50 percent, but on 100 percent of “my” money, it’s revolutionary. If I’m God’s money manager, I’m not God. Money isn’t God. God is God. So God, money, and I are each put in our rightful place.

Joshua Becker: I am a firm believer in the subtle, idolatrous nature of wealth—that its pursuit, accumulation, and possession can have silent, harmful effects on our relationship with God. Jesus said it like this, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” In what specific ways have you seen wealth keep Christ-followers from fully experiencing God’s kingdom? How might we recognize if we are falling into its subtle trap?

Randy Alcorn: If we understand the dangers of materialism, it will help liberate us to experience the joys of Christ-centered stewardship. Jesus speaks of the “deceitfulness of wealth” (Mark 4:19). The psalmist warns, “Though your riches increase, do not set your heart on them” (Psalm 62:10). The dangers of materialism are far-reaching. We should not think that we’re immune to the value-changing nature of wealth.

Materialism blinds us to our spiritual poverty. Jesus rebuked the Laodicean Christians because although they were materially wealthy, they were desperately poor in the things of God (Revelation 3:17-18). Puritan Richard Baxter said, “When men prosper in the world, their minds are lifted up with their estates, and they can hardly believe that they are so ill, while they feel themselves so well.”

Materialism is a fruitless attempt to find meaning outside of God. When we try to find ultimate fulfillment in a person other than Christ or a place other than heaven, we become idolaters. According to Scripture, materialism is not only evil; it is tragic and pathetic (Jeremiah 2:11-13).

How can we recognize if we’re falling into materialism’s trap? Christ’s words were direct and profound: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). What we do with our possessions is a sure indicator of what’s in our hearts. Jesus is saying, “Show me your checkbook, your credit card statement, and your receipts for cash expenditures, and I’ll show you where your heart is.” What we do with our money doesn’t lie. It is a bold statement to God of what we truly value.

Put your resources, your assets, your money and possessions, your time and talents and energies into the things of God. As surely as the compass needle follows north, your heart will follow your treasure. Money leads; hearts follow.

Joshua Becker: We live in a consumer-driven culture where the American Dream is often defined in pursuit of material possessions. Conspicuous consumption has become the norm. Given the culture we live in, what practical steps should we take to counter the pull of our materialistic culture and keep a healthy view of money, possessions, and eternity?

Randy Alcorn: I believe the only way to break the power of materialism is first, to see ourselves as stewards that God has entrusted these money and possessions to, and second, to give. Jesus says, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). As long as I still have something, I believe I own it. But when I give it away, I relinquish the control, power, and prestige that come with wealth. At the moment of release, the light turns on. The magic spell is broken. My mind clears, and I recognize God as owner, myself as servant, and other people as intended beneficiaries of what God has entrusted to me.

The New Testament offers guidelines for giving that can help us fight the pull of materialism:

Give. Giving affirms Christ’s lordship. It dethrones me and exalts Him. It breaks the chains of mammon that would enslave me and transfers my center of gravity to Heaven.
Give generously. How much is generous? There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. If you’ve never tithed, start there—then begin to stretch your generosity.
Give regularly. Stewardship is not a once-a-year consideration, but a week-to-week, month-to-month commitment requiring discipline and consistency.
Give deliberately. Giving is at its best when it’s a conscious effort that’s repeatedly made.
Give voluntarily. When we catch a vision of God’s grace, we will give beyond our duty.
Give sacrificially. We don’t like risky faith. We like to have our safety net below us. But we miss the adventure of seeing God provide when we’ve really stretched ourselves in giving.
Give excellently. Paul says, “See that you also excel in this grace of giving” (2 Corinthians 8:7).
Give cheerfully. If we’re not cheerful, the problem is our heart, and the solution is redirecting our heart, not withholding our giving.
Give worshipfully. Our giving is a reflexive response to God’s grace. It doesn’t come out of our altruism—it comes out of the transforming work of Christ in us.
Give more as you make more. Remember: God prospers us not to raise our standard of living, but to raise our standard of giving.
Give quietly. Showiness in giving is always inappropriate. (But sometimes our acts of righteousness will be seen by men and even should be.)

Joshua Becker: Shifting gears, can you help us wrestle with the Biblical teaching on the tithe? I’m sure you could devote entire chapters to the topic, but in just a few sentences, can you help us understand why giving 10% to our local church is such an important discipline to begin right away?

Randy Alcorn: I have mixed feelings on this issue. I detest legalism. I certainly don’t want to try to pour new wine into old wineskins, imposing superseded First Covenant restrictions on Christians. But at the same time, every New Testament example of giving goes far beyond the tithe. However, none falls short of it.

There’s a timeless truth behind the concept of giving God our firstfruits. Whether or not the tithe is still the minimal measure of those firstfruits, I ask myself, “Does God expect His New Covenant children to give less or more?” Jesus raised the spiritual bar; He never lowered it (Matthew 5:27–28).

The tithe is God’s historical method to get us on the path of giving. In that sense, it can serve as a gateway to the joy of grace giving. It’s unhealthy to view tithing as a place to stop, but it can still be a good place to start. Even under the First Covenant, it wasn’t a stopping place. The Old Testament is full of freewill offerings; Malachi 3 talks about robbing God not only by withholding tithes, but offerings. So even if the tithe isn’t required for Christians, we can rob God by withholding offerings.

Tithing isn’t the ceiling of giving; it’s the floor. It’s not the finish line of giving; it’s just the starting blocks. Tithes can be the training wheels to launch us into the mind-set, skills, and habits of grace giving. (If you’re interested, I explore this subject more in depth here.)

Joshua Becker: A new study shows that 70% of college students will graduate with student debt (on average over $35K). Yet, I don’t hear much commentary from our churches about this. Given the high cost of education today, what Biblical principles can help us approach student debt in a God-honoring way?

Randy Alcorn: The New American Standard Bible translates Romans 13:8 as “Owe nothing to anyone.” This would appear to prohibit debt. The New International Version reads, “Let no debt remain outstanding.” This translation would allow debt, but insists it be paid off as soon as possible.

Hudson Taylor and Charles Spurgeon believed that Romans 13:8 prohibits debt altogether. However, if going into debt is always sin, it’s difficult to understand why Scripture gives guidelines about lending and even encourages lending under certain circumstances. Proverbs 22:7 says “the borrower is servant to the lender.” It doesn’t absolutely forbid debt, but it’s certainly a strong warning.

If you’re considering going into student debt, I encourage you to seek the Lord’s will through the reading and study of His Word, prayer, and the wise counsel of others before you make the decision to take out a loan. (I emphasize “wise” to discourage you from seeking counsel from someone who believes that debt is normal and no big deal.)

Often, there are ways to avoid debt or at least excess debt while in school. This might include choosing a less expensive college, attending a community college for two years before transferring to another school, working while in school, living at home, and evaluating your lifestyle standards and making changes accordingly. (Where in the Bible does it say we should go to an expensive university rather than a community college?) But by all means, seek the Lord and give God the opportunity to provide through other means before you take out debt. (In this article, I share some self-examining questions about debt as well as Scripture on the subject.)

If you’re already dealing with paying off student debt, realize that to change the direction of our lives we need to prayerfully make wise decisions. Nothing is wiser than giving first to God, cutting back our expenditures wherever we can, and systematically paying off our debts to others, having placed ourselves through our faithful giving under God’s blessing instead of His curse. (On my blog, I share some thoughts about giving while paying down debt.)

For more on money, stewardship, and giving, see Randy’s books The Treasure Principle, Managing God’s Money, and Money, Possessions, and Eternity.

Photo: Pixabay

Should Christians Attend Gay Weddings? Does It Matter Whether They’re Religious or Secular?

As Kevin DeYoung, one of my favorite bloggers, attests, the question of whether a believer should attend a homosexual wedding is now frequently asked. (I’ve addressed the question previously in a video, and also shared some ideas for how someone could lovingly decline attending such a wedding.)

I’m well aware that my response to this issue will not only offend unbelievers, but also many believers. I’ve received pushback before and will again. But for what it’s worth, I have honestly tried to find a biblical way to conclude that love and grace, which I feel in my heart toward the people seeking to be married, means it is good to demonstrate friendship by joining in the celebration. But partly because love needs some reference point in truth to be true love, I’ve simply been unable to come to this conclusion.

I have talked with a number of people, including some pastors from good churches, who advocate saying yes to attending homosexual weddings. Their argument centers on the fact that Jesus was and is a friend of sinners and is full of grace. So true. But I have never seen a single wedding invitation to a wedding that doesn’t request people’s presence to join them in celebrating the couple’s union.

When you attend a gay person’s birthday party, you’re joining in celebrating their birthday, right? That’s great. When you invite your gay or lesbian friend over for dinner, you’re celebrating friendship and life—no problem. When you toast to good health, great. But when you raise your glass and toast to a wedding that you are convinced dishonors God, or is not a true wedding at all,  isn’t that radically different?

There are countless ways you can love those who identify as homosexuals without joining them to celebrate their marriage, which in God’s sight is not a marriage, and not to be celebrated. Let’s love them in the other ways, but not feel we must join them in celebrating what God’s Word shows us is not to be celebrated. (For more on that subject, I highly recommend Kevin’s book What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality?)

Is it possible to attend a wedding without sending the message of participating in the celebration? I honestly don’t see how. Loving unbelievers doesn’t mean endorsing their beliefs about what constitutes a true marital union when those beliefs are contrary to God’s Word. My loyalty to Christ and to the welfare of people means that I should not encourage or celebrate their sins any more than they should encourage or celebrate my sins (which are many). Of course, that will come across as judgmental and unloving to many people. But is there a time when we need to be willing to accept such condemnation because of our commitment to God and what He says is true? If it incurs God’s judgment to commit homosexual sin, just as it incurs his judgment to commit heterosexual sin, is it really “loving” of us to encourage and celebrate such sins?

Yet because I know sincere brothers and sisters in Christ, who love Jesus and believe His Word, see it differently, I do not want to point an accusing finger. I can only say how I think Christians should approach this issue. While I’ve tried to see it differently, I haven’t found a biblical basis for it. Jesus ate and drank with sinners, of course. But in doing so He did not celebrate gluttony or drunkenness. He didn’t attend a feast dedicated to the purpose of applauding what dishonors God and brings harm to people.

I can’t believe that weddings are not celebrations, nor can I believe that celebrating sin can honor God. That’s why I’ve not gone to heterosexual weddings where a believer is marrying an unbeliever. Yes, I want the marriage to last once it takes place, and yes, I will later gladly do what I can to help the marriage stay together. But I can’t join in the laughter and toasts and feasting and dancing, which are a celebration of what Scripture, in my opinion, makes clear is wrong.  

I can wish that the unequally yoked man and woman will stay together because God recognizes their marriage and wants them to remain married, even though they shouldn’t have gotten married in the first place. But this isn’t true of a homosexual marriage. Can I really hope and pray in good conscience that the couple will continue to live together? No. It isn’t God’s will, nor is it in their best interests.

In fact, if I believe their union dishonors God and is bad for them, as all sin is bad for all of us, don’t I need to pray they’ll come to faith in Christ and as their minds are renewed and the eyes of their hearts are opened, God will convict them of sin, including the sinfulness of their union, which in fact is not a true marriage? So I’m praying not that they’ll stay together, but that they will separate (I don’t believe divorce is the right word here). How can I participate in the celebration of a union that is not a true marriage, and that I hope for their sake will not last?

Regardless of people’s individual opinions, one thing is certain: this is an issue that will NOT go away. While there is a strong trend toward evangelicals attending gay weddings in the name of Christ’s love, I have to say I believe it is more loving to God and to the participants to not encourage them to think their union is good and healthy, when God’s Word shows otherwise.

Before I hand this over to Kevin, I encourage Christ-followers not to believe the propaganda that says sexual orientation can never be changed or redirected. Here’s Jackie Hill Perry’s “Love Letter to a Lesbian” in which she tells her story. On the other hand, I know people who’ve never experienced any attraction to the opposite sex, but who live fulfilled and faithful lives of celibacy, just as every single and divorced and widowed heterosexual is called upon to do, for the rest of their lives, unless and until they marry. And there are any number of heterosexuals who never marry. Their road is not easy, but there are advantages to it, as Paul points out in 1 Corinthians 7.

Anyway, here’s what Kevin has to say:

Should I Attend a Homosexual Wedding If the Service Is Completely Secular?

In speaking about homosexuality in my church and in different venues around the country (and sometimes around the world), the most common question I’ve received (by far) is whether a Christian who believes homosexual behavior is wrong should attend a gay wedding.

The question is often a painful one. It’s one thing to hold to biblical views on marriage and sexuality in a culture that increasingly hates those views. That’s hard enough. But to tell your son or daughter or brother or sister or mom or dad or cousin or buddy from college that you won’t attend their (ideally) once-in-a-lifetime event feels like too much offense to give and too much of a burden to bear. I sympathize with sincere believers who really want to honor God and communicate love to their friends and family at the same time. These are difficult days to be Christians with convictions about marriage.

And yet, as much as we can feel the weight and the heartache of the question, the answer should be no.

I’ve written on this subject before, but my response assumed in part that the wedding ceremony would have some religious component to it:

A wedding ceremony, in the Christian tradition, is first of all a worship service. So if the union being celebrated in the service cannot be biblically sanctioned as an act of worship, we believe the service lends credence to a lie. We cannot in good conscience participate in a service of false worship. I understand that does not sound very nice, but the conclusion follows from the premise, namely, that the “marriage” being celebrated is not in fact a marriage and should not be celebrated.

That was the gist of my argument. I went on in the article to address a number popular objections (e.g., Jesus hung out with sinners; we should fear being contaminated by the world; we don’t want to turn people off to God’s love), and at the end I made a passing reference to ceremonies that were not religious in nature. But I didn’t deal head on with the question posed in the title of this post: What if the wedding is thoroughly secular, does that change the moral calculus?

You may be thinking, “I get your point about a Christian wedding ceremony. But my friend doesn’t claim to be a Christian. He and his partner are total agnostics. Their service won’t be religious in the least. I’m not going to worship God. I’m just going so my friend knows I care about him.” I’ve heard conservative Christians make similar arguments several times. I see their appeal. I don’t, however, find them intellectually or spiritually compelling.

In short, as personally painful as it may be, and as much as the world will call us names and castigate our motives, those who believe marriage is between a man and a woman should not attend a ceremony that purports to be the marrying of a man and a man or a woman and a woman, even if that ceremony is completely secular in nature.

Why such a “hard line” stance? Here are three reasons.

1. The purpose of a wedding ceremony is to celebrate and solemnize. No matter the formal liturgy or no liturgy at all, the reason a couple puts together a wedding ceremony is so that others can join in celebrating with them. Isn’t this why invitations speak of “honoring us with your presence” or “join us as we celebrate”? Isn’t this why at a reception the couple invariably takes time to thank all their friends and family for coming? Isn’t this why we throw rice or blow bubbles or release balloons? Isn’t this why we wait in line to give the newlyweds a hug?

Two (unmarried, of age) people can fill out the necessary paperwork and get married at the courthouse or on a beach or in the basement without any planning, any fanfare, or any guests. But hardly anyone gets married in this way. Instead they plan a party. They line up food and drink and music and invite their friends. There is nothing in the secular nature of a wedding ceremony that makes it less of a celebration. And there’s the rub: how can we celebrate what we deem to be a serious moral transgression and an definitional impossibility?

2. Wedding ceremonies are almost always public in nature. Many Christians are quick to parse out their support: “They know where I stand. They know what I believe. I’m not coming to support the marriage. I’m coming to support my son and let him know that I still love him.” Again, I sympathize with this reasoning and do not dismiss lightly. But in addition to minimizing the previous point about celebration and solemnization, this line of thinking ignores the public aspect of a wedding (and no matter how small the event, if you are being invited to attend it is a public ceremony).

Attendees at a wedding bear witness to the exchanging vows and the making of promises. In a Christian understanding, they do so before God and man. In a secular environment, they still do so before a watching world. Why do we go to the trouble of having ceremonies for graduation or retirement or Super Bowl champions? Because the occasion calls for celebration, solemnization, and public recognition. Whatever beliefs we may espouse privately, when we attend a wedding we state publicly that the union, which the event creates and commemorates, is legitimate and deserving of honor.

Consider an analogy. Suppose your friend was an avowed racist. You’ve known this friend for a long time. You’ve told him before that you don’t agree with his racist views. He finds those conversations offensive and hurtful, but the friendship endures. One day he invites you to his white robe and hood ceremony at the local chapter of the Klan (I have no idea if they have such a thing, but let’s imagine they do). There will be a small event at the local park to bestow this rank upon your friend. He would love for you to attend. Will you? I doubt any of us would. (1) We’d be too embarrassed to be seen in public at such an event, no matter what we’ve said in private about it. And (2) however much we care for our friend, we can’t have anything to do with an event that is so repugnant to the beliefs we hold dear.

Yes, I understand analogies are imperfect. No, I am not suggesting that racism and attending a gay wedding are the same thing. The point of a negative analogy like this is to get you to reconsider one position you do like by comparing it with one you don’t like. Why would we normalize what would be better stigmatized? How can we publicly endorse what we claim to privately condemn?

3. The stark either/or options are not of our making. The emotional plea is strongly felt by friends and family members who want to maintain biblical fidelity without burning bridges: “If you really loved me, you would be there. You say you care about me, but you don’t care to show up on the most important day of my life. If you can’t be happy for me, how can we have a real relationship?” Most evangelicals don’t wake up in the morning looking for ways to compromise. It happens with a tug here and a pull there, often with the best of intentions, usually because of people we love. Who wants to burn bridges? Who wants to be a hater? Who likes upsetting people we care about?

But this is where we need to remember that the either/or options were not (I trust) our idea. Not supporting a child’s decision in one area does not mean you are no longer interested in supporting him or her in other areas. Loving across our differences is a two way street. If traditional Christians have to learn to love gay and lesbian friends and family members despite decisions they disagree with, then gays and lesbians should learn to love their Christian friends and families despite decisions they disagree with. We should take time to hear why our attendance means so much to them. And then, hopefully, they will take time to hear why our faith in Christ and obedience to the Bible mean so much to us. We won’t agree. But maybe we can begin to almost, possibly, just a little bit, agree that we are going to be in this for the long haul so we better find out how to care for each other, even when we think the other person is living according to convictions that we can’t support.

“I can’t say yes to your wedding invitation, but I’d love to have you over for dinner.” Give that a shot.

Photo: Pixabay

Young Men Need to Be Challenged to Realize Their Purpose and Potential (For Their Good, Their Family’s Good, and God’s Glory)

I have written before, sometimes with a fair amount of pushback, about the large number of young men in our culture who are not working (or serving or reading much besides social media), and instead are playing video games and watching TV and movies large number of hours each day.

Many of the young men I’m speaking of are single, some are married, and some are believers in Christ. There are clear principles in Scripture helpful not only to them but also to their parents. Some of that appears in this excellent article by Jim Hamilton, professor of biblical theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The most loving thing we can do for these young men is to not enable them to waste their lives, embrace irresponsibility and dishonor Christ, but instead call them to higher expectations and more productive and truly rewarding pursuits.

(I am perfectly aware that there are many young men who are not idle, are wonderfully productive, and are passionate in their service of Jesus. I thank God for them. This article is obviously not about all young men, only about some. And no, I don’t believe that video games, television, and movies are inherently evil, though the content of some of them certainly is. I simply believe that when these activities take huge chunks of anyone’s daily life, they become unhealthy, distract us from going deep in a walk with Christ, isolate us from service to others, and create other undesirable consequences.)

Expect More from Young Men

by Jim Hamilton

Throughout history, we have thought of our young men as restless, healthy, and built for activity. Words like driven, hard-charging, and adventurous come to mind.

The possibilities for young men are endless. They can bear the yoke in their youth and lay the foundation for the rest of their lives. They can marry, have children, and provide for a family and for others — or at least get the training, education, and experience that will enable them to provide.

We are eager to see young men exert energy because we all know what happens when you put testosterone together with capacity to work for the kingdom. And we also know what happens when you mix the same testosterone and capacity with idleness. The ancient saying proves true: “the devil finds work for idle hands.”

Single, Childless, Idle

Picture this: one in five less-educated young men are not working and not seeking marriage, and they seem happy about it. No one wants to see that, but we’re looking at it. According to University of Chicago economist Erik Hurst, young men between the ages of 21 and 30 without a college degree worked far fewer hours in 2015 than in 2000, and in 2015, eighteen percent of these men reported not working in the last year (up from eight percent in 2000).

Hurst describes this as almost one-fifth of the population simply being idle: not in school and not working. Seventy percent of these young men live with their parents (up from fifty percent in 2000). These young men are not married, not having kids, and not earning an income. They are young, single, childless, and idle.

Virtual Happiness

What, then, are these young men doing with their lives? According to Hurst, they are playing video games. Leisure time, largely spent playing games on computers and consoles, doubled from the early 2000s to 2015.

When Hurst relayed these statistics to Econtalk Podcast host Russ Roberts, Roberts could scarcely believe the numbers or accept the idea that so many young men would choose to live with their parents, and not work, so that they could play video games.

In response to the incredulity of Roberts, Hurst pointed to “happiness data,” which indicates that the reported life satisfaction of these “less educated young men” has gone up.

These guys are not married, not working, playing video games in mom’s basement, and loving it.

Hurst speculates that if these young men were out on the street, they would be forced to work, even for relatively low wages. But because of what he calls “private transfers,” which refers to the way their parents fund their lives, they don’t need to work. So they don’t.

Hard to Love the Idle

The apostle Paul has a simple solution for such a dilemma: “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10).

He won’t get a job? He wants to sit in the basement on the Playstation all day? Stop stocking the fridge. Cut off the food supply. It’s time for him to provide for himself.

Does this seem harsh? It actually would be a great kindness. And what feels or seems kind is often cruel.

Proverbs 19:18 admonishes parents, “Discipline your son, for there is hope; do not set your heart on putting him to death.” Let’s not make it easy for young men to be lazy, for them to take at no cost, for them to remain dependent upon their parents, training them to look for every loophole out of having to work.

Low Expectations, Soft Bigotry

God created man to work, provide, lead, and protect. And making man in his own image and likeness, God created man to bring the very character of the one he reflects to bear on all creation. God creates, provides, protects, and leads. And God doesn’t do any of these because he needs them, but for the sake of others.

A former U.S. president once referred to “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” To expect a man in his twenties to remain jobless, uneducated, and unmarried while devoting his energy, employing his ingenuity, and exercising his creativity surfing the web or playing video games is to expect nothing from him. And to expect nothing from someone is the worst kind of insult.

But to expect him to provide, protect, and lead is to highlight his worth and potential as a man made by God. It is to assume that he has dignity.

Finding something to do is as simple as paying attention. But our society doesn’t expect boys to do that anymore, and we have all kinds of excuses we make for them. If we don’t train boys to pay attention to others, make sacrifices, take risks, and work hard, we’ll rob them of the full and fruitful lives they are capable of.

The New Testament casts a better vision for young men in the church than our society does today. We do not accept their immaturity, or look down on their youth (1 Timothy 4:12), but encourage them as brothers (1 Timothy 5:1). We do not give them a pass, but expect them to grow in self-control (Titus 2:6) and “flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart” (2 Timothy 2:22). We stand ready for them to handle the Scriptures for themselves, that they might have the word of God abiding in them (1 John 2:14) and — mark this — overcome the evil one (1 John 2:13), which is immeasurably more satisfying than winning at video games.

Let’s adjust our vision first, and then train our young men to realize their purpose and potential. Let’s help them see the good in God’s design for work — how work contributes to the world and makes us more like Jesus. Let’s inspire them to dream bigger dreams than conquering the next level on the screen. Most of all, let’s show them that happiness is not found in entertainment, food, or freedom, but in the God who has drawn near to us in Christ.

This article originally appeared on Desiring God , and is used by permission of the author.

Photo: Unsplash