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by
John Piper
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April 21 - May 17, 2020
The biblical principles would include: (1) that our bodies belong to Christ and are meant to glorify him (1 Cor. 6:19–20); (2) that laziness is wrong and self-destructive (Prov. 21:25); (3) that Christians should be free from any enslaving habits (1 Cor. 6:12); (4) that hard work is a virtue and brings rewards (2 Tim. 2:6); (5) that advance usually comes through affliction (Acts 14:22); and (6) that all Christ-exalting efforts to be healthy flow from faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ (Gal. 6:14). No pain, no gain is an idea that could be documented from all over the Bible, especially the
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My aim is that you will find a way of life that enables you to use your mind and your five senses as effective partners in seeing the glory of God and that you be so satisfied in Him that you are willing to risk your health and your life to make Him known.
By purity I mean being a more loving person (as Jesus said, “Love your neighbor,” Matt. 22:39).
Most of that energy goes into the Bible and preaching and people. And the fruit from that is, I hope, edification.
For us pastors, He says, “Our Sabbath is our day of toil, and if we do not rest upon some other day we shall break down.”
For lack of opportunity, or inclination, these great remedies are neglected, and the student becomes a self-immolated victim.9
“Keep a close watch on yourself” (1 Tim. 4:16).
For me, adequate sleep is not just a matter of staying healthy. It’s a matter of staying in the ministry—I’m tempted to say it’s a matter of persevering as a Christian.
Brothers, bodily training is of some value. “You were bought with a price. Glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:20).
For example, I have been drawn into the controversy surrounding Open Theism, which denies that God foreknows all that shall come to pass.
So we have here an issue that touches our pastoral life everywhere we act or speak on the basis of biblical conviction. And the issue is serious not only because it touches all we do but also because the charge is so serious. God hates pride, the root sin of all sin.
One mark of that culture is the hijacking of the word arrogance to refer to conviction, and the word humility to refer to uncertainty.
We are on the road to producing a race of man too mentally modest to believe in the multiplication table.2
Therefore humility does not return evil for evil.
Much of our anger and resentment in relationships comes from the expectation that we have a right to be treated well.
“Jesus never promised His disciples a fair fight.”
If truth is precious, to speak it is a necessary part of love.
“Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17). “[People] perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved” (2 Thess. 2:10 NASB).
American public square, where relativism no longer means: Your claim to truth is no more valid than mine, but now means: You may not claim to speak the truth. If you do, you are at best arrogant and, at worst, the nourisher of hate crimes.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8–9).
We do not know everything. And what we know, we do not know with perfect balance and comprehensive completeness.
Brothers, for the sake of the truth, and for the good of your people, and for the glory of God in the world, don’t confuse timid uncertainty with truthful humility.
Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail. Luke 12:33 ✦ ✦ ✦
“Sell your possessions, and give to the needy.”
“Fool” is what God calls a person who uses his excess money to increase his own comforts.
Provide yourselves with treasure in heaven that does not fail. Seek real security!
The person who thinks the money he makes is meant mainly to increase his comforts on earth is a fool, Jesus says.
God does not prosper a man’s business so that man can move from a Buick to a BMW.
They still operate on the simple rule: If you earned it, you deserve it. It’s yours; use it for your own material comfort.
God is not glorified when we keep for ourselves (no matter how thankfully) what we ought to be using to alleviate the misery of unevangelized and uneducated and unhoused and unfed millions.
Brothers, we are leaders, and the burden of change lies most heavily on us. The place to start is our own lives.
I do not say that we should become professional economists, just prophets.
Amos 3:15: “I will strike the winter house with the summer house, and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall come to an end.”
Luke 3:11: “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none.”
S’o there are three levels of how to live with things: (1) you can steal to get, (2) or you can work to get, (3) or you can work to get in order to give.
Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73:25–26 nasb
weep with those who weep.
‘A great prophet has arisen among us!’ and ‘God has visited his people!’
Matthew 8:14–15: “And when Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him.
He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine.
‘You go, and do likewise.’” 5. Hold out the promise that God will sustain and help those who cast themselves on Him for mercy and trust in His grace.
If we love God’s fame and are committed to magnifying His name above all things, we cannot be indifferent to world missions.
Then God sent me to a college with the heritage of alumni like Jim Elliot and Billy Graham.
The issue of racial prejudice and snubbing and suspicion and mistreatment is not a social issue; it is a blood-of-Jesus issue.
In 1963, in St. Augustine, Florida, the police beat and jailed nonviolent demonstrators with ruthless precision and stood idly by while the Klan bombed and strafed African-American homes and fired shotguns into black nightclubs.
But I won’t spare you the reminder of June 6, 1998, outside Jasper, Texas, when James Byrd, a forty-nine-year-old African-American, was beaten and chained by his ankles to the back of a 1982 pickup truck and dragged two miles until his head came off.
He was a sinner, as he well knew, especially when he was caught in some of his inexcusable behavior.5 But this should not prevent us from reminding our people about the truth and vision he so eloquently proclaimed.
we be extremists for hate or for love?
I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
The price of God’s securing ethnic diversity in the “priesthood,” and the “kingdom” is the death of His Son. The design of the atonement is racial diversity in the company of the redeemed. Applying and pursuing this is not merely a “social issue.” It is a blood-of-Jesus issue.
