Mar. 16, 2007
Sound Bite 12: Reason Teaches
Posted in Lecture 1: Love, the Sum of all Virtue
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Without love to God, again, there can be no true honour to him. A man is never hearty in the honour he seems to render to another whom he does not love; so that all the seeming honour or worship that is ever paid without love, is but hypocritical. And so reason teaches that there is no sincerity in the obedience that is performed without love, for if there be no love, nothing that is done can be spontaneous and free, but all must be forced. So, without love, there can be no hearty submission to the will of God, and there can be no real and cordial trust and confidence in him. He that does not love God will not trust him: he never will, with true acquiescence of soul, cast himself into the hands of God, or into the arms of his mercy. And so whatever good carriage there may be in men toward their neighbours, yet reason teaches that it is all unacceptable and in vain if at the same time there be no real respect in the heart toward those neighbours; if the outward conduct is not prompted by inward love. And from these two things taken together, that is, that love is of such a nature that it will produce all virtues, and dispose to all duties to God and men, and that without it there can be no sincere virtue, and no duty at all properly performed, the truth of the doctrine follows, that all true and distinguishing Christian virtue and grace may be summed up in love. ------------------------------ Cat's Q & A: 1. Jonathan Edwards often uses the phrase, "reason teaches." Why do you think he does this, and what major points is he emphasizing when he does? I think the beauty and timelessness of Edwards' sermons lies in the fact that he teaches very basic reasoning - he is a master of the mechanics of how to move from reading Scripture to applying it directly to daily life. Actually, I think he's only emphasizing what the original text says - "If I...have not love, I am nothing." (1 Cor. 13:1-3) 2. "Without love, there can be no real submission to the will of God..." How happy are you feeling about doing what God wants rather than what you want today? Better than I did yesterday. 3. "....and there can be no real and cordial trust and confidence in him." So - the question is, on a scale of one to ten, how much confidence do you have in God today? Sadly, about a 3 or 4. Emotionally, anyway. Intellectually, and also on some deeper level, I can say I have nothing else that I rely on when it comes right down to it. Yet I don't live my life that way on a daily basis. In general there is some part of me or other that's out of sync with my knowledge of God's sufficiency - and that knowledge itself is so imperfect. |
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Mar. 21, 2007 - Untitled Comment
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