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Each year, Gospel and Life offers a daily devotional during the season of Lent, the 40 days from Ash Wednesday through Good Friday. You can sign up to receive these daily devotionals by email@gospelandlife.com lent. That's gospelandlife.com lent. Now here's Dr. Keller with today's teaching.
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We're spending a couple of weeks on the passage that you've got written out for you in the bulletin. First Peter, chapter one, verses 13 to 21. And I'm going to read again, like I did last week, just the first part, 13 to 16. Therefore, prepare your minds for action. Be self controlled. Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed as obedient children. Do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do. For it is written, be holy because I am holy. Excuse me. This is God's word. What we looked at last week was just a definition of holiness. That's all. We didn't have much time. And next week, this week and next week and the following week, we're going to look at how that plays out, because this is all about holiness and what it means to be holy. And we said that Peter, when he quotes this verse, be holy, for I am holy. He's pulling something out of the book of Leviticus. There's a number of places where Leviticus says. Where God says in Leviticus, be holy, for I am holy. And the word used there, the Hebrew word used there, kadosh, means to be separated, to be set apart. And therefore this word holy, when it refers to God and refers to human beings, it's both the same. And yet it's obviously different. When we talk about God being holy, we mean he's set apart. He's set above us. He's off the scale. He's transcendently above us. He's not like us. He's infinitely exalted above us. But when we talk about human beings being holy, the word set apart has a different aspect to it. We mean that we are set apart for God's use. To be holy means to be wholly his. So let me give you an example. Here you are reading the newspaper and you read it, and it's all for your information. You read 20 articles, 30 articles, and you get through it, and it's all helpful to you. But suddenly you come upon one particular article that you want to use. It's an article that really has something in it you want to use it in a. You want to use it because you're writing something. You're writing some copy, you're writing a paper for a class, you're preparing a talk, you're doing a sales pitch or something. So you say, I need that. Now, when you need something, what do you do with it? Out of the newspaper? You cut it out. You separate it from the newspaper so that it's yours. It won't be of use to you if you don't separate it from the rest of the paper. So it's with you and it's for your use. When the Bible talks about holiness, it's saying the very same thing. What it means to be holy is to be cut out. It means to be separated. It means to be set apart for God's exclusive use. And that's why last week we said holiness is a lot, lot, lot more than just simply obeying a set of rules. It's to be in mind and in will and in heart and in every way. It means to be holy. God. It means to belong to God is exactly what it means. Just like, you know, here's your newspaper and you cut something out so it's yours and you set it apart. That's what it means to be holy. It means to be completely at the disposal of God. It means to put yourself completely in his hands. It means to want that, to want to be used. You know, I mentioned this at the end of the 4 o' clock service, but I didn't mention it this morning. There was the last hymn that we sang in the morning service. We rest on thee, Our shield and our defender. Interesting historical note is that the six missionaries in the early 1950s who went sought to go to Ecuador and they sought to contact a very primitive tribe. They wanted to meet the tribe, they wanted to learn their language, they wanted to give them the written language. This was an illiterate tribe and they wanted to put the language down on paper so that they could teach them to read and write and to translate the Bible into their language. And the night before the six missionaries went to contact the Indians, they sang this hymn, all together we rest on Thee, Our shield and our defender we go not forth alone against the foe Strong in thy strength Safe in Thy keeping tender we rest on thee and in Thy name we go Strong in Thy strength and safe in Thy keeping tender. And the next day, they were all speared to death by the Indians. So I guess the hymn didn't work. I guess the Christian faith didn't work. Well, we know the Wife of one of those missionaries, Elizabeth Elliot. She's been here to speak, and she often refers to the fact that this particular hymn was sung by them the night before. We rest on Thee we want to put ourselves in your hands. So they were all speared to death. Does that mean that it didn't work? No, because you see. What does it mean to be holy? It means to say to God, use me. Well, now I know I'm going. I know I'm. We're on a collision course with modern culture. I know that. Or on a collision course. We can handle the idea of knowing God sometimes, can't we? Oh, yeah. We want to know God. That's great. We want to experience his love. That's great. Even the idea of obeying God. Well, you can sort of get into that. There's design, there's rules. Okay, I can do that. But this is beyond the rules. What it means to be holy means to be cut out, to be with God so that God can use you. To be holy means to say, use me, Lord. Use even me in any way. And of course, they were used. They were mightily used. They were martyrs. Not exactly the way you had in mind, right, when you sing that hymn. But, you know, we rest on Thee Jesus our righteousness our sure foundation Our Prince of glory Our King of love yes, in Thy name O Captain of salvation In Thy dear name all other names above. That's what it means to be holy. It means to finally say, I'm not mine anymore. I'm bought with a price. All right? Now, having said that, somebody says, who needs this? You need this. Because, believe it or not, we're built for this. Now, once you get that down, you begin to realize that holiness is not easy at all. It's not like obeying the rules. It's not like obeying the regulations. Holiness is getting yourself mind, will and emotions to be. To belong to God. That's the reason why the English word holy. The English word holy doesn't mean separate, separated, cut out, the way the Hebrew word means. I think the English word holy, of course, is, though, also helpful because it comes from the word to be whole, to be completely God's. So to be holy means to make yourself holy. God's. What does that mean? It means to take every part of you, the whole person. And that's why tonight, next week and the next week, I want to talk about the different aspects of our lives. What it means to be holy is not just to obey the rules, but to give him your mind. Holy. To give him your will holy and to give him your heart wholly. Now, tonight, let's just take a look and we'll see that as soon as Peter says, I want you to be holy, he starts the section out by saying, gird up the loins of your mind. Now, I know that's not what it says in your translation. It says, therefore, prepare your minds for action and be self controlled. But these first two phrases is what we're going to look at tonight because these first two phrases tell us that you can't be holy unless you prepare your minds for action, unless you let your minds belong to God. What does this term mean? I mentioned this last week, but now we'll get into it a little bit more. The actual Greek, if it was translated literally, it would be almost incomprehensible to modern people because literally it says, gird up the loins of your mind. Now, what that means is, I think I alluded to last week, is in those days, people in the Greek or Roman world, people, men and women, wore long robes. And if you wanted to do something that was strenuous, if you had a run, or if you had to do some evasive action or something very hard, you would gird up the loins, which means your gird, the girder. The girdle was this belt. There was a belt around your waist. And what you would do is you'd pick up your flowing robes and you'd stick them in the girder around your loins so that basically your legs were free and many cases your arms were free, and so you're ready for action. The closest thing we'd have in a modern idiom would be, roll up your sleeves, you know, get ready. But it doesn't just say, gird up the loins. It says, gird up the loins of your mind. And the word that's used here is dianoia. Dia is a Greek word for through. It's, you know, the word diameter, the meter that goes through the center of the circle. Dia means through. Noia has to do with. Nous means, has to do with the mind. And so it literally means to think through rationally. There's a couple places in the Bible where it means to debate. So, for example, the same word shows up in Hebrews 12 where it says, let the word of God de annoy you, let it debate with you. It's a very, very interesting word. It literally means to think things something through, to summons up all of your rational powers, all of your capacities for thought and reflection and consideration. All of the Logic that you can muster, it's a word that's used. It would include both induction and deduction. You see, if you ever watch these great murder mysteries that BBC puts out, Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie mysteries, you have all the facts, but you can never. If it's a good plot, you can't figure it out. Why? Because the good murder mystery writers give you solutions to the murder mystery which are rational but counterintuitive. In other words, a really good murder mystery, you have all the clues yourself. In a good murder mystery, you're baffled till the end, even though you have all the clues yourself. But you just weren't able to think through the clues. You were following your hunches, you were following your prejudices, you were following your intuition. Ah, but the great sleuth, whoever thinks through. And when it's all done, you read the end of the book and you say, why didn't I see that? Of course I could have seen that. I didn't think through. I didn't summons up all of my rational faculties. That's the word that Peter uses. And what it means is that you can't be a Christian, you can't be holy unless you use your mind. It's critical that you be able to think. You know, there's a place in Romans, Romans, chapter 10, verse 2, and where Paul says about some Christians, he says, I bear witness to them, that they have zeal, but without knowledge. Isn't that interesting? They have zeal, but without knowledge. What he's saying is they have a lot of enthusiasm for the Lord. A lot of enthusiasm. They don't think. And that's a criticism. You see. Heat without light, no good. Enthusiasm, but not rational, not thinking. There's one John Mackay once said, commitment without reflection is fanaticism. Reflection without commitment is paralysis. Zeal without knowledge. Knowledge without zeal, no good. You've got to use the mind. Now, I know this doesn't seem like something that many people believe. In fact, I go so far as to say that the average person in Manhattan is shocked if they hear you, a believing Christian, reflective and thoughtful. They're amazed. The average person in Manhattan believes that if you're educated, if you're thoughtful, if you're rational and so on, you wouldn't believe. Most people in Manhattan think that Christianity is for people who don't want to use their mind. It's not for thinkers. In fact, if you're going to be a Christian, you've got to jettison your thought. You have to jettison your rationality. You have to jettison your, your capacities for thought and reflection, you have to get rid of them. And you sort of surrender yourself into the realm of feeling. And you take this leap of faith. If you say to somebody here and you sound like you've reasoned it out and you sound thoughtful and rational about it, and you say, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, pre existent Son of God, who was, who came to earth and was born of a virgin and lived a perfect life and died to pay the debt for us. And he was filled, physically raised from the dead. And now he sits at the right hand of the Father. And when we believe in him, he pardons our sins and he puts the Holy Spirit in us so that we experience the new birth. And someday he's going to come back and we will all see him and he will bring about judgment of all human beings and he will inaugurate the new heavens and new earth. And they look at you and they can't believe it. Because the typical person in New York says, look, I know there's still people that believe that members of the proletariat, you know, the oppressed working classes and the poor people, and they've been kept away from knowledge and enlightenment, you see, and it's not their fault. If they want to yell hallelujah, that's fine, but you've gone to college, you should know better. And this attitude, this utterly paternalistic attitude, is a complete misconception of Christianity. I want to show you what Peter says here and what it says all the way through the Bible is not only may Christians think and use their mind, but Christians must think Christianity. Let me just tell you two things this evening, and this is the first one, which I've already gotten into. The first thing is Christianity requires you to use your mind. It requires you to think. It requires you to summons up all of your rational capacities. It requires and demands and encourages it and stimulates it. Not just here, not just here. For example, thinking is fundamental to becoming a Christian. If you look further on in the chapter verse, chapter one, verse 22, it says, you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth. Verse 23, it says, you're born again, not by imperishable seed, but by the living, enduring word of God. There's another passage like it. It's in Romans 6:17, it says, but though you were servants of sin, and you obeyed from the heart, the form of teaching which was delivered to you, now all of those texts say this, being a Christian, becoming a Christian, being born again is more Than just thinking, but not less. You have to grasp the form of teaching. You have to understand the gospel. It has to be something that you grasp. And you see, you have to think with it. You're born again. Through what? Through receiving the word. A form of teaching, a system of doctrine. Oh, of course. It says obeyed from the heart. The form of teaching. That's how you became a Christian. Well, that's, there's the whole person you obeyed. That's the will from the heart. You see the form of teaching. But, but how wrong it is for people to think that Christianity is basically emotional or volitional. Oh no, it's rational as well. It's fundamentally rational. See, there are all kinds of churches, friends, fundamentalist churches. What does that mean? Churches that are legalistic, that are authoritarian. They put all the stress on the will. They say, just don't think, just do whatever I tell you to do. Don't think, hear the rules, do them, don't think, just obey whatever I tell you. Don't think, don't read the Bible for yourself, don't work it out, don't think it out, just do what I say. There's a lot of churches like that. But on the other hand, the liberal churches are just as anti intellectual. There's a Unitarian church down in Murray Hill. I went by and there was an interesting plaque up and it said we are a group of people who all work hard to love people and be compassionate and to work for a better city. And it doesn't matter what you believe, we don't care what you believe, we don't care what you think as long as you do good deeds. That's what it says on the plaque. Now besides the fact that that's absolutely contradictory, I mean why would you do good deeds unless you believe that human beings had dignity and were worth doing good deeds for? I mean that's silly. And science isn't going to tell you that. Science is going to tell you you're a bag of chemicals. I mean that's a religious belief. And so it sounds really nice to say we don't care what you believe. That's ridiculous. They do care what you believe. But you see what they're saying. It doesn't matter what you believe, it doesn't matter what you think, just what you do. That's as anti intellectual as the fundamentalist doctrine. Doesn't matter. Studying the Bible doesn't matter. Figuring out what it teaches doesn't matter. On the other hand you have a lot of high churches, churches that put all the emphasis on ritual. And they too, they say, well, you know, you believe this, you believe that doesn't matter. The point is the ritual. And so you get caught up in this aesthetic experience. And all the people love it because of the music and because of the architecture and because of, in some ways, the glamour of it, the aestheticness of it. It's all the emphasis is on the emotion. You know, the sermon is five to seven minutes long and everybody sleeps through it. We don't care about thinking. It's the feeling. And then there's a lot of other evangelical churches that have put all the emphasis on the feeling, all the emphasis on the catharsis, all the emphasis on the emotion that you feel it. My dear friends, the Bible says to become a Christian engages the emotions and engages the will, but it also engages the mind just as fundamentally. You can't be a Christian unless you think, you can't grow as a Christian unless you think, you can't grow in holiness, unless you gird up the loins of your mind. See? Fundamental. Let me give you another example of how. So, the first thing is, I said, Christianity demands that you think even to become a Christian. Secondly, faith is really an exercise in thinking as well. A lot of people say, well, you have faith, but I'm a rational person. Let me tell you, CS Lewis gives you a great example of how faith really operates. CS Lewis says, let's just say you have to go to a doctor. So you study everything you can to find out about that doctor. You talk to people who have been to the doctor. So you say, hey, here's a doctor, and she is a good doctor, but I want to find out about her. So what you do is you go and you talk to a number of people and they're all say, oh, oh, she's great. I've been to her. And I, you know, I ached and I pained and everything, and now I'm all better. And then you talk to other doctors and you find out she is the leader in the field. And then you study the charts or you study the history and you are able, you probably have to break into illegally into files to find this out. And she's never lost a patient. So what have you done? You've thought it through. You rationally have come to see that the evidence is that she's a very good doctor. But on the day that you have to get there, on the day you have to go, on the day you have to report to the hospital, on the day she has to cut you, you open at the last minute, you panic and you run and you decide, I'm not going to go through it. What happened? You lost faith. Well, does this mean you lost faith because you started to reason? You started to think? Huh? Is faith the opposite of reason and thinking? Absolutely not. You lost faith because you stopped thinking, because you stopped reasoning, because you stopped looking at the evidence and you listened to your emotions and you listened to your fears. It's silly to think that faith is the opposite of reason.