"Need for significance"? It is surely a good thing for the works of your hands to be established forever: gold, silver, and precious stones, not wood, hay, and straw. It is good when what you do with your life truly counts, and when your works follow you into eternity. Vanity, futility, and ultimate insignificance register the curse upon our work life – even midcourse, not just when we retire, or when we die, or on the Day of Judgment. But the real gospel inverts the order of things presupposed by the therapeutic gospel. The craving for impact and significance – one of the typical "youthful lusts" that boil up within us – is merely idolatrous when it acts as Director of Operations in the human heart. God does not meet your need for significance; he meets your need for mercy and deliverance from your obsession with personal significance. When you turn from your enslavement and turn to God, then your works do start to count for good. The gospel of Jesus and the fruit of faith are not tailored to "meet your needs." He frees from the tyranny of felt needs, remakes you to fear God and keep his commandments (Eccl. 12:13). In the divine irony of grace, that alone makes what you do with your life of lasting value.
Showing posts with label powlison. Show all posts
Showing posts with label powlison. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Get First Things First
In this article on the therapeutic gospel vs. the real gospel, David Powlison explains why "felt needs" make good gifts but poor gods. Print this out; pausing to ponder and pray; then read it again. This is rich wisdom for the soul. Here is but one paragraph:
Monday, April 02, 2007
Powlison on Lusts of the Flesh: Question 15
David Powlison answers the final question on lusts of the flesh:
15. Can you change what you want?
Yes and Amen! This is central to the work of the Holy Spirit. You will always desire, love, trust, believe, fear, obey, long for, value, pursue, hope, and serve something. You are motivated when you feel desire. God does not anesthetize us; he redirects our desire. The Holy Spirit works to change the something, as he leads us with an intimate hand. The desires of the heart are not unchangeable. God never promises to give you what you want, to meet your felt needs and longings. He tells you to be ruled by other, different desires. This is radical. God promises to change what you really want! God insists that he be first, and all lesser loves be radically subordinate.
The best way to understand this is to think about prayer. Prayer means asking, and you ask because you want something. You ask God because you believe he has power to accomplish some desired Good. When Solomon prayer for a wise and discerning heart, God freely gave Solomon what he wanted (1 Kings 3). God was delighted that Solomon did not ask for a long life, riches, and success, the felt needs of most people in power. Solomon had not treated God as a genie in a lamp who exists to grand him three wishes. What we want by nature--the cravings of the flesh--expresses our sin nature. But Solomon had learned to know what he really needed. He had learned to pray according to the will of God, and it pleased God to answer him. The Lord changes what we want, and we learn to pray for what delights God, to want what he wants.
God challenges the things that everybody everywhere eagerly pursues (Matt. 6:32). What desires of body and mind (Eph. 2:3) do people naturally follow? Consider our characteristic passions: desires of the body include life itself, air, health, water, food, clothing, shelter, sexual pleasure, rest, and exercise. Desires of the mind include happiness, being loved, meaning, money and possessions, respect, status, accomplishment, self-esteem, success, control, power, self-righteousness, aesthetic pleasure, knowledge, marriage, and family. Must these rule our lives? They did not rule Jesus’ life. Can these cravings really be changed? The Bible says Yes, and points us to the promises of God: to indwell us with power, to write truth on our hearts, to pour out his love in our hearts, to enable us to say “Abba, Father.”
As we have seen, many of these things are not bad in themselves. The evil in our desires does not lie in what we want, but in the fact that we want it too much. Our desires for good things seize the throne, becoming idols that replace the King. God refuses to serve our instinctive longings, but commands us to be ruled by other longings. What God commands, he provides the power to accomplish: he works in us both the willing and the doing of his good pleasure (Phil. 2:12–13).
Can you change what you want? Yes. Does the answer to this question surprise you? It counters influential contemporary views of human motivation. Most Christian counseling books follow on the heels of secular psychologists and take your desires, your “felt needs,” as givens. Many leading Christian psychologists make the unchangeability of what we long for the foundation of their systems. For example, many teach that we have an “empty love tank” inside, and our craving for love must be met, or we are doomed to a life of sin and misery. Desires to feel good about ourselves (“self-esteem”) or to accomplish something meaningful are similarly baptized. This creates the psychological equivalent of the “Health and Wealth” theology, which similarly selects certain common desires and accepts them as givens that God is obligated to fulfill. The psychological versions of health and wealth miss that God is about the business of changing what people really long for. If felt needs are unchangeable, then it is impossible for us to learn to pray the way Solomon did. This reinforces our tendency to pray for our cravings. It reinforces a sense of victimization in those who were mistreated. It reinforces the tendency to press God into the service of our lusts.
The deepest longings of the human heart can and must be changed if mankind is to become all that God designed us to be. Our deviant longings are illegitimate masters; even where the object of desire is a good thing, the status of the desire usurps God. Our cravings should be recognized in order that we may more richly know God as the Savior, Lover, and Converter of the human soul. God would have us long for him more than we long for his gifts. To make us truly human, God must change what we want; we must learn to want the things Jesus wanted. It is no surprise that the psychologists can’t find any biblical proof texts for their view of human motivation. The Bible teaches a different view.
The Christian life is a great paradox. Those who die to self, find self. Those who die to their cravings will receive many times as much in this age, and, in the age to come, eternal life (Luke 18:29). They will find new passions worth living for and dying for. If I crave happiness, I will receive misery. If I crave to be loved, I will receive rejection. If I crave significance, I will receive futility. If I crave control, I will receive chaos. If I crave reputation, I will receive humiliation. But if I long for God and his wisdom and mercy, I will receive God and wisdom and mercy. Along the way, sooner or later, I will also receive happiness, love, meaning, order, and glory.
Every vital Christian testifies that the instinctive passions and desires of the flesh can be replaced with the new priorities of the Spirit. This reorientation is not instant and complete, but it is genuine and progressive. Two of the greatest books of practical Christian theology—Augustine’s Confessions and Jonathan Edwards’s Treatise Concerning Religious Affections—meditate on this transformation. And one assumes that Francis of Assisi meant his prayer: “O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love.” The craving to learn how to love and understand replaces the craving for love and understanding.
Those who hunger and thirst for such righteousness will be satisfied. We have Jesus’ word. We have no promise, however, that God will satisfy the instinctive cravings of the soul. The Bible teaches us to pray, to learn to ask for what we really need. Can we pray the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer and really mean it? Yes. Can we long for God’s glory, for his will to be obeyed, for daily material provision for all God’s people, for sins to be forgiven, for aid in warfare with evil? Yes.
A wise Puritan pastor, Thomas Chalmers, once wrote of the expulsive power of a new affection. New ruling desires expel lesser masters from the throne. What are the new and different motives that rule in renewed hearts? What changed objects of desire characterize the master motives of the new, listening heart? How does God change what people want? The Bible treats these matters everywhere.[1]
Idolatrous cravings hijack the human heart. Both the Christian life and Christian ministry are by definition about the business of accomplishing a transformation in what people want. Such transformations lie at the center of the Holy Spirit’s purposes in working his Word into our lives. The lusts of the flesh lead somewhere bad: dead works. The lusts of the flesh have a specific solution: the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which replaces them. “He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf” (2 Cor. 5:15). The desires of the Lord lead to somewhere good: good works. One key ingredient in reclaiming the cure of souls is to make this transformation central.
Note
The following passages get a start on this question. For each passage ask, “What does this person really want, long for, pursue, delight in?” Pss. 42:1–2; 63:1–8; 73:25–28; 80; 90:8–17; Prov. 2:1–6; 3:13–18; 8:11; Isa. 26:8–9; Matt. 5:6; 6:9–13, 6:19–33; 13:45–46; Luke 11:9–13; Rom. 5:1–11; 8:18–25; 9:1–3; 2 Cor. 5:8–9; Phil. 1:18–25; 3:8–11; 3:20–21; 2 Tim. 2:22; 3:12; 1 Peter 1:13; 2:2; Rev. 22:20.
Powlison on Lusts of the Flesh: Question 14
David Powlison answers question 14 (of 15) on lusts of the flesh:
14. In counseling, do you just confront a person with his sinful cravings?
Wise counselors don't "just confront" anything. They do many different things to make confrontation timely and effective. Counselors never see the heart, only the evidences, so a certain tentativeness is often appropriate when discussing motives. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that counseling aims to illuminate the heart, to help people see themselves as they are in God's eyes, and in that to make the love of God as sweet necessity. Since counselors have the same package of typical lusts, we meet on common ground in our need for grace because of pride, fear of man, unbelief, and love of comfort and control.
We can and must tackle such issues. Second Timothy 3:16 begins with teaching. Good teaching (for example, on how Galatians 5 and James 1 connect outward sins to inward cravings) helps people examine and see themselves. Good teaching invites self-knowledge and self-confrontation. Experience with people will make you "case wise" to typical connections (such as the varied motives for immorality mentioned in Question 6). Probing questions--What did you want or expect or fear when you blew up at your wife?--help a person reveal his ruling lusts to himself and to the counseling.
In the light of self-knowledge before God's face (Heb. 4:12-13), the Gospel offers many promises: mercy, help, the Shepherd's care in progressive sanctification (Heb. 4:14-16). "The unfolding of Your words brings light" (Ps. 119:130). Repentance, faith, and obedience become vigorous and intelligent when we see both our inner cravings and our outward sin in light of God's mercies.
The patterns, themes, or tendencies of the heart do not typically yield to a once-for-all repentance. Try dealing one mortal blow to your pride, fear of man, love of pleasure, or desire to control your world, and you will realize why Jesus spoke Luke 9:23! But genuine progress will occur where the Holy Spirit is at work. Understanding your motivational sins gives you a sense for the themes of your story, how your Father is at work in you over the long haul.
Work hard and carefully both on motivation issues (Rom. 13:14: the lusts of the flesh versus putting on Jesus Christ) and on behavioral issues (Rom. 13:12-13): the varied deeds of darkness versus proper "daylight" behavior).
Powlison on Lusts of the Flesh: Question 13
David Powlison answers question 13 (of 15) on lusts of the flesh:
13. How does thinking about lusts relate to other ways of talking about sin, such as "sin nature," "self," "pride," "autonomy," "unbelief," and "self-centeredness"?
These words are general terms that summarize the problem of sin. One of the beauties of identifying ruling desires is that they are specific and can therefore enable more specific repentance and specific change. For example, a person who becomes angry in a traffic jam may later say, "I know the anger is sin, and it comes from self." That is true as far as it goes. But it helps to take self-knowledge a step further: "I cursed in anger because I craved to get to my appointment on time. I feared criticism from the person waiting for me and I feared losing the profits from that sale." Repentance and change can become more specific when the person identifies these three lusts that expressed the lordship of self in this particular incident.
The Bible discusses sin in an astonishing variety of ways. Sometimes Scripture addresses sin at the general level: e.g., Luke 9:23-26 on self or Proverbs on the fool. At other times Scripture increases the microscope's power and treats a particular theme of sin: e.g., Philippians 3 on the pursuit of self-righteousness or 1 Timothy 6 on love of money. In still other places, the Bible speaks of sinful desires that lead to sin and invites us to make the specific application: e.g., James 1:14-15; 4:1-2; Gal. 5:16-21; Rom. 13:12-14. We could diagram this roughly as follows: (1) general terms, (2) mid-level typical patterns, and (3) detail-level specifics. (See the diagram here.)
Powlison on Lusts of the Flesh: Question 12
David Powlison answers question 12 (of 15) on lusts of the flesh:
12. Do people ever have conflicting motives?
Certainly. The conflict between sinful lusts and the Holy Spirit's desires is a given of the Christian life (Gal. 5:16-17). People often have mixed motives, some good, and some bad. Most preachers and counselors will acknowledge that loving Christ and people battles against love for success and human approval.
In other instances, two sinful cravings may conflict. For example, a businessman might want to steal something from a convenience store, but holds back in fear of what people would think if they found out. In this example, mammon worship and social approval present themselves as options for the flesh; the heart inclines to the latter.
People often prioritize their cravings, and arrange the priorities differently in different situations. For example, the man who would never shoplift because of the social consequences might cheat on his taxes because he's not likely to get caught, and no one who "matters" would know if he did. In this case self-will and mammon worship seize the steering wheel, and social approval moves to the back seat. The "broad way" has a thousand creative variants!
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Powlison on Lusts of the Flesh: Question 11
David Powlison answers question 11 (of 15) on lusts of the flesh:
11. What about fears? They seem as important in human motivation as cravings.
Fear and desire are two sides of a single coin. A sinful fear is a craving for something not to happen. If I want money, I fear poverty. If I long to be accepted, I'm terrified of rejection. If I fear pain or hardship, I crave comfort or pleasure. If I crave preeminence, I fear being inferior to others. With some people the fear may be more pronounced than the corresponding desire, and wise counseling will work with what is pronounced.
For example, a person who grew up during the Great Depression might manifest mammon worship through a fear of poverty that shows up in anxiety, hoarding, repeated calculations of financial worth, and so forth. A wealthy entrepeneur might manifest mammon worship through unchecked consumer spending. With the former, address fear; with the latter, address greed. They are complementary expressions of cravings on earth.
Powlison on Lusts of the Flesh: Question 10
David Powlison answers question 10 (of 15) on lusts of the flesh:
10. Can desires be habitual?
Paul describes a former manner of life characterized by deceitful lusts. Peter tells his readers not to be conformed to their former desires. [Eph. 4:2 (cf. 4:17-19, which reinforces the notion of a characteristic lifestyle); 1 Pe. 1:14.] Like all other aspects of sin--beliefs, attitudes, words, deeds, emotions, thoughts, fantasies--desires can be habitual. You will counsel people who typically and repeatedly seek to control others, or to indulge in the pleasures of sloth, or to be seen as superior, or to be liked. Jesus' call to die daily to self recognizes the inertia of sin. God is in the business of creating new habitual desires, for example, an active concern for the well being of others before God.
Many counseling systems are obsessed with locating the reasons for current problems in the distant past. The Bible's wordview is much more straightforward. Sin emerges from within the person. The fact that a pattern of craving became established many years before--even that it was forged in a particular context, perhaps influenced by bad models or by experience of being sinned against--only describes what happened. For example, past rejections do not cause a craving to be accepted by others any more than current rejections cause that craving. The occasions of a lust are never its cause. Temptations and sufferings do push buttons, but they don't create those buttons. The brings huge hope for change in the present by the grace of God.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Powlison on Lusts of the Flesh: Question 9
David Powlison answers question 9 (of 15) on lusts of the flesh:
9. Doesn't the word lusts properly apply only to bodily appetites: the pleasures and comforts of sex, food, drink, rest, exercise, health?
People follow the desires of body and mind (see Eph. 2:3). Bodily appetites--the organism's hedonistic instinct to feel good--are certainly powerful masters unto sin. But desires of the mind--for power, human approval, success, preeminence, wealth, self-righteousness, and so forth--are also potent masters. The desires of the mind often present the most subtle and deceitful lusts because the outworkings are not always obvious. They don't reside in the body, but the Bible still views them as "lusts."
Friday, March 30, 2007
Powlison on Lusts of the Flesh: Question 8
I really do hope readers will be able to print out and meditate on these lusts of the flesh posts. There are gems buried here! For example, if we truly grasped lines like this--"motives are describable, even if inexplicable. There is no deeper cause for sin than sin"--both paradigms and lives would be changed.
Here Powlison answers question 8 of 15:
Here Powlison answers question 8 of 15:
8. Is it even right to talk about the heart, since the Bible teaches that the heart is unknowable to anyone but God? (1 Sam. 16:7; Jer. 17:9)
No one but God can see, explain, control, or change another person's heart and its choices. There is no underlying reason why a person serves a particular lust rather than God; sin is irrational and insane. And there is no therapeutic technique that can change hearts. But the Bible teaches us that we can describe what rules the heart and speak the truth that convicts and liberates. Effective biblical ministry probes and addresses why people do things, as well as what they do. Jesus' ministry continually exposed and challenged what people lived for, offering himself as the only worthy ruler of the heart.
For example, 1 Samuel 16:7 says that man judges by externals while God judges the heart. Yet a few verses earlier, we are told that Saul visibly disobeyed God for a reason: he feared the people and listened to their voice, instead of fearing God and listening to him (see 1 Sam. 15:24). His motives are describable, even if inexplicable. There is no deeper cause for sin than sin. Jeremiah 17:9 says that the human heart is deceitful and incomprehensible to any but God, but the same passage describes how behavior reveals that people trust in idols, themselves, and others, instead of trusting in God (see Jer. 17:1-8). Scripture is frank to tell us the causes of behavior: interpersonal conflicts, for example, arise because of lusts (see James 4:1-2). If anger and conflict come from a lust, the next and obvious question is, "What do you want that now rules you"
To search out motives demands no subtle psychotherapeutic technique. People can tell us what they want. The Israelites grumbled--a capital crime--when they had to subsist on boring food. Why? They craved flavor: fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic (see Num. 11:5). Later they grumbled when they got thirsty and no oasis appeared. Why? They craved juicy foods, or foods that demanded irrigation: grain, figs, vines, pomegranates, and water (see Num. 20:5). In each case the craving reflected their apostasy from God and expressed itself in visible, audible sins. When we see the God-substitutes that claim our affections, then we see how good and necessary the grace of Jesus is in subduing hijackers and retaking the controls.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Powlison on Lusts of the Flesh: Question 7
David Powlison, answering question 7 of 15 on the lusts of the flesh:
7. How can you tell if a desire is inordinate rather than natural?
By their fruits you know them. Human motivation is not a theoretical mystery; there is no need to engage in introspective archaeological digs. Evil desires produce bad fruits that can be seen, heard, and felt (James 1:15; 3:16). For example, a father who wants his child to grow up to become a Christian reveals the status of that desire by whether he is a good father or a manipulative, fearful, angry, suspicious father. In a good father, the desire is subordinate to God's will that he love his child. In a sinful father, the desire rules and produces moral and emotional chaos. Similarly, a wife who wants to be loved reveals the status of that desire by whether or not she loves and respects her husband. Visibile fruit reveals whether God rules or lust rules.
It is a serious mistake to engage in introspective "idol hunts," attempting to dig out and weigh every kink in the human soul. The Bible calls for a more straightforward form of self-examination: an outburst of anger invites reflection on what craving ruled the heart that our repentance might be intelligent. The Bible's purposes are "extrospective," not introspective: to move toward God in repentant faith (James 4:6-10) and then to move toward the one wronged by anger, making peace in repentance, humility, and love.
Powlison on Lusts of the Flesh: Question 6
David Powlison answers question 6 of the 15-part Q&A on lusts of the flesh:
6. Does each person have one "root sin"?
6. Does each person have one "root sin"?
With good reason, the Bible usually refers to the "lusts" (plural) of the flesh. The human heart can generate a lust tailored to any situation. Again John Calvin powerfully described how cravings "boil up" within us, how the mind of man is a "factory of idols" [Calvin, Institutes, ed. Battles, 65, 108]. We are infested with lusts. Listen closely to any person given to complaining, and you will observe the creativity of our cravings. Certainly one particular craving may so frequently appear that it seems to be a "root sin": love of mammon, fear of man and craving for approval, love of preeminence or control, desire for pleasure, and so forth, can dictate much of life. But all people have all the typical cravings.
Realizing the diversity in human lusts gives great flexibility and penetration to counseling. For example, one lust can generate very diverse sins, as 1 Timothy 6:10 states: "The love of money is a root of all sorts of evil." Every one of the Ten Commandments--and more--can be broken by someone who loves and serves money. The craving for money and material possessions is an organizing theme for symptomatic sins as diverse as anxiety, theft, compulsive shopping, murder, jealousy, marital discord, a sense of inferiority or of superiority compared to others, sexual immorality that trades sex for material advantage, and so forth.
On the flip side, a single behavioral sin can emerge from very different lusts. For example, sexual immorality might occur for many different reasons: erotic pleasure, financial advantage, revenge on a spouse or parent, fear of saying no to an authority, pursuit of approval, enjoyment of power over another's sexual response, the quest for social status or career advancement, pity for someone and playing the savior, fear of losing a potential marriage partner, escape from boredom, peer pressure, and so forth. Wise biblical counselors dig for specifics. They don't assume all people have the same characteristic flesh, or that a person always does a certain thing for the same reasons. The flesh is creative in iniquity.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Powlison on Lusts of the Flesh: Question 5
David Powlison answers question 5 of the 15-part Q&A on lusts of the flesh:
5. Is the phrase "lusts of the flesh" useful in practical life and counseling?
5. Is the phrase "lusts of the flesh" useful in practical life and counseling?
Apply the term to twenty-first-century experience, redeeming the evasive language people substitute. People frequently talk about what they want, expect, wish for, desire, demand, need, long for. Pop psychologies typically validate these needs and longings as neutral givens. Little do people realize that much of the time they are actually describing sinful usurpers of God's rule over their lives: inordinate desires, lusts of the flesh, cravings. They just aren't interpreting their experience rightly.
For example, listen to children talk when they are angry, disappointed, demanding, contrary: "But I want. . . . But I don't want to. . . ." In our family we began teaching our children about the "I-wantsies" before they were two years old. We wanted them to grasp that sin was more than behavior. For example, analyze any argument or outburst of anger and you will find ruling expectation and desires that are being frustrated (James 4:1-2).
The language people typically use day to day gets you into the details of a person's life, but it usually comes with a distorted interpretation attached. Wise counseling must reinterpret that experience into biblical categories, taking the more pointed reality of "lusts, cravings, pleasures," and mapping it into the the "felt needs" that underlie much sin and misery. The very unfamiliarity of the phrase is an advantage, if you explain it carefully and show its relevance and applicability. Behavorial sins demand a horizontal resolution--as well as vertical repentance. But motivational sins have first and foremost to do with God, and repentance quickens the awareness of relationship with the God of grace.
Powlison on Lusts of the Flesh: Question 4
David Powlison answers question 4 of the 15-part Q&A on lusts of the flesh:
4. Why don't people see this as the problem?
4. Why don't people see this as the problem?
Consider a second adjective that Scripture attaches to the phrase "lusts of the flesh": deceitful lusts. Our desires deceive us because they present themselves as so plausible. Natural affections become warped and monstrous, and so blind us. Who wouldn't want good health, financial comfort, a loving spouse, good kids, success on the job, kind parents, tasty food, a life without traffic jams, control over circumstances? Yet cravings for these things lead to every sort of evil. The things people desire are delightful as blessings received from God, but terrible as rulers. They make good goods but bad gods.They beguile, promising blessing, but delivering sin and death.
Some sins are high-handed, done with full awareness of choice (Ps. 19:13). Other sins reflect the blind, dark, habitual, compulsive, hardened, ignorant, confused, instinctive insanity of sin. One of the joys of biblical ministry comes when you are able to turn on the lights in another person's dark room. People usually don't see their desires as lusts. Souls are cured as the ignorant and self-deceived are disturbed by the light of God's analytic gaze and then comforted by the love that shed substitutionary blood to purchase the inexpressible gift.
I have yet to meet a couple locked in hostility (and the accompanying fear, self-pity, hurt, self-righteousness) who really understood and reckoned with their motives. James 4:1-3 teaches that cravings underlie conflicts. Why do you fight? It's not "because my wife/husband . . ."--it's because of something about you. Couples who see what rules them--cravings for affections, attention, power, vindication, control, comfort, a hassle-free life--can repent and find God's grace made real to them, and then learn how to make peace.
Powlison on Lusts of the Flesh: Question 3
Here is question 3 in the 15-part Q&A with David Powlison on lusts of the flesh.
3. But what's wrong with wanting things that seem good?
What makes our desires wrong? The question becomes particularly perplexing to people when the object of their desires is a good thing. Notice some of the adjectives that get appended to our cravings: evil, polluted lusts (Col. 3:5; 2 Pet. 2:10). Sometimes the object of desire itself is evil: to kill someone, to steal, to control the cocaine trade on the Eastern seaboard. But often the object of desire is good, and the evil lies in the lordship of the desire. Our will replaces God's as that which determines how we live.
John Calvin put it this way: "We teach that all human desires are evil, and charge them with sin--not in that they are natural, but because they are inordinate" (Institutes, ed. Battles, p. 604). In other words, the evil in our desires often lies not in what we want but in the fact that we want it too much. Natural affections (for any good thing) become inordinate, ruling cravings. We are meant to be ruled by godly passions and desires (see Question 15). Natural desires for good things are meant to exist subordinate to our desire to please the Giver of gifts. Grasping that the evil lies in the ruling status of the desire, not the object, is frequently a turning point in self-understanding, in seeing the need for Christ's mercies, and in changing.
Consider this example. A woman commits adultery, and repents. She and her husband rebuild the marriage, patiently, painstakingly. Eight months later the man finds himself plagued with subtle suspiciousness and irritability. The wife senses it, and feels a bit like she lives under FBI surveillance. The husband is grieved by his suspiciousness because he has no objective reasons for it. "I've forgive her; we've rebuilt our marriage; we've never communicated better; why do I hold on to this mistrust?" It emerges that he is willing to forgive the past, but he attempts to control the future. His craving could be stated this way: "I want to guarantee that betrayal never, ever happens again."
The object of his desire is good; its ruling status poisons his ability to love. The lust to ensure her fidelity places him in the stance of continually evaluating and judging his wife, rather than loving her. What he wants cannot be guaranteed this side of heaven. He sees the point, sees his inordinate desire to ensure his marital future. But he bursts out, "What's wrong with wanting my wife to love me? What's wrong with wanting her to remain faithful to our marriage?" Here is where this truth is so sweet. There is nothing wrong with the object of desire; there is everything wrong when it rules his life. The process of restoring that marriage took a long step forward as he took this to heart.
Are preferences, wishes, desires, longings, hopes, and expectations always sinful then? Of course not. What theologians used to call "natural affections" are part of our humanity. They are part of what makes humans different from stones, able to tell the difference between blessing and curse, pleasure and pain. It is right that we don't want the pains of rejection, death, poverty, and illness, and we do want the joys of friendship, life, money, and health. Jesus was no masochist; of course he cried out, "Let this cup pass from me!"
The moral issue always turns on whether this desire takes on a ruling status. If it does, it will produce visible sins: anger, grumbling, immorality, despair, what James so vividly termed "disorder and every evil thing" (James 3:16).
Jesus was no idolater; he entrusted himself to his Father and obeyed. "Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done." If natural affections remain submitted to God, such faith will produce visible love. If you wish your son to grow up to be a Christian, and he strays, it may break your heart, but it will not make your sin against either God or your son.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Powlison on Lusts of the Flesh: Question 2
Here is the second question in the 15-part Powlison Q&A on lusts of the flesh:
2. Why do people do specific ungodly things?
Lusts of the flesh is meant to answer the Why question at the heart of any system that explains human behavior. Specific ruling desires--lusts, cravings, or pleasures--create bad fruit. Inordinate desires explain and organize diverse bad fruit: words, deeds, emotions, thoughts, plans, attitudes, brooding memories, fantasies. James 1:13-16 establishes this intimate and pervasive connection between motive and fruit this way: "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. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren." (See also Gal. 5:6-6:10; James 3:14-4:12.)
In modern language such sinful cravings often masquerade as expectations, goals, felt needs, wishes, demands, longings, drives, and so forth. People talk about their motives in ways that anesthetize themselves and others to the true significance of what they are describing.
Powlison on Lusts of the Flesh: Question 1
As I mentioned in a previous post, I've received permission from P&R to post excerpts from David Powlison's essay, "I Am Motivated When I Feel Desire," from his book, Seeing With New Eyes: Counseling and the Human Condition Through the Lens of Scripture.
Powlison does a helpful Q&A on the concept of "the lusts of the flesh." Here is the first of fifteen questions. I'd encourage a careful reading and meditation upon these biblical, transforming concepts.
Powlison does a helpful Q&A on the concept of "the lusts of the flesh." Here is the first of fifteen questions. I'd encourage a careful reading and meditation upon these biblical, transforming concepts.
1. How does the New Testament commonly talk about what's wrong with people?
Lusts of the flesh (cravings or pleasures) is a summary term for what is wrong with us in God's eyes. In sin, people turn from God to serve what they want. By grace, people turn to God from their cravings. According to the Lord's assessment, we all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind (Eph. 2:3). Those outside of Christ are thoroughly controlled by want they want. ("Of course I live for money, reputation, success, looks, and love. What else is there to live for?") And the most significant inner conflict in Christians is between what the Spirit wants and what we want.
But the term "lust" has become almost useless to modern readers of the Bible. It is reduced to sexual desire. Take a poll of the people in your church, asking them the meaning of "lusts of the flesh." Sex will appear on every list. Greed, pride, gluttonous craving, or mammon worship might be added in the answers of a few of the more thoughtful believers. But the subtleties and details are washed out, and a crucial biblical term for explaining human life languishes. In contrast, the New Testament writers use this term as a comprehensive category for the human dilemma! It will pay us to think carefully about its manifold meanings. We need to expand the meaning of a term that has been truncated and drained of significance. We need to learn to understand life though these lenses, and to use these categories skillfully.
The New Testament repeatedly focuses on the "lusts of the flesh" as a summary of what is wrong with the human heart that underlies bad behavior. For example, 1 John 2:16 contrasts the love of the Father with "all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life." (See also Rom. 13:14; Gal. 5:16-17; Eph. 2:2; 4:22; James 1:14-15; 4:1-3; 1 Pet. 1:14; 2 Pet. 1:4).[1] This does not mean that the New Testament is internalistic.[2] In each of these passages, behavior intimately connects to motive, and motive to behavior. Wise counselors follow the model of Scripture and move back and forth between lusts of the flesh and the tangible works of the flesh, between faith and the tangible fruit of the Spirit.
Footnotes
[1] The OT typically focuses on idolatry as the way people go astray. This doesn't mean that the OT is externalistic. Visible idolatry simple registers, for all to see, the failure to love the Lord God with heart, soul, mind, and might; it registers an internal defection. There are places where the problem of idolatry is turned into a metaphor for the most basic internalized sin (see Ezek. 14), and visible idolatry always expressed a defection of heart from God. There are places where the human heart is described as insane (Eccl. 9:3), evil (Gen. 6:5), full of cravings and lies (Num. 11-25). Idolatry can summarize every false, life-controlling master (1 John 5:21).
[2] We often hear warnings against externalistic religion. But internalistic religion creates equally serious problems. Christians often seek some experience of feeling, some sense of total brokenness, some comprehensive inward transformation--and miss that biblical change is practical and progressive, inside and out.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Powlison on Lusts of the Flesh: Introduction
P&R has graciously granted me permission to post some excerpts from David Powlison's chapter, "I Am Motivated When I Feel Desire," from his book, Seeing With New Eyes: Counseling and the Human Condition Through the Lens of Scripture.
I'd strongly encourage you to read these carefully. I think this is excellent, edifying, biblical material that has the potential to transform paradigms and life.
Here's an introduction to Powlison's material on a biblical understanding of desire and motivation:
I'd strongly encourage you to read these carefully. I think this is excellent, edifying, biblical material that has the potential to transform paradigms and life.
Here's an introduction to Powlison's material on a biblical understanding of desire and motivation:
What do you crave, want, pursue, wish, long for, hope to get, feel you need, or passionately desire? God has an interpretation of this that cuts to the marrow of who you are and what you live for. He sees our hearts as an embattled kingdom ruled either by one kind of desire or by another kind. On the one hand, what lusts of the flesh hijack your heart from God's rule? On the other hand, what holy passions express your love for God? Our desires are not a given, but a fundamental choice. Desires are most often unruly, disorderly, inordinate affections for XYZ, a good thing that I insanely need. Sometimes they are natural affections for xyz, made sane and orderly by subordination to passionate love for God that claims my heart, soul, mind, and might. Our desires are often idolatrous cravings to get good gifts (overthrowing or ignoring the Giver). Sometimes they are intense desires for the Giver himself as supremely more important than whatever good gifts we might gain or lose from his hand.
That's the first unique thing God shows us about human psychology. This cosmic battleground is something none of the secular psychologists have seen or can see, because they can't see that deeply into why we do what we do. Their own motives give them reasons not to want to see that deeply and honestly. It would mean admitting sin.
To examine desires is one of the most fruitful ways to come at the topic of motivation biblically. New Testament authors repeatedly allude to life-controlling cravings when they summarize the innermost dynamics of the human soul. Which will triumph, the natural deviancy of the lusts of the flesh or the restored sanity of the desires of the Spirit? Christ's apostles have the greatest confidence that only the resources of the Gospel of grace and truth possess sufficient depth and power to change us in the ways we most need changing. The mercies of God work to forgive and then to change what is deeply evil, but even more deeply curable by God's hand and voice. The in-working power of grace qualitatively transforms the very desires that psychologists assume are hardwired, unchangeable, morally neutral givens. Christ's glance slays and replaces (in a lifelong battle) the very lusts the theories variously explain as "needs" or "drives" or "instincts" or "goals."
That's the second unique thing God shows us about human psychology. We can be fundamentally rewired by the merciful presence of the Messiah. None of the secular psychologists say this or can say this. They have no power to address us so deeply, and they don't want to address us at the level of what we (and they) live for. It would mean confessing Christ.
We will use a series of fifteen questions to probe the world of our desires.
Friday, February 16, 2007
Five Lust Languages?
I know many people in the church have been influenced and helped by Gary Chapman's bestselling book, The Five Love Languages. If you count yourself (or those in your circle of influence) in that camp, I'd encourage you to consider David Powlison's review, entitled, Love Speaks Many Languages Fluently.
As longtime readers of this blog will know, I consider Powlison to be an incredibly perceptive, insightful thinker on sanctification. Even for readers who might not care about this particular book, I'd encourage everyone to read this review, for it is an outstanding example of careful reading and thinking, as well as a great model for how to do a book review that identifies evidences of grace but also serious deficiencies when viewed through a Christian lens.
Powlison begins by acknowledging that the book contains some constructive advice and accurate descriptions of lived life--it "rings bells when it describes how people typically come wired." (As many probably know, the five love languages are affirming words, quality time, gift giving, physical affection, and acts of service.)
Read the whole thing.
As longtime readers of this blog will know, I consider Powlison to be an incredibly perceptive, insightful thinker on sanctification. Even for readers who might not care about this particular book, I'd encourage everyone to read this review, for it is an outstanding example of careful reading and thinking, as well as a great model for how to do a book review that identifies evidences of grace but also serious deficiencies when viewed through a Christian lens.
Powlison begins by acknowledging that the book contains some constructive advice and accurate descriptions of lived life--it "rings bells when it describes how people typically come wired." (As many probably know, the five love languages are affirming words, quality time, gift giving, physical affection, and acts of service.)
Chapman’s full working philosophy might be summarized this way: “I’ll find out where you itch, and I’ll scratch your back, so you feel better. Along the way, I’ll let you know my itches in a non-demanding manner. You’ll feel good about me because your itches are being scratched, so eventually you’ll probably scratch my back, too.” . . .
Unwittingly he exalts the observation that “even tax collectors, gentiles, and sinners love those who love them” (Matt. 5:46f; Luke 6:32ff) into his guiding principle for human relationships. This is the dynamo that makes his entire model go. This is the instinct that he appeals to in his readers. If I scratch your back, you’ll tend to scratch mine. If you’re happy to see me, I’ll tend to be happy to see you, too. So, 5LL teaches you how to become aware of what others want, and then tells you to give that to them. This is the principle behind How to Win Friends and Influence People and The 30-second Manager. It’s the dynamic at work in hundreds of other books on “relational skills,” or “attending skills,” or “salesmanship,” or “how to find the love you want.” Identify the felt need and meet it, and, odds are, your relationships will go pretty well. . . .
Up to a point, 5LL can be informative, correcting ignorance about how people differ from each other, and making you more aware of patterns of expectation that you and others bring to the table. . . . But speaking love languages is surely not the whole story. In fact, it is practical, immoral wisdom—manipulation or pandering or both—when it becomes the whole story. Part of considering the interests of others is to do them tangible good. But then to really love them, you usually need to help them see their itch as idolatrous, and to awaken in them a far more serious itch! That’s basic Christianity. 5LL will never teach you to love at this deeper, more life-and-death level. Chapman’s reasons for giving accurate love to others, his explanation of what speaking another’s love language does, his ultimate goal in marriage, and his evaluation of the significance of love languages are deplorable.
. . . The 5LL model fails the class “Human Nature 101.” Like all secular interpretations of human psychology (even when lightly Christianized), it makes some good observations and offers some half-decent advice (of the sort that self-effort can sometimes follow). But it doesn’t really understand human psychology. That basic misunderstanding has systematic distorting and misleading effects. Fallenness not only brings ignorance about how best to love others; it brings a perverse unwillingness and inability to love. It ingrains the perception that our lusts are in fact needs, empty places inside where others have disappointed us. The empty emotional tank construct is congenial to our fallen instincts, not transformative. It leaves what we instinctively want as an unquestionable good that must somehow be fulfilled. It not only leaves fundamental self-interest unchallenged, it plays to self-interest. . . .
. . . The love of Christ speaks a “love language”—mercy to hellishly self-centered people—that no person can hear or understand unless God gives ears to hear. It is a language we cannot speak to others unless God makes us fluent in an essentially foreign language. We might say that the itch itself (an ear for God’s language) has to be created, because we live in such a stupor of self-centered itchiness. The love language model does not highlight those exquisite forms of love that do not “speak your language.” You and I need to learn a new language if we are to become fit to live with each other and with God. The greatest love ever shown does not speak the instinctively self-centered language of the recipients of such love. In fundamental ways, the love of Christ speaks contrary to your “love language” and “felt needs.” Does anyone naturally say, “I need You to rule me so I’m no longer ruled by what I want”? Does anyone naturally say, “For Your name’s sake, O LORD, pardon my iniquity for it is great” (Psalm 25:11)? Does anyone naturally say, “My greatest need is for mercy, and then for the wisdom to give mercy. I long for
redemption. May Your kingdom come. Deliver us from evil”?
God’s grace aims to destroy the lordship of the five love languages, even while teaching us to speak the countless love languages with greater fluency.
Read the whole thing.
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