RichKao.Now

D.A. Carson:

If I have learned anything in 35 or 40 years of teaching, it is that students don’t learn everything I teach them. What they learn is what I am excited about, the kinds of things I emphasize again and again and again and again. That had better be the gospel.

If the gospel—even when you are orthodox—becomes something which you primarily assume, but what you are excited about is what you are doing in some sort of social reconstruction, you will be teaching the people that you influence that the gospel really isn’t all that important. You won’t be saying that—you won’t even mean that—but that’s what you will be teaching. And then you are only half a generation away from losing the gospel.

Make sure that in your own practice and excitement, what you talk about, what you think about, what you pray over, what you exude confidence over, joy over, what you are enthusiastic about is Jesus, the gospel, the cross. And out of that framework, by all means, let the transformed life flow.

We live in a generation in which relationship, authenticity, community, intimacy reign supreme.  However in our zeal to be re-rooted in these values, we mustn’t just be “relational” all the time, we must also be pillars of truth (1 Tim 3:5). 

When Paul wrote to Timothy, he was writing to his young & beloved disciple on how to be a great pastor, how to care for people, how to love them and serve them, i.e. how to be great relationally.  But in the midst of his encouragements, he also charged Timothy to be a man of truth, to be doctrinally sound, and to exhort & preach with all confidence (2 Tim 4:1-3).

Why this charge?  Because relationship without truth is not love (Eph. 4:15).

2 Kings 4:38-41 gives us a powerful picture of what this generation is like…hungry for reality (“there was a famine in the land”).  But when we we are living out of a famished state, our discernment is gone and we’ll eat anything  (“wild vines, wild gourds”).  We think happiness will be found in money, career, relationships, hobbies, nature, addictions; we’re aching to fill the hunger, and as a result we eat things with “death in the pot.”

What did Elisha do to remove the “death?”  He threw meal” (NIV: flour) into the stew, and “then there was no harm in the pot.”

That’s our call…to throw “meal” into the pot, i.e. to throw truth into those things that people are eating and feeding on, and is making them sick. 

There is a prophetic call (ala Elisha) on us to take the truth of the gospel and throw it into the “pots” of our generation so the “death” in it can be removed.

Let’s be pillars of truth.  Fearless and bold in the name of love.  We’ll save a lot of people from “death.”