Hi, all,
Johnny here. Just want to get a back & forth started with some of you re: HOW TO MOTIVATE PEOPLE to obey/change!
As a starting point, let's take "Sabbath observance" (or, faithfulness at worship services) as an example.
Below you'll find bits from two famous Christian leaders of the past - Anglican Bishop J. C. Ryle and the fiery young Scottish preacher, Robert Murray McCheyne.
1. J.C. RYLE (1816-1900) - an excerpt from Ryles Expository Thoughts on the Gospels - one of the more popular commentaries on the four Gospels - written, says Ryle, for the edification of families and children. (a short bio -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Charles_Ryle )
May we all watch our conduct on this subject. Saving Christianity is closely bound up with Sabbath observance. May we never forget that our great aim should be to “keep the Sabbath holy” . . . It is lawful to do well and to show mercy. But to give the Sabbath to idleness, pleasure-seeking, or to the world, is utterly unlawful. It is contrary to the example of Christ, and sin against the plain commandment of God. (Ryle, Expository Thoughts, n.d., Vol. 1, p. 124).
2. ROBERT MURRAY McCHEYNE (1813-1843) - an excerpt from a sermon (which was printed as a pamphlet) - "Why I Love the Lord's Day". (a short bio - http://tinyurl.com/2utzp3 )
"The Sabbath was made for man. Dear Fellow countrymen. . . In the name of all God’s people in this town and in this land, I commend for your consideration the following reasons for loving the Lord’s Day: Because it is the Lord’s Day. “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice, and be glad in it.” (Ps. 118:24). . . The Lord’s Day is His property, just as the Lord’s Supper is the supper belonging to Christ. It is His table. He is the bread. He is the wine. He invites the guests. He fills them with joy and with the Holy Ghost. So it is with the Lord’s Day. All days of the year are Christ’s, but He hath out one in seven as peculiarly His own. “He hath made it” or marked it out. Just as He planted a garden in Eden, so He hath fenced about this day and made it His own.
"This is the reason we love it, and would keep it entire. We love everything that is Christ’s. We love His Word. It is better to us than thousands of gold and silver. “O how we love His law! it is our study all the day.” We love His house. It is our trysting-place with Christ, where He meets with us and communes with us from off the mercy seat. We love His table. It is His banqueting–house, where His banner over us is love—where He looses our bonds, and anoints our eyes, and makes our hearts burn with holy joy. We love His people, because they are His, members of His body, washed in His blood, filled with His Spirit, our brothers and sisters for eternity. And we love the Lord’s Day, because it is His. Every hour of it is dear to us—sweeter than honey, more precious than gold. It is the day He rose for our justification. It reminds us of His love, and His finished work, and His rest. And we may boldly say that man does not love the Lord Jesus Christ who does not love the entire Lord’s Day." (Memoirs 1996, n.p., message XXXI).
NOW, FOR DISCUSSION...
1. How would you compare these two admonitions as to their spirit?
2. What does each man hope to accomplish in the lives of his readers? (There are similarities in their goals - and differences. What are they?)
3. How does each man's language impact YOU as a person? What did you FEEL as you read each bit?
OKAY... let's have some perceptive INPUT!
- Johnny
6 comments:
i'd be on bro. McCheyne's side here! the Lord's Day helps me enjoy Jesus rather than presenting an opportunity to MAYBE earning some favor from God IF i observe it correctly ... which will never happen because of my dadgum idleness and pleasure-seeking self! so spending the Lord's Day with the Bishop becomes nothing more than a "special day" to feel "guiltier" than i do the rest of the week. i might call bro. McCheyne and see if he can come over next Sunday to play some basketball with the guys (and probably take a nap afterwards)
I hear you Burt. McCheyne longs for us to enjoy a "tryst" with Jesus (WORSHIP) whereas Ryle seems intent on our keeping a rule. One is an Encourager (may his tribe increase) who makes me WANT to do the right thing. The other strikes me as an Enforcer - threatening me with MY DUTY - "SABBATH OBSERVANCE". Makes me want to skip church and go throw stones through peoples' windows (may his tribe decrease).
1. How would you compare these two admonitions as to their spirit?
Ryle seems to be speaking from Sinai, while RMM is encouraging us from the shade of the cross. Having motivated folks with the law myself, I empathize with the Bishop. However, I have found that the love of Jesus is a much stornger and more effective means of cultivating a heart that finds joy in obedience.
2. What does each man hope to accomplish in the lives of his readers? (There are similarities in their goals - and differences. What are they?)
They both seem to want the Sabbath kept. But Ryle is focusing on the external rule, thus missing the heart of the commandment, which is to rest in the finished work of Jesus, the manna from heaven that the Father has given for his glory and our joy. So the big difference is that Ryle is going for outward, moral reformation while McCheyne is aiming for inward, spiritual transformation. Ryle wants his hearers to be law keepers, while McCheyne wants his hearers to be Jesus lovers. And I think the Jesus lovers will be the ones who actually keep the law in the first place- out of faith leading to love.
3. How does each man's language impact YOU as a person? What did you FEEL as you read each bit?
Ryle felt heavy and burdensome. McCheyne felt more like Jesus' words, "Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest for your souls."
Excellent comments - both of you guy nailed it. McCheyne was known to weep before he preached - weep with a longing for his hearers to KNOW CHRIST.
As I mentor groups of pastors, I have often thrown out Ryles name just to test the water. He is helve in VERY high regard - still. That pastors don't seem to pick up on his harsh, judgmental spirit (never including himself - never admitting to weakness himself) makes me wonder if those who revere him so have: 1. ever actually READ his stuff, and/or 2. if they themselves have a grasp of sanctifica-tion by faith vs. by "trying harder".
Maybe his admirers preach just like him? Me? I can feel the flames of hell licking at the soles of my feet when I read Ryle. Maybe I'm projecting, but he sounds terribly like "the old Johnny". I know how I felt towards myself, God and others when I railed at them like that. My take? "The Emperor has no clothes".
Great comments. I especially like Mckay Caston's comment about RMM encouraging us from the shade of the cross. There is no view of the cross in Ryle's statements. I remember pre 1991 (the year I realized how much Jesus loved me thanks to a certain preacher) that I was living as Ryle is suggesting. I was living as an orphan, always afraid of doing bad because I might anger God. Keeping the Sabboth and every other law was a burden and a chore. I had no joy. Now because of the gratitude I have for God's love for me, they are not a burden but seem to come more naturally. I still struggle with sin but now I know that Jesus has his arms stretched out to hug and hold me when I fall and is not angry.
Hi, "Handy-Andy",
I hear you, Bro'. What we pray for in our ministry here that tens, then scores, then hundreds, then thousands, then ten-thousands, and, dare we hope, millions! will have the same desperately needed paradigm shift from a duty-fear-guilt-shame driven obedience to a new Spirit-motivated, Spirit-empoered, Spirit-led obedience "not in the old way of the letter - for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." THAT CAN HAPPEN if those of us who are "re-converted" to the Gospel will disciple others who will disciple others who will...
The ONLY way I was used to help you in 1991 was that Jack Miller had taught the Gospel so as to blast me out of my prison in 1990. If we the liberated (not to anti-law, but to keep the whole law form the heart!) will become liberatORS, the dream of a New Awakening will surely come. That is a confidence-in-the-Gospel view, not a confidence-in-us view. LIBERATE! HolyManHug, Johnny
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