These articles have to
do with self control and the pivotal issue around which self control itself rotates.
That pivotal issue is this: there are
options which must be rejected. They
are desirable to our own personal kingdom and in conflict with God’s kingdom. This rejection is called “self denial.”
As our focus shifts from
matters of absolute self denial to the category which I call “contextual”
self-denial, let me put what we have said and what we are about to say this
way:
Self denial is not a “step”toward being “spiritual.” Neither is it a self-congratulatory promotion of our will. It is an outgrowth of two spiritual realities which
exist in the heart of those taught by God’s Spirit to trust Christ. First, it is an outgrowth of worship. Matters of absolute self denial have especially to
do with Jesus’ reiteration of the Law’s command to love God exclusively.
Second, love for God, by its very nature, produces a desire to show his love to our neighbor generally and our brother and sister in the faith specifically. I say love for our neighbor
generally and love for our brother in
Christ specifically because there is
a difference. Or there should be. Actually, it seems as though twenty-first century,
western Christianity has reversed the distinction. The community of faith, in
some quarters, seems to be much more loving toward those whom they want to win to Christ than toward those who have prayed the prayer. This absence of self control and its core of love-generated self-denial
among professing believers seems to be a withered grape in the cluster of the Spirit's fruit. If this is the case, it casts serious doubt on the authenticity of our professed worship in spirit and in truth. It is an irony, and neither the freedomist nor the legalist has
a corner on it.
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