Day Twenty-Three - How We Grow
Mr. Warren begins discussion of his idea of what makes for spiritual growth. Growth, he maintains, is initiated by and hinges upon human decision. He characterizes the Disciples of the New Testament as having made the choice to follow Jesus. This implies that discipleship is optional. One who decides to forgo discipleship is characterized as simply missing out on the advantages of God’s purposes (p. 180) Biblical truth is contrary to this characterization. The biblical truth is that we did not choose Jesus, but that He chose us. (John 6:70; 13:18; 15:16, 19) His call of discipleship is not an “invitation,” but a command. One’s failure in discipleship is not a matter of missing out on personal fulfillment, but is sinful disobedience.
Mr. Warren’s misunderstanding of the imperative of discipleship leads also to his misunderstanding of the dynamic of discipleship. Biblically, the call of discipleship is a command and the dynamic of discipleship is obedience. However, in keeping with his portrayal of the call of discipleship as an “invitation,” he construes the dynamic of discipleship as “cooperation.” He says: “Spiritual growth is a collaborative effort between you and the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit works with us, not just in us.” (p. 180) Recently, on Day Nineteen (p. 145-151), Mr. Warren touched upon the theme of the “collaborative effort” of Man and God. There he spoke of what he called the “dual responsibility” of Man and God in cultivating fellowship within the church. This commentary on that Day (see above) points out that the idea of Divine / human “dual responsibility” implies the humanistic idea of the correlativity of God and Man. Mr. Warren’s present discussion of “collaborative effort” is simply another example of this same thing. The reader is referred to the discussion above for a fuller treatment of “correlativity” and the idea of “synergism.” The present discussion shall focus upon Mr. Warren’s flirtation with truth in his development of his idea.
Of redemption, Mr. Warren rightly says, “…you can’t add anything to what Jesus already did.” (p. 181) He applies this idea specifically to redemption from sin and contrasts this with discipleship. His net result is to say that while redemption is totally God’s work in Christ for us (which, though true, he contradicts in numerous other places of this book), discipleship, on the other hand, is our work. He says, “God has given you a new life; now you are responsible to develop it…” (p. 181) Expounding upon this theme, Mr. Warren flirts yet again with truth. Says he, “To change your life, you must change the way you think.” (p. 181) He provides the illustration of a speedboat on autopilot. Correctly, he maintains that the best way of changing the course of the boat is to change the autopilot rather than to attempt to override it by sheer will. In like manner, he adjures us, we need to change our inner “autopilot” in order to realize true and lasting change of our lives. This means we need to change the way we think. He says, “Your first step in spiritual growth is to start changing the way you think. Change always starts first in your mind.” (p. 182) The reason for this, he previously explained, is because, “Behind every thing you do is a thought. Every behavior is motivated by a belief, and every action is prompted by an attitude.” (p. 181) This exhortation is true. But, how may we change autopilots? It is at the point of this question that Mr. Warren departs from the soundness of the nugget of wisdom and reverts to the humanistic scheme that characterizes the overall tone of his book. He bases his answer on a modern corruption of Romans 12:2b, “Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.” (p. 182)
The reader may recall that back on Day Five Mr. Warren’s topic was “God’s view” of life. (p. 41-46) In that chapter he quoted Romans 12:2 from “Today’s English Version.” Now he cites the so-called “New Living Translation.” From their titles it is evident that these “translations” are meant to resonate with the modern reader. They both are in agreement that Romans 12:2b is to be put as, “Let God transform you…” However, there are two monumental problems. 1) There is nothing at all in the original Greek that would suggest - least of all require - such a rendering. It is quite evident that “Let God transform you…” is put not because this is what the original text says, but because this is what is supposed to resonate in the mind of the modern reader. But, attempting to be “relevant” to the modern mindset leads directly to the second problem. 2) This rendering actually accommodates the mindset of the world rather than challenging it to be transformed! It is beyond tragic that a text of Scripture in which God commands us not to be conformed to the world, but to be transformed, was rendered into English in such a way that is in conformity to the worldly mindset and excuses readers from transformation! Additional discussion of this travesty may be found above in this commentary on Day Five.
The invitation, “Let God transform you” resonates with the modern mind because the modern attitude will not accept that Man is the creature of God and owes a duty of obedience to God. Modern Man will speak much of “god” and often is quite favorable to the idea of “god” as a resource of greater wisdom or power. The modern idea of dissatisfaction or failure involves only the finitude of Man’s wisdom and power. Man harbors a basic goodness, he is sure, and requires only a little outside expertise to help him along the way. The Evangelical comes to this modern Man and says, in effect, “Why don’t you give ‘god’ a try? He has plenty of power and wisdom to help you; in fact, he eagerly desires to help you, but before he can help you it first is necessary that you ‘release’ his power in your life. If you will let him transform you, you will be pleased with the result.” Even if one responded positively to such an “invitation,” he still would not have honored God as God. There is something pseudo-pietistic about the pretense of exalting “god” as a source of greater power, love, and wisdom. But so long as this is coupled with another pretense that Man can “block” or “release” these resources on his own terms, then it clearly is implied that Man’s power is greater, since it can block “god’s” power, and that Man’s wisdom is greater, since Man determines when it is best to release “god’s” resources.
The truth is that discipleship is not an “invitation,” but a mandate. The dynamic of discipleship is not “cooperation,” but obedience. Rightly understood, Romans 12:2b is not an invitation to avail of God’s resources, but a command to be transformed from a worldly to a godly attitude. We are transformed by the renewing of our minds as we honor God as God. This means we admit the truth - of who God is as the Almighty Creator - of who we are as His creatures, made in His image, yet who have fallen into sin against Him - and of redemption in Christ. We are transformed as we admit that God’s Word is legislative for all our thought and experience of reality. We are transformed as we “take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (II Cor. 10:5), and in obedience we think every thought after Him.
Mr. Warren’s idea of transformation conforms to this world, and so really is not transformation at all. Though he also terms his idea of transformation as “repentance,” he makes it clear that by this he means simply, “You take on Christ’s outlook and perspective.” (p. 182) In Mr. Warren’s conception, the authority of Christ is reduced to just another outlook on life that it would behoove us to consider. This is consistent with his notion, expressed in Chapter 5, that the Bible “offers” for our consideration God’s “view” of things. Embracing the Word of God as a point of view to be considered is the most that a worldly mindset will do. The characterization of discipleship as an “invitation” to take on the “perspective” of Christ is in reality conformity to this world.
Since Mr. Warren has not correctly identified the worldly mindset, but indeed has indulged it, therefore he also has not correctly identified the transformed biblical mindset. He has boiled the issue down to a question of maturity vs. immaturity. This way of putting the point completely sets aside the true challenge of Romans 12:2. In reality Romans 12:2 commands us to turn away from a wrong worldly mindset and to be renewed unto a true godly mindset instead. Mr. Warren challenges us to advance out of immaturity into maturity. While immaturity may be regarded as wrong in a sense, its wrongness consists only of a misguided emphasis or a self-absorbed motive. The immature goes on from the point of his immaturity to grow into maturity. Romans 12:2 is not a call that we should add something to our worldly mindset until it becomes a godly mindset. Worldliness does not and cannot grow into godliness. Worldliness must be scrapped entirely, all the way down to its most basic ideas of who God is, who Man is, and the nature of Man’s problem. Transformation means starting over with a completely different conviction concerning these things, which we gain by the grace of God to receive His Word.
Mr. Warren presses the matter of maturity by citing I Corinthians 14:20, where Paul exhorts us to be mature and not as children in our thinking. This, of course, is biblical wisdom, but as he proceeds from this point what we find is a superficial teaching rather then any real Bible study. He suggests that the essence of immaturity is selfishness, and cites Romans 8:5 in an effort to make this seem like a biblical concept. He had to resort to something called the “New Century Version” in order to get the desired wording. But, the wording is incorrect. In reality Romans 8:5 says nothing at all about selfishness. In reality it simply contrasts the attitude of the flesh and the attitude of the Spirit: “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.” (NASB) Properly understood, this contrast is parallel to that alluded to in Romans 12:2, and it tells us in greater detail that the transformed mind is imparted by the Spirit. Ours is not to “release” the Spirit, ours is to obey. Further in Romans chapter 8, in verse 7, it clearly is stated that the mind set on the flesh is not even able to subject itself to the Law of God. Righteousness originates in God. As Mr. Warren has misconstrued the contrast of Romans 12:2, so he has misconstrued that of Romans 8:5, and has done so in both cases with the aid of questionable paraphrases of Scripture.
Pressing on, Mr. Warren then wishes to construe the biblical concept of maturity as simply “thinking of others.” His means of attempting this is so lacking credibility that it is impossible to discuss it apart from furnishing a full quotation of his point: “In his great chapter on what real love is, Paul concluded that thinking of others is the mark of maturity: ‘When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.’[I Cor. 13:11]” (p.183) Let the reader judge: what is there in I Corinthians 13:11 that could even remotely be understood as Paul declaring that “thinking of others” was “the mark of maturity”? When Mr. Warren wanted the Bible to say that immaturity was simply selfishness, he found some kind of today’s new relevant century hip millennium living contemporary paraphrase that provided the necessary vocabulary. However, when he wishes the Bible to declare that maturity is simply thinking of others, he evidently could not find even the loosest of paraphrase that would say that. So, we are presented with a text having nothing whatsoever to do with the point he wishes to make. To be sure, maturity is important, and there is a rich and needful Bible study that could be undertaken on this subject. Mr. Warren does not provide such study, but rather cheapens the idea of maturity by suggesting that the biblical teaching is subsumed in the notion of merely “thinking of others.”
Moreover, Mr. Warren then suggests that “thinking of others” is the root of Christianity. His conclusion of the matter is thus, “Christianity is not a religion or a philosophy, but a relationship and a lifestyle. The core of that lifestyle is thinking of others.” (p. 183) The only commentary of such a statement that really is needed is simply to point out that someone who is the pastor of one of the largest churches in American today actually said it. Throughout this treatise Mr. Warren departs again and again from that which truly is the core of Christianity, namely, the three pillar doctrines of Creation, Sin, and Redemption. Western civilization never would have achieved its heights if Christianity really were what Mr. Warren says it is. The only reason that Mr. Warren has a milieu of Evangelicalism in modern America in which he could start and operate a church is because of the tireless effort and hardship of thousands of faithful and godly fathers of the church in the early centuries A. D, throughout the Middle Ages, and into the early Modern era. We stand on their shoulders as they taught us to stand upon the Word of God. If we could go back in time and suggest to them that Christianity is not a religion or a philosophy, but a relationship and a lifestyle, their most charitable response - every one of them - would be to suppose that we had lost our minds. And if, further, we were to suggest to them that the core of Christianity is “thinking of others,” they would be hard-pressed to discern whether this was mere foolishness or heresy.
Mr. Warren’s misunderstanding of the imperative of discipleship leads also to his misunderstanding of the dynamic of discipleship. Biblically, the call of discipleship is a command and the dynamic of discipleship is obedience. However, in keeping with his portrayal of the call of discipleship as an “invitation,” he construes the dynamic of discipleship as “cooperation.” He says: “Spiritual growth is a collaborative effort between you and the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit works with us, not just in us.” (p. 180) Recently, on Day Nineteen (p. 145-151), Mr. Warren touched upon the theme of the “collaborative effort” of Man and God. There he spoke of what he called the “dual responsibility” of Man and God in cultivating fellowship within the church. This commentary on that Day (see above) points out that the idea of Divine / human “dual responsibility” implies the humanistic idea of the correlativity of God and Man. Mr. Warren’s present discussion of “collaborative effort” is simply another example of this same thing. The reader is referred to the discussion above for a fuller treatment of “correlativity” and the idea of “synergism.” The present discussion shall focus upon Mr. Warren’s flirtation with truth in his development of his idea.
Of redemption, Mr. Warren rightly says, “…you can’t add anything to what Jesus already did.” (p. 181) He applies this idea specifically to redemption from sin and contrasts this with discipleship. His net result is to say that while redemption is totally God’s work in Christ for us (which, though true, he contradicts in numerous other places of this book), discipleship, on the other hand, is our work. He says, “God has given you a new life; now you are responsible to develop it…” (p. 181) Expounding upon this theme, Mr. Warren flirts yet again with truth. Says he, “To change your life, you must change the way you think.” (p. 181) He provides the illustration of a speedboat on autopilot. Correctly, he maintains that the best way of changing the course of the boat is to change the autopilot rather than to attempt to override it by sheer will. In like manner, he adjures us, we need to change our inner “autopilot” in order to realize true and lasting change of our lives. This means we need to change the way we think. He says, “Your first step in spiritual growth is to start changing the way you think. Change always starts first in your mind.” (p. 182) The reason for this, he previously explained, is because, “Behind every thing you do is a thought. Every behavior is motivated by a belief, and every action is prompted by an attitude.” (p. 181) This exhortation is true. But, how may we change autopilots? It is at the point of this question that Mr. Warren departs from the soundness of the nugget of wisdom and reverts to the humanistic scheme that characterizes the overall tone of his book. He bases his answer on a modern corruption of Romans 12:2b, “Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.” (p. 182)
The reader may recall that back on Day Five Mr. Warren’s topic was “God’s view” of life. (p. 41-46) In that chapter he quoted Romans 12:2 from “Today’s English Version.” Now he cites the so-called “New Living Translation.” From their titles it is evident that these “translations” are meant to resonate with the modern reader. They both are in agreement that Romans 12:2b is to be put as, “Let God transform you…” However, there are two monumental problems. 1) There is nothing at all in the original Greek that would suggest - least of all require - such a rendering. It is quite evident that “Let God transform you…” is put not because this is what the original text says, but because this is what is supposed to resonate in the mind of the modern reader. But, attempting to be “relevant” to the modern mindset leads directly to the second problem. 2) This rendering actually accommodates the mindset of the world rather than challenging it to be transformed! It is beyond tragic that a text of Scripture in which God commands us not to be conformed to the world, but to be transformed, was rendered into English in such a way that is in conformity to the worldly mindset and excuses readers from transformation! Additional discussion of this travesty may be found above in this commentary on Day Five.
The invitation, “Let God transform you” resonates with the modern mind because the modern attitude will not accept that Man is the creature of God and owes a duty of obedience to God. Modern Man will speak much of “god” and often is quite favorable to the idea of “god” as a resource of greater wisdom or power. The modern idea of dissatisfaction or failure involves only the finitude of Man’s wisdom and power. Man harbors a basic goodness, he is sure, and requires only a little outside expertise to help him along the way. The Evangelical comes to this modern Man and says, in effect, “Why don’t you give ‘god’ a try? He has plenty of power and wisdom to help you; in fact, he eagerly desires to help you, but before he can help you it first is necessary that you ‘release’ his power in your life. If you will let him transform you, you will be pleased with the result.” Even if one responded positively to such an “invitation,” he still would not have honored God as God. There is something pseudo-pietistic about the pretense of exalting “god” as a source of greater power, love, and wisdom. But so long as this is coupled with another pretense that Man can “block” or “release” these resources on his own terms, then it clearly is implied that Man’s power is greater, since it can block “god’s” power, and that Man’s wisdom is greater, since Man determines when it is best to release “god’s” resources.
The truth is that discipleship is not an “invitation,” but a mandate. The dynamic of discipleship is not “cooperation,” but obedience. Rightly understood, Romans 12:2b is not an invitation to avail of God’s resources, but a command to be transformed from a worldly to a godly attitude. We are transformed by the renewing of our minds as we honor God as God. This means we admit the truth - of who God is as the Almighty Creator - of who we are as His creatures, made in His image, yet who have fallen into sin against Him - and of redemption in Christ. We are transformed as we admit that God’s Word is legislative for all our thought and experience of reality. We are transformed as we “take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (II Cor. 10:5), and in obedience we think every thought after Him.
Mr. Warren’s idea of transformation conforms to this world, and so really is not transformation at all. Though he also terms his idea of transformation as “repentance,” he makes it clear that by this he means simply, “You take on Christ’s outlook and perspective.” (p. 182) In Mr. Warren’s conception, the authority of Christ is reduced to just another outlook on life that it would behoove us to consider. This is consistent with his notion, expressed in Chapter 5, that the Bible “offers” for our consideration God’s “view” of things. Embracing the Word of God as a point of view to be considered is the most that a worldly mindset will do. The characterization of discipleship as an “invitation” to take on the “perspective” of Christ is in reality conformity to this world.
Since Mr. Warren has not correctly identified the worldly mindset, but indeed has indulged it, therefore he also has not correctly identified the transformed biblical mindset. He has boiled the issue down to a question of maturity vs. immaturity. This way of putting the point completely sets aside the true challenge of Romans 12:2. In reality Romans 12:2 commands us to turn away from a wrong worldly mindset and to be renewed unto a true godly mindset instead. Mr. Warren challenges us to advance out of immaturity into maturity. While immaturity may be regarded as wrong in a sense, its wrongness consists only of a misguided emphasis or a self-absorbed motive. The immature goes on from the point of his immaturity to grow into maturity. Romans 12:2 is not a call that we should add something to our worldly mindset until it becomes a godly mindset. Worldliness does not and cannot grow into godliness. Worldliness must be scrapped entirely, all the way down to its most basic ideas of who God is, who Man is, and the nature of Man’s problem. Transformation means starting over with a completely different conviction concerning these things, which we gain by the grace of God to receive His Word.
Mr. Warren presses the matter of maturity by citing I Corinthians 14:20, where Paul exhorts us to be mature and not as children in our thinking. This, of course, is biblical wisdom, but as he proceeds from this point what we find is a superficial teaching rather then any real Bible study. He suggests that the essence of immaturity is selfishness, and cites Romans 8:5 in an effort to make this seem like a biblical concept. He had to resort to something called the “New Century Version” in order to get the desired wording. But, the wording is incorrect. In reality Romans 8:5 says nothing at all about selfishness. In reality it simply contrasts the attitude of the flesh and the attitude of the Spirit: “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.” (NASB) Properly understood, this contrast is parallel to that alluded to in Romans 12:2, and it tells us in greater detail that the transformed mind is imparted by the Spirit. Ours is not to “release” the Spirit, ours is to obey. Further in Romans chapter 8, in verse 7, it clearly is stated that the mind set on the flesh is not even able to subject itself to the Law of God. Righteousness originates in God. As Mr. Warren has misconstrued the contrast of Romans 12:2, so he has misconstrued that of Romans 8:5, and has done so in both cases with the aid of questionable paraphrases of Scripture.
Pressing on, Mr. Warren then wishes to construe the biblical concept of maturity as simply “thinking of others.” His means of attempting this is so lacking credibility that it is impossible to discuss it apart from furnishing a full quotation of his point: “In his great chapter on what real love is, Paul concluded that thinking of others is the mark of maturity: ‘When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.’[I Cor. 13:11]” (p.183) Let the reader judge: what is there in I Corinthians 13:11 that could even remotely be understood as Paul declaring that “thinking of others” was “the mark of maturity”? When Mr. Warren wanted the Bible to say that immaturity was simply selfishness, he found some kind of today’s new relevant century hip millennium living contemporary paraphrase that provided the necessary vocabulary. However, when he wishes the Bible to declare that maturity is simply thinking of others, he evidently could not find even the loosest of paraphrase that would say that. So, we are presented with a text having nothing whatsoever to do with the point he wishes to make. To be sure, maturity is important, and there is a rich and needful Bible study that could be undertaken on this subject. Mr. Warren does not provide such study, but rather cheapens the idea of maturity by suggesting that the biblical teaching is subsumed in the notion of merely “thinking of others.”
Moreover, Mr. Warren then suggests that “thinking of others” is the root of Christianity. His conclusion of the matter is thus, “Christianity is not a religion or a philosophy, but a relationship and a lifestyle. The core of that lifestyle is thinking of others.” (p. 183) The only commentary of such a statement that really is needed is simply to point out that someone who is the pastor of one of the largest churches in American today actually said it. Throughout this treatise Mr. Warren departs again and again from that which truly is the core of Christianity, namely, the three pillar doctrines of Creation, Sin, and Redemption. Western civilization never would have achieved its heights if Christianity really were what Mr. Warren says it is. The only reason that Mr. Warren has a milieu of Evangelicalism in modern America in which he could start and operate a church is because of the tireless effort and hardship of thousands of faithful and godly fathers of the church in the early centuries A. D, throughout the Middle Ages, and into the early Modern era. We stand on their shoulders as they taught us to stand upon the Word of God. If we could go back in time and suggest to them that Christianity is not a religion or a philosophy, but a relationship and a lifestyle, their most charitable response - every one of them - would be to suppose that we had lost our minds. And if, further, we were to suggest to them that the core of Christianity is “thinking of others,” they would be hard-pressed to discern whether this was mere foolishness or heresy.
posted by S. C. Mooney at 11:00 PM
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