Sunday--The Gospel, Calvin and Two Kinds of Accommodation and Popularity

SEVEN THINGS TO PRAY FOR YOUR CHILDREN

SAW THIS PIECE BY JUSTIN TAYLOR AT THE GOSPEL COALITION this week and it struck a real emotional/ spiritual cord with me. Yesterday while hiking to the top of Holston Mountain outside of Elizabethton, I had some time to think about some of its salient truths in between dodging melting snow and slush on the absolutely beautiful trail.

It all boils down---as usual---to our heart's motives which are sometimes disguised to even us: are we seeking something like popularity for our own glory and cause, or for God's? A little question with huge, huge implications.

Tim Keller fleshes out the accommodation/popularity distinctions---one vainglorious, the other God glorifying---as it related to reaching people to share the Gospel message in a piece on the Redeemer blog, City-To-City:

Calvin draws an extremely important distinction. There are two very different motivations for adapting and accommodating our message to the sensibilities of a group of people. The first motive is 'ambition' -- we do it for our sake, for our own glory and approval.

The other reason we may accommodate people is for their sake, so that we can gradually win their trust until they become open to the truth they need so much. The first motive will so control us that we will never offend people. The second motive will help us choose our battles and not offend people unnecessarily. The Farels of the world cannot see any such distinction -- they believe any effort to be judicious and prudent is a cowardly 'sell-out'. But Calvin wisely recognized that his friend's constant, intemperate denunciations often stemmed not from a selfless courage, but rather from the opposite -- pride. He wrote of Farel to Viret saying, "He cannot bear with patience those who do not comply with his wishes."

There's a reason for gaining people's esteem that is not vain-glorious, and, at the same time, there's a motivation for boldly speaking the truth -- that is vain-glorious.

Ah, the need for acceptance again. We deal with it in every aspect of our lives, every day. Are our motives ever pure? Do we even know where they're coming from? It's a subject worth pondering in ourselves early and often.