Audio Transcript

How do we overcome half-hearted spiritual laziness? That’s the question today and Thursday. And speaking of zeal for God, I should first mention again that this October we’re celebrating the Reformation — Martin Luther’s great stand against the pope and against Rome’s spiritual abuses and theological errors. But Luther didn’t stand alone. Other men stood for this same cause, before and after him — people like John Wycliffe, William Tyndale, Thomas Cranmer, John Knox, and John Calvin. And many other lesser-known names paid the ultimate price in the Reformation — men and women, even teenagers, who stood against Rome, and who bled and were burned and drowned for it.

These stories of sacrifice are our focus in the month ahead, in a 31-day tour you can complete in just 5–7 minutes each day. It’s called Here We Stand. You can subscribe to the email journey today by going to desiringGod.org/stand. Or just go to desiringGod.org and click on the link on the top of the website. I hope you’ll join us in remembering the price paid for the spiritual blessings and religious liberties we enjoy today.

Speaking of church history, this Saturday marks Jonathan Edwards’s birthday — his 321st, to be exact. Not a monumental year, but certainly a monumental man in your life and theology, Pastor John. Edwards was a pastor and theologian in New England during the First Great Awakening. His God-entranced theology and preaching became a powerful influence in your life over fifty years ago. And evidently that is still the case because just this last spring you delivered a commencement address at Bethlehem College and Seminary and again quoted Edwards as a key example of what you were trying to get across to those students in a message all about zeal. Revisit that message for us, and tell us what Edwards teaches us about overcoming spiritual laziness.

J.I. Packer wrote a blurb in 1986 for the cover of the first edition of the book Desiring God, and it said this: “Jonathan Edwards, whose ghost walks through most of Piper’s pages, would be delighted with his disciple.” Well, I really liked that endorsement very much — but it’s an open question to me whether Jonathan Edwards would be delighted with me as his disciple. But what’s not an open question is that he walks like a ghost through all my pages. That’s true, and in fact, the origin of that message that I gave at Bethlehem College and Seminary was not first from Edwards.

When You Really Want to Obey

I’ll get to Edwards in just a minute, but here’s where it came from. That message on zeal came from some morning meditation — maybe fifteen minutes of meditation — on Romans 12:6–8, where Paul says, “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them,” and then you list gifts, and the last three go like this: “the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.”

“Seek to magnify the worth and the greatness and the beauty of the Lord in all that you do.”

I read that and I turned to my wife, who was sitting with me in the living room there, and I said, “Noël, what’s the common denominator between contributing generously, leading zealously, and showing mercy cheerfully? What’s the basic point in saying, ‘Do what you do generously, do what you do zealously, and do what you do cheerfully’?” She said, “Well, you really want to do it. You’re not being forced. You’re not half-hearted. You’re all in.” I thought, “Yeah, that’s it. That’s it.”

The transformed mind from Romans 12:2 not only discerns “what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” — it really wants to do the will of God. It’s all in, 100 percent, with the will of God. It’s not a half-hearted doing of the will of God. If God’s will for you is to contribute, do it generously. If God’s will for you is to lead, lead zealously. If God’s will for you is to do mercy, show mercy, do it cheerfully, not begrudgingly.

So, what Paul is getting at is that the renewed mind, the mind of Christ in Christians, this transformed mind is not only able to recognize what is the will of God but also is inclined how to do it — how to go about the will of God. God’s will is not simply that we do the right thing but that we do it with all our heart, all our soul, and all our might. That’s the point of those verses. That’s what got me thinking about zeal.

It’s not surprising, then, that the very next verse, Romans 12:9, says, “Let [your] love be genuine. Abhor what is evil.” In other words, really love and really hate. Don’t let your love be half-hearted and unreal, and don’t let your recognition of evil simply be a mild disapproval. Abhorrent — it’s a very strong word. This is the only place it’s used in the New Testament. It’s the way zeal responds to evil — abhorrence. Then to make it crystal clear what he’s so concerned about, one verse later, in Romans 12:11, he says, “Do not be slothful in zeal” — same word as in Romans 12:8 — “be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.” So, the great object of the lives of believers is the Lord: “serve the Lord.” Seek to magnify the worth and the greatness and the beauty of the Lord in all that you do.

But what burns in Paul’s heart, as far as I can see, is that we serve the Lord in a certain way — namely, that we not be lethargic or slothful or lazy or half-hearted or sluggish or lukewarm in the way we serve the Lord, or the way we do everything, for that matter. So, that phrase “be fervent in spirit” literally means “boil” — “boil in the spirit.” In fact, the word “fervent” is the Latin word for “boil,” and Paul is saying, “You don’t get a pass if your personality is phlegmatic.” That’s an old word. If you were born passive, as a couch-potato-type person, you don’t get a pass. This is not a comment on your personality. This is a command for all Christians. Whatever your personality, make it work for you. When you know the will of God and you resolve to do it, which is what Christians do, be all in. Do it all the way. Do it with all your might and all your soul. Do it with zeal, ardor, fervency, eagerness. Pray that your spirit would boil with zeal for the will of God and the glory of God.

The Zeal of Jonathan Edwards

Now, here we come: Edwards. I was about fifteen minutes into my meditation on Romans 12, making notes in my little journal that I keep beside my chair, and I realized there was a ghost walking through my mind. He’s really there. Yes, it’s the apostle Paul. Yes, it’s the Holy Spirit. There’s another ghost, and his name is Jonathan Edwards — and he wrote seventy resolutions when he was nineteen. I read those resolutions decades ago, and only one of them could I quote verbatim to this day — only one, because it’s short, but it’s also very important.

Resolution #6: “Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live.” Let me say it again: “Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live.” Every time I read that sentence, my heart rises up with zeal and says, “Yes, yes. O God, don’t let me waste my life with lukewarm, half-hearted efforts to do anything.” “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with [all] your might” (Ecclesiastes 9:10). I think that resolution is just a paraphrase of Ecclesiastes 9:10. Or Colossians 3:23: “Whatever you do, work heartily” — from the soul — “as for the Lord and not for men.”

“God’s will is not simply that we do the right thing but that we do it with all our heart, all our soul, and all our might.”

Lest we think that this resolution to “live with all my might while I do live” was simply an overstated nineteen-year-old expression of youthful energy, seventeen years later, as a pastor in North Hampton, Edwards preached a sermon entitled “Zeal an Essential Virtue of a Christian.” I just reread it a few days ago just to stoke my engine on this. The text was Titus 2:14: “[Christ] gave himself for us . . . to purify for himself a people who are zealous for good works.” He didn’t die simply to make us able to do good works. He died to make us passionate about doing good works. That’s what it says: not half-hearted.

So, in conclusion, the booster rocket that sends zeal for good works — in fact, zeal for everything we do — into orbit, this booster rocket is: Christ died for this. He died for this. Christ gave himself on the cross to create a people with zeal — zeal for good works, zeal for the glory of the Lord. This is what pleases the Lord. He died for it. So, I pray that all of us will join Jonathan Edwards and say, “Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live.”