Latest / Reformed Thinking / Without Love, Everything Is in Vain | Jonathan Edwards

Transcript

Without Love, Everything Is in Vain | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

0:00
Imagine liquidating your entire life savings to feed starving
0:05
refugees. Or, you know, willingly letting
0:08
yourself be burned at the stake. Yeah, actions that would
0:10
normally get statues built in your honor.
0:12
Right, but then having God look at those actions and declare
0:15
they hold an eternal value of 0. Welcome to Reform thinking, by
0:20
the way. Today we're doing a deep dive
0:22
into Jonathan Edwards work, Charity and its Fruits.
0:25
Specifically, his look at First Corinthians 13.3.
0:29
Our mission today is to uncover this really startling
0:33
theological reality that the most extreme sacrifices you can
0:37
make are just nothing without sincere Christian charity.
0:41
We're breaking down why outward actions are completely
0:43
disconnected from spiritual value without a renewed heart.
0:46
And you know what that actually requires of you today?
0:49
Because the verse itself is just staggering.
0:51
It really is, the apostle Paul writes.
0:53
Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give
0:56
my body to be burned and have not charity, it profits me
0:59
nothing. Yeah, and Edwards takes the
1:01
single verse and just systematically dismantles our
1:04
natural inclination to trust in what we can see.
1:07
Because I mean as human beings we love measurable metric.
1:10
Oh absolutely. We want to see a massive
1:12
charitable donation or some dramatic act of physical self
1:16
sacrifice and just automatically assign spiritual weight to it.
1:20
But Edwards argues from a strict theological framework that
1:24
without a specific internal reality, which is sincere love
1:27
or charity implanted by the Holy Spirit, that mathematical
1:31
equation always equals 0. So to comprehend why Love's the
1:35
deciding factor, we have to first look at the sheer
1:37
magnitude of the actions Paul and subsequently Edwards are
1:41
describing here. We aren't talking about tossing
1:43
a few spare coins into a collection plate.
1:45
No, not at all. Or just volunteering for an hour
1:47
on a Saturday. Paul points to the absolute
1:49
limit of human capability. 2 massive external performances,
1:54
giving all goods to feed the poor and giving the body to be
1:57
burned. And Edwards points out, this
1:58
wasn't wild hyperbole, right? This was a literal historical
2:01
reality for early Christians. Right it was.
2:04
He brings us right down to the ground level of the 1st century
2:07
church. Just look at the church in
2:08
Jerusalem in Acts 4. The early believers sold
2:11
everything they had and put the proceeds into a common fund.
2:15
They literally liquidated their personal estates because the
2:18
necessities of their persecuted brethren were just so extreme.
2:22
And in an agrarian 1st century economy, selling a piece of land
2:27
wasn't like selling off a few stalks.
2:29
That land was your family's generational survival mechanism.
2:33
Yeah, that's everything. Furthermore, the early disciples
2:35
were called to go forth and preach without gold or silver,
2:38
disentangling themselves entirely from the burden of
2:41
worldly possessions to rely on divine Providence.
2:44
Plus, the Corinthians themselves, the very people Paul
2:47
is addressing, were right in the middle of this economic
2:49
pressure, Edwards notes. They were actively being asked
2:52
to send relief to distressed brethren in Judea due to a
2:55
massive famine. So Paul had already urged them
2:58
to give generously, but even while pushing them to empty
3:01
their pockets, he drops this absolute bombshell.
3:04
You can give every single thing you own and without charity it
3:08
profits you nothing. Which is terrifying.
3:10
It makes you wonder though, if they didn't have the Holy
3:12
Spirit, how are they capable of such radical generosity?
3:16
You don't just sell your family farm on a whim.
3:19
What's the psychological fuel there?
3:21
Well, Edwards makes a really crucial theological distinction
3:24
to answer that. Right before this, Paul was
3:27
dealing with extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, things like
3:30
speaking in tongues or having prophetic knowledge.
3:33
But here Edwards separates those spiritual gifts from actions of
3:37
a moral nature. Giving to the poor and suffering
3:40
for a cause are moral actions, and Paul, a man who literally
3:44
suffered the loss of all things for Christ, is insisting that
3:48
even these extreme moral sacrifices carry 0 weight on
3:51
their own. Because they can be replicated
3:53
by the flesh, the flesh can mimic the fruits of the Spirit
3:56
to a frightening degree. Spot on.
3:58
That is the terrifying part of this text.
4:00
If we look at human nature, we are capable of astonishing feats
4:03
of self denial. Edwards transitions from the
4:06
giving of wealth to the giving of the body, noting the terrible
4:09
form of death mentioned by Paul. The body being consumed in
4:12
flames. Right.
4:14
And while multitudes faced cruel deaths for the Gospel, history
4:18
is completely filled with others who suffered massively without
4:21
any sincere love for God whatsoever.
4:23
Because extreme suffering is not a uniquely Christian phenomena,
4:27
nor is it proof of a right standing with God.
4:30
No it isn't. He brings a massive volume of
4:32
historical examples into the discussion to prove his point.
4:35
He starts with the Pharisees, who are well known for executing
4:38
intense penances. Yeah, undergoing massive
4:40
severities, fasting, voluntary inflictions to show off their
4:44
piety to the watching world. And then he moves to other
4:47
religious expressions, talking about people taking wearisome
4:50
pilgrimages, walking hundreds of miles, shutting themselves out
4:53
from human society, retreating to barren deserts.
4:56
The desert monks enduring brutal physical conditions, yet Edwards
5:00
questions the root of their motivation.
5:02
He also brings up the holy wars, right?
5:04
He does armies marching across continents to engage in bloody
5:07
warfare, Edwards notes. They did it to secure pardon for
5:11
their sins and to merit heaven, trading their physical suffering
5:14
for a perceived spiritual payout.
5:16
He also mentions the Turks and Saracens who fought against them
5:19
rushing on to swords because of a promised paradise to those who
5:22
die in war, and he even brings up secular examples.
5:26
Like heathens dying for their country out of sheer obstinacy
5:29
or national pride, choosing voluntary death rather than
5:32
yielding to an enemy. So what does this all mean for
5:34
the listener? I mean, if entire armies of
5:37
people can die for A cause without loving God, what is
5:40
actually fueling their actions? What's fascinating here is the
5:43
psychological drivers identified by Edwards.
5:46
They operate completely independent of divine grace.
5:49
The first driver is the fear of hell.
5:51
A person can be absolutely terrified of divine punishment.
5:54
And that terror drives them to incredible lengths of self
5:56
denial. They are attempting to appease
5:59
an angry deity. Right.
6:00
They do not love God, they are just terrified of him.
6:02
It's a slavish fear. You obey the dictates of
6:05
religion the way a hostage obeys a kidnapper.
6:08
There's no affection, only a desperate survival instinct.
6:11
It is a purely transactional fear, like if I suffer this much
6:14
now, maybe the divine judge won't make me suffer later.
6:18
But there's another driver that I think is even more deceptive,
6:20
and that is pride. Oh wow, yes, a person can endure
6:25
immense suffering simply to prove their own toughness or to
6:28
validate their own self righteousness.
6:30
It is the ego feeding on its own ability to endure pain and.
6:34
Closely tied to that is the desire for reputation and honor
6:37
among men, the desire to have your name remembered in the
6:40
history books, to be revered as a martyr or a St. by your
6:44
community. These natural principles, fear,
6:47
pride, and the desire for glory are incredibly strong.
6:50
They can drive a person all the way to the stake.
6:52
But Edwards points out a critical flaw in these natural
6:55
principles, which is while they can drive intense temporary
6:58
action or even a singular dramatic moment of death, they
7:01
cannot produce consistent, universal obedience to God
7:04
across a whole lifetime because they are fueled by the self, not
7:08
by love for the Creator. A man might suppress his natural
7:11
greed in order to fund a hospital, but he's only
7:14
suppressing greed to feed his pride.
7:17
The internal engine is still self worship, even if the
7:20
external action looks like radical altruism.
7:23
Yeah, that is the realization. A purely secular, ego driven
7:26
mindset can perfectly replicate the outward behavior of a St.
7:30
We look at a martyr and think, look at their faith.
7:33
But Edwards looks at a martyr and says let's check the fuel
7:36
source, because if the fuel source is pride, the action is
7:40
hollow, since humans can perform the exact same external actions
7:43
for entirely different reasons, one driven by sincere love and
7:46
another driven by pride or fear. The determining factor of the
7:50
action's value cannot be the action itself.
7:52
The determining factor is how God Himself views the offering.
7:55
Which raises a massive theological reality concerning
7:58
the nature of God, which Edwards answers by detailing the
8:01
theology of God's all sufficiency, often referred to
8:04
as his aseity. Right.
8:06
We have a huge tendency to project our own needs onto God.
8:09
If I'm starving and you give me a loaf of bread, that bread has
8:12
inherent value to me because it meets a deficiency in my
8:14
physical existence. I needed it, you provided it,
8:18
therefore I value. It but God has no deficiencies.
8:21
None. He is completely self existent
8:23
and self satisfied. He does not need our resources.
8:26
Edwards references Psalm 50 here, verses 10 through 12.
8:30
It's a brilliant passage where God is essentially rebuking the
8:34
Israelites for thinking their animal sacrifices were somehow
8:37
feeding Him. God says every beast of the
8:39
forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.
8:42
If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine
8:45
and the fullness thereof. He also brings in First
8:48
Chronicles 29, where David acknowledges that everything
8:51
offered to God to build the temple was already his to begin
8:54
with. All things come of thee, and of
8:56
thine own have we given thee. So when a person gives all their
8:59
goods to feed the poor, or offers their body to be burned,
9:02
they are not giving God anything He actually needs to sustain His
9:05
glory. And Edwards points out something
9:07
quite striking about suffering. God does not take pleasure in
9:11
suffering itself. He explains that human beings
9:14
might need friends to suffer for them.
9:16
If you have a heavy physical burden to carry, you need
9:19
someone else to strain their muscles and suffer a bit of pain
9:22
to help you carry it. You are relieved by their
9:25
suffering. But God requires no such relief.
9:28
No, he is not profited by human torment.
9:32
He doesn't delight in seeing people put themselves through
9:34
agony, unless that suffering is the natural byproduct of a
9:38
sincere love for Him. It's like trying to impress the
9:41
owner of the municipal water supply by handing him a single
9:44
glass of tap water you got from his own pipes.
9:46
That's a perfect way to look at it.
9:48
You show up at his door, exhausted, holding this glass of
9:51
water you drew from his plumbing, and expect him to be
9:53
blown away by your massive contribution to his reservoir.
9:58
It highlights the absolute absurdity of thinking God is
10:00
impressed by the volume of our suffering when He needs nothing
10:04
from us. And because the water already
10:06
belongs to him, the only thing that could possibly give that
10:09
interaction any value is the relational disposition of the
10:13
person handing over the glass. Does the person love the owner
10:17
or are they trying to bribe him? Because God requires nothing
10:20
physical from us, the focus entirely shifts to the
10:24
theological reality of where our loveless offerings actually end
10:27
up. And Edwards does not pull his
10:29
punches here. If God doesn't need the action,
10:32
and the action isn't driven by love for God, then where is all
10:34
that effort going? He uses the illustration of
10:37
musical instruments. Harps and cymbals which were
10:40
used extensively in Old Testament worship.
10:42
They produce beautiful sounds, but Edwards points out a basic
10:46
reality. Those instruments didn't offer
10:48
praise to God. Because they are inanimate
10:50
objects. They have no understanding, no
10:52
will, and no heart. They are lifeless instruments.
10:56
Right. A machine moved by springs and
10:58
weights might hand you an object, but you wouldn't say the
11:01
machine gave you a gift. There is no intention Edwards
11:04
applies this to human actions. If you have an understanding and
11:07
a will, but you offer something to God without your heart, you
11:11
are essentially functioning as a lifeless symbol.
11:14
You're making noise, but you aren't actually giving anything
11:17
to God. And here's where it gets really
11:19
serious. If the sincere aim of the heart
11:22
isn't directed to gain, Edwards argues, the offering
11:26
automatically defaults to whatever the person makes their
11:29
great end. So if you aren't doing it for
11:31
God, you are doing it for yourself, for your honor, or for
11:34
a worldly profit. Yes, and when you direct your
11:37
religious offerings to yourself, you redirect the offering to an
11:41
idol. The action itself becomes a
11:43
mechanism of self worship. This is a devastating critique
11:47
of loveless religion. Edwards is saying that all those
11:50
wearisome pilgrimages, all those massive financial donations, all
11:53
those bodies given to the flames, if they were not done
11:55
out of sincere charity toward God, they were actual acts of
11:59
idolatry. The person was worshipping their
12:01
own reputation or their own comfort or their own pride.
12:04
They allowed an idol to usurk the place that should be given
12:07
to God. The external action was just the
12:10
liturgy of their self worship. Here's where it gets really
12:12
interesting. Edwards uses a really striking
12:16
comparison to drive this home. He compares a person trying to
12:19
make up for a lack of love to God through massive external
12:22
actions to a wife trying to make up for a lack of affection for
12:26
her husband by giving that affection to a total stranger.
12:29
Or attempting to compensate for unfaithfulness through adultery.
12:34
It is a shocking metaphor, but it perfectly illustrates the
12:37
spiritual reality. You are taking what rightfully
12:40
belongs to God, your highest affections, and giving them to
12:43
your own ego. While trying to hand God a pile
12:46
of burning money or a battered physical body as a consolation
12:49
prize. Imagine looking at your spouse
12:52
and saying I don't actually love you in my heart, but I bought
12:54
you this really expensive car so we are good right?
12:57
It fails on every conceivable level.
13:00
The transaction cannot replace the relationship.
13:02
Edwards calls this behavior practical lying.
13:05
He references Psalm 78.36 where the text describes Israel in the
13:09
desert, flattering God with their mouths and lying to Him
13:12
with their tongues. All their hearts were completely
13:14
absent. They were going through the
13:16
religious motions, but they were acting as if they could deceive
13:19
the omniscient creator of the universe.
13:21
You simply cannot compensate for withholding what is due by
13:24
offering something to an idol. Having established that external
13:28
actions can be deceptive and idolatrous, we shift to the
13:31
practical application from the text.
13:33
How do you diagnose your own sincerity?
13:36
Right. If you cannot look at your bank
13:38
statements or your track record of suffering to know if you were
13:40
right with God, where do you look?
13:42
Edwards provides a very careful diagnostic test.
13:45
He starts with a principle of encouragement right before
13:48
laying out the strict criteria. He states that while God
13:51
completely rejects the greatest things done without sincerity,
13:54
he actually delights in the smallest things done with it.
13:57
The cup of cold water. A cup of cold water given in
14:00
sincere love out values the wealth of a Kingdom given
14:04
without it. It outvalues a body offered up
14:06
in flames without it. So the scale is entirely
14:09
inverted from human economics. To help us determine if our
14:12
actions possess the sincerity, Edwards outlines 4 specific
14:15
elements to check within ourselves truth, freedom,
14:19
integrity, and purity. Let's unpack those.
14:21
What's the 1st? One, the first element is truth.
14:24
Sincerity requires truth in the inward parts, meaning the inward
14:28
condition of the heart matches the outward action.
14:31
There is no discrepancy between the performance and the
14:33
affection. Edwards quotes Psalm 51 where
14:36
David says God desires truth in the inward parts.
14:39
He also references Jesus's description of Nathaniel in John
14:42
1.47, calling him an Israelite in whom is no guile.
14:46
Right. Guile is deceit.
14:48
It is putting on a mask. Truth means you are indeed what
14:51
you appear to be. If you show respect to God
14:54
externally, you actually feel that reverence.
14:56
Internally. It is.
14:57
The end of play acting. If I'm bowing my head in a
15:00
service, my spirit is actually bowing.
15:03
If I am singing a hymn, my soul is actually affirming the
15:06
theological reality of the lyrics.
15:08
And the second element is freedom.
15:10
This is a fascinating psychological distinction that
15:12
ties heavily into Reformed theology.
15:15
Edwards argues that true, sincere obedience is filial.
15:18
It is the obedience of a child who loves their father, not the
15:21
obedience of a slave who fears the whip.
15:23
Because slavish obedience is forced, it is driven by the
15:26
terror of punishment we discussed earlier.
15:28
Yes, but filial obedience is free and ingenuous.
15:32
You choose caught in holiness for their own sake.
15:34
You follow Christ because you love Him, and you find your
15:36
highest happiness and delight in the duties of religion.
15:39
It is not a grit your teeth morality, it is an obedience
15:42
that flows freely from regenerated affections.
15:46
The third element he lists is integrity, and he clarifies that
15:51
the word here signifies wholeness.
15:54
It is not just about being honest, it is about being
15:56
complete. Where sincerity exists, a person
15:59
doesn't pick and choose which parts of religion they want to
16:01
embrace. They embrace the whole duty.
16:03
They don't just do the easy things, they tackle the
16:06
difficult things as well. They don't just focus on duties
16:08
toward God while neglecting duties toward their neighbors.
16:10
The whole man is renewed. The body, soul, and spirit are
16:13
brought into subjection to Christ's will.
16:16
There's a proportion to their character.
16:17
And the final element is purity. He bases this on first Peter 2.2
16:22
desire, the sincere milk of the word.
16:24
In that context, sincere means pure, unmixed, unadulterated.
16:28
Edwards contrast this purity with sin, which he compares to a
16:32
defiling dead body. Sincerity means your love for
16:36
God isn't heavily diluted with self-interest or worldly
16:39
ambition. It is a clean stream.
16:42
The affection is set upon God for who He is in His glorious
16:45
nature, not just for what benefits He can provide.
16:48
But I have to push back a little here though.
16:50
Looking at those 4 categories. Truth, freedom, integrity,
16:54
purity. If we hold to the reality of
16:56
indwelling sin, is anyone completely pure?
17:00
Is anyone perfectly whole in their integrity or totally free
17:03
from any slavish fear? That's a very fair question.
17:06
If that is the strict diagnostic test, it seems like every single
17:09
person fails. The flesh is constantly warring
17:12
against the Spirit. If we connect this to the bigger
17:14
picture, Edwards is very careful not to push the sincere believer
17:17
into absolute despair. He explicitly notes that God
17:21
accepts even a little sincere love.
17:23
OK, He does not reject a person just because there is still a
17:26
great deal of imperfection or even some hypocrisy mixed in
17:28
with their actions. The crucial distinction is
17:31
whether the true principle of sincere charity has been planted
17:34
in the soul by the Holy Spirit. So is the seed.
17:36
There is the genuine spring of water flowing, even if it
17:40
sometimes gets muddy from the remaining corruption of the
17:42
flesh. He is looking for the presence
17:44
of a new nature as a new principle of operation, not the
17:48
absolute flawless perfection of it in this life.
17:51
Exactly. Well, I mean, that distinction
17:53
is absolutely vital. It is about the presence of a
17:56
new reality, not the flawless execution of it.
17:59
But this diagnostic test forces a critical realization.
18:04
What is the status of someone who looks inward, examines
18:07
themselves, and realizes they completely lack this sincere
18:10
love? What if all the religion has
18:12
just been slavish fear and pride?
18:14
Edwards does not soften the blow for this individual.
18:17
He outlines the dire condition of the unregenerate state.
18:21
If you lack the sincere principle of love, all the
18:23
prayers you have ever offered, all the time you have spent
18:25
reading theological texts, the self denial.
18:28
None of it changes a person's character before Holy God.
18:31
Right. All of those actions are 0
18:33
without the covering of Christ and the internal operation of
18:36
the Spirit. Furthermore, none of those
18:38
actions make any atonement for your sins.
18:41
The Law demands perfection, and a loveless sacrifice is a
18:44
blemish. Edwards warns that dubbing your
18:46
hopes on these external actions is deluding yourself.
18:50
He uses the phrase feeding upon the east wind.
18:53
It is a vivid, terrifying image of trying to find sustenance in
18:57
something that is entirely empty and actually destructive.
19:00
He pictures this person facing Christ, coming in the clouds for
19:04
judgement in that moment of absolute clarity.
19:07
Doing and suffering will not save you from His wrath.
19:09
You can point to your bank statements and your physical
19:11
scars all you want. But without charity, it profits
19:14
nothing. The external actions cannot
19:16
shield you from the judgement of a God who demands the heart.
19:20
And the text explicitly states that converting grace is the
19:23
only remedy. Individuals are in an undone
19:25
condition until they obtain God's regenerating grace to
19:28
renew a right spirit within them.
19:30
You cannot generate the sincerity from your own natural
19:32
resources. The human will is bound by its
19:35
own corrupt nature. It will always choose itself
19:38
over God until the Holy Spirit intervenes to change the core
19:41
disposition of the soul. You can't muscle your way into
19:45
possessing this kind of charity if your natural state cannot
19:48
produce it. You have to look outside
19:50
yourself, and that leads directly into the final
19:53
exhortation of the text. Edwards calls you to earnestly
19:57
cherish sincere Christian charity.
19:59
Seek it with diligence, but seek it from God and not from
20:02
yourself, because it is far above the unassisted capability
20:05
of human nature. You can give away all your goods
20:08
by your own natural power. You can give your body to be
20:10
burned by your own stubborn resolve.
20:13
But you cannot produce sincere love for God by your own will.
20:17
True, charity is a food of the Spirit, not a product of human
20:20
grit. The instruction is to rest on
20:22
Christ entirely, trusting His perfect obedience and His
20:25
regenerating work, rather than resting on anything you have
20:28
done or anything you have suffered.
20:30
The external actions are meant to be the outflowing of a right
20:32
spirit, not the foundation of your justification.
20:35
It is a total paradigm shift. It moves the focus of our
20:39
spiritual evaluation from the hands to the heart and finally
20:42
to the grace of God that changes the heart.
20:44
Which brings me to a final question to leave you with
20:47
something to Mull over on your own.
20:48
If you knew with absolute certainty that no human being
20:52
would ever discover your greatest acts of charity, and
20:55
you would receive 0 earthly reward or reputation for them,
20:59
would your heart still find complete satisfaction in
21:02
offering them up to God? Thanks for joining us for this
21:05
deep dive. We'll catch you next time.