Latest / Reformed Thinking / Gospel Charity (Colossians 3:14) | John Owen

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Gospel Charity (Colossians 3:14) | John Owen · Reformed Thinking

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You know, if you hand someone $100 bill, there is a very
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specific sequence of events that usually follows.
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Oh for sure, they do not just pocket the cash immediately.
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Right. They hold the paper up to the
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light. They look for that faint hidden
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watermark embedded directly into the fabric of the note.
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Yeah, or they might run their thumbnail over the jacket of the
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portrait. You know, just to feel the
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raised ridges of the ink. Spot on.
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They check for authenticity because a counterfeit bill might
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look completely identical at a quick passing glance.
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I mean, it might feature the correct colors, the correct
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numbers, the correct overall shape.
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But without those specific internal markers of genuine
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currency, the whole thing is worthless.
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It is. You cannot buy a single thing
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with it. It is just a piece of paper
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masquerading as something valuable.
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And today, well, we're looking at a spiritual watermark.
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We are talking about a hidden internal reality that validates
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everything else we do. I love that setup.
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Welcome to Reformed thinking. Today we are taking a deep dive
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into a classic piece of source material.
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It is a 17th century sermon by the Puritan theologian John
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Owen. Yeah, focused on Colossians
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chapter 3, verse 14, right? The sermon is titled Gospel
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Charity and our mission for you, the listener in this deep dive
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is to strip away all the modern, watered down definitions of what
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charity actually means. Because we have really lost the
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plot on that word. We absolutely have.
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So we want to understand what genuine, rigorous gospel love
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looks like in actual practice, particularly within the walls of
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a local church community. That mission sets the stakes
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incredibly high for a conversation today.
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I mean, right from the opening paragraphs, Owen makes a claim
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that should make all of us stop in our tracks and just evaluate
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our own lives. Yeah, it is a heavy claim.
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He argues that without this specific intense evangelical
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love functioning as the core engine of your life, well, every
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single other religious action you take is essentially useless.
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Wow, useless. That is a strong word.
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It is you can have the outward appearance of a perfect,
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polished spiritual life. You can attend all the services,
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say all the correct theological phrases and participate in all
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the right programs. Like having the right colors and
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numbers on the bill. Precisely.
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But if that internal watermark is missing, the entire
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presentation is counterfeit. Let's unpack the way to that for
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a second. We so often reduce charity to
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dropping a few coins in a bucket during the holidays.
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Yeah, or maybe just feeling a generic sense of goodwill toward
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humanity while we watch a sad documentary on television.
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Right. We see it as this sporadic
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action, but Owen places sheer, almost terrifying weight on this
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singular instruction from the Apostle Paul.
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The verse says above all these things put on charity, which is
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the bond of perfectness. The terminology itself presents
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a massive hurdle right away, and Owen actually attacks the
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English translation of the word right out of the gate.
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Really. He takes issue with the
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translation. He does.
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He points directly to the Greek word used in the New Testament,
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which is a Cape. Owen actually expresses serious
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frustration that English translators decided to use the
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word charity in this context. Why is that?
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Well, he argues that even in his own time, back in the 17th
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century, common speech had already restricted the
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definition of charity to mean just one specific effect of
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love. Oh I see, meaning just relieving
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the poor and afflicted through financial or material
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assistance. That is right, handing out a
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sandwich or donating old clothes to a thrift store or writing a
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check to a nonprofit. So we have shrunk a massive
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theological concept down to a tax deduction.
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That hits the nail on the head, and Owen says that reduced
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definition is nowhere near the full, sweeping sense of the word
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as it is used in Scripture. He insists the translation
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should just be love. Full, holistic, encompassing
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affection. Yes, and from there he makes a
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massive theological point about the origin and history of the
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specific type of love. He says this genuine, pure
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affection was originally the bond of perfection in the state
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of innocency back in the Garden of Eden.
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So before the fall. Right.
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It was the glue holding humanity and creation together.
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But at the Fall, when humanity rebelled against the Creator,
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that perfect affection was lost entirely.
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That is a really stark way to phrase it.
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He does not say it was just damaged or bruised or hidden.
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It was lost. Lost entirely.
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The baseline of human nature fundamentally changed at that
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moment. Owen quotes Titus chapter 3,
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verse 3, showing that pure spiritual affection was replaced
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by variance, strife, wrath, malice, and envy.
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So a complete system failure. Totally.
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The apostle Paul describes the natural fallen human condition
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as being hateful and hating one another.
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That just became the new operating system for the human
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race. So what does this all mean for
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the affection we see in the world today?
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Because, you know, looking around, people still love their
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kids. Of course they do.
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People still fall in love and get married.
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People still have lifelong best friends.
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Neighbors still help each other shovel snow in the winter.
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Are those actions all fake? That is the natural objection,
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and Owen completely anticipates the confusion there.
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He acknowledges that lesser forms of affection still operate
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in the world. I mean, God did not leave the
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world completely devoid of all natural bonds or society would
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instantly consume itself. Right, it would be total
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anarchy. Exactly.
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So Owen categorizes these remaining bonds very clearly.
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First, you have natural affection.
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This fall is natural relations, like family ties or biological
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imperatives. Like a mother's love for a
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child. Yes, but Owen points out that
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even animals possess this trait. A bear will fight to the death
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to protect her Cubs. That is a natural biological
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instant, but it is not gospel love.
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OK, that makes sense. What is the second category?
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Second, you have societal love. This is bonding over shared
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pleasures, a similarity in humor, or shared hobbies and
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pastimes. Then the third and third you
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have affection based on political alliances or shared
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designs. I see the distinction.
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So people bonding because they vote for same candidate, or
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because they both play in the same amateur softball league, or
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because they both enjoy the same obscure genre of movies.
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Yeah, and Owen says you can reduce all the cooperative
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behavior in the secular world to those 3 categories.
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It is either natural relation, shared pleasure or political
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alliance. So where does gospel love fit
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in? Well, true gospel love, this
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Agapo is an utter stranger to these worldly variants.
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It operates on a completely different plane of existence.
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It sounds like Owen is saying the world is running on standard
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AA batteries while this gospel love is a nuclear reactor.
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That has a great way to picture it.
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But aren't those natural affections still good things?
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Why does Owen draw such a hard line between worldly affection
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and evangelical love? I mean, providing for your
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family and enjoying the company of your neighbors are positive
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aspects of human life. They are positive aspects of
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human life, definitely, and they keep civilization functioning.
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But the distinction lies in the source and the endurance of that
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affection, the. Endurance.
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How so? Well, natural affection shatters
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under pressure. Worldly alliances fracture the
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moment the shared interest is gone or when personal advantage
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dictates a change in direction. Oh, you see this constantly in
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politics and business. All the time.
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Allies become bitter enemies overnight when the incentive
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shift. But gospel love, Owen argues, is
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a direct fruit of the Holy Spirit.
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It is an effect of faith. It does not rely on a shared
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hobby, a shared tax bracket or a shared blood relation.
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It has a completely different power source.
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It is not generated from within the human heart, it is implanted
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from the outside. And Owen provides a brilliant
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historical proof to back this up.
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He notes that when this evangelical love was first
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brought to light by the early Christian Church, it completely
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amazed the heathen world. They had never seen anything
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like it. Outsiders were absolutely
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baffled by what they were witnessing.
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They actually had a famous saying at the time.
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See how they love one another. Why were the Romans so shocked
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by that? Because they saw people of
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totally different classes, different nations, different
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tempers, the affluent and the destitute, the high and the low,
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all knit together in intense sacrificial affection.
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Which completely broke all of their societal categories.
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It shattered them. Because in the Roman world, a
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wealthy patrician and an enslaved person would never,
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ever associate as equals, let alone display intense mutual
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care from one another. They did not share natural ties,
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they did not share societal pleasures, and they certainly
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did not share political leverage.
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So the worldly observers were looking at this new community
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and thinking, what is the glue holding this together?
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Our A A batteries cannot power this kind of machine.
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There is no biological or political incentive for a master
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to wash the feet of a servant. That is the crux of the
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historical argument. The heathen world recognized
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that a totally new supernatural force had entered humanity.
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And this leads directly to a crucial diagnostic question for
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you, the listener. Let's hear it.
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Take a moment to evaluate the basis of your own relationships,
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especially those within your local congregation.
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Are you bonding with others primarily over shared hobbies,
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similar ages, similar income levels, and political views?
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Or are you bonding over a shared spiritual reality?
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Exactly. If your closest ties in the
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church are strictly with people who look like you, vote like
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you, and enjoy the same recreational activities as you,
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you are operating on natural worldly affection.
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You are not operating on the gospel love Owen is describing.
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That is a sharp diagnostic tool. It gets right through the
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pleasantries of a Sunday morning greeting.
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And this stark difference leads directly into how this unique
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affection interacts with our actual faith.
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It does because Owen does not treat this as a nice add on
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feature to Christianity. No, not at all.
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He does not view it as an optional upgrade package for the
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Super spiritual. He sees it as functionally,
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inextricably tied to our faith in Christ.
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He calls it an indissoluble link.
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Owen points out that the apostle Paul consistently joins faith
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and love together in his letters.
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They are the joint means of communion in the mystical Body
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of Christ. Faith is the instrument of our
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communion with the Head, Jesus Christ, and love is the means of
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communion with all the individual members of the body.
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You cannot separate the two without destroying the whole
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Organism. I want to look closely at how
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Omen unpacks a specific verse to prove this structural link.
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He goes to Philomon verse 5. That's a really interesting
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passage. Yeah, Paul writes, hearing of
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thy love and faith, which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus and
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toward All Saints. Now, on a quick casual read,
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that sounds like a bit of a blended smoothie of theological
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terms. It really does.
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We have love and faith directed at both Jesus and the Saints
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simultaneously. But Owen says we need to be very
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careful with the grammar here. He spends significant time
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parsing this sentence. Owen explains the necessity of
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distributing the sentence mentally to gather the correct
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theological sense. While Christ is certainly the
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supreme object of our affection, the Saints are not the object of
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our saving faith. Right.
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We do not place our eternal trust for salvation in other
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fallible believers. Doing so would be idolatry.
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So the sentence must be mentally distributed to match the rest of
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biblical theology. It means hearing of thy faith
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towards the Lord Jesus Christ and of thy love towards all the
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Saints. So Paul intentionally crosses
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the streams in his sentence structure to make a deliberate
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point. Why word it that way if it
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requires the reader to mentally untangle it?
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To show their absolute unyielding connection, Owen says
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Paul places them in this intertwined structure to
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demonstrate that where one exists, the other will
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inevitably be present, and where one is missing, the other is
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completely absent. You cannot possess genuine
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saving faith in Christ without possessing genuine affection for
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the Saints. It is an impossible
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contradiction. To claim faith in the head while
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despising the body is a spiritual absurdity.
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Here is where the sermon gets incredibly intense and honestly,
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quite terrifying for anyone who has been in the church for a
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long time. Oh.
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Absolutely. Owen takes this link and applies
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it to our everyday religious duties.
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He looks at First Corinthians chapter 13 and Colossians
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chapter 3, and he highlights a terrifying prospect.
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And what is that? That you can forgive someone,
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you can for bear with someone, you can be kind, you can give
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your money away and yet still not actually have this requisite
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love. This is where Owen Pierce's
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right Through our outward visible behavior, he says that
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love is the quickening form of all duties performed among
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believers. To quicken means to give life to
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to animate. Yes, whatever duties you
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perform, no matter how great or glorious or useful they appear
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to the outside observer, if they are not animated by this
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internal affection, they have 0 value regarding your communion
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with Christ. Let me try to build a picture of
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what this looks like in the modern world.
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Think about an animatronic figure at a major theme park.
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OK, I am picturing it. From a distance, the engineering
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looks incredible. The figure is moving its arms.
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It is turning its head to look at the audience.
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It is even smiling, blinking and speaking lines of dialogue.
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It appears to be performing all the complex actions of a living,
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breathing human being. But there is absolutely no life
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inside the shell. Right, it is just mechanical
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gears turning, pneumatic tubes hissing, and a computer program
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executing a pre written. I think what Owen is describing
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here is the danger of becoming an animatronic Christian.
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That is a chilling thought. You can shake hands at the
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sanctuary doors on Sunday morning.
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You can teach a theology class. You can organize a meal train
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for a sick family. You can even look someone in the
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eye and say I forgive you after a dispute.
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But if you were doing all of those things out of raw
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mechanical obligation, without this supernatural affection
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acting as the beating heart inside those actions, you were
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just gears turning. There is no life in the action.
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It is a dead work. Exactly your animatronic
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analogy, Well, the concept Owen is driving at it strikes right
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at the core of the Puritan fear of hypocrisy.
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You can execute a program of duties that perfectly mimics the
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greatest fruits of the Spirit without possessing the Spirit at
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all. You can be kind without
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affection. You can for bear without grace.
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And Owen says all of this mimicry is of no spiritual use.
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If we do not superinduce genuine affection over all our outward
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behaviors, we're just going through the motions.
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We are performing for an audience, but we are spiritually
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dead. He goes so far as to claim that
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this life giving affection is the entire point of the Apostle
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John's first epistle. He does, and the historical
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context he provides for John's letter is just fascinating.
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Owen notes that John lived a very long time, outliving the
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other apostles. Right.
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He was the last one left. And John saw the Christian
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religion propagate across the known world.
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But in his old age he likely witnessed a severe decay of
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affection. In the later years of the 1st
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century. The initial zeal was cooling
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into rigid institutionalism. So John writes his first epistle
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to address this specific drop in temperature.
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Yes, to make one thing crystal clear to the churches, without
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intense affection for the brethren, there is zero evidence
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of God's love for us and 0 evidence of our love for God.
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No matter what we think of our pristine outward profession of
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faith or our correct doctrinal stances, without this intense
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affection warming the community, we have no truth of grace.
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So if this life giving affection is so absolutely necessary to
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prove we even possess saving faith, God must provide a
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practical arena for us to exercise it.
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We need a physical space to practice this impossible
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standard. Which brings the conversation to
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what Owen calls the testing ground, The physical, local,
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particular church. Gowen argues that God instituted
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the particular church, meaning a specific local congregation of
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believers, for two distinct reasons.
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Right first, so that Saints together might jointly profess
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their faith in Him and yield obedience to His ordinances.
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It is a public, corporate reality meant to be seen by the
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world. And the second reason.
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The local church is designed to provide a direct, immediate
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object for the exercise of this supernatural affection.
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Because we cannot just love an abstract concept.
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We cannot just sit in our living rooms alone and say I love the
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global invisible church. Loving an abstract concept
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requires absolutely 0 sacrifice. It requires no patience.
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It requires no real grace. You do not have to forgive an
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abstract concept. You do not.
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God places us in a specific society, a specific local
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congregation filled with specific flawed individuals to
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test our obedience to His command.
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Owen says that if you find a person orderly admitted into
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your church society, that person is as certain and evident an
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object of your necessary affection as if you saw them
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lying in the arms of Christ. Lying in the arms of Christ.
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That is an intense, staggering visual.
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If you actually believe that about the person sitting in the
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row in front of you, it would fundamentally change how you
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speak to them. It really would.
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But let me push back a bit on this local church dynamic.
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It is incredibly easy to say you love believers on the other side
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of the planet. Believers in another country.
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Never steal your favorite parking spot.
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That is true. They never make passive
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aggressive comments about your parenting at the potluck.
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They never vote for the wrong elder or disagree with you about
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the church budget. But Owen is saying the real
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unyielding test of my faith is the person sitting in the Pew
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next to me who absolutely drives me crazy.
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Yes, he is. Isn't that setting us up for
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failure? Why would God intentionally
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place us in a room with people whose natural tempers and
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personalities clash so violently with ours?
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It is not a setup for failure. Rather it is the intentional
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laboratory of grace. Owen uses a brilliant logical
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parallel here to explain the mechanics of obedience.
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He points all the way back to the Garden of Eden.
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OK, how does that connect? When God gave the great command
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of obedience to Adam and Eve, he did not leave it as a vague,
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general concept floating the ether.
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He provided a very specific localized test, the Tree of the
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Knowledge of Good and Evil. He gave them a physical,
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tangible object right in front of them to test their general
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obedience to His supreme authority.
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I see the parallel forming here. The general concept requires a
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specific focal point to make it real.
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Exactly the mechanism Owen is describing.
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In the exact same way, Christ gives us this massive general
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command to love all his disciples universally, but he
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does not leave us wondering how or where to execute that
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command. He casts us into a specific
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local society. Right.
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The person sitting next to you who annoys you.
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The person whose personality grates against yours.
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That person is your tree in the garden.
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They are the immediate, God ordained test of your obedience
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to the command of love. That reframes everything about
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how you walk into a church building on Sunday morning.
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You listening right Now? Think about the specific
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individuals in your local congregation.
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Think about the ones you naturally gravitate toward
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because they are similar to you, and especially think about the
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ones you naturally avoid in the hallway.
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We all have those people we avoid.
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We do. Do you view them as mere
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acquaintances you happen to share a room with for a few
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hours a week? Or do you view them as the
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immediate God ordained test of your spiritual vitality?
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Rice is essentially saying, I require you to love All Saints.
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Start here. Show me here with these specific
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people. And Owen states very clearly
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that the stakes of this test are eternal.
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He warns that Christ will try your love at the last day by
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your deportment in that specific church wherein you are placed.
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So there's an audit coming. A massive audit.
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If you pretend to love the people of God in general, but
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your affection is not fervently exercised for those in your own
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immediate church society, you are entirely deceiving yourself.
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You do not love the brethren you cannot see, if you cannot love
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the brethren you do see right in front of you.
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And the consequences for how we treat those local individuals
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extend far beyond the walls of the church building.
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The way we interact with the annoying person in the Pew
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actually impacts the broader culture.
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It is the frontline of our public witness.
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This local, frustrating, difficult exercise of affection
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is actually the ultimate apologetic proof to the outside
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world. It is a witness to the secular
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culture and a witness to our own consciences.
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Owen outlines 2 absolute necessities for this visible
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affection. First, it gives testimony to the
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world that God sent Christ. He roots this theological claim
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directly in the High Priestly prayer of Jesus in John chapter
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17. Where Jesus prays for unity.
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Yes, Jesus prays that believers may be 1 specifically so that
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the world may believe that the Father sent the Son.
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Second, it acts as the internal evidence that we are Christ's
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true disciples, based on Jesus's words in John chapter 13.
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Let's dig into John 13 for a moment where Jesus says a new
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commandment. I give unto you that you love
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one another. Why does Jesus call it a new
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commandment? Because, as Owen notes, love was
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already commanded in the Old Testament.
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Right, the law is very clear on. That the law clearly states to
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love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself.
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That is ancient text. So what is new about the
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instruction Jesus is giving in the upper room?
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Owen provides A rigorous breakdown of why it had to be
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renewed and designated as a new command.
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First, under the Old Testament law, carnal people were indulged
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in sundry things due to the hardness of their hearts.
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The full weight of the law was mitigated in certain civil
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practices, and they fell short of the royal law of love.
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What else? Second, there was a widespread
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spiritual blindness that obscured the true internal
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intent of the law. People viewed it merely as an
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external checklist, missing the heart of the matter entirely.
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As checking boxes. Right.
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Third, by the time Christ arrived, the religious leaders
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and false teachers had completely corrupted the law
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with twisted expositions that overthrew the duty of love,
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allowing people to hate their enemies and ignore their parents
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under the guise of religious devotion.
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So the will of the Old Testament law had been thoroughly poisoned
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by human tradition and hard heartedness.
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The original intent was lost in a sea of loopholes.
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That is the context Christ enters, but the final and most
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vital reason Owen gives for it being a new commandment is that
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before the incarnation of Christ there was no quickening, life
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giving example to express the true force of this affection.
22:12
Christ brings a totally unprecedented example of
22:14
condescension and sacrifice. He does.
22:17
The command is no longer just the Old Testament standard love
22:20
your neighbor as yourself. It is now love one another as I
22:24
have loved you. The standard has been raised
22:26
from human self preservation to an impossible supernatural
22:30
height of self sacrifice. I want to circle back to the
22:33
first point about this unity being a witness to the world.
22:36
Why is unity and affection the specific proof to the secular
22:41
world that the Messiah has come? It is a great question.
22:44
If I were designing a new religion from scratch and I
22:46
wanted to prove to the world that my designated Messiah was
22:48
real, I would use something flashy.
22:50
I would point to undeniable, miraculous healings.
22:54
I would point to a perfect, airtight, unassailable
22:56
philosophical theology. Or I would build massive
22:59
towering gold plated cathedrals. Those are all the things humans
23:03
naturally gravitate toward. Right.
23:05
Why does Jesus hang the entire apologetic proof of his earthly
23:09
mission on whether a random group of his followers can
23:12
manage to love each other? It goes right back to what we
23:15
discussed regarding the fall of man and the loss of the original
23:17
bond of perfection. Owen argues that since the fall
23:20
broke all the spiritual bonds, casting the human race into a
23:24
permanent state of envy, wrath and self-interest, no human
23:27
effort could ever restore pure spiritual affection.
23:31
Think about the alternatives you mentioned.
23:33
The secular world can replicate all of those.
23:35
Things You can build a breathtaking cathedral with
23:38
enough human engineering, wealth, and slave labor.
23:41
You can develop incredibly complex philosophical systems
23:43
with enough human intellect. You can even enforce strict
23:46
moral behavior and outward peace with enough human laws and a
23:50
strong police force. The world excels at organizing
23:53
things, building things, and enforcing compliance.
23:56
The world is exceptionally good at using leverage to create
23:58
order. But the world cannot manufacture
24:01
pure, selfless, siritual affection across natural
24:04
boundaries. It is impossible for fallen
24:06
humanity to generate that specific resource.
24:09
It is not in our nature. So when outsiders look at a
24:12
local church and see miraculous unity, when they see people who
24:16
by nature, class, income and temperament would normally
24:20
despise each other, but who are now genuinely sacrificing for
24:23
each other, they are forced to confront something entirely
24:27
inexplicable. They cannot write it off as
24:29
human engineering. Exactly.
24:31
They are forced to admit that a supernatural new creation has
24:34
occurred within those people. They look at this impossible
24:37
unity and conclude God must have sent Christ to do this because
24:41
baseline humanity is incapable of producing this.
24:45
It is the one single metric the world cannot replicate with
24:48
enough money or power. So if we fail at this, if a
24:52
local church is just as divided, petty, gossipy and cliquish as
24:56
the local Country Club, the neighborhood HOA, or the local
24:59
political ward, we are actively robbing Christ of His greatest
25:02
designated witness to the world. We are silencing the testimony.
25:05
We're essentially telling the watching world there's nothing
25:08
supernatural happening in this building.
25:10
We are running on the exact same a a batteries you are.
25:12
We just sing different songs. And that failure actively
25:16
hardens the world in its unbelief.
25:19
Owen wants his congregation that if this oneness of affection is
25:22
not eminent in us, we do what lies in us to harden the world
25:26
against the gospel. The Secular Observer looks at a
25:29
divided, bickering church and says, why should I submit to
25:33
your Christ? I can enforce rules and make
25:35
people conform in my own secular institutions.
25:38
You are no different than us. You just hide your malice behind
25:40
religious terminology. This visible directly to the
25:46
concept of the Communion of Saints.
25:48
It is a phrase we hear constantly in church circles.
25:51
It is recited in the ancient creeds.
25:53
But Owen warns that the actual mechanics of this communion are
25:56
heavily misunderstood by the average churchgoer.
25:59
Let's look at how he breaks down the internal plumbing of this
26:01
concept. Owen breaks the communion of
26:03
Saints down into 3 distinct parts and he uses the imagery of
26:07
a river system. First you have the fountain and
26:09
spring. This is our common participation
26:12
in one spirit from the one Head, Jesus Christ.
26:14
Without this initial source, you just have a Society of
26:17
spiritually dead men. OK, so the fountain is step one.
26:19
What is Step 2? Second, you have the expression
26:22
or profession of this Communion. This is our participation in the
26:26
same outward ordinances, gathering together in the same
26:30
building, hearing the preached word, taking the sacraments,
26:33
singing the Psalms. And the third part of the river
26:35
system. The third part is the life or
26:37
the formal reason of the communion, and that is this
26:41
specific gospel love. Love is the dynamic force that
26:45
takes the water from the fountain and makes it actually
26:48
flow through the expressions. Without the flow of love, the
26:51
expressions are just stagnant pools of water.
26:54
You mentioned early on that Owen had a severe jealousy and a fear
26:57
for churches regarding this exact topic.
27:00
What was he so worried about as he observed the churches of his
27:03
day? He was deeply concerned that
27:05
many congregations placed the entirety of their communions
27:08
solely in the expression. Meaning just showing up and
27:10
doing the routines. Right.
27:12
They show up to the same physical building on Sunday.
27:15
They attend the same sermons. They take the same sacraments
27:18
from the same table. They depend and on the same
27:20
pastor for instruction, and because they are performing all
27:23
these outward actions in the same room, they automatically
27:27
assume they possess the communion of Saints.
27:29
But Owen argues vehemently that if you are not influenced and
27:34
acted upon by intense affection and all those outward things,
27:38
there is zero actual communion taking place.
27:40
I am going to use an analogy here to picture the danger of
27:43
relying solely on the expression.
27:45
Think about commuters sitting on a train in a major metropolitan
27:49
city every single morning. I have been on those trains.
27:51
It is quiet. Exactly every day at 7:00 AM,
27:55
these people walk onto the exact same train car, they share the
27:57
same route into the city, they run on the same strict schedule,
28:01
they are occupying the exact same physical space, breathing
28:03
the same air, and they are all heading toward the exact same
28:07
geographical destination. That is the expression of being
28:09
together. But look at their behavior.
28:12
They are all staring down at their phones.
28:14
They have noise cancelling headphones on.
28:16
They do not know each other's names.
28:18
They do not care about the burdens the person next to them
28:21
is carrying. If one person misses the train 1
28:24
morning, the others do not even notice the absence.
28:26
They have absolutely no relationship with each other
28:29
whatsoever. They are sharing geography, but
28:31
sharing geography is not communion.
28:33
That commuter train visual captures Owens pastoral fear
28:37
perfectly. A chirp can easily become a
28:40
spiritual commuter train. Everyone walks in, faces
28:43
forward, consumes the same sermon, takes the same elements,
28:46
and leaves without ever interacting with the souls
28:48
around. Them it is parallel play for
28:50
adults. Right.
28:51
There is zero organic connection.
28:53
To counter this, Owen turns to Ephesians chapter 4, verses 15
28:57
and 16 to demonstrate what true organic communion should
29:00
actually look like. The Apostle Paul talks about
29:03
believers holding fast to the head, which is Christ, and from
29:06
there the whole body is fitly joined together by what every
29:09
single joint and part supplies to the rest of the Organism.
29:12
What does that mean on a practical Tuesday afternoon
29:15
level? How do the joints supply the
29:17
body in a local church? It means every single member has
29:20
a designated active function to build up the others.
29:23
It is not just the pastor's job supply the body.
29:25
And how do we execute this function?
29:27
Paul says. We do it by speaking the truth
29:30
and love. Owen points out that this Greek
29:32
phrase does not just mean telling someone hard theological
29:35
facts with a polite smile. No, the root of the word implies
29:38
actually doing the truth and love.
29:40
Whatever your specific duty is in the church, whether it is
29:43
teaching a class, showing pity to the grieving, offering
29:46
compassion to the struggling, or even giving a harsh admonition
29:50
to someone in sin, the action must be driven by genuine,
29:54
undeniable affection for that person's soul.
29:57
So the outward action is the vehicle, but the internal
30:00
affection is the engine propelling it forward.
30:03
If you admonish someone without affection, you were just running
30:06
them over with the vehicle. Yes, and Owen draws a massive
30:10
conclusion from this dynamic. He states that a church filled
30:13
with genuine affection is infinitely better built up than
30:16
a church filled with the absolute highest intellectual or
30:20
miraculous gifts. That is a bold statement from a
30:23
theologian. He says he would rather see a
30:25
church filled with love 1000 times over than a church filled
30:28
with the best, highest and most glorious theological gifts
30:32
without it. Borrowing from Paul, he notes
30:35
that even if people could speak with the tongues of angels or
30:38
unpack the deepest mysteries of theology without affection, they
30:42
are just making a loud grating noise that accomplishes nothing.
30:45
The gifted people end up becoming sharp thorns in the
30:48
sides of one another, tearing the church apart with their
30:51
brilliance. So let's run a thought
30:53
experiment. Let's say a church leader
30:54
recognizes this exact problem. A pastor looks out of his
30:58
congregation on a Sunday morning and realizes we are a commuter
31:01
train. We have the expression, we have
31:04
the schedule, but we have no actual communion.
31:06
There is no affection between these people.
31:08
The natural human instinct for anyone in leadership is to try
31:11
to fix the problem immediately, to try to manufacture that
31:15
missing unity through policy. And this leads to what Owen sees
31:19
as a massive destructive trap, which we can call misguided
31:23
zeal. This is one of the most intense
31:25
warnings in the entire sermon. Owen critiques the natural
31:29
tendency of religious leaders and zealous professors of
31:31
religion to harass others with what he calls sharp invectives
31:36
and bitter rebukes. They observe a lack of affection
31:38
in the congregation, or they see a lack of conformity to specific
31:42
minor practices, and they try to fix the internal problems
31:45
through external scolding and the imposition of strict laws.
31:48
They attempt to drive men into a specific, rigid set of
31:51
practices, forcing absolute uniformity.
31:53
And they operate on the incredibly vain supposition that
31:56
if they can just get everyone to look the same, talk the same,
31:58
and act the same, then brotherly love will magically result as a
32:02
natural consequence. The logic sounds so appealing to
32:05
a certain type of mind. If we all just sing the exact
32:09
same style of songs and dress the exact same way on Sunday and
32:12
observe the exact same minor theological distinctives
32:16
regarding secondary issues, all our friction will disappear.
32:20
We will finally be unified because we will all be
32:22
identical. And Owen calls this approach a
32:25
complete, devastating vanity. He points to the papal Church of
32:28
his era as the ultimate glaring historical example of this
32:32
failure. How did they fail in this
32:34
regard? They managed to achieve almost
32:36
total outward uniformity in practice across vast swaths of
32:41
European territory. Everyone performed the exact
32:44
same rituals at the exact same time, using the exact the same
32:47
Latin words. But what was the actual ground
32:50
level result of all that forced uniformity?
32:52
The members were constantly fighting, tearing each other
32:55
apart in political and theological disputes, and filled
32:58
with bitter animosity. The forced external uniformity
33:00
did absolutely nothing to produce internal affection.
33:03
In fact, it bred resentment. Let me play devil's advocate
33:06
here to clarify Owen's position, because he's a Reformed
33:08
theologian. If we should not force
33:11
uniformity through harsh rebukes and strict rules, do we just let
33:15
everyone in the church do whatever they want?
33:18
Does doctrine no longer matter? Doesn't Owen, a man who wrote
33:22
volumes of dense theology, care deeply about right practices and
33:26
right theology? Oh, he certainly cares about the
33:28
truth. He would never advocate for
33:30
doctrinal anarchy. He states explicitly in the
33:33
sermon that some ways of walking and worshipping are objectively
33:36
nearer the truth than others. But his crucial point here is
33:39
about causality. The direction of the arrow
33:41
matters. Affection must be the cause of
33:44
unity, not the effect of forced uniformity.
33:47
You cannot beat people into submission with theological
33:49
clubs and expect tender affection to blossom from the
33:52
bruises. Genuine, lasting unity regarding
33:55
practices will only proceed from a foundation of love, which then
33:59
brings forth more love as the congregation grows together in
34:02
the truth. He actually uses a really
34:04
intense graphic historical metaphor here about human
34:07
institutions and church traditions, doesn't he?
34:09
He does, and it shows how seriously he takes this issue.
34:13
He says that if he ever found any religious institution, any
34:17
church tradition, or any specific way of doing things
34:20
that structurally obstructed the flow of affection between
34:23
believers, he would flee from it like a pesthouse.
34:26
For context, a pesthouse in the 17th century was a quarantine
34:30
hospital for people suffering from highly infectious, deadly
34:34
diseases like the bubonic plague.
34:36
It was a place of death. Owen is stating that the entire
34:39
intended purpose of Christ's institutions, including the
34:42
ordinances of the particular Church, is to increase affection
34:45
among the Saints. If a specific institution, A
34:48
cherished tradition, or set of rules fails at that primary goal
34:53
or actively hinders people from loving one another, it fails
34:56
entirely. It is not just unhelpful, it
34:59
becomes mortally destructive to the soul.
35:01
That is a staggering, brutal metric to use when evaluating
35:04
our own cherished church traditions.
35:06
We have to ask the hard question, does this specific
35:09
practice, this specific way we run our services, increase our
35:12
genuine affection for one another?
35:14
Or does it just create a rigid, cold uniformity that breeds
35:17
spiritual pride and division? If it is the latter, Owen says
35:22
to run away from it like you are fleeing the plague.
35:24
But forced uniformity from church leadership isn't the only
35:28
roadblock to this grace. As Owen prepares to close his
35:31
sermon, he transitions from critiquing the church structure
35:35
to critiquing the individual. He leaves his congregation with
35:38
three intensely practical cautions about personal,
35:42
internal hurdles to love. These are the things inside us
35:45
that actively block the flow of this supernatural affection.
35:49
He zeroes in on three major hindrances that plague every
35:53
congregation A sour natural disposition.
35:56
Providential advantages, meaning wealth, education, or status,
36:00
and the danger of satisfying oneself with outward duties
36:02
while lacking the inward grace. Let's start with the first one,
36:05
the natural disposition, because this hits very close to home for
36:08
anyone trying to navigate relationships today.
36:10
Right, this is the classic. It's just my personality excuse
36:12
that we all use to get off the hook.
36:14
Spot on. Owen warns his listeners against
36:16
having so much of Nabal in us. For those unfamiliar, Nabal is a
36:21
character from the Old Testament book of First Samuel.
36:25
His name literally means fool and he is known in the biblical
36:28
narrative for being harsh, surly, ungrateful, and mean
36:32
spirited toward David. Owen observes that many
36:34
Christians excuse their forward morose or sour behavior toward
36:38
other church members by claiming it is just their natural temper.
36:42
They wave away their rudeness by saying I'm just a blunt person,
36:45
or I'm not a hugger, or I'm just a natural cynic.
36:48
It's how I'm wired. So we have to clarify what Owen
36:51
is demanding here. Is he saying that introverts or
36:53
naturally grumpy people aren't actually saved?
36:56
Or is he saying that our underlying personalities need
36:59
sanctification just as much as our outward moral actions do?
37:02
He is definitively saying the latter, and this is a crucial
37:05
theological point regarding sanctification.
37:08
It is a massive mistake, Owen argues, to believe that the
37:11
grace of the Holy Spirit only subdues our gross carnal
37:14
corruptions, like stopping us from lying, stealing or
37:17
committing adultery, but leaves our natural abrasive
37:20
temperaments completely untouched.
37:22
Grace is explicitly meant to cure the sour disposition.
37:25
It alters and ennobles the natural temper.
37:28
He references the beautiful imagery from the prophet Isaiah,
37:32
saying that the grace of the Gospel makes the leopard to lie
37:35
down with the kid. It takes the naturally
37:37
passionate, explosive person and makes them patient.
37:40
It takes the froward, stubborn person and makes them meek.
37:44
It takes the morose, withdrawn person and makes them kind and
37:47
approachable. That is a deeply challenging
37:50
standard. You listening?
37:51
Think about how often we hide behind modern psychology,
37:55
personality tests, or family traits to excuse a blatant lack
37:59
of warmth toward our brothers and sisters.
38:01
Are you blaming your lack of approachability on your
38:04
Enneagram number or your Myers Briggs type instead of pursuing
38:07
active sanctification? Owen is saying that the Holy
38:10
Spirit takes the sharp, abrasive edges off our personality so we
38:13
do not blast the sweet fruit of affection with an
38:15
unapproachable, icy demeanor. We cannot humor ourselves and
38:19
say this is just how God made me deal with it.
38:21
Grace comes to cure the very dispositions that are naturally
38:24
unsuited to gospel love and. That challenging point leads
38:27
directly into his second major roadblock, providential
38:31
advantage Images. By this he means earthly wealth,
38:34
higher education, a sterling reputation, or high social
38:38
status in the secular world. Owen acknowledges that the
38:41
gospel leaves your earthly wealth and status legally
38:44
intact. The New Testament does not
38:46
demand you give away all your property and live in absolute
38:49
poverty to be saved. But within the localized Society
38:52
of the church, the gospel levels the ground entirely.
38:55
There's neither wealthy nor poor in Christ.
38:58
But practically speaking, in the real world, wealth and high
39:02
status create invisible force fields around people, don't
39:05
they? They dictate where you live,
39:06
where you eat, and who you feel comfortable talking to.
39:09
They absolutely do, and that is the exact danger Owen pleads
39:12
with the affluent members of his congregation to recognize.
39:15
He begs those with means, do not let your outward providential
39:19
advantages keep you at a distance from the poorest,
39:22
meanest St. in the congregation. If you allow your Ivy League
39:25
education, your high income bracket, or your elite social
39:29
circle to dictate who you associate with during the
39:31
fellowship hour at church, your earthly riches have become a
39:35
deadly spiritual temptation. You are building walls that
39:38
Christ died to tear down. Think about a modern 21st
39:42
century scenario. You have a highly successful CEO
39:46
of a major tech company and a part time night shift janitor
39:50
who both attend the exact same local church during the week,
39:53
Monday through Saturday. They live in completely
39:55
different stratospheres of society.
39:57
They live in different neighborhoods, they eat at
39:59
different restaurants. They have entirely different
40:01
financial anxieties. But on Sunday morning, Owen is
40:04
arguing that societal ground is completely leveled by the blood
40:08
of Christ. If that tech CEO only talks to
40:11
the other executives and business owners in the church
40:13
lobby and actively avoids the janitor because they feel they
40:17
have nothing in common, that CEO is failing the fundamental test
40:20
of gospel charity. Because in reality, they share
40:23
the single most vital thing in the universe, equal
40:26
participation in the spirit of Jesus Christ.
40:29
Owen points the affluent directly to the ultimate example
40:32
to shame their pride. Christ possessed all the
40:35
unimaginable wealth and glory of heaven, but He voluntarily
40:39
became poor, stepping into the dirt of humanity for our sakes.
40:43
We all serve that common master. If your earthly privileges are
40:47
creating an invisible wall of separation between you and the
40:50
rest of the congregation, Owen says, you must labor intensely
40:53
to breakthrough those walls. You must actively cross the
40:56
room. And what about the third
40:58
roadblock to this grace? We have touched on the concept a
41:01
bit earlier with the animatronic Christian analogy, but how does
41:04
Owen specifically phrase it in his closing Pastoral Caution?
41:08
He warns his listeners against satisfying themselves with
41:11
merely performing the outward duties of love without looking
41:14
after the entire internal working of the grace of love.
41:17
Owen knew his congregation in London was exceptionally well
41:20
taught. He knew they possessed high
41:22
theological literacy and knew exactly how to act properly.
41:25
They knew how to visit the sick and give to the poor.
41:28
But he reminds them that they must be spear with the internal
41:31
grace, that specific affection which proceeds from faith and is
41:35
acted upon by the Holy Ghost. That internal unseen reality is
41:40
what actually gives you delight in the Saints and creates A
41:42
cheerfulness and readiness to perform the hard duties.
41:46
If you just grit your teeth and do the duty, but your heart
41:49
bitterly resents the burden of helping, you are entirely
41:53
failing to grasp the grace. The outward action without the
41:56
inward joy is a hollow shell. It has to have that internal
41:59
watermark or the currency is fake.
42:01
Let's synthesize everything we have covered in this extensive
42:04
dive today. John Owen has taken our generic,
42:06
comfortable, modern definition of charity and completely
42:09
dismantled it from the ground up.
42:11
Gospel charity is not writing a check or dropping coins in a
42:13
bucket. It is a distinct supernatural
42:16
reality implanted by the Holy Spirit.
42:19
It is a nuclear reactor powering the entire Christian life.
42:22
It validates the miraculous work of Christ to a skeptical secular
42:26
world that cannot possibly replicate our cross cultural
42:29
unity. It proves to our own doubting
42:31
consciences that we are true disciples of the risen Lord.
42:35
It breathes actual beating life into all our religious duties,
42:39
saving us from becoming mere animatronic figures going
42:42
through the motions of religion. And crucially, it finds its
42:45
primary testing ground not in abstract romantic theories about
42:50
the invisible global church, but in the messy, frustrating
42:54
day-to-day reality of the local church.
42:56
The specific person sitting next to you on Sunday is your God
42:59
ordained test. And to leave you with one final
43:02
weighty thought to Mull over as we conclude, consider the
43:06
indissoluble link we discussed earlier.
43:09
Owen established from the text that this specific affection is
43:12
a direct effect of saving faith. They rise and fall together in
43:16
the human heart. Therefore, if you look honestly
43:18
at your life and find that your affection for your fellow
43:20
believers is growing cold or sour or mechanical.
43:23
If you find yourself easily annoyed by the local church and
43:26
slowly distancing yourself from the Saints.
43:28
Is it possible the root issue isn't just a lack of trying hard
43:31
enough? Is it possible the core issue
43:34
isn't even the genuinely annoying habits of the people
43:36
around you? Could a cooling of affection for
43:39
the body actually be a blaring alarm bell signaling a severe
43:44
stagnation or decay in your own private faith in the head, Jesus
43:47
Christ? Because the theological math is
43:49
clear, if the faith in Christ is strong and vibrant, the
43:53
affection for his people will inevitably flow.
43:55
That is a piercing diagnostic question we all need to ask
43:58
ourselves in the quiet moments. We want to thank you for joining
44:02
this deep dive. The next time you walk into your
44:04
local congregation, look around the room with fresh eyes.
44:07
Look at the specific people God has placed in your path.
44:10
Do not just see casual acquaintances or commuters
44:13
sharing space in the train. See the immediate objects of
44:15
your sanctification. See the living, breathing proof
44:18
of the Gospels. Force check your own heart for
44:21
that hidden internal watermark. Until next time, keep thinking
44:25
clearly.