Entering into the Christian life involves giving up everything. Yet when we give up everything, we discover that God ordinarily gives what we have given to him back to us -- no longer as owners, but as caretakers of his property.
God's property includes not only houses and lands, but our ambitions and reputations, our hopes and fears, as well as our relationships with members of our own family, and even our own life.
As Perry Miller wrote on pp. 171, 172, in _The American Puritans_ concerning an observation of John Cotton's:
''There is another combination of virtues strangely mixed in every lively, holy Christian: and that is, diligence in worldly business, and yet deadness to the world. Such a mystery as none can read but they that know it.'
'. . . Man is put into this world, not to spend his life in profitless singing of hymns or in unfruitful monastic contemplation, but to do what the world requires, according to its terms. He must raise children; he must work at his calling. No activity is outside the holy purpose of the overarching covenant. Yet the Christian works not for the gain that may (or may not) result form his labor, but for the glory of God. He remains an ascetic in the world, as much as any hermit outside it. He displays unprecedented energy in . . . trading in the seven seas, speculating in lands: 'Yet,' says Cotton, 'his heart is not set upon these things, he can tell what to do with his estate when he hath got it.' In New England the phrase to describe this attitude soon became: loving the world with 'weaned affections.' It was applied not only to one's love of his property, but also to his love for wife, children, parents and country.' |
sermonaudio.com | iphone | android | mobile | podcast | transcript | kindle | tablets | gospel of john © 2024 SermonAudio.com. All rights reserved. Site Design: Animotion Studios