This Entertaining Truth, Part 1: I'll Have My Spiritual Steak Medium-Well, Please.

As a Christian who listens to and reads from some of the most truthful Bible preachers and teachers available today - such as Paul Washer, John Piper, Voddie Baucham, Eric Mason, John MacArthur, Alistair Begg, and the list goes on - sometimes I tend to sit back, taking more security than I should in the fact that much of my spiritual food comes from these teachers. Thoughts of, "This guy can really bring truth", start going through my head.

But, as Pastor Begg calls his radio show, it is "Truth for Life".

In high school or college, I memorized all of James 1. I probably cannot recite it word for word anymore, but verses 22-25 stay with me to this day:

" ²²Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, andcontinues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it— he will be blessed in what he does."

Listening to the truth of God can, quite wrongfully, become a form of entertainment. Perhaps that is is part of my motivation for why I tend to prefer to listen to very theoretical preaching that emphasizes the otherness of God, His holiness, His justice, His grace, and His other attributes. Often I think, "We have a song in church where we sing, 'I will worship You for who You are'; and it doesn't say much more than that. It doesn't actually tell us who God is or explain His characteristics. So how can I 'worship God for who He is' unless I study Him and find out who He is?" So it leads me into high-flown thought after high-flown thought, which leads to great worship if I am given a doctrinally sound enough song to sing. This can be a good thing. Or it can turn me into a theological elitist or someone who is merely entertained by good preaching.

Ok; that's a good thought. But why do Christians like me shy away from practical messages? Is it merely because we don't hear much more than that in most modern churches and we are looking for the real meat?

Or is it because we find the meat entertaining and because only listening to the meat can sometimes get us thinking about God's nature so much that it lets us off the hook of practical obedience?

Don't misunderstand me. We do need to listen to the meat and not live on only the milk of the Word forever. We need to listen to, and/or read, the preachers and writers who can really chop up a text of Scripture and mine it like gold. Listening to John Piper or Eric Mason preach for an hour or so on just one verse, like John 1:1, or even just "In the beginning was the Word...", gives great depth to our knowledge of God; it can greatly help our spiritual growth and enhance our worship of God. And we need to study Scripture to get as much out of it as we can and then live it out and share it in times of fellowship with each other. We need all of that.

But sometimes I get to a point where I start to say things like, "Whoa, that's convicting!" And then at the end of the message, I listen to some music or Tagalog lessons and forget what I have heard.

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"11. Resolved, when I think of any theorem in divinity to be solved, immediately to do what I can towards solving it, if circumstances don't hinder.

"12. Resolved, if I take delight in it as a gratification of pride, or vanity, or on any such account, immediately to throw it by."

- from the Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards.