Friend, Foe, or Faux? Discerning True and False Believers

By / May 28

Discerning Between the Three Characters of 1 John

1 John is all about fellowship with God, which is possible through Jesus Christ and life in the Spirit (1:1–4). The Apostle John describes life in the Spirit through the abiding “anointing” (2:27) and abiding “seed” (3:9) of God before speaking explicitly about the abiding Holy Spirit in chapter 4. Although fellowship with God is the primary focus of the letter, we must not overlook John’s desire: “what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1:3, emphasis added). John’s purpose is that others may have fellowship with him and the church. Thus, all who are in fellowship with God are in fellowship with one another.

This framework is important for understanding the letter because as John writes to establish faith and assurance (1 John 5:13), he addresses three characters and the conflict that arises from them: friends, foes, and fauxs. The “friends” are those who are truly in fellowship with God and God’s people. The “foes” are those who are in fellowship with the world and the devil. Finally, and most challenging, are the fauxs—imposters of the faith—who appear to be in fellowship with God but truly belong to the world and the devil. The main test in 1 John, then, is not distinguishing between friends and foes, but friends and fauxs.

To illustrate, the greatest threat in war is not the place outside the gates where the enemy is gathered, but sabotage, spies, and traitors from within. Think of the Trojan horse and how the guise of a ceasefire resulted in the fall of the city from within after decades of standing strong. The fellowship of the church is to be a secure fellowship, but often, fauxs find their place within and bring destruction. Fauxs are hard to detect because they come just as everyone else: with a profession of faith, baptism, and so on. They continue in the fellowship and discipleship of the church for a time. Yet, as many pastors and laypeople can attest, they have witnessed the destruction fauxs bring on the church. In this letter, John provides insight for discerning fauxs so that appropriate action can be taken in love and truth to preserve the faith and fellowship of the church before ruin occurs.

Revealing Friends

From 1 John 1:5–5:12, John sets forth various tests which differentiate between the three characters. Friends are known by confessing their sins (1:5–2:2), living in obedience to Christ’s commands (2:3–11), persevering in the faith and fellowship of the Church (2:18–27; 4:1–6; 5:5–12), and practicing righteousness (2:28–3:10). Furthermore, obedience and righteousness are characterized by love for one another, which is a dominant emphasis in the letter (2:7–11; 3:10–24; 4:4–5:5). John uses the word “ought” to describe how Christians are expected to live like Christ (2:6) through a love of sacrifice (3:16) and forgiveness (4:10–11). In this way, the friends enjoy the Life (1:2), Light (1:5), and Love (4:8) of God.

Revealing Foes

In contrast, the foes are completely against the friends. They are opposed to the Father (2:15–17), the truth of Jesus Christ (4:1–6), the church (3:1b, 13), and righteousness and love (3:4–10). They are of the world and the devil, living in sin and darkness, and filled with hatred and murder—especially towards Christians. The foes of God and His people are given no assurance but are warned of coming destruction (3:8; contrast with believers in 3:18–24 and 4:15–21 who have confidence). The contrast between friends and foes is set in black-and-white terms, creating a sharp distinction between the two groups. Discerning between friends and foes is easy!

Revealing Fauxs

However, the challenge arises with the fauxs. What was black-and-white becomes gray and more dangerous. The friends are a loving people, and sometimes their love can interfere with the safeguards of truth. So, the friends often lack discernment, which matters not just for their own sake, but for one another—their fellow friends. Nevertheless, John exposes the fauxs as those who “say,” but what they “do” contradicts their claims: They claim to have fellowship with God, but walk in darkness characterized by unconfessed, unrepentant sin (1:5–10); they claim to know Christ, but then disobey His commands (2:3–6); they claim to be in the Light characterized by truth, but they hate their brothers/friends in Christ (2:9–11).

Exposing the fauxs, John declares they are liars, self-deceived, still in darkness/sins, of the devil and the world, do not have eternal life, and are headed for judgment (1:6, 2:4, 2:11, 2:15–17, 2:22, 3:7–10, 3:15, 4:3–5, 4:8, 4:20). They are antichrists and followers of antichrist (2:18–19); they are false prophets and the followers of false prophets (4:1–6). They remain in their sins and darkness and are headed toward judgment. Despite their claim to be friends and to be in fellowship with God, they are given no assurance of eternal life. Instead, they are allotted a portion with the foes!

Despite the presence of fauxs, true friends stand out as those who know, repent, walk, love, obey, practice righteousness, and persevere with Christ and His Church. This multifaceted understanding of faith is consistent throughout 1 John and reflects Jesus’ own teaching (John 13–17). When John says in 1 John 5:13, “these things I have written to you,” he means the faith presented from 1:5–5:12. This faith characterizes those who believe and are assured of eternal life. They are set in contrast to both those who completely reject God and those who say they are of God but are not.

A Call to Discernment

To conclude, distinguishing between friends, foes, and fauxs is as crucial in our day as the first century. If God’s people lack discernment, their faith and fellowship will be compromised by fauxs even as they seek to stand in truth and love against their foes. As we rest assured that Christ and His Church will prevail (Matt. 16:18), we recognize this victory is accomplished through the Church’s merciful discernment in the Spirit (cf. Matt. 18:15–35).



Following Jesus into Hard Places

By / May 26

“To move to a place like this—that girl must be Xena: Warrior Princess.” I heard the compliment, if that’s what you’d call it, in echoes through the stairwell of our new home. We were planning to move in a few months and had come to visit our landing place—an apartment building that housed a tiny church plant, our apartment to be, and 12 other apartments that my husband would manage in the heart of one of the poorest, most drug addicted neighborhoods in New York’s Southern Tier. My mind conjured images of a long-haired brunette scantily clad in armor, wielding weapons, and unafraid of everything. I’d never seen the show, but based on the images from commercials, this was the image that came floating to my mind. I was pretty sure the hair was the only real similarity between her and me.

Our new neighbor, who would later tell my husband, “I don’t carry knives because I’d shank someone,” proceeded with his compliment: “She must be tough.”

Other than a decent glare when the situation calls for it and maybe a propensity to talk a big game, I’m not what anyone would call “tough.” During our first week in our new home—in which I celebrated my 22nd birthday, our first wedding anniversary, and our first church service—my husband had to evict someone from our property for assault and I had a run in with a mentally ill man who told me his brother was buried in the basement of our building (confused, but not a lie—that’s a story for another day). I was in over my head from the moment we started in a life of ministry.

Covered in the Armor of God

The truth is, we aren’t called to be tough. The Christian life is about putting on the armor of God and taking shaking, trembling, weak-kneed steps in the direction our Savior calls. Not everyone will sit on the steps of an apartment building while drug addicted ex-cons talk about your shocking toughness, but every Christian will be asked to follow Jesus into things that feel uncomfortable, hard, and even unsafe. Our Lord didn’t live His earthly life in the company of safe people who made Him feel secure. He walked boldly into the homes of sinners, sat at their tables, and broke bread with them. Perhaps the most shocking part is that He enjoyed it. Those were His friends. Those were the ones He defended against attack. Those were the ones he chose to be with. I think He was onto something.

The Lord has called Christians to follow Him into hard places, not grudgingly as if we are doing the world a favor by stepping into things that make us uncomfortable. Not as if we are the hero of the story because we were willing to go to “those people”—but happily, because we see ourselves among the hurting, the beggars, and the broken. We know we have no strength on our own, but we know that the Lord has strength in abundance and He can supply all that we need.

There was a time in my life when pride would have said, “Look where I’ve been and what I’ve done with the Lord.” But no more.

The only hero in the story of the Great Commission is the Lord of glory whose right authority demands our lives.

The Christian life is not primarily about our safety. It isn’t primarily about us at all. Maybe the “unsafe” thing for you to do isn’t to uproot your life and move to the inner city or across the sea, but that doesn’t mean the Lord is fine with you living a life away from the pain of the world. While I think this will look different for different Christians in different contexts, I am confident of a few things:

1. God Works Through Unlikely People in Unlikely Places.

We see this all over Scripture and throughout history. Only the Lord would have planned for a prostitute to shelter the Israelite spies in Jericho and end up in the line of Christ. Only the Lord would have chosen lying Jacob, timid Moses, or adulterous David. Rather than running from the problems of this world—or the problem people of this world—Jesus enters in. In His earthly ministry, He ate with tax collectors, spoke with adulterous women, and spent time with children. This is His church growth strategy. He chooses the weak, foolish, and despised of this world so that no one can boast in His presence (1 Cor. 1:18–31).

2. Great Commission Work Isn’t Comfortable.

I doubt the stones which left Paul so injured that he was carried out of Lystra and presumed dead were very comfortable—and they certainly weren’t safe. Neither was Peter’s upside-down execution or John’s imprisonment. For millennia, God has been working through people who were uncomfortable with what the Great Commission was calling them to. Their eternal destiny secure, the older generations of our spiritual family were sent to engage in unsafe tasks that made God’s glory known among the nations. God’s plan for His people and the spread of His fame has not changed. He is using saints today to share the gospel in unsafe places. While His plan for your life might not include martyrdom, it absolutely does include discomfort (Matt. 10:24–25). Rejoice in that and see what He will do!

3. God Uses His Church in Hard Places.

We serve a good and sovereign God. He is able to save people through online sermons and radio programs. He works wonders when His people are faithful to proclaim His gospel, even at a distance. But God’s primary means of working in any locality is to establish His people there. He moves in the hearts of His people to plant us exactly where He wants us to be, and then He saves people through our proclamation of the gospel. From the beginning, God’s plan was that His people would be a light to the nations. Nothing has changed. So, while your Christ honoring Facebook post might be used by the Lord to do His work (and I’ve been shocked to see how much He uses social media and the internet!), the comfort of screen distance is not the normal means that the Lord uses to reach people. With the rise of technology and the distance it brings, the local church, in all of its eclectic beauty, shines as an even brighter light in the dark world.

God’s Strength Made Perfect in Our Weakness

We don’t have to be tough to go where the Lord is calling us. I promise, I have more in common with Ms. Frizzle than I do with Xena: Warrior Princess. Praise God that He doesn’t need me to be strong. In His upside-down kingdom, our weakness displays His strength. We can follow Jesus into things that are hard. We can walk toward people who are easier to run away from. Then we can stand back in amazement, because the Lord Jesus delights to do His work in exactly these places.



Is It Wrong to See Jesus in the Old Testament?

By / May 21

One of the first things we learn when it comes to reading the Bible is to never make a text say something the author did not intend to say. The technical term for this is authorial intent. However, we are also taught that the whole Bible is about Jesus. We learn that every page—Old Testament included—leads us to Christ. These two claims should raise an important question: How can we hold to authorial intent and believe that every page ultimately leads us to Jesus? Did the Old Testament authors intend to write about Jesus? Or are we reading Jesus into the Old Testament? I would like to argue that the authors—especially the divine Author—intended for us to see Jesus in the Old Testament. To demonstrate this, I want us to look at three texts that justify seeing Jesus in all of Scripture. From these texts we will learn three reasons we should see how all of Scripture points us to Christ: Jesus says we can, Jesus shows we can, and Jesus reveals we can.

1. Jesus Says We Can

It is appropriate to see Jesus in the Old Testament because Jesus says we can. John 5 makes this exact point. In verses 30–47, Jesus is speaking to the Jews about having witnesses to the claims He is making. Jesus is claiming many amazing things and the Jewish people are wondering who can testify to the truth of these claims.

Jesus is more than happy to oblige this request, and He says that “the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me” (5:37). The Jews want a witness to testify on Jesus’ behalf. Jesus responds and says that God has testified on his behalf. Yet where does God give credibility to his claims? Jesus tells us in verse 39, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.” The Jews are wondering who can back up Jesus’ claims and Jesus responds by saying, “God backs up my claims in the Old Testament.”

What this means is that it is appropriate to see Jesus in the Old Testament because it is about Him. Jesus confirms this just a few verses later: “Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would have believed me; for he wrote of me” (John 5:45–46). Moses—the author of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy—wrote about Jesus. Jesus tells us that we can, and He makes it clear that we are doing so without undercutting authorial intent.

2. Jesus Shows We Can

Jesus does not only claim that the Old Testament is about Him, but He shows that it is about Him. He does this at the end of Luke’s Gospel. Two of Jesus’ disciples are walking to a village called Emmaus. As they are walking, they talk about what happened in Jerusalem with the death of Jesus and the reports of his resurrection. Suddenly, a stranger joins them on the road and asks what they are talking about.

They tell this stranger everything that has happened, and he responds in a very interesting way in Luke 24:25–27:

“O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

As it turns out this “stranger” was the resurrected Christ who shows them how Scripture points to Him. Jesus takes these men to the Old Testament and demonstrates how it is about Him. Consider how wonderful it would have been to experience this!

Practically, this means that we should have no issues with seeing Jesus in the Old Testament. We are simply following the example of our Lord and Savior. Clearly, Jesus thought it was appropriate to find Himself in “all the Scriptures” without threatening the original intent of the author. We are not misreading Scripture by seeing Jesus in the Old Testament, we are reading it the way it was intended to be read.

3. Jesus Reveals We Can

If the above is true, then how come so many people seem to miss seeing Jesus in the Old Testament altogether? For example, why do Jews today fail to see Jesus as the promised Messiah? Doesn’t this show that Jesus is not clearly portrayed in the Old Testament as we think he is? While differences in interpretation and tradition certainly shape how people read these texts, I would like to argue that, in cases like this, the reason people fail to see Him is not because He isn’t there—it is because they are blinded by sin.

The Apostle Paul makes this argument in 2 Corinthians 3. One of the things that always grieved Paul was that many of his fellow Jews did not believe in Jesus. Paul tells us that the reason for this is because “their minds were hardened” (3:14). They have a “veil” over their eyes. He writes, “For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted.” They are unable to see Jesus in the Old Testament because a spiritual veil remains over their eyes.

How then is this veil removed? Paul tells us, “But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed” (3:16). The theological term for this is illumination. When a person comes to trust in Jesus, the Holy Spirit removes this veil and allows them to understand the Scriptures fully and rightly. This explains why so many of our family and friends can read the Bible but still not believe. Trusting Scripture as God’s Word is a work of the Spirit which takes place when we come to trust in Christ. For this reason, we can see Jesus in the Old Testament when others don’t because Jesus reveals Himself by his Spirit to those who trust in Him.

We began this article with a question: Is it wrong to see Jesus in the Old Testament? Are we undercutting the intent of the Old Testament authors by seeing Jesus there? Are we reading Jesus into the Old Testament rather than discovering Him there? The answer to all of these questions is an emphatic no! We are completely justified in seeing Jesus in the Old Testament. Jesus tells us explicitly that the Old Testament is about Him. Likewise, He walked with his disciples and demonstrated to them how it points to Him. Lastly, He has revealed to us that it is about Him by removing the spiritual veil that prevents us from seeing Him there. We can see Jesus in the Old Testament knowing that we are not committing some grave hermeneutical error. As David Murray writes, “What’s the Old Testament all about? Jesus’ emphatic answer is ‘Me! Me! Me!’”[1]

[1] David Murray, Jesus On Every Page: 10 Simple Ways to Seek and Find Christ in the Old Testament (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2013), 18.



Rejoicing in the Day of Small Things

By / May 19

The “Small Things” of Pastoral Care

If you asked a pastor or elder to describe how he tends the flock, he’d likely mention phone calls, coffee conversations, prayers, hospital visits, text messages—a lot of small, ordinary things.[1] The simplicity of these activities sometimes calls into question their effectiveness, and the repetition of doing them year after year can make us weary. After yet another visit, another phone call, another Scripture shared, what has changed? Are these things helping at all?

Often, caring for people spiritually is simply about helping them take the next little step. Usually there’s a larger goal that they (and you) want to reach—reconciliation, forgiveness, sobriety, restoration—but that can seem many years distant, maybe altogether unattainable. Yet we begin today with small steps like these:

  • Urging someone who thinks they have lost their faith to start reading the Bible again—even just one psalm a day.
  • Persuading the man enslaved by his addiction to pick up the phone and have the first conversation with an addiction counselor.
  • Inviting a straying member to come to worship again, even though it has been years.
  • Challenging a combative husband and wife to show each other one act of Christian love each day.

These are small things. The idea of rebuilding a marriage or restoring a wandering member can overwhelm us, but we simply need to start somewhere and trust in God to bless our efforts.

Encouragement from Zechariah

Centuries ago, Zechariah encouraged God’s people with this promise: “Whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice” (Zech. 4:10). The prophet was addressing Judah’s dismay over the insignificant progress that they had made in rebuilding the temple. The stones of the foundation had been laid, but there was so much more to do.

During Solomon’s golden age, God’s house had been magnificent. But then the Babylonians pillaged it and razed it to the ground. Decades later, the reconstruction could never hope to match the temple’s former grandeur—and the people knew it (Ezra 3:12). It seemed like an impossible task: rebuilding a house for God in a time when human and material resources were sorely lacking.

However, Zechariah reminds us that small beginnings should never be despised—not when God is working by His mighty Spirit. For God can always give great reason to rejoice again. With his help and strength, there’s no telling how blessed the outcome of “the day of small things” will be.

So it is for our work in the church. The most glorious, everlasting foundation has been laid, and that foundation is Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 3:11). If pastors are building on him, they need not despair. Christ can make something of this little gesture toward repentance. He can bless this new beginning. He can cause the smallest seed to bear abundant fruit. We believe that Christ can do it, and we plead with him to do so.

This makes another word from Zechariah so encouraging for those who serve the church: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts” (Zech. 4:6). It’s a profound reminder about whose help we need to be faithful and fruitful servants of Christ. In ministry, there are moments of proud self-reliance when we must hear this humbling truth: No matter how capable we are, the results aren’t up to us. But also in times of worry, in seasons of cynicism or weariness, we can gain great strength from this promise: the Spirit of the Lord of Hosts is still moving among His people.

Pastor, do not despise the day of small things, but always depend on the mighty Spirit of Christ.

[1] For more on this theme, see Reuben Bredenhof, The Ministry of Small Things: Wisdom for Those Who Serve the Church (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2026).



The Joy of Being a Sender

By / May 14

My local church just entered its second full year of covenantal gathering and worship. During a recent members meeting, the elders called for the church to enter a time of prayer and fasting for some specific needs. Among the typical needs of a young church plant—such as stronger finances, a stable location, and faithful vision casting—the elders called upon our church to pray for something else: senders.

Our church’s demographic is largely influenced by the transient nature of city life, the seasons of college semesters and holiday breaks, and healthy members desiring to go to the nations. At the time of writing this, three separate families are in the evaluation process with three different mission organizations. For a small church plant simply needing stable membership, this is a significant proportion of our current membership.

The elders asked our church to pray for a stable core of senders. They did not discourage members who were seeking to be missionaries or ministry leaders in other local churches. Instead, they asked us to pray for those who were working and living in our city to find our church and commit to being senders. Oftentimes, missions resources and stories focus on the joys and adventures of being sent, but what about the joy of being a sender? Though there may be many reasons, I believe three rise to the top of the list.

1.   The Joy of Advancing Missions

Any local body of believers must answer the question: How will our specific church respond to the Great Commission? Local churches are outposts of God’s kingdom in a dark and hostile world. The light of the gospel housed in these outposts should shine outward as far as the horizons allow. If gospel light is to spread, the right people must be sent and the required resources must be allocated. The vital role senders play in the church—to both evaluate and resource those who are sent—cannot be overstated.

Living in close community with fellow believers in the local church will shape and mature disciples from within so that some may desire to be sent out as missionaries. Senders who stay have spent their time teaching, discipling, and evaluating the lives of these missionary candidates. Senders advise individuals or families considering the step into mission work. Missionaries who are qualified to be sent are members who have grown and matured in their faith through the ministry of senders.

Senders advance missions when they send the right people with the right resources. Much like Andrew Fuller and the Baptist Missionary Society, who “held the rope” for William Carey by financing his mission to India, senders who support their missionaries and see to it that they “lack nothing” (Titus 3:13) do an invaluable service to the mission of the gospel and the growth of Christ’s Church. Senders advance missional hopes and dreams by sending and servicing the voices of truth into the world.

2.   The Joy of Stewarding a Legacy

Senders who belong to churches that support missionaries have the privilege of participating in and observing gospel proclamation around the world for many years. The work of missions can often be tedious and slow, with little outward fruit to show for years of faithful service. Senders are there from the beginning of the story onward. They get to see the faithfulness of God and the power of the Spirit work in one location or in one missionary family’s ministry as it develops. Missionary children get to come home for college and be welcomed by senders who started the journey with them when they were young.

If a church has a reputation for sending missionaries, more missionaries will likely be sent in the future. If the church continues to train and resource the right people, senders will see many go. Over time, the process for training and sending may be made clearer, the support system made more efficient, and the budget more robust. Senders who stick around over long periods of time can speak seasoned words of wisdom about the process and how it may be improved and handed to the next generation of senders.

3.   The Joy of Witnessing Global Glory

Resolving to be a faithful sender does not mean that one does not get to witness missions firsthand. Senders often visit and support missionaries on the field through short-term trips. They also receive and care for missionaries who come home temporarily. Regularly sending missionaries expands the local church’s awareness of the global state of lostness and the glory of God in the gospel spreading to each corner of the earth.

Being a sender means participating in the same joy as your missionaries when people find Christ. Senders get to hear reports of the work they helped advance on the field, and often these senders get to participate in hands-on experiences on a regular basis.

Though one may be encouraged by searching for missionary stories or baptism statistics online, the joy of sharing in the work and results of locally sent missionaries cannot be replicated.

Are You Called to Be a Sender?

My local church is actively calling its members to consider whether God has called for them to stay as senders and to pray for more senders to join our membership. The glory of missions is all God’s, and both senders and goers have a part to play. Joy is shared because missions is a work of the unified body of Christ.

Are you called to be a sender? Consider how you might engage in the work of sending in your local church today. Maybe it looks like continuing the work of faithful attendance, hospitality, and discipleship. Maybe it requires finding a stable job and putting down roots somewhere. Not every Christian will cross an ocean, but every Christian and church must decide whether it will hold the rope. May your choice be the source of joyful prayers like Paul’s for the Philippians because of your partnership in the gospel (Phil. 1:4–5).



Standing Firm Against the Enemy of Your Soul

By / May 12

I once heard a pastor say, “The enemy of your soul hates you.” You probably hear sermons and social media clips about how much God loves you—and rightly so, for He does indeed love you. Yet it is also important to hear about the other side of the coin: the devil hates you.

There are two key reasons why we should be continuously aware that the devil opposes us. First, we are told in Scripture to be vigilant: “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). Unless we are watchful and thinking clearly, we risk allowing the devil to attack us unprepared, making us easy prey.

Second, Scripture urges us to “resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (Jas. 4:7). Unless we are aware that we need to resist the devil, we might misinterpret spiritual opposition or some negative events in our lives as coming from God rather than recognizing them as attacks from the devil. We may also be prone to sin because we do not take seriously that the enemy is trying to destroy our lives.

Now that we understand why awareness of the devil’s hatred is important, let us now look at what the devil resents about us.

The Enemy Hates What We Have

The devil despises what we have been given through the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ. In Christ, God has given us His righteousness: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). In Christ, God has given us His peace: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you” (John 14:27). In Christ, God has given us power, love, and a sound mind: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Tim. 1:7). In Christ, God gave Himself for us: “And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).

The enemy hates these gifts and that they were given not because of what we have done, but because of what Christ did for us.

The Enemy Hates What We Radiate and Declare

Because of what we have been given in Christ, others benefit through our witness and example. Sometimes this is done directly: Our presence radiates God’s peace. Other times it is indirect: When you tell others about Christ, they receive His righteousness when they accept Him into their lives.

Because God’s Spirit lives in us, when we live by the Spirit, we display the fruits of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, [and] self-control” (Gal. 5:22). When people hear the gospel and believe in Christ, the Spirit produces these same fruits in their lives—and the devil hates our role in this. He would much rather see rudeness, unfaithfulness, and impatience in place of Christ’s love and goodness.

As the adage goes, you give what you have. And the devil does not like what we have. Because the “Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you” (Rom. 8:11), our words and example manifest Christ’s work. The enemy opposes this, but he cannot overcome Christ’s victorious work done in us and through us.

The Enemy Hates What We Believe

The devil also despises what we believe. He resents that we believe in God as the Creator of the world, infusing our lives with beauty, meaning, and purpose. He would much rather that we feel continually demoralized. He opposes our confidence in God’s promise: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). He would much rather that we believe we are continually condemned. He hates that we believe in a God that has “borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Isa. 53:4). He would much rather that we believe we must carry our griefs and sorrows on our own.

Victory Belongs to Christ

As important as it is to remember that God loves us, it is also important to remember that the devil hates us and is working against us. Ultimately, the devil’s mission is our ruin and destruction—“to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10). Yet he will not be able to ruin us, and instead, “Christ who lives in” us (Gal. 2:20) will ruin him even as He has secured our victory.

Remember, you are not fighting alone. The Spirit works in and through you to bless others, and Christ has already triumphed. Stand vigilant, resist the enemy, and rejoice in His victory which He has given us.

 



The Hope of the Resurrection in Rejection

By / May 7

“What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.” This is simply a way of saying: What’s good for one person ought to be enough for another. Such is a running theme of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus told His disciples, on more than one occasion, that they would be tried, tested, hated, and persecuted for their faith—perhaps even to the point of death. In Matthew 13 and 14, we see two examples of this reality in the ministries of Jesus and John the Baptist. These stories remind us, pastors: What’s good for Jesus is good for us.

Jesus Rejected

Nazareth was a small town—the kind of town where everybody knows everybody. This familiarity will be the reason Jesus is rejected in Nazareth. These people know Jesus, His family, and social standing (Matt. 13:55–56). So they question His prowess, “When did Jesus become so smart?” “Where did He get his theological training?” “When did He become so learned?” They did not know—nor did they want to know—Jesus as the authoritative Messiah. As a result, Jesus left Nazareth having received no honor, even in his hometown (13:57–58).

John Rejected

Around the same time Jesus was rejected in Nazareth, Herod heard about Him and began to worry that Jesus was John the Baptist raised from the dead (14:2). Matthew takes this opportunity to recount John the Baptist’s death. John had been preaching against Herod’s unlawful marriage to Herodias, which got him arrested (14:4). His life ended when Herodias’ daughter asked for his head on a platter (14:8). The final moments of the great John the Baptist were a terrifying and gruesome death at the hands of a corrupt ruler. He preached that the Lord Jesus was the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world, but John would not get the opportunity to see the Lamb slain for sinners. Even in death, John pointed to Christ, preparing His path.

Rejection in the Ministry

Jesus and John were both rejected—one by His hometown, the other by the state. Most pastors may never face such extreme forms of rejection and persecution. Of course, some brothers over the course of their ministries have faced extraordinary persecution. Yet in one form or another, you and I will all face rejection in some form.

I do not say this to give you fuel to preach at troubling members who give you a hard time. And I don’t mean to present a hopeless, nihilistic view of ministry that shrugs and says, “You just need to get over it.” Ministry is hard. I don’t particularly enjoy being taken to the woodshed by members of my church. I do not like my ideas being shot down. I am terribly grieved by members who fall away in the same manner week after week.

I am not telling you simply to get over it, but I am telling you that what was true for our Lord is often true for His servants. We can take comfort knowing that our Lord and our ministry heroes, like John, have faced what we face—even persecution unto death. This is good news for us because suffering does not signal failure; it places us in the company of our Lord.

The Hope of the Resurrection

Herod regretted putting John the Baptist to death. He feared that Jesus of Nazareth was John the Baptist raised from the dead. But Herod was mistaken. Jesus is not merely John the Baptist—Jesus is a prophet like John. Yet He is more than just a prophet. Jesus has disciples like John, yet He is more than just a teacher. Jesus was a wanderer like John, yet He was more than just a wanderer. Jesus would even suffer a similar fate to John, condemned by earthly authorities. But unlike John, He would not remain in the grave.

That is the great irony of Herod’s predicament. Soon they would kill the Lord Jesus, place His body in a tomb, and seal it shut. Yet on the third day, His body would not be there. The carpenter’s son would rise from the dead as the vindication that His sacrifice for sinners had been accepted.

Pastors, the hope that steadies us in rejection is this: Jesus truly is the Lamb slain for our sins. We follow Him into ministry goals that fall short, sheep that bite us, and church events that do not go as planned because Jesus walked the road first. He calls us to walk paths He Himself has already cleared: to take up a cross like His, be rejected like Him, and die like Him. That isn’t just a call to rejection, but also resurrection. We will be rejected in ministry and resurrected in eternity because Christ has gone before us.

Enduring in Light of the Resurrection

Our call is to endure—not because we must simply grit our teeth and bear it, but because we look forward to the day when we will bear it no longer. Brothers, our lives and ministries have such great hope because even if the worst possible thing could happen to us, we await a more glorious life with our risen Christ. That is a message of gospel hope—the hope that we may indeed be rejected with Him, but we will surely be resurrected with Him. This gives us fuel for the hard days of ministry, because what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Rejection is not the final word. Resurrection is.



The Pastoral Virtue of Avoidance

By / May 5

At least seven times in the pastoral epistles, Paul directly charges Timothy and Titus to “avoid” and to “have nothing to do with” ideas and people who pose a threat to their flock. This is jarring since one of the main purposes for these letters is to encourage Timothy and Titus to engage false teaching and teachers. Yet here is where the paradox emerges: Paul teaches a pastoral virtue of avoidance—showing that sometimes the wisest form of engagement is careful restraint.

So, what is going on here? Given that Paul clearly wants false teaching and teachers dealt with and also wants these pastors to avoid certain discourse and people, the question arises: What is Paul prohibiting here and what does it mean for pastors today?

Why Paul Commands Avoidance

Paul applies this virtue to two broad categories: words and people. Five of the seven times Paul commands Timothy and Titus to “avoid/having nothing to do with,” it is regarding “irreverent silly myths” (1 Tim. 4:7), “irreverent babble” (1 Tim. 6:20; 2 Tim. 2:16), “foolish [ignorant] controversies” (2 Tim. 2:23; Titus 3:9). In the two other instances, he tells them to avoid or have nothing to do with certain people (2 Tim. 3:5; Titus 3:10). But what is it they are not to engage in?

It is difficult to come up with any real difference between myths, babble, and controversies—especially when you consider that in each place Paul attaches a similar negative adjective such as “foolish,” “silly,” “irreverent,” “ignorant.” In each case, Paul has in mind a certain kind of speech that Timothy and Titus are not to engage in. The specifics of the speech might differ case by case, but they are all of a similar pointless, ungodly, and muddled nature which renders it unworthy of these pastors’ time and attention. But why does Paul want them to avoid it?

This point is clearer as Paul gives reasoning for his command of avoidance:

  • 1 Timothy 4:7 – Avoid irreverent, silly myths because “godliness is of value in every way.”
  • 1 Timothy 6:20–21 – Avoid irreverent babble and contradictions because “by professing it some have swerved from the faith.”
  • 2 Timothy 2:23 – Avoid foolish ignorant controversies because “you know that they breed quarreling and the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone.”
  • 2 Timothy 3:5–7 – Avoid the ungodly people because “among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened by sins, and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.”
  • Titus 3:9 – Avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law “because they are unprofitable and worthless.”
  • Titus 3:10 – Avoid those who stir up divisions; “knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is already condemned.”
  • 2 Timothy 2:16–18 – Avoid irreverent babble because “it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene.”

In 2 Timothy 2:16–18, Paul gives the most insightful reasoning. Here we get the content of the “babble”: The resurrection has already happened. Paul wants Timothy to avoid this idea because it spreads like gangrene, leads “people into more and more ungodliness,” and upsets their faith. The principle is that sometimes the way to stop a disease from spreading is to avoid the disease rather than fight it head-on. It’s a virus rather than a cancer.

This is somewhat bewildering as we think about the pastor’s role to protect the flock from “fierce wolves” who will not “spare the flock” (Acts 20:28–29). It is also contrary to what most of us feel internally and would amount to what some would deem an abdication of our responsibility as leaders. So, what are pastors today supposed to take from these commands?

Biblical Avoidance

The outworking of this command will differ depending on the immediate context we pastor in. Here are six principles and suggestions that arise from this virtue that apply universally (in no particular order).

1. Avoiding Doesn’t Mean Passivity (2 Tim. 2:23, 25).

Given that Paul wants Timothy and Titus to engage certain false teaching and teachers, it seems that he has a kind of refusal to be “drawn in” in mind. The avoidance he commands does involve interaction and providing reasons, but it stops short of aggression, lashing out, fighting, “sinking to the level,” or becoming obsessed with defeating them. We must avoid without neglecting to protect.

2. Avoiding Means Giving Your Time to What Is Profitable.

In order to avoid, you need to know what does or does not need time and attention. Pastors should be devoted to cultivating godliness rather than tearing down the ungodliness of others. Rather than using most of our limited time to engage with “irreverent babble,” we ought to focus on worthwhile things (Phil. 4:8).

3. Avoiding Doesn’t Mean Being Uninformed.

The more informed you are, the more you are able to know what proportion of time to give or not give certain ideas. Pastors, by nature, are more informed than the flock. They understand doctrine, implications of certain ideas, when cultural issues shift from tier 3 to tier 2, and so on. Through training and the Spirit’s guidance, they discern what and when to avoid.

4. Gently and Firmly Remove Those Who Are Breeding Quarrels in the Church.

Warn them once, then twice, then remove them from the fellowship of your body, having nothing to do with them until they repent (Titus 3:10). Rather than tolerance, avoidance may look like an active decision to “cut out” infected tissue so that it does not spoil the rest of the body (2 Tim. 2:16–17).

5. Don’t Get Sucked into the Pseudo-World of Social Media.

Social media is truly an endless chasm of debating ideas and worldviews. Think of it as a video game server that is constantly live and filled with everyone from the entire world. You could literally spend all your time there. Don’t. Join the server in appropriate proportions and be strategic as to how you engage. Spend most of your time and energy logged in to the server of your immediate context.

6. For a Pastor to Do All of This, He Must Be Sober-Minded.

A quarrelsome man has lost his senses. He feels threatened and offended. He is annoyed and angry. He bites the bait of the fool. He can’t walk away or let the issue rest. He can’t simply say, “No more,” but has to win and get the upper hand. Everything is a “hill to die on” to him. So, in time, he will die on every hill, and it will be for the wrong things. Sober-mindedness allows a pastor to discern when engage, when to step back, and when to protect the flock without overacting.

In a day and culture where many assume the virtuous thing to do is always to enter fully into every debate and squabble, Paul’s pastoral virtue of avoidance forces us to ask ourselves, “Is this something I should be engaging with? If so, how, and to what extent?” Because pastoral malpractice is not only possible by cowardly holding back, but by impassioned rushing in as well.



Preach to the Choir

By / May 4

“I know I’m preaching to the choir now!”

Pastors will say this for a few reasons. First, they don’t want to sound patronizing: “I know you already know and agree with this!” Second, they’re feeling insecure about saying something that feels obvious, and they don’t want to seem “un-insightful.” So it has the effect, “Please don’t tune out! I know you’ve heard this before.” Third, they appropriately want the listeners to feel like insiders: “People like us believe and do things like this.”

We often use the phrase “the choir” not in reference to the literal choir (which most churches don’t have anymore), but in reference to the committed, regular attendees of the church who do, in effect, address one another in songs, hymns, and spiritual songs.

I’m sympathetic to all those reasons and have made use of similar pastoral contextualizations and caveats. However, they reveal a fatal assumption that pastors cannot buy into: that the majority of the regular church attendees agree with the Scriptures on most issues at both an intellectual and emotional level.

Instead, preachers must, and should, feel free to “preach to the choir” without shame or apology for three reasons: the choir needs preaching, the choir contains heretics, and the choir is often shaped by worldly ethics.

The Choir Needs Preaching

“Prone to wander, Lord I feel it / Prone to leave the God I love!” sings the choir. They know this, we know this. It isn’t patronizing to remind people of what they’ve already experienced but are prone to forget. This is both kind and realistic.

My favorite kind of Sundays are when I’m preaching. My second favorite kind of Sundays are when I’m not preaching. I get to sit under the heralded, treasured, exposited, and applied Word of God! Rarely do I “learn something new,” but every time I’m inspired to see Jesus as good, true, and beautiful, and am therefore moved to treasure him afresh and follow him more relentlessly. I need preaching like a worker bee needs pollen. When I’m in the choir, preach to me and the rest of us frail but committed saints!

The Choir Contains Heretics

There are two types of heretics: accidental and intentional. Most heretics in our churches are accidental heretics. They’ve got bad theology, don’t know the Scriptures, and are worldly in their assumptions about humanity, God, and the purpose of life.

The 2025 Ligonier and Lifeway report on the State of Theology of self-identified evangelicals should make pastors sweat:[1]

  • 64% agreed that “everyone is born innocent in the eyes of God.”
  • 53% agreed that “everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature.”
  • 53% agreed that “the Holy Spirit is a force, not a personal being.”
  • 47% agreed that “God accepts the worship of all religions… including Islam.”

This is awesomely and impressively awful. These are the people who frequent our churches. They may not be your covenant members or core people in the church—although, they might be—but they’re in and around our local churches.

What makes this especially striking is that the same people who were surveyed agreed at 100% that “The Bible is the highest authority for what I believe.” They say they believe the Bible and want to submit to the Scriptures—they just need to be taught what the Bible says!

Basic biblical teaching about basic biblical concepts is needed more than ever. Preach to the choir!

The Choir Often Shaped by Worldly Ethics

Orthodoxy is important; orthopraxy is also important. The same 2025 report showed that evangelicals are weak in their moral and ethical reasoning:[2]

  • 29% disagreed with “God created marriage to be between one man and one woman.”
  • 54% agreed that “Christians should not allow their religious beliefs to influence their politics.”

In the 2024 Pew Religious Landscape Survey, we find even more troublesome tendencies:[3]

  • 33% of evangelicals agreed that “abortion should be legal”
  • 18% said that “acceptance of transgender people is a positive change”
  • 36% said that “gays and lesbians should be allowed to marry”
  • 36% said that “homosexuality should be accepted by society”

Yes, those statistics are better than every other group surveyed, but they are still not good. In a church with 1000 congregants, would a pastor be happy if 360 of them thought homosexuality and abortion were public goods? That choir needs to be preached to!

It is foolish and fatal to assume that the people who go to your church agree with the Bible on ethics. We cannot get so caught up with critiquing those outside of the church that we neglect to form those within in basic matters of ethics and fidelity.

Your people are shaped by many voices beyond your own. Some of that is excellent; we don’t aspire to be cult leaders. Some of that is terrible; there are a lot of godless fools on the internet who are bent on normalizing what is abnormal and unholy. We need to explicitly and proactively combat the chorus of voices that scream at our people through mainstream and social media.

Feed My Sheep, Connect the Dots

“I’ve been doing Bible Study Fellowship for thirty years, and I’ve never thought about that before.”

A sweet woman who is newer to my church told me this recently. She’s in the choir. Her heart’s in the right place. She just hadn’t learned basic evangelical theology and ethics yet, despite having read so much Bible. Bible study is good, but preaching that courageously and faithfully includes synthesis into doctrine and application in ethics is also necessary.

The sheep needs sound, holistic, and grace-saturated preaching—so let’s feed them.

[1] “The State of Theology,” accessed March 30, 2026, https://thestateoftheology.com/.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Gregory A. Smith et al., “Religion and Views on LGBTQ Issues and Abortion,” Pew Research Center, February 26, 2025, https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/02/26/religion-and-views-on-lgbtq-issues-and-abortion/.



Teaching Your Church to Lament

By / Apr 30

Many years ago, author and professor Carl Trueman wrote—by his own admission—one of his most read and well-known works, an article titled What Can Miserable Christians Sing? In it, Trueman argues for the necessity of including songs of lament (especially from the Psalter) in a church’s corporate worship. He writes, in part: “A diet of unremittingly jolly choruses and hymns inevitably creates an unrealistic horizon of expectation which sees the normative Christian life as one long triumphalist street party—a theologically incorrect and a pastorally disastrous scenario in a world of broken individuals.”[1]

What Trueman says rings true. Life in a fallen world is full of hardship and struggle, and the normative Christian life is decidedly not one long triumphalist street party. The Bible is not shy about this. Life is often painful. Within this reality, what responsibility does the pastor bear in the liturgy and teaching of the church?

The fact is, pastor, your people will suffer. This is not breaking news. When and how they suffer, only the Lord in His sovereignty knows. While we will inevitably minister to people in the midst of suffering—and after suffering has already come—we must also prepare them for suffering beforehand.

In other words, we ought not wait for suffering to happen before teaching about it. We must equip our people ahead of time so that, when the inevitable struggle comes, they are not without language or categories for faith.

Mark Vroegop reflects on this well. Looking back on a particular season of grief for him and his wife, he writes, “I can now see that the missing element in our grief was a familiarity with lament—heartfelt and honest talking to God through the struggles of life.”[2]

We must be equipped—and equip our people—to know that lament is both appropriate and helpful when suffering comes.

Here are three ways pastors can, and should, incorporate lament into the life of the church so that God’s people have words when sorrow and suffering befall them.

1. Sing Songs of Lament

A brief listen to popular Christian radio or a glance at the CCLI Top 100 reveals that most songs sung on a given Lord’s Day in America are upbeat. Fair enough—the gospel brings joy and announces good news. And yet, as Trueman observes, the human condition remains profoundly broken.

It is not wrong to sing joyful songs. But if joy is all we sing, we risk offering a truncated view of life in a fallen world. Jesus’ own hymnbook was the Psalter, and its most frequent genre is lament.

Trueman again notes,

The psalms, the Bible’s own hymnbook, have almost entirely dropped from view in the contemporary Western evangelical scene. I am not certain about why this should be, but I have an instinctive feel that it has more than a little to do with the fact that a high proportion of the psalter is taken up with lamentation, with feeling sad, unhappy, tormented, and broken. In modern Western culture, these are simply not emotions which have much credibility: sure, people still feel these things, but to admit that they are a normal part of one’s everyday life is tantamount to admitting that one has failed in today’s health, wealth, and happiness society.[3]

Including songs of lament in the church’s liturgy does something profound: it gives people words to sing when life is hard. Those words sink deep, equipping believers to sing through pain rather than fall silent in it.

I pastor a local church, and we intentionally include songs of lament, particularly when we preach selected Psalms each summer. When my dear son Ambrose was stillborn this past July, I drew comfort from songs like Lord, From Sorrows Deep I Call, Psalm 13, and He Will Hold Me Fast. Songs of triumph did not match my sorrow—but songs of lament did. They gave me language to sing through tears and ministered to my soul.

Include songs of lament in your liturgy, and your people will have words to draw from even when it is hard to sing.

2. Teach and Preach Lament

A similar effect occurs when lament is taught and preached. As noted above, we preach the Psalms every summer and intentionally include Psalms of lament. There are also books like Job, Habakkuk, and Lamentations in which saints are honest about how they feel.

Teaching these texts shows your people that lament is not abnormal. It gives them words to pray when they find themselves in grief, confusion, or loss. It teaches them that honesty before God is not irreverence, and that the God who hears can handle our cries. When they lack words, they can open the Psalter and pray what God has already given them.

3. Point to Saints Who Have Suffered Honestly

Finally, pastors should point to saints—past and present—who have suffered with honesty and faith. This can be done through sermon illustrations, pastoral writing, social media posts, and other teaching. Show how mighty saints through the ages have suffered, written down their honest feelings, and handed their works down to us.

Consider Augustine writing in Confessions grieving the loss of his mother, John Calvin writing to a friend when his wife died, or Martin Luther lamenting the death of his beloved daughter. These saints show us that it is possible to be faithful and sorrowful, trusting and confused, joyful and mourning—all at once.

Your people will suffer. This is an unavoidable reality of life in a fallen world between the Advents. Let us be honest about that with them. Let us equip them beforehand with language for prayer and song, so that even in sorrow they can turn toward God with hope—looking ahead to the day when every sad thing comes untrue.

[1] Carl Trueman, “What Can Miserable Christians Sing?” IX Marks, https://www.9marks.org/article/what-can-miserable-christians-sing.

[2] Mark Vroegop, “Strong Churches Speak the Language of Lament,” The Gospel Coalition, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/strong-churches-lanuage-lament/.

[3] Carl Trueman, “What Can Miserable Christians Sing?” IX Marks, https://www.9marks.org/article/what-can-miserable-christians-sing.