Kevin DeYoung: Defining Discourse Down

Check out this convicting and insightful article by Kevin DeYoung entitled Defining Discourse Down. Here are two excerpts from it...

Because I'm proud I get hurt when people disagree with me strongly. Because I'm proud I feel the need to give thirteen qualifications before I make an argument, not usually because I'm a swell guy but because I love for people to love me and loathe for them to dislike or misunderstand me. Because I'm proud I hedge my criticisms so that I won't have to publicly repent and recant when I go too far and get something wrong. Because we're proud, protectors of self more than lovers of truth, we often don't discuss things with candor or with verve....

Here's hoping against hope that thinking adults, Christians especially, can sustain meaningful discourse without resorting to name-calling or cowardly equivocation. Christ calls us to love, which is something entirely different than being a jerk or playing it safe. A.W. Tozer got it right: "The kingdom of God, has suffered a great deal of harm from fighters--men who would rather fight than pray; but the kingdom of God has also been done great harm by men who would rather be nice than right."

Read the article.

Comments (3)

Wow, now I don't know if I'm brave enough to say anything or not...

If I admit to Paragraph 1 in my life, am I then hedging my next criticism? :-P

In the last few days one thing I found perturbing is how when Josh says one thing about Twitter everybody and their brother is ready to die on the hill of their particular opinion. Following that, if Josh posts something about loving King Jesus supremely and esteeming others better than ourselves, then nobody makes a peep for days.

Does this tell us something about the truth of our focus and what our hearts really love???

Posted by Josiah Faas | June 3, 2009 10:49 AM

Thanks for sharing this, I am looking forward to going over it.

Posted by humanitas remedium | June 22, 2009 6:30 PM

This IS convicting.

It is sad that Christians can be soo dragged down by pride. Often we don't even realize it, so we need to pray for God to show us the sin in our lives...A worship song I like says "open the eyes of my heart, Lord."

~"Christ calls us to love, which is something entirely different than being a jerk or playing it safe."~ I have a Christian friend who is struggling with this right now. So much so, that I've been concerned my friend has gone further away from God's call/purpose than I could ever imagine. How can our brothers and sisters in Christ be slipping slowly away? And sometimes it seems like other Christians (the ones called to love, encourage, and edify) just stand by and watch their Christian siblings fall.

But it's soo hard to confront pride!

Philippians 2:3 says, "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself." I found the Contemporary English version of this interesting: "Don't be jealous or proud, but be humble and consider others more important than yourselves. Care about them as much as you care about yourselves and think the same way that Christ Jesus thought" (Phil. 2:3-5). The passage goes on to say that Jesus "gave up everything and became a slave, when he became like one of us." Many people today think it's too vulnerable and weak to be "humble," not to mention how awful it is to be a "slave."

Does Jesus want us to be trampled on and hurt?

More than that... Jesus said, "He who loses his life for My sake will find it" (Matthew 10:34).

Josh, I remember something you once said in one of your "Searching for True Love" videos...Christians today tend to be more focused on John 3:16 and we often brush over an equally important verse, 1 John 3:16, which says, "By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."

I pray that Christians will understand the true meaning of presenting our bodies as "a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God" (Romans 12:1, 2).

"For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen" (Romans 11:36)

Posted by Amy | June 23, 2009 2:54 PM

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