Uneasiness with Application
IN EVERYTHING
Someone once said that our theology comes out of our fingertips. At Emmaus Road Church, we have often used that phrase to explain how our doctrine must not merely be believed in our hearts and minds, but that it also must find functional expression in our lives.
As Paul says in Colossians 3:16–17,
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
—Colossians 3:16–17 (emphasis mine)
These exhortations touch down to earth. They don’t just exist in hypothetical head space but get down into the details of our thoughts, behaviors, and actions. The word of Christ is to “dwell in [us] richly” and it is to affect “whatever [we] do.”
PREACHING AND PUTTING ON
Corresponding to this reality is the fact that all of God’s word ought to govern all of our lives. As Paul reminds Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:16–17,
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
—2 Timothy 3:16–17 (emphasis mine)
You see, Scripture is sufficient to address us in every area of life—nothing is off limits (we live coram deo). And each week as a church, we sit underneath the preached word of God. However, preaching is incomplete and ineffectual without application. As the great Charles Spurgeon says, “Where application begins, there [a] sermon begins.”
Now application does not happen somewhere halfway between the text and our lives—in the wispy and abstract void. It happens when God’s word is placed on and over our lives, like a bandage administered on a wound. But a bandage doesn’t do any good when it’s left unopened and on the counter.
Perhaps it is just me, but it seems that Christians find it easy to affirm the importance and necessity of application when it stays at a safe arm’s length from our lives, when all it requires of us is to assent on a general principle. The difficulty lies when we try to bridge the gap between the text and our actual lives—when the application moves from the general to the specific—when the bandage is applied to a particular wound.
In this post I would like to flesh out that dynamic a little bit, so bear with me here.
APPLICATION APPREHENSION
To illustrate the point further, consider the following thought experiments.
Scenario One: Christians may agree on the general principle that they should not watch corrupting or immoral shows on the television (cf. 1 Corinthians 5:9–11; Matthew 6:22–23).
But when a popular new movie comes out that is all the craze and someone says that Christians should not watch the movie in theaters (or perhaps ever?) because it contains a prolonged sex scene and sexual tension throughout, then they scoff and call him a legalist or prude for making a direct application. Or…
Scenario Two: Christians generally agree on the idea of modesty in our dress and clothing (1 Corinthians 6:19–20; 1 Timothy 2:9; 1 Peter 3:3–4).
But when a Titus-2-woman mentions that there are certain contexts where yoga pants and crop tops (or worse!) are not respectable apparel for Christian women to wear because of what it communicates, she is decried as unfashionable, legalistic, misogynistic, or out-dated. Or…
Scenario Three: Christians affirm in principle that drunkenness is a sin (Ephesians 5:8; Galatians 5:19-21; Proverbs 20:1).
But when a young Christian man challenges his friend’s choice to drink six beers at the holiday party he is accused of being graceless, judgmental, or a teetotaler. Or…
Scenario Four: Christians agree that we should choose our friends and influences wisely (1 Corinthians 15:33; Proverbs 101:3-4; Philippians 4:8).
But when a parent tells their child that this includes the type of music that they listen to there is outrage, disgust, and much gnashing of teeth.
Many more scenarios could be added to the list. But what each of the examples above demonstrates is a significant uneasiness that many Christians have with direct application. Perhaps we should ask why that might be. Because as Christians, we believe that faith and works are tethered together—what we believe should affect how we live. It should get down to the details.
There are gospel facts, and there is gospel functionality. God first changes our identity and then, with our new identity, come implications. God justifies us, and then he sanctifies us in the specifics. He is our Savior and our Lord—and his Lordship makes certain claims on our lives.
To stretch the metaphor further, the general principles (facts) need to touch down and be applied specifically to our lives (functionality).
On the one hand, Christians may be fearful of drawing the lines of application too narrowly and creating potential offense with those who disagree. The thinking goes: if we deal only in abstract principles, then we don’t have to deal with the messiness of application.
Charles Bridges warns preachers of that problem like this:
Subjects uncongenial to the taste and habits of influential men (and women) in our congregation are passed by, or held back from their just and offensive prominence, or touched with or expanded with wide and undefined generalities; so that the sermons (like letters put into the post-office without a direction) are addressed to no one. No one owns them. No one feels any personal interest in their contents. Thus a ministry under this deteriorating influence chiefly deals in general truths devoid of particular application.
—Charles Bridges
On the other hand, Christians can be overly aggressive with their applications and risk infringing upon areas where there is Christian liberty (cf. Galatians 5:13). In this sense, the fear is that we may bind someone’s conscience in an area of freedom.
Though both dangers are definitely possible (and therefore we ought to be charitable with one another), I fear that the first danger has become far more prevalent in our day than the second. And in many ways the church has been discipled by the world rather than the world being discipled by the church. It should not be this way. With God’s word as our guide, we should strive to be a holy people for the glory of God (Pastor and Theologian Joel Beeke says that this is the very goal of preaching).
WHERE TO GO FROM HERE
So, what do we make of all this?
I would like to encourage us in three ways:
First, we ought to examine ourselves (cf. 2 Corinthians 13:5). When a gracious warning or rebuke or reproof or exhortation from Scripture is given from a faithful friend or preached on, we should consider how it might relate to our own lives. There are times when a principle won’t apply, and there are times when it might. But if the shoe fits, we should wear it and consider it a gracious thing from the Lord who loves us.
Second, we should be slow to offend (James 1:19; Proverbs 19:11). Not every application is for us, so we need not react prematurely. And if we would like to get clarification on some matter of specific application, then the best way to handle that is to ask for clarification. Our goal is not gospel-neglected legalism, but heartfelt love and obedience to God’s word and a desire for his glory to be manifested in our lives. And…
Lastly, we ought not unnecessarily take offense for someone else. There are times when we might think of someone who hypothetically could be offended by some direct application, and so we get a little squirmish in our seats. Perhaps we become vicariously concerned and worried about how a specific application might land on someone we know. The danger with this is that we can begin to deal primarily with feelings and not in truth (and that does not mean that feelings have no value!).
And why does all this matter? The Apostle Paul tells us why in Titus 2:11-15. He says,
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.
—Titus 2:11–15 (emphasis mine)
*Slight edit/update was made to the original post from 11/28/2023