God Loves… Himself

“Resolved, to strive to my utmost every week to be brought higher in religion, and to a higher exercise of grace, than I was the week before.” (Resolution 30)

Colossians 1:10 – so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

2 Thessalonians 1:3 – We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as is only fitting, because your faith is greatly enlarged, and the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater;

I Peter 2:2 – like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation,

2 Peter 3:18 – but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The Scriptures are clear that believers are to grow spiritually. There are many ways that the believers can gauge their growth. Edwards wanted to strive to have visible growth each week. He wanted to have a greater or higher exercise of grace than he did the week before. In one sense sanctification is really spiritual growth. In another sense the believer is to die to self more and more and be filled with more of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit. Believers are to grow in at least the following ways:

1. Their knowledge of God and to grow in knowing God
2. Their faith is to be enlarged
3. Their love toward other believers is to grow
4. They are to grow in respect to salvation
5. They are to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

But how do believers know that they are growing in grace? Are they to pursue sin so that grace may abound? As Paul said, “may it never be.” So many think of grace in terms of sin alone which really relates to forgiveness alone. But we must learn to think of grace as that which strengthens believers in walk by grace. It is this grace in the believer that strengthens the believer to live to the glory of God. In reality it is another way of speaking of the life and strength of Christ in the believer.

Philippians 4:13 – I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

John 15:4 – “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.

2 Corinthians 12:9 – And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

Colossians 1:29 – For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.

One way to measure grace is to learn to know our own hearts. Where does our strength to live and work come from? Do we find strength in the grace that flows through our own weakness and death to self? Do we find that there is something that cannot be explained in us apart from the grace of God? Growing in grace is the opposite of growing in self-confidence, it is growing in weakness to self so that all that we do is moved and strengthened by grace. Growing in grace is really the life of Christ in us that is growing and exerting itself in and through our spiritual inability and weakness of self. That is why Paul said that he was crucified with Christ and that it was no longer he that lived but that Christ lived in him (Gal 2:20). Christ lives in His people by grace.

“Resolved, never to count that a prayer, nor to let that pass as a prayer or as a petition of a prayer, which is so made that I cannot hope that God will answer it; nor that as a confession, which I cannot hope God will accept.” (Resolution 29)

The matter of true prayer is something that has been largely forgotten in the modern day. The reasons for that are quite simple. Man has turned from a God-centered way of living and praying to focus on himself. Rather than prayer being that which conforms man to God and His will, prayer is now thought of to be a way to get God to conform to man and man’s will. This is simply hideously backward and even blasphemous. If man is to love God with all of his being, then prayer must be an expression of love for God and His glory. After all, in reality prayer is a lifting up the desires of the heart to God and also a communing with God. Jesus instructed us how to pray by giving an outline of prayer. The first petition in the so-called “Lord’s Prayer” is for God’s name to be treated with reverence and awe, and even glorified.

In the above resolution Edwards resolved not to even count as a prayer or as a petition of a prayer which was made where he would have no hope that God would answer it. One might object that of course no one would pray if they thought God would not answer it. But I think that objection misses the real point of the resolution, though it might serve to illuminate the real issue. True prayer must be offered up in faith. Faith must have a true object or it is not real faith. In Scripture prayer is to be offered for the glory of God and in the name of Jesus which really amount to the same thing. I think, then, that what Edwards is saying is that he was done with self-centered prayer and was going to focus on prayer based on faith and that would truly be for the glory of God.

We must also notice that Edwards distinguishes between prayer and petition of prayer. Prayer includes more than just asking for things, it is mainly a way man is to have communion with God. Prayer also includes praise and confession. Man is not to praise God in order to make God feel better about Himself, nor is God a needy Being that longs for man to praise Him. But when man praises God in truth and from the heart man is enabled to share in the love God has within the Trinity. In this way God is communicating His glory and love to man. In this way man is enabled to discover the mind of God in that God is communicating Himself to man in prayer.

Edwards also resolves not to offer up a confession which he cannot hope that God will hear. This is another fascinating point to think about. Why would God not hear a confession of sin? When David confessed his sin he confessed his sin in such a way that he confessed that God was just in whatever He would do to him (Psa 51:4). We can also note from Psalms 25:11 and 79:9 other proper aspects of confession from a God-centered perspective.
For Your name’s sake, O LORD, Pardon my iniquity, for it is great” (Psalm 25:11). “Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name; And deliver us and forgive our sins for Your name’s sake” (Psalm 79:9).

It should always be noted that sin has far more negative value than man has value. While that is a rather awkward way of putting it, the point should be clear. Sin is so enormously evil that man has no way of making up for that sin and has nothing in himself that would make him worthy to be forgiven. When man sees how great his sin really is, he can only ask for it to be forgiven in accordance with truth for the sake of God’s great name. The only basis man has to confess sin is for the glory of God.

All sin is against God and can only be forgiven for the sake of His name. Confession for sin must always realize that sin is against God and as such it is a far greater wrong than we can imagine. It is not just some little wrong done to a finite human being, it is against God. So for a confession to be according to truth, it must see and confess its wrong as against God. Once that is understood, it should be clear that the only basis to ask for forgiveness is for the glory of His name in Christ. Could it be that the vast amount of prayer, confession, and asking for forgiveness are so man-centered that they have utterly no hope of being answered? Could it be that man-centered prayers are so obnoxious to God that even the best prayers from a man-centered perspective are as vile and filthy rags? Could it be that man is so focused on himself that his self-centered prayers show his enmity to the glory of God more than anything else? Could it be that in our prayers for our self-centered things that we are actually committing idolatry in what we think is our holiest of duties rather than loving God in them? How we need Christ to be our Redeemer and a propitiation for our best works, even our religious duties.

“Resolved, to study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly, and frequently that I may find, and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of them.” (Resolution 28)

This shows a great love and reverence for the Word and the God who breathed them, but also reminds us of David in the Psalms. This also reminds us of Ezra: “For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel” (7:10). Ezra was a man that had set his heart to study the law of the LORD. This is exactly what Edwards did in his resolution. The terms “steadily, constantly, and frequently” refer to a heart that has been set to study God’s Word. However, it is far more than just an intellectual perception that Edwards and Ezra wanted. They also wanted to practice the Word. In fact, those with a greater practice have a greater understanding of the Word. For example, “if anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself” (John 7:17). The study and practice of the Word is what leads to true understanding. This is also true in the medical profession. No one is allowed to practice medicine after he or she has read through a few books. That is why a doctor is usually part of a practice.

“Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching. 14 Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery. 15 Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress will be evident to all” (I Timothy 4:13-15). Here the text tells us what instructions Paul gave to Timothy. He told him to take pains with these things (referring back to the reading, exhortation and teaching of Scripture) so that his progress would be evident to all. Edwards wanted the progress to be noticed by himself even if no one else did.

A resolution or at least a commitment to this should be the desire of every true believer in Christ. Coming to know Scripture is not like studying a novel or even a book of history, but the study of Scripture is an act of engaging God when one has the right perspective. As Edwards says in his sermon on A Divine and Supernatural light, “Indeed a person cannot have spiritual light without the Word. But that don’t argue, that the Word properly causes that light. The mind can’t see the excellency of any doctrine, unless that doctrine be first in the mind; but the seeing the excellency of the doctrine may be immediately from the Spirit of God; though the conveying of the doctrine or proposition itself may be by the Word.” We also know that the Scriptures are called the “sword of the Spirit” (Eph 6:17), are breathed forth by the Spirit (II Timothy 3:16; Acts 1:16), and also the instrument of regeneration (James 1:18). The Word of God is, according to the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, “the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience.”

If all the statements from the above paragraph are true, then each believer should give him or herself to the study of the Word of God. There is nothing more vital than that. The Word of God is that which the Spirit uses to bring light, to regenerate, and is the only sufficient and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. In other words, people need to hear the Word of God to be saved. People need to hear the Word of God in order to see and believe Christ. People need to understand the Word of God in order to obey Him. While this resolution of Edwards may seem extreme to many, it really should be normal for believers. Is it normal for you?

“Resolved, whenever I do any conspicuously evil action, to trace it back till I come to the original cause; and then both carefully endeavor to do so no more, and to fight and pray with all my might against the original of it.” (Resolution 24)

Here we have the opposite of Resolution 23 in one sense, though the desire is the same. In 23 we saw that Edwards wanted to trace his actions to the root to be sure that they were for the glory of God. Here he wants to trace his evil actions to the root in order to discover any cause that he might do away with. Both are founded in a love for God and a desire to please Him in all things.

First, this would take a sensitive conscience. For a man like Edwards, who was known for his piety and godliness, to notice his own actions as evil, it would take a lot of sensitivity to God for this to happen. This type of activity is not for the cold of heart or for those who have no zeal for God, but this is truly for those who desire to seek God with all of their being. This type of thing is not carried out by timid souls who are satisfied with being lukewarm.

Second, this would again take a person that is willing to take the Word of God over the conclusions of pride and self-love. To get at the real cause of a sinful action absolutely requires a heart that is willing to face up to its own depravity. Self-love and pride hides behind many mirrors. In fact, by definition pride is hard to overcome because it hides the true state of the heart by the exaltation of self. Self-love operates by judging all things by what is best for self. However, if pride and self-love do hide the real root of sin from us, then we can turn from external acts of evil and never really turn from the root of sin. If the real issue is hidden from us, then if we decide to fight sin we will not really be fighting with the real sin at all.

As a way of practice, let us think of a fictional character we will call “Aaron.” Let us say that Aaron was driving down the road one day and realized that he was coveting another person’s car. Now what is he to do? He can simply stop the appearance of coveting that car and say that he has repented. But what was going on in his heart to covet the other person’s car? We have to ask those types of questions to get at the real issues. We know that he would not have been content with his own car to be coveting another person’s car. His pride and self-love would be telling him that he deserved a car like that. His pride might have told him that the other person did not deserve a car like that and ask why God gave that lowly sinner such a car. It is also true that his heart could not have been in the process of loving God with all of his being when he was coveting the car.

To boil it all down, the real issue behind coveting has to do with Aaron’s heart toward God. Perhaps he was not walking with God or perhaps he had grown cold toward God. Perhaps he had drifted toward duties rather than love for God. It might be that he was looking toward duties and rituals rather than grace. He might have drifted from God by neglecting the Word and prayer. He might have been trying to be religious or self-righteous rather than to love God from the heart. Perhaps he was trying to impress people more than God in his daily life as well as his religious life. But we must all know that we are “Aaron” when it comes to our sin. We must be utterly ruthless with our hearts in order to pursue God in honesty and love.

When we find a root of sin in our external behavior, we must learn to fight it properly. We cannot fight the outward sin unless we recognize the root issue of the heart in it. To fight sin in the heart is far different than fighting the externals of sin. Coveting must be cut off at the root or it will just turn to another form of coveting. Coveting is simply selfishness desiring things for selfish reasons, though it may mask itself in religious garb. The only cure for coveting is contentment with God and love for God and our neighbor. In other words, as the title of a famous sermon by Thomas Chalmers, “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection,” we must love God and others as a way of turning from sin in the heart. We must desire our affections to be lifted to God in order for them to be removed from ourselves. The problem with coveting is not the outward things as such; it is a heart that loves God too little. Therefore, to fight sin in the heart is to pursue God and pray for more and more of His love in the heart so that we can love Him enough to turn from the sins of the heart.

“Resolved, frequently to take some deliberate action that seems most unlikely to be done, for the glory of God, and trace it back to the original intention, designs, and ends of it; and if I find it not to be for God’s glory, to repute it as a breach of the 4th resolution.” (Resolution 23)

The language of this resolution sounds a bit funny at first, but after several readings and some deliberation it becomes clear. Here is a man that wanted to check on his heart to see what it was really like. He didn’t just want to do this every now and then, but he wanted to do this frequently. In other words, he was going to check his heart on a frequent basis to ensure that it was not growing hard or indifferent to God. What he was going to do was take some of the things that he did deliberately and check his intentions and goals in it. If we are interested in the truth about ourselves, we will check the hardest things. So it is not just some action or affection that happened suddenly, but a deliberate action.

Not only did he check his deliberate actions, but he wanted to find out those things that were most unlikely to be done for the glory of God. Again we see that he went after the hardest things for himself instead of the easiest. Instead of looking for those thing that he would likely have done for the glory of God, he checked himself on the things that were the most unlikely to be done for the glory of God. Here we see what a man does that is serious about his heart in light of eternity. He does not settle for the obvious and the easy things, but he goes to the depths even in the hard things. It is simply a logical deduction of I Corinthians 10:31. We are to do all for the glory of God and that does not mean the easy things or even most things only, but all things. Whatever we do that is not to the glory of God is sin and we must check our hearts in light of that.

Edwards would take a deliberate action and trace it back to the real reason why he did it. He wanted to know the original intent for the action. Here we see a way to do serious work on our hearts. We must ask what we really intended by what we did, not necessarily what we wanted to intend. We must be brutally honest and trace these things out in our hearts all the while asking God to reveal these things to us. We must understand what Scripture teaches about the heart and how deceitful it is. We must not rest content with what we want to be true of ourselves, but what is actually true of ourselves. To get past the self-deception that the heart always wants to throw up to us, we must pray for light and for insight into our own hearts.

Man will never fully escape pride and self-love in this life. Therefore, man is an enemy to himself and the truth about himself. Pride will always want to put the best foot forward about self and even mask what is really true about ourselves. By definition pride exalts self and so a proud man is not one that is accurate about himself. A person that is not aware of the influence of self-love will make judgments about self and its motives with self-love guiding the examination process. Rather than be deceived and fooled about ourselves by self-love and pride, which wants to see self in the best light and judges self by the worst in other people, we must judge self by Scripture. This is quite clear from Jeremiah 17:9-10: “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it? 10 “I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds.” The heart is so deceitful that it cannot be understood apart from the LORD. He has given us His Word and Spirit for the work.

Let us be very clear about this issue. We must do all that we do to the glory of God or it is sin. We must not give God a general nod and tell ourselves that we have acted for His glory. We must not think that our actions that conform outwardly to the Bible are in reality for the glory of God. No, our motives and intentions must truly desire the glory of God in what we do. The inward man must be moved by love for God. We must search our hearts and do it thoroughly and judge them by Scripture. Whatever is not truly for the glory of God is sin and there is no little sin because there is no little God to sin against.

“Resolved, to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness in the other world as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of” (Resolution 22).

Last time I tried to set out that to desire and seek the glory of God for all eternity actually requires man to seek his own happiness in the other world, though that must not be his primary goal. One must recognize that the greatest commandment is to love God with all of my heart, mind, soul, and strength. All that I do must flow from love for God. However, in seeking God with all of my being I find my created purpose and my greatest joy and happiness. But how is one to do that and how does that influence our happiness now?

In order to have true happiness now one must live for true happiness in eternity. All that God has provided for His people now is really but a foretaste of things to come. In order to pursue things in eternity one must pursue them now and for eternity. Eternity must influence what we do now or we spoil both now and eternity. Let us imagine that God desires to express or communicate His glory through human beings. They must begin to love His glory in some way as He loves His glory (be holy as I am holy) in this life so that they can be filled with it for eternity. God expresses or communicates His own glory to and in man in this life but in eternity it will be more fully expressed.

Clearly, then, what we do now has a major influence on our happiness and joy for eternity.

How are we to obtain for ourselves as much happiness in the other world as we possibly can? In one sense we must see that it is not really something we obtain for ourselves, but it is all by grace. We are to pursue these things by the strength that grace gives and not by selfish reasons. The way to pursue eternal joy is to pursue God right now with all that we have at the moment praying for more grace to pursue Him even more. There is no real distinction between seeking God and seeking to glorify His name. We must pray for grace to give us more and more holy desires in order to seek God and His glory more and more.

Another issue here is that of justification. When God justifies a person He has punished Christ for all of that person’s sins so that there is not one sin left for that person to suffer for. When God justifies a person He gives that person a perfect righteousness in Christ so that there is no one iota of righteousness that the person needs to earn to enter heaven and the presence of God. Therefore, as Jesus taught, one cup of cold water given in His name will not lose its reward” (Matthew 10:42). Since heaven has already been fully and perfectly earned on behalf of His people, all that a believer does out of love for God or for His name’s sake will be rewarded. So to pursue eternal happiness is to pursue the glory of God in this world and to do all things for His name’s sake. Believers should be given to good works for the glory of His name (Mat 5:16) but knowing that the glory of the God they love is being displayed and in that the believer is happy.

Let us look at this from another angle. Believers are the temple of God and His glory now. It is not that the believer can do something in his own strength that will draw out the glory of God and put it on display, but it is the grace of God dwelling in the believer that shines through the believer. In this way the believer shares in the divine nature (II Peter 1:4). To seek His glory is to share in His divine life which love and joy are part of. We seek His glory out of love and yet because He is our greatest love His glory displayed is our greatest joy. We are to love His glory in us and delight to see His glory shine through us. When we experience His glory (beauty of His attributes) it brings us great joy because it is sharing in His joy. When we see His glory displayed in the world that delights our soul as well because He is our greatest love.

John 17:26 is key to understanding one aspect of this: “and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” It is in knowing God that the love that Christ was loved with will be in us. We must also remember that eternal life is to know God (John 17:3) and we know that is not apart from His love and joy. The believer must pursue God with the violence that Edwards spoke about so that the believer may experience eternal life both now and in eternity. Eternal life is really Christ Himself and the love He was loved with and the joy He had are found in knowing God. We know God by loving Him and pursuing the delight of His glory, knowing that it will be ever increasing for all eternity. We pursue knowing Him by pursuing His glory which because we love Him we delight to see it displayed.

“Resolved, to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness in the other world as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of” (Resolution 22).

From one point of view this resolution is a crass display of hedonism and utter self-centeredness. Here Edwards almost sounds as if he would fit in with the modern terrorists who use violence to obtain bliss in heaven. However, there is far more here than meets the eye of the modern man who is not used to thinking through things but allows technology and others do that for him.

What does it mean to obtain happiness in the other world? This means that Edwards had an eternal view of things and was focused on doing all in light of that. While it does appear that this statement is self-centered, in the context of Edwardsean theology it is anything but selfish. In fact, this is as God-centered a statement as one could find when seen in its broader context. Remember that his first resolution was: “Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God’s glory and to my own good, profit, and pleasure, in the whole of my duration, without any consideration of the time, whether now or never so many myriads of ages hence. Resolved to do whatever I think to be my duty, and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general. Resolved to do this, whatever difficulties I meet with, how ever so many and how ever so great.” To go along with that, his second resolution was: “Resolved, never to do any manner of thing, whether in soul or body, less or more, but what tends to the glory of God; nor be, nor suffer it, if I can possibly avoid it.”

The fourth resolution shows that he desired what tended to the glory of God and only that. The first resolution shows the link between the glory of God and Edwards’ “own good, profit, and pleasure.” Edwards makes these things clear in his Miscellanies and other writings. If a person is sharing in the life of God, then that person is sharing in the joy that flows between the Father and the Son. If a person is sharing in that life and joy, that person will have and be growing in true pleasure. In other words, the pleasure that a person has in God is really the pleasure of God in Himself that He is sharing with those that are in Christ and that Christ is in. For Edwards to pursue the glory of God is for him to desire to share in the pleasure that God has in Himself.

We must also think through the issue of what it means to glorify God. Does man have the power and ability to exhibit the internal glory of God in and of himself? Rather, it is God that expresses His own internal glory and shines it through Christ to and in man so that His glory would shine through man. In this way, then, the true glory and beauty of God is only seen when He shares His beauty and glory by working it in human beings. In other words, a person that truly desires the glory of God must of necessity desire to enjoy God. It is only when a person is enjoying God and having pleasure in Him that a person is truly sharing in the life of God. It is then that God is working in that person the joy and pleasure He has in His own glory.

We can also capture the picture from one of Edwards’ sermons. In a series of sermons entitled Charity and its Fruits, there is a sermon on Heaven a World of Charity, or Divine Love. In this sermon heaven is pictured as an ocean of love. Each individual develops is or her capacity to receive love on earth. So the greater that our capacity is developed on earth to receive love, the more love that individual receives in heaven. In other words, each believer is taken and dipped into the ocean of divine pleasure and love when in heaven and will be as full of love as the capacity that has been developed will allow. In other words, to pursue the glory of God and even the desire to glorify Him for eternity is to pursue one’s pleasure in God because that is an expression and emanation of the glory of God in and through His people. To have the desire to glorify God both now and in eternity to the maximum degree is to desire that we share in God’s joy and pleasure in Himself both now and in eternity. That is how God glorifies Himself.

Yet Edwards does use the term “violence.” That does not mean that he is going to be violent to other people, but the violence refers to the force and activity on himself that he will be exerting in order to pursue the glory of God. Matthew 11:12 uses the same language: “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force. It is a word that refers to force being exerted. Edwards was referring to himself and the force he was going to use on himself.

“Resolved, to maintain the strictest temperance to eating and drinking” (Resolution 20).

“Resolved, to inquire every night, before I go to bed, whether I have acted in the best way I possibly could, with respect to eating and drinking” (Resolution 40).

I Corinthians 10:31 commands all to eat and drink and whatever they do to do it to the glory of God. These resolutions reflect the heart of a man that took the word of God seriously. It also reflects a heart that wants to do all things to the glory of God. In the modern United States, this is totally a foreign concept. However, it is one that we will do well to meditate on. The thought of today is to eat as you want and as you please. Food is thought of in terms of how much it pleases the person eating or the person buying or being entertained. On the other hand, food is thought of in terms of the body. Many are fanatical about what they eat in order to maintain the appearance that they want.

Eating for the sheer pleasure of it with no or little thought of God is an act of idolatry. Eating in order to make myself look good without thought of God is also an act of idolatry. The Greatest Commandment is to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength. In some way, then, believers are to eat out of love for God and His glory. That which moves man to eat should be the glory of God and the regulation for what should be eaten and how much is the glory of God. Man is not to be like the animals that eat by instinct put into them.

While some eat in order to maintain an appearance or to be healthy, that can be no more than self-love. God is to be our ultimate priority in all that we do, not self. Our souls are to be given to God first and foremost in order to glorify Him. We might need to eat food that we ordinarily do not eat in order to glorify God in being with others. Man is an eternal being and his body must not be his god. Man is to serve the living God and not the god of health and food. This is a foreign concept in the modern day where man thinks that as long as he does good things for himself he is serving God.

Let us use an illustration to make the point here. Prayer is far more than what the average person does. The average religious person has a list and asks God for things. He or she then tacks on the name of Jesus at the end. However, we are to pray for the glory of God in all things first and foremost. So all the words lifted to God without concern for His name and glories are really acts of idolatry since they are primarily about our own selfish concerns. Yet we should give thanks for the food we eat and that should be a prayer. Our prayer before our meals should be far more than just a few empty words to God, it should be in line with those set apart to do all for His glory. A clue for this is found in the so-called “Lord’s Prayer” which Jesus gave to the disciples as a pattern for prayer in Matthew 6. First of all, man is to pray that God’s name be hallowed, His kingdom to come, and then His will to be done. Then and only then is man to pray for his daily bread. But if we love God as the Greatest Commandment commands, the reason that we are to pray for our daily bread is so that we can live in a way that hallows His name, advances His kingdom, and enables us to do His will.

What we call “returning thanks” or “saying grace” should really be giving thanks to God for the food and asking Him to sanctify or set apart the food for His use in our bodies which are to be used for His glory. Man is to be totally devoted and set apart to live for the glory of God and that must include what he eats and drinks and the reason he eats and drinks. While there are many secondary reasons for why man is to eat and drink the way he does, if the secondary reasons become primary man becomes and idolater of himself. This is why Edwards could make a resolution regarding temperance but even more importantly to act the best way he could in reference to eating and drinking. He saw himself as a vessel in the hands of God and he wanted to do all that he could, even in eating and drinking, to glorify God. So should all believers.

“Resolved, never to speak evil of anyone, so that it shall tend to his dishonor, more or less, upon no account except for some real good” (Resolution 16).

The Scripture tells us to watch our lips and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We are expressly told that every careless word will be brought into judgment (Mt 12:36). We are told that every thing that we do for the least of them we are doing for Christ and what we don’t do for the least of them we don’t do for Christ (Mat 25). We are told that to call people certain name are violations of the sixth commandment and are at least linked with murder in the heart. “When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, But he who restrains his lips is wise” (Prov 10:19). Without doubt our words are very important.

When Isaiah saw the Lord in Isaiah 6 his view was turned to himself and what he saw was that his lips where unclean and that he lived among a people of unclean lips. I think that what this shows is that Isaiah knew at that moment that his heart was vile and that what came from his inner man made him unclean. This was what Jesus spoke of in Mark 7: “20 And He was saying, “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. 21 “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, 22 deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. 23 “All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.” It is what comes from within the man that defiles the man.

As we take these verses and apply them to Edwards’ resolution, we can see why he did not want to speak evil of anyone in order to dishonor them. Certainly that is against the Golden Rule and the commandments. But he also did not want to sin against God either. In David’s confession of his sin with Bathsheba and his part in her husband’s murder he confessed that he had only sinned against God (Psalm 51:4). If we speak evil of others we are guilty of murder as Jesus set out and so our sin is really against God. When we speak evil of others we are speaking against the image of God since all men are made in His image. We would do well to watch our mouths and what we say as well.

But another reason that we should want to emulate Edwards in this is because we should desire pure hearts. We should want to have hearts that love others and even our worst enemies. We are commanded to love the sheep of Christ and we are commanded to love our enemies. Can we love others and speak evil of them at the same time? This is not to say that we have to speak with syrup on our lips all of the time, but we need to be wary of speaking evil against others because each time we do we violate the Greatest Commandment and the Second Greatest Commandment as well. A desire for a pure heart and to love God and all people should make us keep a close watch on our lips. The tongue “is a restless evil and full of deadly poison” (James 3:8). When we speak evil of men we are striking at them with a deadly poison that is perhaps worse than vipers.

We must also be careful not to speak evil of people because of the influence our sin will have on the people that are listening. Our words sink to the depths of their being and certainly have some influence on the purity of heart in other people. We certainly do not love anyone when we speak evil of others and dishonor them with our lips. One, we sin against God because we are verbally attacking His image. Two, we wrong the person that we are speaking against when we dishonor them before others. Three, we dishonor the person we are speaking to in that we are not loving them and being a bad example to them. We also are possibly putting wrong ideas in them by our words that they will use to sin against others with. Four, we certainly dishonor ourselves. So we can see why Edwards resolved never to speak evil of anyone unless it would bring about some real good. If this same resolution was practices in churches across our land, it would certainly result in greater peace and harmony.

“Resolved, never to suffer the least motions of anger to irrational beings” (Resolution 15).

This is another step in submission to God. Irrational beings might mean animals or perhaps inanimate objects. Many people get angry at cars, computers, and all sorts of mechanical objects. Others get angry at animals and whatever might prevent them from getting what they want when they want it. All animals and all objects, however, are instruments of the sovereign plan of God. In reality, then, when people get angry at irrational beings and inanimate objects they are getting mad at how God is using those things. The stated resolution, therefore, is to be in submission to God and His sovereignty. But even more, the resolution is not to suffer the least motions of anger. In other words, he wanted an immediate submission to God. He wanted to so walk with God that his spirit would not even rise against anyone or anything in the slightest at any moment.

Edwards believed in the sovereignty of God with all of his being and he wanted to be in meek and willing submission to whatever God willed for him. This is a true recognition of God’s sovereignty in all of live and a desire to want to please Him in all things. How trite and infantile modern man is when he wants to know how far he may go in certain activities and for it not to be sin. Rather, like Edwards, we should desire and long for pure hearts in all ways and at all times no matter what God brings to us. It is simply recognition from the heart and not just a head doctrine when desires like this are expressed. When Edwards died he basically choked to death over a period of a few days. His doctor was amazed as Edwards died without the appearance of the slightest perturbation or dismay. He simply meekly received what God had ordained to bring Him glory.