Adding To The Armor

From The Christian Reader:

Adding to the Armor




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Knowledge is not the end of the work of grace. To it we must add temperance. Without it, both faith and reason may soon relinquish their rightful place to temporal pleasures. Temperance is an excellent steward. It regularly inspects the soul and sets the saint’s affections in order so that he does not ignore holy duties to pursue his own entertainment. If you allow your love of creature comforts—or even your pleasure in family and loved ones—to outrun your love for the Lord, you cannot be a victorious soldier for Christ. Therefore, pray for temperance, which keeps the spiritual gauge of your heart well within the safety range.



Imagine yourself now well equipped and marching toward heaven while basking in prosperity. Should you not also prepare for foul weather— i.e., a period of adversity? Satan will line the hedges with a thousand temptations when you come into the narrow lanes of adversity, where you cannot run as in the day of your prosperity. You may manage to escape an alluring world, only to be flattened when trouble strikes, unless you know how to persevere. Therefore, the apostle commands, “to temperance [add] patience” (2 Peter 1:6).



Do you have patience? An excellent grace indeed, but not enough. You must be pious as well. So Peter continues, “to patience [add] godliness” (v. 6). Godliness encompasses the whole worship of God, inward and outward. Your morals may be impeccable, but if you do not worship God, then you are an atheist. If you worship Him and that devoutly, but not according to Scripture, you are an idolater. If according to the rule, but not according to the spirit of the Gospel, then you are a hypocrite. The only worship that leads to the inner chamber of the true godliness is that which is done “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).



by William Gurnall, from The Christian in Complete Armor