Book Review- The Purpose Driven Life- Part 4
A few weeks ago I began my chapter-by-chapter review of
Rick Warren's popular book
The Purpose Driven Life (
hardback,
Kindle,
audio book).
Rick Warren presents a theology of suffering in this book that caught my attention as a defender of the Christian worldview because of its applicability in addressing the problem of evil and suffering. Because the book has forty chapters, I decided to break up the review into multiple parts that coincide with the parts of Warren's book. For easy navigation of this review, here are the parts with links that will be updated as they publish:
Part 4: You Were Created To Become Like Christ
Chapter 22: Created to Become Like Christ
Warren begins by explaining what it means for humans to be "created in the Image of God." It means that we are spiritual beings; we are intellectual beings; we are relational beings, and we have a moral conscience. He goes on to explain that despite this, humans are fallen and are sinful. This leads to the third purpose: to become like Christ. Warren reminds the reader that God is much more concerned with our character than He is with our comfort. Warren takes this opportunity to explain further that Jesus' promise of an "abundant life" has nothing to do with a life of ease, health, and wealth. If someone thinks that this is what Jesus meant, then they are setting themselves us for disillusionment with Christ and life. Jesus was speaking of character development not the "health and wealth" gospel that is often preached today.
Warren makes it very clear that the character development required to become like Christ cannot be done on our own. The work of the Holy Spirit is absolutely necessary, but it takes the free will decision of the individual Christian to cooperate with the Holy Spirit. This is not salvation that is cooperative (that is through Christ and Christ alone); this is spiritual growth that both the Holy Spirit and the Christian are necessary. (For more on God's sovereignty and man's free will, I highly recommend the book
Salvation and Sovereignty by Kenneth Keathley.)
Finally, Warren warns the reader that this is not a quick process- it will take a lifetime. As long as we are on earth, we have room to grow. If we become impatient or disillusioned with the work that God is doing in our lives, then we have lost the eternal perspective and have slipped into a narcissistic view of our lives. Like with the other purposes, we must remember that the experiences God takes us through are preparing us for spending eternity with Christ.
Chapter 23: How We Grow
Warren emphasizes the necessity of being intentional about becoming like Christ. Our character development does not happen by accident, and it does not happen if we are resistant to it. The Holy Spirit is necessary for our discipleship but so is our continuous, conscious choice to become like Christ. Warren explains that when the Apostle Paul stated that Christians must "work out" their salvation (Philippians 2:12-13), this was a statement to Christians- meaning that they were already saved by grace alone by Christ alone, but that their growth and becoming like Christ is what needed to be worked out with the power of the Holy Spirit. Warren goes on to explain that "work out" is much more than just changing the way we act, but it is changing the way that we think. Right thinking precedes right action, so it is important that we adjust our thinking to match the reality that God exists and has created a specific world for us to live in and with.
Chapter 24: Transformed By Truth
In order to change the way that we think, to live rightly in the world God has created, we must conform our thinking to truth. Many of the problems that we face in this world are because we have a false view of the world, and that false view causes us to bump against reality in painful ways. But how do we change the way that we think to be more inline with reality? Ask the Creator of this world. God has given us His Word that gives us much information about this world, including how man acts, how man is supposed to act, how man is separated from God, and how man can be reconciled to God. However, in order to allow God's revealed information to transform us, we must make a conscious choice to accept the authority of God's Word, fill our minds with God's Word, and apply its principles to our lives. It is through these chosen actions that the Holy Spirit can transform us to be more like our Savior.
Chapter 25: Transformed by Trouble
This world is full of trouble. Man is evil, and his evil choices cause much suffering of himself and others. God's plan is for us to spend eternity with Him; however, we must become like Christ before we can do that. God created this world to prepare our character, so suffering is a part of it, but man's evil compounds that suffering. But, God did not fail to anticipate every choice of every person that would lead to more suffering. And knowing how each of us would freely react to those circumstances, He permits them to take place to make us more like Christ and prepare us for eternity. Every event is an opportunity to grow, and we have a difficult choice of how we will react.
As we are transformed by truth, we are better prepared to make the right choice. It doesn't make the choices easier, but it does convert our prayers from requests for survival of the circumstance to requests for transformation of our character by the circumstances. When our hearts desire to be more like Christ, our purpose is conformed to God's purpose for our lives, and He honors that request. This doesn't just happen once, and it happens many times over the course of a lifetime (why we must be gracious and patient with our brothers and sisters in Christ- see Part 3 on Fellowship). That is why we cannot focus solely on the pain in the moment. We must look past the moment to eternity and see that the suffering that we are currently experiencing "is not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us." Every troubling event is an opportunity to grow to be more like Christ, and Warren encourages Christians to thank God, not for the evil, but for the fact that what may be "intended for evil, God intended for good."
Warren reminds the Christian that God is not distant, making these proclamations without experiencing their implications Himself. The second person of the Trinity became man and suffered unjust crucifixion to make His eternal purpose possible. He rose from the dead to prove that He conquered suffering and accomplished the ultimate good purpose through suffering. If we have accepted the transforming power of the
Resurrection over our future (we are saved), we should also accept its transforming power over our character.
Chapter 26: Growing Through Temptation
Another way that we become more like Christ is through overcoming temptation. Temptation is unique in its character-building capability in that it presents an option: to either do right or to do wrong. It often causes a struggle between what our fallen nature predisposes us to do and what we know we should do. The emotional and intellectual struggle is real and causes much pain in this life. But, the more that we choose to do right, the more we become like Christ. Warren explains that God promises not only that none of us are above temptation, but He will always be there to help us overcome temptation. Overcoming temptation is not something to be accomplished on our own.
The Enemy uses our desires (both legitimate and illegitimate) to tempt us to do what is wrong in the hopes that we will choose disobedience of our Creator and in the hopes of causing more havoc in our and others' lives. Warren explains that it is important to identify various circumstances in which we are most vulnerable to sin and be prepared for the temptation, so that when it comes, we can ask God for help to overcome it. Warren reminds the Christian that God is faithful, ever-patient, and eager to help us overcome temptation, so God never tires of helping us. However often we need His help, we simply need to pray and ask.
Chapter 27: Defeating Temptation
Defeating temptation is not easy. God has promised Christians that He will help them if asked. Warren points out, though, that God has revealed several things that we must do as well. We cannot just ask God to deliver us and it be done; we must demonstrate a willingness and effort to overcome the temptation. Warren starts with explaining that when temptation comes, it is important to ignore the temptation and focus our mind on something else. For the more we focus on something (even if it is to ignore it), the more we focus on it and the more it grabs our attention and the harder it is to overcome. Memorization of Scripture is one of the best things to refocus our attention towards. Along with the worship of God, this is another reason by meditating on Scripture constantly is so important.
Warren explains that one of the lies that Satan tells people who he is tempting is that they are alone and the only one to ever experience it. This is to isolate them from The Church (fellowship) and its godly members who could help a brother or sister through temptation. Confiding in another allows us to support each other as part of God's family. Many times when we ask God for help, He does not just give us a way to escape that one instance of temptation, but He places a member of the Body of Christ in our lives who we can rely upon when we know we are weak.
Chapter 28: It Takes Time
As much as we would like for it to be, discipleship is not a quick-fix. Becoming like Christ is a long process that takes a lifetime of learning to choose to follow Christ through life's experiences. Even though Christians have received a new nature in Christ, they still are affected by the Fall of Adam and Eve and still have much to learn about what it means to "be like Christ." Warren reminds the Christian that God is more concerned about lasting change than an immediate fix. Unfortunately, it takes us humans numerous times of learning the same lesson to finally get it to stick. This is why we must experience the same things over and over again. This is why others must experience the same things over and over again. No suffering is gratuitous. God knows what He is doing. And what He is doing is developing the character of His children. God is patient enough and loves us enough to see us through learning the same lessons over and over again. If God is that patient with us, then we need to be patient with God as He is conforming us, though our life's repeated experiences and our repeated choices, to the image of His Son.
Purpose #3: Discipleship (My Thoughts for the Apologist)
Two of the things that I greatly appreciate in this part is that Warren comes out explicitly against two false modern ideas that have sneaked their way into the Church: the idea that man is not naturally sinful and that God has promised us health and wealth if we obey Him. Warren not only makes his case bibically but also practically. Further the denial of man's sinfulness is essentially the affirmation that we are already like Christ, thus this section about how to become like Christ would be useless. And the belief that if we follow God that we will always be healthy and wealthy would make this entire book about a theology of suffering pointless. It is precisely because of evil and suffering that we long for answers of their purpose (the "why" question) from our all-loving and all-powerful God.
If suffering does not have a purpose, then it is, in fact, gratuitous. The fact that Warren emphasizes that God's concern is our character rather than our comfort lets us know that we should expect trying events in our lives. Whether we did not learn to be more like Christ with an event or if the effects of learning have worn off, repeated events present us with additional opportunities to choose to follow Christ and become more like Him. So, no instance of suffering in our lives is gratuitous. And God does this for every Christian, so none of their suffering is gratuitous either.
Next week, we will examine the next purpose: Ministry.
Continue on with the review (new links will appear as the parts publish):
Part 1: Created For God's Purpose
Part 2: Created For God's Pleasure (Worship)
Part 3: Created For God's Family (Fellowship)
Part 4: Created To Become Like Christ (Discipleship)
Part 5: Created To Serve God (Ministry)
Part 6: Created For A Mission (Evangelism)
