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16th April 2024
TuesdayReflection
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'Interview with John Piper'
How Do We Know God's Will?
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Tenielle writes in to ask, "Romans 12:2 says
'Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.'
Pastor John, what does it mean when it says 'by testing'?"
That is a really, really good question.
The standard lexical definition goes like this:
"to make a critical examination of something to determine genuineness, such as metals by fire."
And, interestingly, it is used in 1 Corinthians, where it says "fire will test" .... "what sort of work each one has done."
So, our works at the last day are going to be tested by fire.
So the idea is that the genuineness of something - in this case the will of God - is found out by an appropriate test.
For metals, it is often fire.
For genuine ripeness in fruit, it would be like tasting.
And for genuine health in a horse, you might look at his teeth.
And here, interestingly, the thing to be recognized is the will of God - namely, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
And the question is: So, what is the test?
Do you look at the teeth of the will of God?
Or you put your tongue on the behaviour you are testing?
Do you put some match to it?
What is the test?
And Paul answers, "The renewal of your mind is the test.
You will be able to discern what is the will of God."
Here is the picture I have in my mind:
My renewed mind, renewed by the word of God, renewed by the Spirit of God, renewed by soaking in the revealed nature of God in Scripture, is litmus paper which turns green when the good and acceptable and perfect will touches it - green, go for that.
And it turns red when it considers some act which is not the will of God.
So, my mind is being shaped by God into the kind of mind that, when it contemplates a behaviour or an attitude or a word, there is something that says no or yes to it.
And here is a great example that shows you how the mind is being renewed for this very purpose.
It is Philippians 1:9-10, where Paul is praying that this would happen.
He prays like this:
"It is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve"- now, there is the word - "what is excellent."
So he is saying what happens to your love is that love gets more knowledge in Scripture, and love gets more insight in Scripture, and love gets more of everything it needs to be the kind of litmus paper it needs to be.
Well, you can't consult a list of every decision you have to make.
I would say ninety percent of the decisions we make through the day don't have a list that applies to them.
You have got to make judgment calls over and over again as to what is good, what is acceptable, what is perfect.
And that is why our minds are being renewed day by day.
In Romans 1:28, it says
Because those people refuse to keep in mind the true knowledge about God, he has given them over to corrupted minds, so that they do the things that they should not do.
They didn't want it. They didn't love it.
And so the renewed mind not only has the knowledge or insight capacities to discern something that is good and acceptable and perfect, but it also has the spiritual taste.
So that when something is seen to be of God, it tastes good to us.
We delight in it. We approve of it.
><(((°>
This is an edited version.
The full article and Bible references are avaiable on request
John Piper
is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary.
For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
He is author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist and most recently Foundations for Lifelong Learning: Education in Serious Joy.
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