Thursday, August 23, 2007

"$3 worth of Gospel, please!"

From D. A. Carson's Basics for Believers: An Exposition of Philippians, pp. 12-13.

I would like to buy about three dollars worth of gospel, please.

Not too much – just enough to make me happy, but not so much that I get addicted.

I don’t want so much gospel that I learn to really hate
covetousness and lust.

I certainly don’t want so much that I start to love my enemies, cherish self-denial, and contemplate missionary service in some alien culture.

I want ecstasy, not repentance;

I want transcendence, not transformation.


I would like to be cherished by some nice, forgiving, broad-minded people, but I myself don’t want to love those from different races – especially if they smell.

I would like enough gospel to make my family secure and my children well behaved, but not so much that I find my ambitions redirected or my giving too greatly enlarged.

I would like about three dollars worth of the gospel, please.



Via: Between Two Worlds.

1 comment:

dwight said...

what do you get for 4 dollars? -- i like that man... and isn't that the way it is? I like bukowski's poem 'roll the dice', where he says, "if you're gonna try, go all the way, otherwise don't even start at all"... that is the gospel man - you have to give everything you have for it, yet it's free; it only costs our lives... don't waste your life buddy.