Look where you want to go
Issue #148
A living faith is a working faith. The life of repentance is how we live out our faith — and that living out is hard work.
Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, being God himself, never wavered in living it perfectly. But following in the footsteps of God himself is difficult work — indeed, it would be impossible if we did not have his Spirit doing the work within us. We are weak and sinful, and our flesh wants to kill us and turn us away from God continually. It wants to destroy our confidence in him, and return to the ways of the old man, who died in Christ. Thus the Christian life is not a life of coasting downstream once you’ve done the initial hard work of reordering your affections and getting your spiritual ducks in a row. You don’t get into a new, holy routine and then just sit back and relax as it all unfolds naturally.
You have to battle. You have to fight. You have to continually re-set your affections on Christ, and constantly re-order your passions toward the true and the good and the beautiful — because, if left to their natural devices, they will immediately and insistently incline back toward sin. Paul himself describes this reality in his own heart: “A wretched man I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?” (Ro 7:24)
Fortunately, scripture gives us considerable instruction in how we are to live in repentance, so that we may have the peace of God; the natural but hard-won prize we receive from the gospel of peace. It is not merely a matter of resting in the justification we have received. It is a matter of working out our salvation with fear and trembling, as Paul says in Philippians 3. And he himself sets an example for us, exhorting us not to be complacent, thinking we have laid hold of the resurrection already, but rather telling us:
brothers, I do not consider myself to have laid hold; and one thing I do—the things behind indeed forgetting, and to the things before stretching forth, I pursue to the goal, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13–14)
But how are we to do this, practically? What are the actual steps we should take? What are the patterns of behavior we should be trying to cultivate in our lives? What habits? What methods?
One critical method is modeled for us in what Paul says about stretching forth and pursuing the goal. And he returns to this method in Philippians 4:
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice; let your equanimity be known to all men; the Lord is near; for nothing be anxious, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God; and the peace of God, which is surpassing all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. As to the rest, brothers, as many things as are true, as many as are venerable, as many as are righteous, as many as are pure, as many as are lovely, as many as are commendable, if any excellence, and if any praise, these things think upon; the things which ye both learned, and received, and heard, and saw in me—these do, and the God of the peace shall be with you. (vv 4–9)
Notice the connection: in verse 7, it is by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving that God’s peace will guard our hearts and our minds. But then in verse 9, it is by focusing our attention on certain things — thinking on and doing things that are true and good and beautiful — that the God of peace will be with us.
Draw near to God, James says, and he will draw near to you (Jas 4:8). And where God is, there is peace. So drawing near to God in prayer will bring peace; but drawing near to God in this other way will also bring peace.
These are not, of course, mutually exclusive methods; they are to be used together. See how Paul connects his instructions in verses 8 and 9 with the previous command to pray, saying, “As to the rest.” Literally he says, “To the remaining.” In English we might say, “What else?” “What’s left?” Oh yes — whatsoever things are true and good and beautiful, think on these, and do them, and the God of peace will be with you.
This is Paul’s thought sequence. He tells us we must rejoice, be equanimous, anxious for nothing, have peace, all through prayer — but he does not leave us with that one instruction; he adds another to it. Prayer is how we are to act toward God; now he turns to how we are to act in the world: it is by fixing our attention on certain things.
This is a natural extension of the command to pray, because prayer fixes our attention on God. God is the chief object of our focus; the highest good; the peak of the mountain. But he is not the only good. The waters of life flow down the mountain and work out in many lower things. Everything that God made in creation reflects him in some way. Every natural thing expresses a spiritual reality. There is truth and goodness and beauty in many things, and some are better and more beautiful than others, but inasmuch as they reveal their maker, they are worth directing our attention to. As they participate in the goodness of God, and we participate in them, we ourselves become oriented toward the goodness of God.
This is true in the human realm as well as in the natural world. Man is made in the image of God, and many of the things he does therefore are true and good and beautiful. Thanks to God’s own undeserved kindness and help in this life, even unbelievers often produce things that are worth thinking on; things that participate in God’s goodness.
But this must be in the proper order. Paul places rejoicing in the Lord through thankful prayer first. Then, what is left after that, is thinking on and participating in anything else that is true or good or beautiful. We must be fixed on the highest good first, in order to rightly participate in any lower good. The movement must always be upward; we must always be seeing how these lower things point us to God, because otherwise they become the highest good for us, and that is the essence of idolatry. Nonetheless, when we are correctly oriented toward God, all these lower goods are worth our attention too, because through them we ourselves are oriented toward God. So they, like prayer, move us toward God and therefore produce peace, as Isaiah says:
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee. (Isaiah 26:3)
Now let me ask you a question — and in one sense the answer is obvious, but I think it is worth asking anyway, because the answer goes a lot deeper down than we think.
Here it is:
Why does Paul direct us to think on, and do, these praiseworthy, commendable, pure, righteous, excellent things? Why does he instruct us — command us in fact — to participate in the true and the good and the beautiful?
One part of the answer is obvious, which is that these are things that will move us toward God and therefore have the outcome of producing peace for us. That is something that Paul, and the Holy Spirit, want for us.
But I want to dig a little deeper. Why does fixing our attention on God move us toward him?
The answer to this is not quite as obvious. Intuitively we know that it’s true. But explaining why is not quite so easy — yet when we understand the explanation we will find ourselves considerably more motivated, and considerably better equipped, to actually live the life of repentance, the life of mind renewal, that we are called to.
Treasure not up to yourselves treasures on the earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break through and steal, but treasure up to yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth destroy, and where thieves do not break through nor steal, for where your treasure is, there will be also your heart. The lamp of the body is the eye; if, therefore, thine eye may be perfect, all thy body shall be enlightened, but if thine eye may be evil, all thy body shall be dark; if, therefore, the light that is in thee is darkness, how great is the darkness! is able to serve two lords, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to the one, and despise the other; ye are not able to serve God and Mammon. (Matthew 26:19–24)
When we put this passage beside Paul’s instructions in Philippians, they become mutually illuminating. Each helps us to understand the other. Firstly, Jesus gives us the principle that is behind Paul’s instructions: “where your treasure is, there will be also your heart.” In other words, what we long for is what we will naturally act toward. But this can also be used in the other direction, to train our affections in godliness, because it is a kind of feedback loop. We do not act like animals out of brute instinct, always following whatever we happen to desire in the present moment. Rather, as rational creatures, our heads can rule over our hearts, and we can intentionally act toward things which we know we should desire. Because we are designed to desire the things we act toward, acting toward them naturally produces a desire for them in us over time — even if they did not seem especially desirable to start with. Again, I am speaking of our affections; Jesus says where your heart is, not where your head is. The whole point of his instruction is that it goes into your head so that you may assent to its truth and start to put it into action, so that you may train your heart. Decide that your treasure will be in heaven, act as if your treasure is in heaven, treasure up for yourselves the things of heaven, and you will find that your heart is oriented toward heaven. Conversely, if you act as if the things of earth are your treasure, so also will your heart be oriented toward the things of earth.
That is the first thing that Jesus teaches us here to help us understand Paul’s instructions. Here is the second: he teaches us the fundamental means, the basic method, by which we are to go about treasuring the things of heaven. Notice the connection between treasure and the eye. When you first read this it is easy to think, what is that doing there — that weird comment about the eye being the light of the body? Is Matthew just throwing together a bunch of sayings from Christ willy-nilly? Is this a sort of compendium of insights from the sermon Jesus preached, and Matthew couldn’t find a better place for this one?
Nothing like that is going on. Quite the contrary. Jesus’ comment about the eye is what explains his instructions about treasuring the things of heaven. If you focus on the light, on heavenly things, you will be full of light; if you focus on the darkness, on earthly things, you will be full of darkness. This is the spiritual version of what those of us who learned to ride motorcycles were taught in basic handling: you go where you look. Many motorbike accidents are caused by target fixation. You see something you don’t want to hit — and you focus on it because you’re afraid of it…so you hit it. You go where you look. (I learned this the hard way by driving into the front of a truck; after that, every time I saw something I didn’t want to hit, my eye automatically jumped to where I wanted to go!)
This is not an arbitrary example. I have already observed that the physical images the spiritual: the way our bodies are designed to work reflects spiritual realities. If that were not the case, Jesus could not use the eye as a symbol for minding the things above, rather than the things upon the earth, as Paul puts it in Colossians 3:2. We learn about spiritual things through the physical world God made, including our own bodies. We learn about the power of God through the symbol of the arm and the hand. We learn about the presence of God through the symbol of the face. And we learn about the spiritual effects of focusing our mind’s eye on certain things by seeing the physical effects of focusing our physical eyes on things. You go where you look. (The same is true in martial arts by the way. If your opponent gets you off balance, your only chance of not hitting the floor is by keeping your eyes fixed on him, instead of looking where you’re afraid you’re gonna end up.)
This is all fairly easy to understand; we can intuitively grasp the idea that you go where you look, and so we can understand that Paul is saying in Philippians 4 that you should look where you want to go. Seek first the kingdom, as Jesus says — look where you want to go. But something more is going on here; something a bit mysterious, but critical to understanding the transformation of our minds that takes place through the life of repentance. Think of 1 John 3, and what John says about what will happen to us when we see Jesus, when he is shown forth in his glory:
Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet shown forth what we shall be. We know that, if he shall be shown forth, we shall be like him; for we shall see him even as he is. And every one that hath this hope set on him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. (1 John 3:2–3)
Where does John get this from? Obviously God could directly reveal it to him, but I don’t think that is primarily how this kind of letter works. John is rather reflecting on things he has already learned in the scriptures, and through Jesus himself. He knows, for instance, that when Moses spent time gazing upon God’s presence, he began to be transformed physically (Ex 34:29). This strikes us in the modern day as extremely strange, even discomfiting; we don’t know what to do with it; but when you understand the physical world symbolically, when you know that our bodies are made as images of God as well as our spirits, it is no surprise at all that Moses’ face began to radiate light when he looked upon the true light who is the Word of Yahweh. Paul draws the same conclusion as John in 2 Corinthians 3:
…and we all, with unveiled face, the glory of the Lord beholding in a mirror, to the same image are being transformed, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Because of this, having this ministry, according as we did receive kindness, we do not faint, but did renounce for ourselves the hidden things of shame [i.e., the things in darkness], not walking in craftiness, nor deceitfully using the word of God [which are spiritual forms of darkness], but by the showing-forth of the truth commending ourselves unto every conscience of men, before God; and if also our good news is veiled, it is veiled in those perishing [as Moses had to place a veil over his face because the Hebrews couldn’t handle the glory they saw there], in whom the god of this age did blind the minds of the unbelieving, that there doth not dawn to them the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God; for not ourselves do we preach, but Christ Jesus, Lord—and ourselves your slaves because of Jesus; because it is God who said, Out of darkness light is to shine, who did shine in our hearts, for the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 3:17–4:6)
What we learn here is that where we fix our attention actually transforms us. We go where we look — and that means that we become what we look at. Focusing our attention on God, and on everything that participates in him via the true and the good and the beautiful, transforms us into truer, better, and more beautiful creatures. One day this transformation will even be physical, but for now, it takes place spiritually, through the Holy Spirit working in us. And it works the other way too. Think of Psalm 115:
Their idols are silver and gold,
The work of men’s hands.
They have mouths, but they speak not;
Eyes have they, but they see not;
They have ears, but they hear not;
Noses have they, but they smell not;
They have hands, but they handle not;
Feet have they, but they walk not;
Neither speak they through their throat.
They that make them shall be like unto them;
Yea, every one that trusteth in them. (Psalm 115:4–8)
Obviously this does not mean that people who worship idols become unable to speak or hear or smell or handle or walk. The point, again, is spiritual: worshiping idols makes you like them spiritually.
You become unable to speak spiritually; you cannot bring forth truth.
You become unable to hear spiritually; the truth is inaudible to you.
You become unable to smell spiritually; the pleasing aroma of God’s sacrifices is undetectable to you.
Neither can you rightly handle God’s word, nor walk in his ways.
But of Christians, the opposite is true. We all with unveiled face are being transformed from one degree of glory to another. Provided, that is, we keep our eyes fixed upon God. Provided we are looking where we want to go. James’ analogy is fitting here:
if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, this one hath been like to a man beholding his natural face in a mirror, for he beholdeth himself, and goeth away, and immediately forgetteth what sort of man he was; and he who did look into the perfect law, that of liberty, and did continue there, this one, not a forgetful hearer becoming, but a doer of work—this one shall be blessed in his doing. (James 1:23–25)
In other words, it is possible to look upon God through his word, and then go away and immediately forget what he looked like by failing to do his word. This is faith without works. We keep our eyes fixed on God not just by reading his word, but by doing it. If we are not doing his word, then our eyes have slipped to something else, and we are going in a different direction than we thought. And this is why Paul tells us that we must continually reorient ourselves toward him through prayer, but not just through prayer, but by thinking on and doing anything and everything that will point us to God. By participating in the true and the good and the beautiful — not idolatrously, but gratefully — as a way of keeping us moving toward the source of all goodness and truth and beauty.
What are the implications of this for our own lives? How does this help us assess our habits and behavior, and move us to change them?
You can probably think of several implications already, but I want to draw your attention to just one thing by way of closing: Notice that Paul doesn’t tell us to avoid the things that are bad. “Don’t look where you don’t want to go.” He tells us to focus on the things that are good. “Look where you want to go.” In some ways this makes his command far more expansive. It actually limits us more than if he had phrased it negatively. Our flesh really wants negative commands. It wants to know exactly where the line of sin is, so we can walk right up to it and get as close as possible. But that is not how Christ lived. That is not how the mind of Christ works; the mind that is working in us. The correct question is not: “Is this so bad that I can’t fix my attention on it?” Or, “Is this so bad that it will move me away from God?” It is: “Is this so good that I should fix my attention on it?” “Is this so good that it will move me toward God?” And when we put it that way, I think it is right that we shift a bit uneasily, and review our week, and bite our lip, and say, “Hrmmm.”
A proper application of this principle calls for much deeper reflection. We must chew our food. There is a great deal here that deserves careful attention — especially in the modern day, where we are bombarded by continual, relentless calls for our attention. We are literally carrying devices in our pockets that are designed to make us look at them, all the time (you are probably reading this on yours). And they in turn are a product of a culture that has enthroned, as a high god, the right to be entertained all the time — to always have something to look at that pleases our flesh. These are things that deserve more than cursory study. We must be diligent in asking about what we spend our attention on, and what we are being transformed into by doing so. I hope this issue provokes you to pay more careful attention to how you pay attention — and to ask the Holy Spirit to give you wisdom about it, for he gives to all liberally and without reproaching. How can we better make the Lord Jesus, and everything true and good and beautiful that flows from him, our only vision, in a world that has more than ever before perfected the science of diverting our eyes to anything and everything else?
Notable
(Yes, I realize this is a pretty ironic section to place directly after the conclusion above. What can I say? There is a place for putting our attention on all of the things below, in my opinion…)
UK Technocrats Sharpen the Knives of Manipulation
Meet the Australian media
In basically all cases, artificial intelligence is meant to make life easier by offloading man’s cognitive load onto mechanized processes. Automated systems are set up so that man no longer needs to think, reason, or exercise his creativity in certain situations… And since it’s thinking, reasoning, and creative decision-making we’re talking about here, this is a potential crutch in the very domain which makes human beings truly human. Lean too heavy on that crutch, and one risks a chain reaction leading ultimately to the erosion of freedom and an atrophy of personhood. Man loosens the grip of his conscious, soul-spiritual activity on the world and again becomes reliant upon and beholden to external forces. AI tells him not only how to solve mundane problems, but how to think, what to like, and ultimately how to move through the world. Life then becomes prescribed, and mechanism controls what used to be freely self-determined. The individual loses touch with his unique life story and in turn becomes generic, and debased. And all this under the illusion of greater choice and freedom!
If you don’t read the article above, at least watch the linked video:
Michael Foster is involved in a new initiative worth checking out: Clear Truth Media
Until next month,
Bnonn