How can I love the truth without becoming a Pharisee?
One of the things we go back to is recognizing who we are as whole people. We’re not just rational people. It’s about the truth, and it’s also about what Edwards would call the “affections.”
The affections are not the emotions, but Edwards would say that you know it when you sense the sweetness of it. Calvin says in the Institutes that saving faith is the sensus suavitatus, a sense of sweetness. You see it in the Psalms when the psalmist desired the Word of God as he desired the honeycomb (Ps. 19:10).
If this is the truth and the truth of God’s Word, you’re going to see its inestimable value, and it’s going to impact you. Pharisees weren’t interested in the truth. They didn’t want the truth. They actually wanted to avoid the truth. So, stick with the truth and get as much truth as you can because true truth, as Francis Schaeffer said, is only going to drive you to worship.
This transcript is from a live Ask Ligonier event with Stephen Nichols and has been lightly edited for readability. To ask Ligonier a biblical or theological question, email ask@ligonier.org or message us on Facebook or Twitter.
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Stephen Nichols
Dr. Stephen J. Nichols is president of Reformation Bible College, chief academic officer for Ligonier Ministries, and a Ligonier Ministries teaching fellow. He is host of the podcasts 5 Minutes in Church History and Open Book. He has written more than twenty books, including Peace, A Time for Confidence, and R.C. Sproul: A Life and volumes in the Guided Tour series on Jonathan Edwards, Martin Luther, and J. Gresham Machen. He is coeditor of The Legacy of Luther and general editor of the Church History Study Bible.
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