Category: Solomon Says

Back in August, I recommended Henry Hazlitt’s self-help book, The Way to Will Power. I still do. I thought of that book recently when I read Peter’s exhortation:

Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, staying sober, fully place hope on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 1:13

In my opinion, this exhortation is strongly related to becoming a better man and guarding your heart. Writing to believers, Peter basically tells his readers to regularly remind themselves of where they are headed and why. He wants them to develop a strong habit of doing this and not let anything distract them from maintaining the habit.

Why?

(This post originally appeared at TownHall.com)

People with means should help those without means. Many societies in history have failed to affirm this value. But with the spread of Christianity the idea has taken root that we all have an obligation to help others.

Weirdly, this idea has come to be associated with another one: that capitalism is evil or at least morally questionable. Helping others is thought to conflict with wanting to make money.

This is morally and logically backwards. If you don’t make money, then how can you have anything worth sharing with someone in need?

And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.

1 Samuel 30:6 ESV

And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

Luke 22:41–44 ESV

If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.

Proverbs 24:10 ESV

I wrote a post about David to persuade you that you need to occasionally and perhaps regularly strengthen yourself in God. An issue that might obstruct a reader from following that advice is a conviction that one is already strong enough. One might have an unjustified confidence in one’s strength and might mistake that confidence for faith.

And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.

1 Samuel 30:6 ESV

David was a leader of an outlaw band and he had just suffered a devastating blow. Hostile forces had taken his own family and wealth, as well as destroyed his credibility as the commander of his “militia” and as a claimant for Israel’s throne. He was now severely weakened. How could he rule these men any more?

But that problem makes David’s duties clear in the story. First Samuel shows that God had chosen David to be king. If David was now too weak to meet his obligations, then that could only mean he had a derivative obligation:

He needed to strengthen himself.

It’s not a sin to be angry in response to some things. It might be a sin NOT to be angry.

And because people know that, anger is a powerful trap for the unwary.

It is not good to eat much honey, nor is it glorious to seek one’s own glory.

Proverbs 25:27 ESV

As the ESV note will tell you, the Hebrew is rather difficult. But taking this translation at face value, it warns you to act like the true and living God rather than as some false god. God doesn’t seek his own glory and nether should any man or woman because all of us are created in the image of God and designed to reflect his character.