Correction: The audio of episode 3 linked below was edited after airing Saturday to correct a reference to the Heidelberg Catechism, which should have been the Westminster Shorter Catechism instead. -Anthony
You can find Episode 3 here to stream or download at any time. Please refer to the disclaimer at the bottom of the Show Notes page regarding all views expressed by Anthony Bushnell or his guests on the air and in these notes.
Acknowledgements: I particularly want to express gratitude for Andrew David Naselli and J.D. Crowley’s book Conscience, linked below. The concepts and study of Scripture in that work helped me identify and develop the emphasis on God’s priorities that forms a significant part of my approach to “The Gospel Mind.” I highly recommend it. As always, unless I noted specifically that I did not consult an article or work in preparing the program, please assume all the people listed below deserve credit and gratitude for helping make this content possible.
Three Questions to Help Us Form and Apply a Gospel Mind (Revised from four questions in the broadcast to three questions below for more simplicity. We develop these further in episodes 11, 12, and 13 of “The Gospel Mind.”)
These questions are designed to help us examine our emotions and our priorities in different situations and relationships to ensure we are working together with God and applying his word. They aren’t the only questions we should be asking, but they’re designed to help us remember and apply the Scriptures in a way that’s easy to recall and understand. Perhaps you have some good questions or goals that you’ve picked up over time that help you do the same thing. I encourage you to keep using them, and add these in where they’re helpful.
1. How do I need to check my feelings about this against the Scriptures?
This really involves a couple of different questions to ask ourselves:
How does God think and feel about this?
How does God want me to think and feel about this? How does Scripture tell us we should feel?
2. What are God’s priorities for this situation or relationship?
For example, God’s priority is often not for us to prove someone wrong. Often God’s plan instead is for us to persuade them by the way we treat them as well as by our words. We may win them by example. Consider 2 Timothy 2:23-26 below. God uses things like gentleness and meekness and patience to overcome the world.
3. What role does God have for me in this situation?
A common mistake we make is to think we have to play every role and address everything going on in a situation. Look at Romans 12:17-21 below. Why can we show kindness and forgiveness to our enemies? Because God serves the role of judge and avenger. Since that role belongs to God, we can let go of it. It’s covered. Therefore, we are free to serve the role God has given us, which is to overcome evil by doing good to those who harm and oppose us. That’s our role. But if we resist that role and want to be the avenger instead, we not only defy God and interfere with his authority to judge, but we fail to serve the role he gave us. And that may mean the gospel isn’t displayed to those who might otherwise see it and believe. Knowing our role in God’s mission of spreading the gospel of salvation is critical.
Scriptures
“Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.” 2 Timothy 2:23-26 (ESV)
“Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ To the contrary, ‘if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:17-21 (ESV)
The Fruit of the Spirit
“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” Galatians 5:16-24 (ESV)
Resources
Helpful for Understanding and Focusing on God’s Priorities for Our Lives
Conscience: What It Is, How to Train It, and Loving Those Who Differ, by Andrew David Naselli and J.D. Crowley (Crossway: 2016). This book is very clear and packed full of good theology that helps you understand why some matters are essentials where all Christians should agree, and some matters are “disputable matters” where reasonable Christians can disagree and still worship and work together in love.
Finding the Right Hills to Die On: The Case for Theological Triage, Gavin Ortlund (Crossway: 2020). Although I haven’t relied on Ortlund’s book in my program, it is highly recommended and speaks directly to these questions.
God Is the Gospel, by John Piper (Crossway: 2005). Free online. Piper shows that the greatest news in the gospel is not simply salvation from sin, but rather that we have fellowship with God in his glorious presence forever.
Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist, John Piper (revised edition) (Multnomah: 2011). A free PDF sample is available online here.
Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ, John Piper (Crossway: 2004). Free online.
Pleasures Evermore: The Life-Changing Power of Enjoying God, Sam Storms (Navpress: 2014). Available as an ebook.
Knowing God, J.I. Packer (Originally published in 1973. This edition IVP: 2021). Packer’s classic work on the central need of our lives was a foundational book that prompted books like Desiring God.
Packer on the Christian Life: Knowing God in Christ, Walking by the Spirit, Sam Storms (Crossway: 2015). This volume by Storms summarizes and guides the reader through much of the best of J.I. Packer’s writings and teachings.