Every Thought, Word, & Deed (Part 1)

Within the realm of action theories of the will, there are 2 basic options.  Non-Calvinists (Arminians, Semi-Pelagians) opt for Libertarian Free Will (LFW).  We Calvinists opt for a species of Determinism.  By Determinism, we mean simply that we form & follow our own desires, & these desires provide the motivational push which underwrites our behavior. 

If LFW obtains, then the internal  mechanism by which a moral agent makes choices is capable of forming desires that might or might not underwrite our motives while simultaneously resisting those desires / motives in a manner that, upon examination, entails ambiguity relative to the chain of mental & emotional cause & effect.  In other words, moral agents do not always follow their desires, are capable of chosen in contra-causal fashion, & perhaps even in uncaused fashion. 

By Determinism, we mean that a moral agent forms & follows their own desires, and these desires serve as the motivations that underwrite their decision making.  On this view, there is no ambiguity relative to the series of cause & effect that underwrites their choices. 

About 2 years ago or thereabouts, I watched Paul Manata engage Jerry Walls about this issue on Facebook.  Paul is one to go for the philosophical underpinnings of this issue with Dr. Walls. They seemed to be frequent fliers in the arena, engaging one another in a repeating cycle as they contended over this issue.  When he was still living on the Earth, Steve Hays would engage Dr, Walls as well. I got the impression that Dr, Walls didn’t appreciate being challenged. 

I asked a single pointed question designed to get their attention.  “Where does the Bible teach LFW?” 

Relative to Paul, I was pointing out that, when it comes to some people, no amount of philosophizing will do, you have to stick to the Bible.  With Dr. Walls, I was pointing out that the Achilles Heel of LFW is its lack of biblical support.  He replied by throwing buckshot into the room by way of posting a list of biblical passages that he said were from one of his books.  I followed up by taking a look at a representative number of them. None of them had anything to do with an action theory of the will. 

Why talk about this topic?  For two reasons : From a soteriological perspective, since both Arminianism & Semi-Pelagianism depend on LFW in order to obtain, if LFW has no biblical support (whereas Determinism does), then Arminianism & Semi-Pelagianism are eliminated via process of elimination.  From an ethical perspective, LFW is comfortable with Situational Ethics.   If it is possible that the motive(s) for a crime is (are) not the proximate cause, yet the person is found guilty based on external factors, then that eventually leads to the idea that God condemns & commends us regardless of our motives. 

Matthew 22:34–40 (ESV): But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” 

Romans 13:8–10 (ESV): Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. 

Some Evangelicals might not like to hear this, but there is truth to “Love is love,” insofar as Matthew & Romans both clearly teach that the First Table of the Law is summarized as “Love God over & above everyone & everything that exists,” & the 2nd Table of the Law is summarized as “Love your neighbor before yourself.” All the other commandments turn on these two core principles - so much so that it can be said that perfect love fulfills the Law. 

On a practical level, these core principles inform us that sin, at its root, stems from a failure to love God & neighbor in the manner Matthew & Romans prescribe.  For example, Matthew 5:28 informs us that lustful intent is what makes looking at another person an act of adultery/sexual immorality.   Absent lustful intent, no sin is committed. 

What makes any thought, word, or deed worthy of God’s condemnation? The bare act apart from the motive or the motive that underwrites the act? 

1 Samuel 16:7 : 1 Samuel 16:7 (ESV):  For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” 

Jeremiah 17:10 (ESV): I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways,  according to the fruit of his deeds.” 

Matthew 5:28 (ESV): 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 

Answer: The desires that underwrite motives which moved us to act determines what is a sin.  God judges us accordingly.  The bare act is not a sin. If so, then you wind up with God condemning & commending w/o regard to motive, which ultimately means it’s possible to work your way into God’s favor & its possible to fall under His wrath apart from motive. That’s a gospel of works righteousness. 

How so?  Simply put, if God condemns & commends our thoughts, words, & deeds apart from our motives, then that means that the legalistic point of view prevails, insofar as if David Q. Baker is in sin (the sin of collaborating with the Enemy) based on the identity of his clients & the meaning of the cake, then his motives really don’t matter.  Why? Because the grounds of his condemnation by God and the consternation of Man has very little if anything to do with his motives.  He’s condemned based on external appearances & non-volitional factors (his clients’ identity & the meaning of the cake). 

If God condemns us regardless of our motives, then He commends us the same way.   As long as we accomplish the requisite amount of spiritual rigamorole, we are in God’s favor, contrary to Scripture, which talks about the vanity of offerings, feasts, & ceremonies in which the people were just going through the motions, & the Sanhedrin were trumpeting their gifts in public & are called hypocrites.  

In both Jeremiah & Ezekiel, Israel is indicted as a faithless, adulterous wife.  What makes for adultery? The failure to love God & neighbor which places the moral agent (the adulterer) above everyone else, thus suppressing God’s existence, attributes, & authority with one’s own (Romans 1:18 - 23).

The Bible teaches that we form & follow our own desires, & these desires serve as our motivation. We love “Who, what, when, where, how, & why,” & if the sum total is in any way, shape, or form & to any degree less than perfect love for God & neighbor, then we have sinned.  

Herein is the Chain of Sin, Death, & Condemnation : 

James 1:13–15 (ESV): Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. 

Imperfect love for God & neighbor is love for yourself over & above God & neighbor.  The good news is that the sinner has love in them, & where there is love, there’s hope.  However, unless we mortify sin like John Owen taught, then imperfect love can spiral out of control, spawning spiritual abuse, addictions, gluttony, anxiety, unnecessary lack of transparency with one’s loved ones, loss of spirituality of mind, all manner of foolishness. & Hebrews 5 moral problems that keep us stunted in terms of our moral obligations to God & our neighbors - obligations that involve us embracing our finitude so that we can admit that we require God’s grace & goodness in order to grow up.

This truth also ought to remind us to stop comparing our sins to those of others.  John Calvin once wrote that the human heart is an idol factory.   He was right about that, & such is the source of our lack of discernment & a great deal of unjust judgment leveled at God, other people, ourselves, & the world around us. 

We need to be reminded that until a person is rendered incapable of forming and following evil desires, apart from God temporarily restraining them, every thought, word, or deed a person thinks, speaks, or does is sinful to one degree or another.  All motives are mixed motives until the day you are unable to form evil motives, yet these days, when Christians open their mouths in opposition to many an outrage du jour, they sound like they are comparing their sins to other people and ensuring they themselves compare favorably.   

Matthew 7:1–6 (ESV): “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. 

6 “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you. 

Who are the dogs? They are the targets of our judgments. If we keep tossing stones & serpents (Matt. 7:9-10) at people we view as dogs, then they will most certainly rise up one day to trample us underfoot. 

That’s all for now.   God bless you all, each & everyone.  Love one another & love God, & go & sin no more.