Phillips' axioms

by Dan Phillips

When you get old, experienced and opinionated, you build up a stock of axioms. Here are some of mine, for whatever use, ponderance, reflection, passing whimsy, and/or outright theft, you might make of them. They range from the theological to the practical to the political. What use will you make of them? None, maybe. But I've used various of them variously in sermons, conversation, evangelism, counseling, teaching, and writing.

Unlike Biblical Proverbs, they're uninspired. Like Biblical proverbs, the aim is memorable, thought-provoking, stick-in-your-mind brevity.

Strictly, some of these are proverbs or apothegms... but that would make too long a title!

If this list has no interest to you, I'd just ask you graciously to remember what you paid for it.

1. If you ever weren't God, you never will be.
2. When you sin or do something really foolish, you have two choices: repent, forsake, and rectify; or start an endless cycle of doubling-down degradation. Most people do the latter.
3. Don't be the last to know you're wrong.
4. Trolls are thoughtful people. Nail them for what they are, and they immediately prove you right.
5. Pastors who don't pastor aren't pastors, they're lecturers.
6. Anyone who claims to be an apostle today is 'way, 'way too young.
7. Any woman who seeks to lead men in church is eo ipso disqualified—if open rebellion against the Lordship of Christ is still a disqualifier.
8. Folks who are full of themselves don't leave much room for anyone else.
9. Every vote is a vote for the lesser of two evils.
10. Men shouldn't let our eyes rest anywhere our hands shouldn't.
11. Looking may just be looking, but doing starts with a look.
12. Only way to be certain not to forget something is to do it now.
13. Preach like God's watching, like you'll never get another chance, and like every second of your hearers' time is precious.
14. Don't let truth lose by default through your laziness, indifference, cowardice or ignorance.
15. If nobody else has ever seen what you're seeing in the Bible, that's probably because it isn't there.
16. The world is far better at being the world than the church ever could be, so don't even try.
17. Don't be shocked when unbelievers act like unbelievers.
18. Do be shocked when believers act like unbelievers. Especially when it's you.
19. Counsel the person who's there. 
20. Better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.
21. Excelling at anything is a matter of wisely investing odd moments.
22. Better to know a little truth, and believe it deeply, Than to know a lot, and not.
23. Anyone can be taught — except the dead and the proud.
24. Everyone does what he does because he thinks it will make him happy. (Added 12/5/12)
25. Unhappy complainers are always louder and more insistent than happy people with praises. This works both horizontally and vertically, and is equally a reproach to both categories of people. (Added 1/3/2013)
26. When a man opposing God's truth is destroying his own argument with every word, sometimes it's best to stay out of the way and let him get on with it. (Added 1/18/2013)
27. Kid, life's not a game. Hasty decisions cast long shadows. (Added 4/8/2013)
28. When someone wants to misunderstand, no power on Earth can make him understand. (Added 9/26/2013)
29. Everyone in the embrace of a sin dismisses Biblical rebuke by claiming to be misunderstood. (Added 9/27/2013)
30. The problem with the person who thinks he's too strong to be able to join himself in fellowship with imperfect Christians in a local church is that he is actually too weak to sustain it. (Added 9/27/2013)
31. Being married is like being a Christian, only more so. (Added 9/27/2013)
32. Sin is always the problem, never the solution. (Added 9/27/2013)
33. Every time someone tries to be a "'progressive' Christian," (s)he ends up being a whole lot of the one, and not much of the other. (Added 2/24/2014)
34. With stubborn, unrepentant sin, lack of information is rarely the real problem; so pouring in information is rarely the solution. (Added 2/24/2014)
35. God didn't give kids sense. Instead, He gave them parents, told the parents to teach the kids His Word, and told the kids to honor their parents. (Added 4/26/14)
36. If anyone makes you feel better about thumbing your nose at God, that person does not love you. (Added 5/6/14)
37. Arguing X does not necessarily mean that there is a real argument worth making for X. (Added 7/8/14)
38. The hands do what the hands do because the heart is what the heart is. (Added 8/22/14)
39. "Love" should not be defined as the compulsion to force others to subsidize the idle, the immoral, and the illegal. (Added 2/20/15)
40. When one loves God, no reason is a large enough obstacle to prevent us from serving Him. When one does not love God, no excuse is too puny, paltry, or pathetic to keep us from serving Him. (Added 5/11/15)
41. The moral obligation of leading by example is absolute; its efficacy, however, is often grossly, grossly overstated (2 Chron. 27:2). (Added 8/26/15)
42. Racism is not the cure for racism. Only the Cross of Christ is. (Added 2/12/16)
43. Atheists tend to blurt bombastic clichés rather than read, reflect, and respond. (Added 11-7-2017)
44. Big names are often small people. (Added 1-9-2018)
45. Youth, dirt-ignorance and hubris are a deadly combination. (Added 1-9-2018)
46. The mark of a truly big person is how he treats "little people." (Added 1-9-2018)
47. No human authority has the right to command what God forbids, or forbid what God commands. (Added 4-11-18)
48. Obedience isn't a technique. You don't "try" it, to see if it "works." (Added 5-14-2018)
49. {Instant acclaim + massive soapbox} minus {coherent, thought-out, well-grounded, long-demonstrated convictional, Biblical worldview} = disaster. Generally not a matter of if, but when, and how bad. (Cf. 1 Timothy 5:22). (Added 5-14-2018)
50. Sin snowballs. That's its propensity. No sin likes to remain alone. (Added 7-23-2018)
51. You can't make someone see what he doesn't want to see. (Added 5-12-2020)
52. The existential distance between "humiliated" and "humbled" is so much vaster than the lexical distance. Many who are the former, are not the latter — to their destruction. (Added 4-5-2021)
53. Once Pride makes an investment, it will defend it to the death...of everything. (Added 8-2-2021)
54. You can lead a "continuationist" to Scripture, but you can't make him think. (Added 12-15-2022)
55. God is good, but He plays the long game. (Added 2-22-2024)

There y'go.

---