"God has not called us to impurity but to sanctification" (1 Thessalonians 4:7)

Posted by Phil Johnson

I'm often surprised and not a little shocked by the tone and flavor of some of the discourse on social media among people who self-identify as gospel-believing Christians. I'm not talking only about the annoying busybodies, false accusers, trash-talkers, and all-purpose haters. I'm thinking also of the people who routinely sprinkle their comments with obscene or profane language ("cuss words," as the idiom used to be known). They tend to be fiercely resistant to any criticism or correction of the practice. They think the casual use of salty language shows how "genuine," and "relatable" they are, and this somehow enhances the believability of their testimony. Wait. Did I say "tone"? In the evangelical districts of social media nowadays, if you try to correct a popular heresy or challenge some point in the new moral or political consensus, you'll likely be scolded about the inappropriateness of your "tone," no matter how carefully you express your concerns. But professing Christians commonly violate Ephesians 5:4 and Colossians 4:6 in the language they use, and most of their fellow believers don't seem to see anything seriously wrong with that tone. Unbelievers aren't genuinely impressed by it either. Likewise, the subject matter of public conversations in evangelical forums is often troubling for similar reasons. Professing Christians show a disturbing familiarity with the dark side of popular culture, and they talk about it—uncritically—with ease and enthusiasm. Our spiritual ancestors called that worldliness—a term hardly used anymore. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing—edification and debauchery. Suggest that these things ought not so to be (James 3:10), and you are certain to be labeled a legalist. Spurgeon's words in the following excerpt are germane to this issue. Here's what he had to say:

he followers of the early Reformers were distinguished by the sanctity of their lives. When they were about to hunt out the Waldenses, the French king, who had some of them in his dominions, sent a priest to see what they were like, and he, honest man as he was, came back to the king, and said, "As far as I could find, they seem to be much better Christians than we are. I am afraid they are heretics, but really they are so chaste, so honest, so upright, and so truly pious, that, though I hate heresy—I hope your majesty does not suspect me on that account—yet I would that all Catholics were as good as they are."

Now, this was what made the gospel victorious in those days—the stern integrity of those who received it, and thus it will be still. It cannot be otherwise.

But if you become worldly, if you members of this church are just the same as other men who have no grace and make no pretensions, what is the good of your profession? You are liars before God unless you live above the common life of the rest of mankind.

Oh! to get back to the simplicity of Christian manners! I cannot go into particulars, and ordain that this you shall do and that you shall avoid, but you know very well what that simplicity is, and were it carried out there is a great deal that is now practised amongst professors that would have at once to be given up.

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Charles Haddon Spurgeon, "Good Earnests of Great Success," in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1868), 14: 173.

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