Several of his books have been at the top of my "recommended reading" books for many years:
- The Pursuit of Holiness
- The Practice of Godliness
- Trusting God (republished in a shorter version as Is God Really in Control?; the first book is better because it is more comprehensive).
- Transforming Grace
And in the past couple of months, he's written another book that is sure to remain on that reading list for years to come: Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate.
The book was written because of his observation that
…the concept of sin among many conservative Christians has been essentially redefined to cover only the obviously gross sins of our society. The result, then, is that for many morally upright believers, the awareness of personal sin has effectively disappeared from their consciences. But it has not disappeared from the sight of God. Rather, all sin, bot the so-called respectable sins of the saints, which we too often tolerate, and the flagrant sins of society, which we are quick to condemn, are a disregard for the law of God and are reprehensible in His sight. Both deserve the curse of God. [p. 22]
So what kinds of sin does he address as being overlooked as insignificant?
- ungodliness
- anxiety and frustration
- discontentment
- unthankfulness (even in difficult circumstances)
- pride (evidenced in moral self-righteousness, pride of correct doctrine, pride of achievement, and an independent spirit)
- selfishness (with our interests, time, and money, producing inconsiderateness)
- lack of self-control (with our eating an drinking, temper, finances, television and hobbies)
- impatience and irritability
- anger (ultimately, towards God)
- weeds of anger (resentment, bitterness, enmity & hostility, grudges)
- judgmentalism (over differing convictions and doctrinal disagreements, producing a critical spirit)
- envy and jealousy (and their related sins of competitiveness and a desire to be controlling)
- sins of the tongue (like gossip, slander, lying, and harsh words, sarcasm, insults, and ridicule)
- worldliness (in relation to money, vicarious immorality, and idolatry)
I approached this book with anticipation, selecting a few things from that list that I thought might be of some help to me. Yet as I read, I found in each chapter insights that convicted me of lazy attitudes and sloppiness towards sin. And in the discussion of each sin, he is careful to offer hope (chapter six — "Directions for Dealing with Sins" — offers a six-fold direction to apply to all subtle sins), and to also deal with the sin at a root level, not just superficial circumstance or action (e.g., anger is ultimately not just anger, but anger and discontentment with God, and must be confessed as anger against Him).
In spite of the number of topics addressed, the book is very readable devotionally (21 chapters, 181 pages) — reading one chapter a day along with one's regular Scripture reading is very doable. In fact, the brevity of the book is related to my only mild criticism of it — it's too short! Often after concluding a chapter I would find myself thinking, "tell me more — I need to hear more of the Biblical truth on this subject!" Yet the book's brevity also makes it accessible to virtually every believer in Christ.
In the plethora of new books being continually published, this is an important one, worthy of being read by any follower of Christ wanting to initiate serious confrontation of sin in his life. If you were to read only one book this next year, should this be the one? I'm not sure — there are many worthy candidates. But if you were to read only five books this next year, should this be on the list? Absolutely.
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