What the Bible Says about How to Know God's Will (eBook)

Introduction

What factors should we consider in making decisions?

What does it mean to be “led by the Holy Spirit”?

Christians instinctively want to live in a way that pleases God. In fact, Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). But sometimes it is unclear what “keeping God’s commandments” implies when facing a specific decision. There are many times when it does not seem as if any specific teaching of Scripture can decide an issue for us.

This book is intended to provide helpful guidelines whenever people wonder, “What is God’s will for me in this specific situation?”

A. Decisions Can Be Quick or Drawn-Out, and Can Involve Major Events or Small Daily Activities

Some decisions must be made instantly. When Joseph was working in Potiphar’s house in Egypt, one day Potiphar’s wife “caught him by his garment, saying, ‘Lie with me.’ But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house” (Gen. 39:12; notice also his earlier pattern of wise responses in vv. 7–10). Joseph had only an instant to respond, and he made a wise decision and fled.1

Other decisions take more time. In this book I will explain multiple factors that can and should be considered when we have more time to make a decision and when the decision itself is important enough to consider in greater detail.

Sometimes knowing God’s will involves major decisions, such as what career to aim for, what subject a student should choose as a college major, or whom to marry. Sometimes the question is whether to take a new job or stay in the present job, which church to join, or whether to volunteer for a charitable cause or church activity. Still other situations may involve difficult end-of-life decisions regarding a terminally ill family member. And yet other decisions relate to convictions about public-policy issues, such as abortion, capital punishment, euthanasia, war, marriage laws, or the legalization of marijuana.

At other times Christians desire to have God’s wisdom regarding simpler, everyday decisions, such as which emails to respond to or delete, which phone calls to make or postpone, or how to schedule various tasks that have to be done on certain days.

For all such questions, whether large or small, the following process should be helpful (even if only parts of this process are used in some situations).

The next two sections will discuss four dimensions of every action and nine sources of information that should be considered in any moral decision.

B. Four Dimensions of Every Action

Human actions have at least four dimensions that need to be considered when decisions need to be made:

1. The action itself

2. The person’s attitudes about the action

3. The person’s motives for doing the action (the reason why the person does something)

4. The results of the action

While the action itself, as soon as it is done, will be visible to you and to others, your attitudes and motives will be mostly invisible, and the results of the action will also be mostly invisible because they have not happened yet.

We can consider these four dimensions to every action in more detail.

1. The Action Itself. The first question to ask is, Is this a morally good action? To decide that, we need to know the commands of Scripture regarding the action.

Some actions are clearly prohibited by Scripture. The Bible tells us not to murder (Ex. 20:13), not to commit adultery (v. 14), not to steal (v. 15), not to bear false witness (v. 16), and so on. Other actions are commanded. Scripture says to “honor your father and your mother” (v. 12). Elsewhere the Bible tells us that we are to “pay . . . taxes to whom taxes are owed” (Rom. 13:7).

But many actions that we have to consider are neither specifically commanded nor specifically prohibited by Scripture, such as whether to accept a particular job offer, which used car to purchase, which church to join, or whom to marry. For such decisions, we need to consider other dimensions of the action in question, and we need to consider all nine sources of information.

2. The Person’s Attitudes about the Action. Because “the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7), it is not enough for us simply to do morally right actions. God also wants the attitudes of our hearts to be right before him:

Every way of a man is right in his own eyes,

but the Lord weighs the heart. (Prov. 21:2)

In some cases, an action can be right and the results can be morally good, but a person’s attitudes might be wrong. For instance, if Julie’s mother tells her that she has to clean her room before she can go out to play with friends, she might do the right action (clean the room in a hurry) and get the right results (a clean room) but with the wrong attitude (she slams the door and cleans the room in anger and with simmering resentment against her mother).

3. The Person’s Motives for Doing the Action. Jesus taught us to beware of doing good actions with wrong motives, such as the desire to be praised by other people:

Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. (Matt. 6:1–2; cf. 23:5–7)

For example, consider a couple who are talking together about whether they should agree to help with their church’s youth ministry one night a week. If they honestly ask themselves why they want to do this, they might find that their motives are very positive ones, such as a desire to minister effectively to young people who come to their church, to be involved in a church activity in which their children participate, to do some kind of ministry together, to meet a need because of a shortage of volunteers at the time, or because of other similar motives. They might simply want to honor God in the way they conduct their lives and to advance his kingdom, as Jesus taught: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matt. 6:33).

On the other hand, they might find that their motives are not appropriate. They might be thinking about helping in the youth ministry because a neighbor has been putting pressure on them to do so and they are tired of telling him no, even though they do not feel it is the right thing for them to do. Or they might want to become better known and gain recognition from others in the church, which is a simple appeal to their pride. Or they might be seeking an opportunity to observe the youth pastor so they can lodge more criticisms against him with the church leaders! All of these would be wrongful motives.

4. The Results of the Action. Other passages in Scripture encourage us to take thought about the results of our actions. For example, Paul wanted the Christians at Corinth to evaluate what was happening in their worship services to see if various activities actually contributed to building up one another in the Lord:

What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. (1 Cor. 14:26)

To take another example, Paul was persuaded that the unclean foods in the Old Testament were no longer unclean for Christians to eat (“Nothing is unclean in itself,” Rom. 14:14), and therefore the action of eating pork (for example) was not morally wrong in itself. But it could bring a wrongful result, and in those cases it should not be done:

For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. (Rom. 14:15–16; see also 1 Cor. 8:13; 10:24)

In writing to the Corinthian church, Paul concluded a long section of advice with a general requirement for them to consider the results of their actions: “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31).

We need to consider all four of these dimensions for any action: (1) the action itself, (2) attitudes, (3) motives, and (4) results. An action that is pleasing to God will follow the teachings of Scripture in all four of these areas.

5. Most Actions Contain a Mix of Different Attitudes, Motives, and Results. Even simple actions can involve a complex mixture of attitudes. Any parent who has been awakened in the middle of the night to care for a sick child will attest to feeling deep love for the child, but also perhaps mild irritation or even resentment at the interruption of a sound sleep, coupled with thankfulness to God for the privilege of being a parent, plus a slight tinge of anxiety about being able to do a good job at work the next day with less sleep, plus concern about whether the...