The Difference Between Osteen & Biblical Rewards

Much digital ink has been spilled about the recent Osteen video (this being my favorite). In case you are unaware, in said video Victoria Osteen encourages their congregation to do good for themselves.



It's quite shocking to hear someone called a pastor (her and Joel are co-pastors) exhort their "Christian Church" in such a way. While they have rightfully received a good amount of criticism from the conservative evangelical movement in recent years, this video so clearly and succinctly displays the fundamental problem with their so-called theology - Man and his earthly pleasure are central, while God and His eternal glory are absent.

However, I'd like to ask one simple question about this issue: is it wrong in every sense to pursue God and practice your faith with a view towards a reward? In other words, is there a sense in which it is right to be motivated by rewards "for yourself"? According to Scripture, rewards for oneself are a biblical motivation:

"And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him." - Hebrews 11:6

"And your Father who sees in secret will reward you." - Matthew 6:4, 6:6, 6:18

We see that Hebrews clearly tells us that as we seek God, we must believe that he rewards us for doing so. Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount repeats three times that the Father will reward us for righteous acts, and that his reward is greater than man's praise. So it is biblically appropriate to be motivated by rewards for oneself.

What then, is the difference between these Scriptures and the Osteens' message? The difference is that with the Osteens, God is merely a means to a temporal end. In the above video clip, she does not merely say that rewards are biblical; she actually says rewards are ultimate, going so far as to state repeatedly "you’re not doing it for God." Moreover, the Osteens typically define these rewards as temporal, earthly, emotional, financial - in the video, she says it's to make us "happy" - as opposed to the heavenly, eternal, spiritual rewards that Scripture speaks of. So the Osteens teach that our own temporal satisfaction is ultimate.

Whereas Christians in former times wrote "The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever" (including both the supremacy of God and the reward of man), the Osteens now seemingly flip the script and proclaim "The chief end of God is to glorify man and enjoy him forever."

So, let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater. The problem with the video clip is not the presence of reward for man, but the nature of man's reward as earthly and the position of man's reward as ultimate.

Quick Thought- Truth & Emotions

Good afternoon.

I just had a quick thought on TRUTH and emotions. In various discussions with friends, sometimes we talk about tough issues- those things we may disagree on. (This conversation could be Christians talking about theology or a conversation with an unbeliever.) What I want to stress is that the way we feel about a topic is not a good test case for the truth of that topic. For example, I may not like the topic of death. However, death is a reality and my negative feelings about death don't change the reality of death.

Same with Jesus. You may not feel great about his claim over your life. You may not feel great about God's standard of holiness. You may react adversely to God's 100% true Word. But those feelings do not change God's truth OR your responsibility to submit to God's truth. 

Kapish?

Progressive Sanctification and God's Patience

My wife and I had a great conversation recently on struggling with sin. The question came up as to why God would save His people from their sin and yet somehow allow us to still sin. If I am really a redeemed creature, why wouldn't God make me perfect on Day 1? Why still allow me to sin against him and struggle daily? In my uber-finite human wisdom, it doesn't seem to make much sense as to why our Heavenly Father would allow his children to remain in the self-inflicted muck...

Now, certainly, God's will for me is perfection. Paul said as much: "By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? ... So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus" (Romans 6:2, 12). But why in his great plan does he not immediately remove me not only from sin's punishment, but also from it's practice?

My answer to this question is from some bible inferences & my own experience. (If anyone has biblical support for this specific idea, please pass it along.) We know that all God does is to show his glory and thus receive the praise he is due. This can range from the creation of man (Is. 43:7), the creation of the heavens and earth (Ps. 19:1), to the salvation of mankind (Eph 1:3-14). So we know that God chose to not make us perfect right away and that this glorifies him somehow.

My estimate is this. God certainly had the power to make us perfectly holy right away. But it would not allow him to show the fullness of his discipline and patience that he, as Father, has on us, His children. If I never messed up in my family as a child, I would never have experienced the mercy & patience that sometimes my dad gave me by not dealing out a hefty swat. 

It is likewise with our Heavenly Father. Every time we stumble, "he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 Jn. 1:9). We see firsthand the patience of God as he leads us on to holiness, one step at a time. It is a patience that we would not experience in the same way if we were immediately made perfect upon our conversion. No, his patience does not excuse our all-too-frequent-sin- "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?" (Rom. 6:1). But our status as an "already, but not yet, resurrected, fallen man" enables us to experience God in a deeper way, and praise him with a deeper passion, and shine for him with a brighter testimony.

Therefore, we claim with Paul, "But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life" (1 Tim. 1:16).