# “This is our pattern when we speak and write for God” by John Newton

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2021/03/01/this-is-our-pattern-when-we-speak-and-write-for-god-by-john-newton/
- Published: 2021-03-01T12:00:46-06:00
- Author: tollelege

“Self-righteousness can feed upon doctrines, as well as upon works; and a man may
have the heart of a Pharisee, while his head is stored with orthodox notions of 
the unworthiness of the creature and the riches of free grace.

Yea, I would add, the best of men are not wholly free from this leaven; and therefore
are too apt to be pleased with such representations as hold up our adversaries to
ridicule, and by consequence flatter our own superior judgments.

Controversies, for the most part, are so managed as to indulge rather than to repress
this wrong disposition; and therefore, generally speaking, they are productive of
little good. They provoke those whom they should convince, and puff up those whom
they should edify.

I hope your performance will savour of a spirit of true humility, and be a means
of promoting it in others.

This leads me, in the last place, to consider your own concern in your present undertaking.
It seems a laudable service to defend the faith once delivered to the saints; we
are commanded to contend earnestly for it, and to convince gainsayers.

If ever such defences were seasonable and expedient, they appear to be so in our
day, when errors abound on all sides, and every truth of the Gospel is either directly
denied, or grossly misrepresented. And yet we find but very few writers of controversy
who have not been manifestly hurt by it.

Either they grow in a sense of their own importance, or imbibe an angry contentious
spirit, or they insensibly withdraw their attention from those things which are 
the food and immediate support of the life of faith, and spend their time and strength
upon matters which at most are but of a secondary value.

This shews, that, if the service is honourable, it is dangerous. What will it profit
a man if he gains his cause, and silences his adversary, if at the same time he 
loses that humble, tender frame of spirit in which the Lord delights, and to which
the promise of His presence is made!

Your aim, I doubt not, is good. But you have need to watch and pray, for you will
find Satan at your right hand to resist you: he will try to debase your views; and
though you set out in defence of the cause of God, if you are not continually looking
to the Lord to keep you, it may become your own cause, and awaken in you those tempers
which are inconsistent with true peace of mind, and will surely obstruct communion
with God.

Be upon your guard against admitting anything personal into the debate.

If you think you have been ill treated, you will have an opportunity of showing 
that you are a disciple of Jesus, who, ‘when He was reviled, reviled not again; 
when He suffered, He threatened not.’ (**1 Pet. 2:23**) This is our pattern, thus
we are to speak and write for God, ‘not rendering railing for railing, but, contrariwise,
blessing; knowing that hereunto we are called.’ (**1 Pet. 3:9**)

The wisdom that is from above is not only pure, but peaceable and gentle; and the
want of these qualifications, like the dead fly in the pot of ointment, will spoil
the savour and efficacy of our labours. If we act in a wrong spirit, we shall bring
little glory to God, do little good to our fellow-creatures, and procure neither
honour nor comfort to ourselves.

If you can be content with shewing your wit, and gaining the laugh on your side,
you have an easy task. But I hope you have a far nobler aim, and that, sensible 
of the solemn importance of Gospel truths, and the compassion due to the souls of
men, you would rather be a means of removing prejudices in a single instance, than
obtain the empty applause of thousands.

Go forth, therefore, in the name and strength of the Lord of Hosts, speaking the
truth in love; and may He give you a witness in many hearts, that you are taught
of God, and favoured with the unction of His Holy Spirit.”

–John Newton, [_The Works of John Newton_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1848715110?tag=toletaupanre-20),
[_Volume 1_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1848715110?tag=toletaupanre-20) (Carlisle,
PA: Banner of Truth, 1988), 1: 272-274.

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