Are You a Chicken?

(This piece was originally published on September 29th, 2020, in The Wheaton Record).

Brethren, do you skip leg day to focus on your upper body? This error will leave you looking like a chicken: a ripped chest and skinny legs. My pastor, Dr. Deryck Barson, emphasizes the danger of Chicken Christianity, the results of an imbalanced approach to faith. The three components of the human heart — the mind, the affections and the will — must all be exercised for true spiritual well-being. In “With All Your Heart,” Craig Troxel explains that these three faculties are responsible for “what we know (our knowledge, thoughts, intentions, ideas, meditation, memory, imagination), what we love (what we want, seek, feel, yearn for) and what we choose (whether we will resist or submit, whether we will be weak or strong, whether we will say yes or no).”

Have you ever been passionate about a certain Bible passage that a preacher or professor somehow finds a way to make boring? The problem isn’t that their theology is necessarily boring but that they could have fallen into a kind of dead orthodoxy. This is an issue of affections. As George Whitefield said, “You may have orthodox heads, and yet you may have the devil in your hearts.” The mere affirmation of truths is not synonymous with a living faith, for it is written: “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe — and shudder” (James 2:19). The mind must not be exercised while the affections and will are neglected.

What about those who happily live in gross, unrepentant sin and yet worship with their hands in the air during their church livestream and know sound theology? What is all that doctrine and emotion worth if one immediately contradicts it with their life? Most of us profess that only believers in Christ will go to Heaven, but don’t we all often neglect evangelism? Believing that Christ is the only way to God demands an evangelistic response. The affections and the mind must not be exercised to the neglect of the will.

Yet the will and the affections must not be exercised to the neglect of the mind. The mind is the channel by which God ignites our affections that empower our wills. The neglect of the mind could look like going on tons of mission trips, loving Christian music and engaging in activism while not being able to articulate the gospel. It is quite commonplace for us to sing our hearts out at All-School and to even have quiet times, but what about pushing ourselves to study the great doctrines of the Christian faith? The love and diligent study of doctrine ought to be the norm for all Christians. 

My hope and prayer for this new theology column is that my articles would be used by the Holy Spirit to engage the minds, the affections and the wills of our community with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, all for the glory of the Father. And dear friends, don’t be a chicken!

The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of the Wheaton Record or Wheaton College.