Professor Andreas Köstenberger and ethics expert David Jones have composed this popular-level book to speak to the issues at hand and point to the fundamental solution: a return to the biblical foundation of marriage and the family. Presenting a Christian theology of marriage and parenting, they offer insight on issues such as abortion, contraception, infertility, and adoption as well as helpful advice for those who are unmarried. The two writers also address two major threats to marriage and the family within the contemporary culture: homosexuality and divorce.

Immensely important and well-timed, Marriage and the Family will satisfy a hungry market on the lookout for the biblical truth about marriage and family.

For more information and to purchase on Amazon, click here.

My topic for our devotional today is excellence: excellence in general and scholarly excellence in particular. Some of you may have seen my recent book on the subject, Excellence: The Character of God and the Pursuit of Scholarly Virtue, so I’ve recently had the chance to reflect extensively on the subject and would like to share some of the insights I gained from my study with you. My hope is that by looking at what Scripture has to do say about our need to pursue excellence we will be challenged and encouraged to do what it takes to glorify our Lord in this important area of our lives.

To begin with, let me ask the question: Why is our need to pursue excellence, and the lack of such a pursuit in many cases, even an issue? You’d think that Christians would widely embrace the fact that because God is excellent, he has called us to excellence as well, and so we ought to strive to be excellent in everything we are and do. But you only have to look at people in our churches and our seminaries to know that this is not necessarily the case. One obvious example is church bulletins and PowerPoints that are filled with typos. I shudder when I remember the many grammatical errors, some of them embarrassing, that I’ve spotted over the years, like the one where a church announced a yard sale. The church bulletin read, “Yard sale in front of our church next Saturday. Great chance to get rid of things you don’t need any more around the house. Bring your husband.” Or to give another example, just this morning I got a submission for the journal addressed to a “Dr. Andrea Köstenberger.” I don’t know who that person is, do you? Not the way you want to start out with a journal submission.

So why is the notion of excellence often neglected in our circles? I believe the first major problem we run into with regard to excellence is a theological problem bound up with the idea of cheap grace. People like to embrace the notion that because we are saved by grace, we can just sort of kick back and relax and not get too uptight about anything. There is a lot of laziness and complacency, I believe, people not even trying very hard, because somehow they think the pursuit of excellence is incompatible with salvation by grace. My response to this first problem is that a deep-felt conviction of God’s grace ought to spur us on to grateful service and a pursuit of true personal excellence. As Christians saved by grace, we ought to try harder, because we want to bring honor and glory to God as people who are publicly identified with him. As we’ll see in a moment, Scripture teaches that God has in fact called us to pursue excellence and a series of Christian virtues in order to supplement our faith. That may surprise some people, but as we’ll see, it’s right there in the Bible.

The second problem is a practical one. More often than not, we seem to struggle just to scrape by and to make it through the day. For those of us who have families and children, we desperately juggle being a good dad and husband with demands placed upon us in seminary or at work. We’d settle for just getting all our readings done, and all our assignments in on time, whether or not our work is characterized by excellence. For many of us, it seems that excellence is an elusive goal way beyond the reach of the average person. What can we do?

I’ll share a few practical suggestions in just a moment, but before we go any further, let’s see what the Bible has to say on the topic of excellence. Our passage today is 2 Peter 1:3–11, which says: His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to [or by] his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I don’t have time for a full-fledged exposition of these powerful verses right now. If you’re interested, you can read the second chapter of my book on excellence where I methodically go through the passage verse by verse. In many ways, the passage I just read speaks for itself, so let me just highlight a few salient points.

Verse 3 says, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.” The first thing Peter says is that we don’t have to manufacture excellence out of our own resources—God himself has given us what we need to pursue excellence and a godly life. Unlike some approaches in the area of spiritual disciplines, Scripture does not promote self-reliance but God-reliance.

But what are those resources God has given us? Verse 3 continues that God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness “through the knowledge of him who called us to [or by] his own glory and excellence,” that is, the Lord Jesus Christ. If you and I are in a relationship with Him, if we are “in Christ,” then we have in Him all that we need to pursue excellence. Our main assignment is to grow in that relationship with Christ each and every day as we go through the various challenges which life throws at us and which God allows to enter our lives to purify and mature our faith. To me, that’s hugely encouraging, to know that in my relationship with Christ, God has given me everything I need to live my life in a way that is pleasing to Him and that glorifies the Lord.

Verse 4 then continues to talk about the fact that, in Christ, God has granted to us “his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.” I don’t have time to wade through the complexities of the theology of this passage in detail, so let me just focus on the last phrase, “having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.” If you and I want to pursue excellence, we must be willing to deal with sin in our lives in a decisive, even radical, way. We need to be passionate about pursuing God and a relationship with Christ, and we need to allow this passion for God to fuel our refusal to engage in sin or, at occasions when we do sin, to continue in it. If you and I indulge in sin, sin will sap us of our energy. It will gradually erode our love for Christ and distract us from our pursuit of Him. It will stand in the way between us and God and between us and the pursuit of true personal excellence.

In verses 5–7, Peter then follows up his introductory remarks with his primary exhortation: “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.” Here is the reference I was talking about earlier where Peter calls on us to “make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue.” Does that mean faith is not enough? Well, yes and no. Salvation is by grace through faith, so in one sense faith is enough for salvation. In another sense, however, Peter tells us that we must supplement our faith with a series of Christian virtues. In my book, I have sought to identify virtues that Christian scholars, in particular, ought to pursue, and have devoted a chapter each to a given virtue, such as diligence, courage, passion, restraint, integrity, wisdom, grace, humility, love, and so on. Aided by grace, we should aspire to be scholars who are diligent, courageous, passionate, people who show restraint, integrity, wisdom, grace, humility, and love in our work. Let’s just think for a moment: When you look at a paper or article you or I have recently written, or perhaps better, when someone else were to look at our work, would they agree that it is characterized by these virtues? Or would they find us to be combative, competitive, and arrogant? Sometimes, I find, we can be sweet and agreeable in our churches but downright nasty in our writing. We shouldn’t accept this double standard. We should be the same person at home, at church, and in our scholarly work. On a practical note, set your priorities and evaluate your current level of commitments. Most of us are trying to do too much. No wonder we have a hard time attaining to excellence. Commit yourself to doing a few things well. Even Jesus focused on training the Twelve and kept the cross firmly in view as he went about his ministry. What makes us think we can do it all, and do it with excellence?

For the sake of time, we must move on. As Peter tells us, the rewards for pursuing excellence are great and the price we pay for inaction is great as well. He writes, “For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.” I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ to be ineffective or unfruitful. What Peter is saying here is that anyone who neglects to pursue Christian virtue is not properly following through on his cleansing from his former sins. If you and I are saved, it should inexorably follow that we progress on a path toward greater excellence in the service of God.

Finally, Peter writes, “Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” What a great encouragement! If we are diligent to confirm our calling and election, and if we practice these Christian virtues—if we practice them, just like you practice an instrument or try to perfect your golf swing—we will never fall and we will gloriously and triumphantly enter into God’s eternal kingdom. In this spirit, let us proceed to gather for this conference as scholars who have dedicated themselves to the pursuit of personal and scholarly excellence, for the glory of God. Thank you very much.

The Biblical Foundations Team

When it was Wallace’s turn, he showed some good use of humor (playing off the UNC-Duke rivalry), and an impressive command of the field of textual criticism, but he spent way too much time (in my opinion) on listing all the manuscripts and the number of copies we have. That would have been good for a lecture, but was too tedious for a debate format. He showed that Bart Ehrman understated the number of early manuscripts we have, but did not satisfactorily engage him on the theoretical question as to how we can say we have the original text of the NT.

Probably Wallace’s strongest moment was when he quoted from Ehrman’s Misquoting Jesus where Ehrman said that none of the variants affects a major NT doctrine. Wow! That’s a powerful point. If I’d been in Wallace’s place, I would have kept reiterating this point several times, especially since Ehrman never responded to it. Another golden opportunity missed on Wallace’s part, in my opinion, was that he never pressed Ehrman on his comment that there were several places in the NT where there were serious problems with the text. Amazingly, Ehrman just made this general statement in his opening presentation without giving even a single example. He should not have gotten away that easily with this unsubstantiated assertion.

Also, at times Wallace conceded too much, as when he acknowledged there were problems with the text of 2 Corinthians but maintained that 2 Corinthians was not representative of the rest of the NT. Some of the material on 2 Corinthians in our NT Intro, The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown might have been helpful here. Also, when Ehrman claimed that the German scholar Gunther Zuntz’s theory of a Pauline letter collection reflects a scholarly consensus, I was waiting for Wallace to object (he did not). What about David Trobisch? And what about those who don’t think any such compiler modified the text of the letters he collected?

In my judgment, it may have been effective for Wallace to ask Ehrman early on what kind of proof he required to be persuaded that we have the original text of the NT. That would have brought out the fact that Ehrman sets the bar so unreasonably high that virtually nothing could ever satisfy him. Even though Wallace titillatingly dangled the prospect of a first-century MS of Mark in front of Ehrman’s nose (mysteriously hinting that he was sworn to secrecy), it was clear that even that discovery (if it checks out) is unlikely to sway Ehrman. Simply producing a few earlier MSS does not necessarily overturn Ehrman’s theoretical concerns.

Perhaps it might have been helpful at some point, without being unduly ad hominem, to bring out Ehrman’s agnosticism and overall skepticism toward the Christian faith. Ehrman certainly came across as very sensible and measured during the debate, but in some of his writings it is quite clear that he has taken a strongly adversarial stance toward Christianity (not least because of his concerns related to the problem of evil).

Finally, the closing statement cried out for an effort to transcend the stuffy academic issue that probably went over many people’s heads in the audience anyway. If I’d been Wallace, I might have said something like this in closing: “Friends, I think I’ve shown that for every skeptical argument Bart Ehrman advances, there is a reasonable response that shows the Bible to be more reliable than he makes it out to be. But in the end, how many of us believe in the Bible because of text criticism, or the number of manuscripts, or differences in the variants? The bigger questions, I submit to you, are these: Is Christianity true? Is Jesus divine? Did Jesus die on the cross for our sins? Did he rise from the dead? Is Jesus the only way? What is the gospel? Will you and I believe? There are many believers in this audience who have become convinced that the Bible is true and that Jesus is real. We’ll continue to advance arguments and counter-arguments on the minutiae of textual matters, and those matter, but let’s not forget the bigger picture. The Bible is trustworthy, and Christianity is true. Hopefully, we can all agree on that. Thank you very much.”

After the debate, I conducted an informal survey among those who had just witnessed the debate. I asked them who they thought won the debate. There seems to have been no clear winner. Some said Wallace, others Ehrman. It seems that those who were more conservative in the audience appreciated Wallace’s solid presentation of the textual MS evidence and felt confirmed in their belief in the reliability of the NT documents. Others, especially UNC students who have taken Ehrman’s classes or heard about him from others, were impressed with Ehrman’s debating skills and clarity of explaining complicated issues. Some seemed unsure why the issue even mattered. One girl told me that she believed there were errors in the Bible but that she believed in Jesus anyway. On the whole, Ehrman’s delivery was crisper and more lucid. Wallace had a lot of valuable information but wasn’t always able to drive home the relevance of the data he presented for the issue at hand. Perhaps he should contact Romney’s debate coach and get some tips?

Longing to see the world rest on biblical foundations and serving you,

The Biblical Foundations Team (with help from Alan Knox Web Development)

This is easier said than done. Only by the grace of God can we be the kinds of people God wants us to be. Yet follow-through is of absolutely critical importance, as James, the half-brother of Jesus, told his readers: “But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his own face in a mirror; for he looks at himself, goes away, and right away forget what kind of man he was. But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who acts—this person will be blessed in what he does” (Jas 1:22–25).

As far as we know, James did not become a believer in Jesus until after the resurrection. But doubtless he was familiar with Jesus’ similar words in the Sermon on the Mount: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Matt 7:21). Let us be careful, therefore, to be doers of the word and not hearers only. Let us not merely study the Bible but do what it says.

Karl Marx was born into a Jewish family, but his family later became Lutheran, and Marx was baptized at age 6 and confirmed at 15. But Marx showed absolutely no fruit of the Christian faith. To the contrary.Marx’s life abounded with hypocrisy and self-contradiction. He, the self-proclaimed advocate of the working class, knew virtually no workers personally, and did not pay the one servant that he had. Rather than work with his own hands, he lived off his inheritance and family money. His mother lamented that perhaps he should accrue some capital of his own by working rather than simply writing about it. How pitiful!

In response, we should say, “There, but by the grace of God, go I.” But we should also aim to thrust ourselves upon Christ, exclaim, with Paul, “What a wretched man I am!” (Rom 7:24), and live our lives fully in the strength supplied by God—“I am able to do all things through him who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13)—and do our best to “walk our talk,” to the glory and praise of God.

As far as we are able to determine with regard to the background of 1 John, there had been some in the church who taught that possession of the Spirit was not enough; those “truly enlightened” must be initiated into all kinds of “secret knowledge” open only to those initiates. This created all kinds of insecurity and second-guessing among those who were no longer sure whether or not they were Christians at all—when in fact it was those self-characterized “super-Christians” who turned out not to be believers in the end. This seems to follow from 1 John 2:19: “They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belonged to us.”

Some people in the church might look mighty good for a while. They are the stars, but after a brief time on the ascendancy they come crashing down like shooting stars. This, incidentally, is one of the reasons why Paul cautioned his associates not to appoint new converts to positions of leadership in the church. This also is why John tells believers to “test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). So we find that John, the apostle who basked in God’s and Christ’s love more than any other NT writer, is also the one who stresses the need for careful discernment of truth in the church. Like Jesus, Paul, and the other NT authors, John struck a proper balance between truth and love, unlike the above-mentioned church I visited. We, too, should speak the truth in love.

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Köstenberger moves through Christian virtues chapter by chapter, outlining the Bibles teaching and showing how Christ-dependent excellence in each area will have a profound impact on ones ministry and scholarship. Virtues covered include grace, courage, integrity, creativity, eloquence, humility, diligence, and service.

This unique book is an important character check for all Christians engaged in teaching and ministry, and especially for those in training. Köstenbergers thoughtful volume will be a valuable touchstone for readers, for ones character is a critical matter in both scholarship and ministry.

For more information and to purchase on Amazon, click here.