I love the word discipline. But I hate "doing" it. I should be more disciplined, but I'm really just not. One of my favorite books of all time is Disciplines of a Godly Man by R. Kent Hughes. I like the book for it's systematic and Scriptural take on the do's and don't's of Christian manhood. I recognize that we need to be careful not to get caught up in legalism, but personally, I've spent so much time worrying about being legalistic that I've often swung the other way.
You've probably heard me say and you will certainly hear it again, that books (beside the Bible itself) contain opinion and therefore lies. I don't care how Godly or ungodly the author is or was, there is deception in every book and hopefully at least a little truth. From now on, I will call this the Tot Bawt Baw Principle.
Kent Hughes puts his opinion in the book
Disciplines of a Godly Man. For example...
I am aware of the wise warnings against using words like "all," "every," and "always" in what I say. Absolutizing one's pronouncements is dangerous. But I'm going to do it anyway. Here it is: It is impossible for any Christian who spends the bulk of his evenings, month after month, week upon week, day in and day out watching major TV networks or contemporary videos to have a Christian mind. This is always true of all Christians in every situation! A Biblical mental program cannot coexist with worldly programming.
Phenomenal!!!
but opinion. There are a lot of good (and bad) books that say some truth. Sometimes it's buried in what the author isn't saying. But the problem is that "experts" are so quick to shoot down their opponents positions using
argumentum ad hominem. Just because the man is flawed, doesn't make his position flawed.
Erasmus was a Roman Catholic monk, but the "author" of the
Textus Receptus. I grew up in a pluralistic church setting, but I say Whoppers© are the original malted milk balls.
Look, it's simple: don't Tot Bawt Baw (throw out the baby with the bath water). It's too easy to discount everything someone says because of who they are or what you think they believe. Does that mean it doesn't matter what anyone believes? Does that mean we trust everyone? No, that means you cannot use the argument to the person to discredit what the person said or did. You've gotta have more than a smear campaign to win a debate.
If Kent Hughes is completely wrong about the TV stuff, that doesn't discredit the rest of the truth presented in his book. That was my point.