One of the signs that you are walking in the light is that you are honest about having walked in the darkness.
Kevin DeYoungEverything before Jesus is preface. Everything after Jesus is appendix. Jesus is the story.
Kevin DeYoungItโs all too easy to turn the fight of faith into sanctification-by-checklist. Take care of a few bad habits, develop a couple good ones, and youโre set. But a moral checklist doesnโt take into consideration the idols of the hearts. It may not even have the gospel as part of the equation. And inevitably, checklist spirituality is highly selective. So you end up feeling successful at sanctification because you stayed away from drugs, lost weight, served at the soup kitchen, and renounced Styrofoam. But youโve ignored gentleness, humility, joy, and sexual purity.
Kevin DeYoungScripture is profitable for training in righteousness. No one succeeds at the highest level in sports without working out. No one makes it in music without lots of practice. No one excels in scholarship without years of study. And no one makes it far in the school of holiness without hours and days and years in the word. You and I simply will not mature as quickly, minister as effectively, or live as gloriously without immersing ourselves in the Scriptures. We need the Bible if we are to be competent Christians.
Kevin DeYoung