Imitating Faith
We are interested in imitating Kuyper as he imitated Christ. Paul commanded the Corinthians to imitate him (1 Corinthians 11:1), and the author of Hebrews commanded: “remember your leaders those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith” (Hebrews 13:7). Kuyper was not sinless, and he certainly is not a savior, but he loved the Savior and wore himself out in fruitful service for the Savior. That must be considered.
Of course we make disciples of Christ, not disciples of Kuyper. I don’t tell any of my unbelieving neighbors that they need to “ask Kuyper into their hearts.” And at the same time, it may very well be that my neighbors observe something different about our family that I know grows out of a viewpoint and motivation I learned from considering Kuyper’s faith and way of life. Kuyperian is a nickname ad rem.
The Future Today
We are preoccupied with the future for today. I’ve read that as a description about leaders: a leader is preoccupied with the future. A great leader rallies others to a better future. This future focus is a New Testament norm, and it follows a pattern established in the Old Testament. Eschatology is ad rem.
The farmer tills and sows and waters and weeds as he looks to the harvest. The Christian trusts and suffers and worships as he looks to the harvest. Jesus is coming again. The faithful servants in the parable knew that their master was returning soon so they invested (Matthew 25:14-30). Faith, hope, expectation, these fill our hearts with reason for daily deaths.
What we believe will happen later affects what we will do now. Too many Christians, especially the Dispy types, have undervalued earthly relationships and responsibilities, forfeiting their own joy and an obvious way of provoking jealousy.
We are concerned about enculturating the next generation, about edifying one another, about encouraging healthy marriages and families. But this is not only for ourselves, it is for the life of the world (as we point them to Jesus per John 6:51 and as we make application of Jeremiah 29:7, represented fantastically in this DVD series called “Letters to the Exiles”). We do it because we already have and we want more of God’s blessing.