Who is a Devout Person?

          

  At the age of 25 William Law became a Fellow of Emmanuel College in Cambridge, England. But three years later in 1714 when Queen Anne died, he lost his university teaching post and his pulpit as a minister. His religious convictions made it such that he was banned from both places. For ten years he became the private tutor of Edward Gibbon, the famous historian who wrote about the fall of Rome.

            Law is best known for his work called “A Serious Call to the Devout and Holy Life.” It was originally published in 1728 and continues to be a devotional classic to this day.

            Some people today are put off by what seems to be his strict rules of the devout life. But we have to remember he was writing in a day and time when he felt that the fervor and love of devotion for God had waned and almost disappeared. In his writing of this classic, he tried to recapture the heart, mind and vision of one who was completely devoted to Jesus. Read the following excerpt below…

            “A devout man makes a true use of his reason; he sees through the emptiness of the world, discovers the corruption of his nature and the blindness of his passions. He lives by a law which is not visible to disgusting and (obscene) eyes; he enters into the world of spirits; he compares the greatest things, sets eternity against time, and chooses rather to be forever great in the presence of God when he dies than to have the greatest share of worldly pleasures while he lives.”

             A devout person thinks about a different set of values and sees life from a different perspective. Only Jesus in the heart of an individual can change a person this drastically. It is the spiritually transformed life and perspective over against the natural, passion-filled life where self is at the center. The devout person keeps Jesus at the center!

            This raises a significant question relative to Christian leadership. Can devotion and leadership function together? Can a devout person lead others? Can devotion be conceived of as the center from which Christian leadership emerges?

            In the Acts of the Apostles we run across references to a "devout" military leader and his family, to converts to Judaism, and to Ananias who was present at the apostle Paul's conversion. This word comes from eusebeias which means "godliness, piety, or holiness." It refers to a way of life where God's will and activity is at the center of one's thinking and action.

            That being the case, we should not even be in the position to ask the fundamental question that is a "no-brainer!" Can devotion and Christian leadership function together? My answer would be, how can they not?!!

           This may be a lot to take in...hmmm...a Christian leader who reflects the heart of Jesus. In our next article I want to explore more deeply the phrases and concepts that appear in the excerpt taken from Law's classic work. Let us suggest at this juncture, that Christian leadership is not about rules and power-mongering, rather it is leading others out of a life lived in Jesus!

In Christian love, Curtis