Milking a Metaphor

I wrapped up Jonathan Edwards’ Religious Affections the day before yesterday, and I should probably comment on its final few chapters while they are still fresh in my mind.

This book has been a stimulating read from many different angles. The posts it has generated vary as wildly in subject matter — eschatology, authenticity, assurance, the witness of the Holy Spirit and the distinction between natural and moral perfections — as they vary in my level of agreement with Edwards’ observations and assertions.

I’m fine with that. A good, solid, biblical disagreement concentrates the mind better than indifferent assent.

I readily admit to struggling with classics from the Reformed tradition. That said, if you can get past Edward’s unexamined supersessionism and determinism, standard fare among the Puritans of his day, there’s a great deal worth exploring in Religious Affections. When Edwards is on, he’s really on.

Today’s post isn’t about any of that. It’s about the Lord’s use of a particular figure of speech.

The Limits of Biblical Imagery

Let’s begin with a quote from Louis Berkhof from Principles of Biblical Interpretation, which I believe to be exceedingly helpful in understanding types, imagery, parables and figures of speech in scripture. (You can find a lengthier quotation from Berkhof with examples in this post.)

“When the Biblical authors employed figures as metaphors, they generally had some specific point or points of agreement in mind. And even if the interpreter can find still more points of agreement, he must limit himself to those intended by the author.”

The word pictures of scripture have limits. Taken beyond their intended range, these figures quickly devolve into goofiness, imbalance and bad doctrine. It is important we restrain ourselves from using our “sanctified imaginations” to list points of alleged agreement between image and spiritual reality that have no contextual foundation. After all, imagination can take you anywhere at all. 

Becoming Like Children

Here is Jonathan Edwards on the Lord’s teaching that his disciples must “become like children” in order to enter the kingdom of heaven:

“The tenderness of the heart of a true Christian, is elegantly signified by our Savior, in his comparing such a one to a little child. The flesh of a little child is very tender; so is the heart of one that is new born … Not only is the flesh of a little child tender, but his mind is tender. A little child has his heart easily moved, wrought upon and bowed: so is a Christian in spiritual things. A little child is apt to be affected with sympathy, to weep with them that weep, and cannot well bear to see others in distress: so it is with a Christian, John 11:25, Rom. 12:15, 1 Cor. 12:26. A little child is easily won by kindness: so is a Christian. A little child is easily affected with grief at temporal evils, and has his heart melted, and falls a weeping: thus tender is the heart of a Christian, with regard to the evil of sin. A little child is easily affrighted at the appearance of outward evils, or anything that threatens its hurt: so is a Christian apt to be alarmed at the appearance of moral evil, and anything that threatens the hurt of the soul. A little child, when it meets enemies, or fierce beasts, is not apt to trust its own strength, but flies to its parents for refuge: so a saint is not self-confident in engaging spiritual enemies, but flies to Christ. A little child is apt to be suspicious of evil in places of danger, afraid in the dark, afraid when left alone, or far from home: so is a saint apt to be sensible of his spiritual dangers, jealous of himself, full of fear when he cannot see his way plain before him, afraid to be left alone, and to be at a distance from God: Prov. 28:14, ‘Happy is the man that feareth alway: but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief.’ A little child is apt to be afraid of superiors, and to dread their anger, and tremble at their frowns and threatenings: so is a true saint with respect to God: Psal. 119:120, ‘My flesh trembleth for fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy judgments.’ Isa. 66:2, ‘To this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and trembleth at my word.’ ”

I’ve used bold text to draw attention to every comparison Edwards makes between children and believers. He comes up with at least nine, showing a commendable knowledge of both scripture and children. He’s also provided me with one of the better examples I’ve ever seen of a sanctified imagination going places the Lord never intended.

The Sanctified Imagination at Work

Children, Edwards says, are tender, emotional, sympathetic, trusting, easily hurt, fearful of evil, naturally dependent, suspicious and deferential to authority. All this may be true of any given child at any given point in time. Children are also naïve, ignorant, undisciplined, easily misled, frequently overconfident and many other things we would not want to imitate, but fortunately he does not explore those areas of compatibility with the believer.

There’s really only one little thing Edwards has left out, and that’s the entire point of what the Lord is saying in Matthew. It’s right there in 18:4, “Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” What aspect of childlikeness ought the believer to imitate in order to please God? A child’s humility. That’s the takeaway from the passage. Nothing else is so plainly stated. (You will find these other childlike qualities equally absent in the parallel accounts of Mark 9 and Luke 9.)

Much of what Edwards says about children may well be true, and there may well be times the follower of Christ should be like that too, but the net effect of going beyond what is written is an imbalance of emphasis and a tendency to miss the main thrust of a passage.

More Figures of Speech About Children

What’s wrong with becoming as much like children as we can in every way we can think of? Well, the writers of the New Testament not infrequently use the child image as a negative example:

“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.” A good thing too!

“The heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave.” The believer may have certain childlike qualities, but he won’t forever.

“Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.” Not all childish qualities are desirable.

“… so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” In fact, some childish qualities are quite the opposite of desirable.

Balance and Perspective

The primary danger of milking a metaphor is loss of perspective. Scripture compares the believer to a child. It also compares us to sheep, doves, serpents, runners in a race, soldiers, builders of a house, clay, priests, branches, salt, light, bricks, body parts, and many other things.

Each of these images tells us something about how the Lord sees his people or what he desires in us. Extracted from their contexts or expanded far beyond their author’s intention, they can also be quite misleading.