Metaphors We Must Live By: A Case for the Proper Use of Metaphors in Christian Discipleship

By Andrew Ballard

We all know the phrase, "Time is Money". But have you ever really stopped and thought about what that means? We talk about "spending time" and "investing time" and even "saving time," but do we follow that to its logical conclusion?
If I save time now, will I have more time later? If I invest my time in the right way, will I get a return on that i

• Language: English
• Publisher: Andrew Ballard
• Release date: Oct 17, 2020
• ISBN: 9781087918099

Book preview

Metaphors We Must Live By

Metaphors We Must Live By

Metaphors We Must Live By

A Case for the Proper Use of Metaphors in Christian Discipleship

Andrew Ballard

Published by Andrew Ballard

Contents

Thanksgiving

On Metaphors

Part One Metaphors From the Bible We Must Live By

Remembering Christ’s Sacrifice

A Holy Community

A Matrimonial Metaphor

Part Two Metaphors We Must Not Live By

How Rare Would You Like Your Communion, Sir?

When Ecclesiology Exits Stage Left

I Don’t Have Time for Another Chapter!

If You Use This Metaphor, You Might Be Putting God Into a Box

Verbatim Verbs and Nonplussed Nouns

Concluding Remarks

Footnotes

About the Author

About The Reader

Copyright © 2020 by Andrew Ballard

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First Printing, 2020

Thanksgiving

For my Dad,

who fostered my love for inquiry,

and For my Mom,

who fanned my passion for writing;

For Todd Wiggins,

and all the leaders at Southbridge Community Church,

for giving me my first opportunity

in vocational ministry;

For John Piper,

and especially for his books,

Think!,

The Pastor as Scholar and the Scholar as Pastor¹, and

Seeing Beauty and Saying Beautifully,

works which, individually and compositely,

have been instrumental in helping me to

clarify my calling;

For all the Saints in the Boro,

whom I have labored with and for over the past five years,

you know who you are,

and you know that your affection for Christ is my crown;

and

For my Delight,

my Bubbling Brooke,

whose dulcet stream of spiritual support

and Scriptural encouragement

has been a source of Living Water to my soul;

Finally,

Fully,

For my sweet, sweet Jesus,

the only Word

which makes any word

worth saying,

and because of whom

all is justified to the right.

Foreword

A Note to Those Who Have Supported Me

Aren’t you a little young to write a book?

Shouldn’t you wait until you have a little more to say?

You know you’re not John Piper, right?

As I have gone through the process of writing and self-publishing this book, these thoughts and others have hovered in the back of my mind. I don’t remember if I read them somewhere, if someone gave them to me, or if I was creative enough to come up with them myself. While I am not grateful for the moments when doubts and internalized criticism have threatened to paralyze my mind, they have nonetheless served to distill for me a question which I think must be asked.

Why should I write a book?

Which leads me to the even more fundamental inquiry,

Why should I do anything?

Paul had a pretty clear answer to that question: Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.¹ The reason for why to do anything is for the sake of Jesus’ name. It is in my heart to write, so the question has become for me, Can I write in such a way that I honor the name of Jesus? Or, to borrow the language of 1 Corinthians, Might I bring God glory by writing?² And, if the answer is yes, then how?

There are at least three ways in which I can see God being glorified by my writing this book. First, I glorify God by knowing God rightly. Perhaps the most extensive aspect of writing this book has been the process of research. My research has been almost exclusively examining the Bible or what godly people have to say about it. As I have grown in knowledge of God, I have been able to ascribe to him the right glory which he deserves.³ Secondly, I am able to glorify God by writing to communicate these truths to others for their edification and upbuilding.⁴ Thirdly, by selling this book for profit I do not mean to think of myself as more highly than I ought,⁵ but, rather, my desire is to glorify God by earning my own living⁶ and to thereby provide for my family even through the exercise of the talents God has allotted me as I use them for the upbuilding of the Church.⁷ These are the reasons why, generally, I think it is good and glorifying to God for me to write a book.

But there is also a more specific reason why I feel compelled to write, which is, I believe, related to my calling.⁸

When I was in college, I was writing non-stop. I had a very research-intensive major, and was constantly composing papers for my classes. I journaled every day as I worked through my thoughts, emotions, and the passages of Scripture that I was studying. I was also frequently leading Bible studies, which compelled me to write out my thoughts in preparation. At times I would find my heart burning to offer accessible guidance and encouragement to my friends in the community, which led me to start a blog, Prone To Wonder.

Graduation came, along with a promotion at work, an engagement and prompt marriage to my beautiful bride Brooke, and a host of other matters which, combined with my exit from the academic environment, nearly murdered my life of writing. There were many weeks when I was so busy that I could barely even scribble thoughts down in my journal- and, I have been informed by my wife, my scrawl is such chickenscratch that to call it writing would be on par with calling a spaghetti-stained shirt art or a plant-based burger an entrée.

The point is, I missed writing dreadfully. Not simply because I love writing for its own sake, but because of what I can do through writing. You see, some months ago, I had the epiphany that the Bible is God’s revelation of the truth about reality. That is to say, the vast majority of people who live in our reality do not understand the reality they are living in, and so they do not live in the reality which they are in in such a way as though the reality they are living in is really real. (Now, that’s about as clear as mud, isn’t it?)

What I am getting at is that I began to understand teaching the Bible as the practice of helping people to understand, and thereby to appropriately live in, the reality in which we exist. Teaching people God’s Word has always enthralled me, and I believe that it is a gift which I have by God’s grace, but when I came to this recent realization it deepened my understanding of why this practice is so important to me. It is because, outside of the truth revealed in the Bible, people cannot understand the reality they live in, and thus they will be hindered from living in it appropriately.

On my part, I have found that I love to reveal to people what reality is really like, even more than I love learning what it is like for my own self. I love teaching God’s word, and thereby helping people to see what the reality they already exist in is like, and I love helping them to better live in that reality, which starts with how they think about it.⁹ One of the chief ways that I can do this is through writing. I am passionate about writing in this way, I feel that I am skilled in it (and I have had people in my life affirm this), and it seems that I am effective in it when I set my mind to it.

I normally would not go into so much personal detail in a work such as this, but I do so here because many of you who read this have invested very much into my life and my ministry. I have regularly written support

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[Andrew Ballard · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have read this book, and I think that it is good.