March 21 Daily Devotional

By two wings man is lifted from the things of earth—simplicity and purity>br>(Thomas a Kempis)

As life in general becomes more and more complex, so religion tends to be affected in the same way. In the secular world, life today has become involved and sophisticated; in every direction one sees increased organization and multi­plicity of machinery. Bustle and business, conferences and conventions, are the order of the day. Never has the life of the world been so complicated....

The simple truths are being ignored, and men spend their time in holding conferences to explore their difficulties. The same tendency is seen in the world of religion. It seems to be assumed that if the affairs of men are so difficult and complicated, the affairs of God should be still more complicated because they are still greater.

Hence comes the tendency to increase ceremony and ritual and to multiply organizations and activities; ... the argument is that it is ridiculous to assert that the vast problems of life today can be solved in the apparently simple manner suggested by those who preach the gospel in the old evangelical manner....

The fact is that as we get further away from God, life becomes more complicated and involved. We see this not only in the Bible but also in subsequent history. The Protestant Reformation simplified not only religion but the whole of life and living in general.... The truly religious life is always simple; ... there is nothing which is so characteristic of God's work in every realm as its essential simplicity and order.

Look where you will; you see that God ever works on an uncomplicated design. See how He repeats the seasons year by year—spring, summer, autumn, winter. Examine a flower; ... you will find that the basic pattern of nature is always simple.

Simplicity is God's method. Is it, then, reasonable to believe that in the most vital subject of all, the salvation of man and the ordering of his life, God should suddenly jettison His own method and become involved and complex?

Truth Unchanged, Unchanging, pp. 78-80

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“Text reproduced from ‘A First Book of Daily Readings’ by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, published by Epworth Press 1970 & 1977 © Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes. Used with permission.”

Comments on D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, A First Book of Daily Readings

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