With Clenched Fists, or Captivated Hearts?

Beyond Duty: Discovering the Joy and Love that Fuels Authentic Christian Living

If you’ve been around the Christian faith, you have probably heard well-meaning lines or proverbs like these at some point:

Strive for purity over delight.

Care more for your child’s soul than their joy.

Life is not the pursuit of happiness; it is the pursuit of holiness.

While I know and understand that these comments come from a desire for true righteousness, it is my position that the burden and sorrow which these comments supply greatly surpass any good they bring.

Why do I say this?

I’ll begin with an anecdote from my own experience. While at bible study, the conversation went to the subject of sanctification, and one of the men, with an obviously heavy heart, began saying that the sanctification process was such a trudge—so wearying to his soul—even confessing that it, “just kind of sucks.”

As he saw it, “the chief end of man is to glorify God,” and the only way to do that was to grit his teeth, pull himself up by the bootstraps, and trudge through a miserable walk of faith—head down, heart heavy.

While giving up our bad habits and sinful deeds is, without question, better than continuing in them, could you say that hating every second of it was glorifying to God?

Though this mindset may appear deeply sanctified—and is often embraced with sincerity—it ultimately falls short of what truly glorifies God or pleases Him.

Now I’m sure we have all heard and been pierced by Christ’s words when He said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt 5:27-28), but let’s really dig into the point these words make: Seemingly holy outward actions mean nothing if the heart isn’t in the right disposition.

The fact that someone physically abstains from adultery is vain if they’re bedding everyone their eyes meet in their heart. Would you eat cake made of mud just because it was covered in frosting? How long will that physical abstinence last with those inward desires? “It’s just a look, just a word, just a touch.” Before they know it, the desires of the heart begin to spill over into real life—that shiny exterior couldn’t hold back the internal rot forever.

Peter talked about those who escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ but again became entangled in them. Their profession of holiness and faith meant nothing, for the desires of their heart couldn’t be suppressed. The message of the true proverb happened to them, “A dog returns to its own vomit,” and “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mud” (2 Pet 2:20,22). Without an internal change, their outward cleanliness faded away, for a bad tree cannot bear good fruit (Matt 7:18), and a profane heart cannot create holy deeds!

The statements I listed in the beginning do nothing to breed the change in desire that is necessary for the Christian faith. It’s reminiscent of the Pharisees who burdened men down with weights hard to bear (Luke 11:46) and made them twice as much a child of hell than themselves (Matt 23:15).

These sayings, while seemingly dripping with strength and sanctification, inadvertently create a weak and common religion; One built on clenched fists—not captivated hearts. A religion that cleans the outside of the cup and the dish but is inside full of robbery and self-indulgence (Matt 23:25) creating plants that immediately spring up, but because they have no depth of soil they are scorched and wither away (Matthew 13:5-6). Is this any different from the way of the world? Any different from Adam patching together his own clothes out of fig leaves to hide his own shame?

Is this the melodious song that scripture sings about true religion? How could it be?

The message of scripture couldn’t be clearer; If God’s law isn’t our delight, then we will perish in our affliction (Psa 119:92). His law, His holiness, isn’t a shackle confining us beloved, for His commandments are not burdensome (1 John 5:3). God is love (1 John 4:8), and His law is to love, and Christians—how could I be burdened by love?

His commands are not some holiness checklist; They’re a mural of beauty and perfection meant to be the light to our feet. The more I see God’s beauty through His law, the more I long to be like Him, for everyone who has the hope of Christ in Him purifies themselves, just as He is pure (1 John 3:3). Not because they should, but because they must! They can’t help themselves; their soul thirsts for the Lord, flesh fainting for Him, as in a dry and weary land without water (Psa 63:1).

Holiness doesn’t flow from duty’s pain but from love’s flame. For the greater the love is for God, the greater the love and delight will be for His law. For His law is a representation of His perfect nature—His flawless being.

This is why Christ can say, “If you love me, you will follow My commandments” (John 14:15). This isn’t the veiled threat that some make it out to be; “If you love God you must be holy!” Saints of God, it’s a beautiful promise; “If you love God, you will be holy!”

We often read this verse, or verses like it, and immediately start stacking the holy duties upon ourselves that we feel must fulfill to show our love for God, but is that the holy love of Christ? Beloved, we already know that just “doing holy things” isn’t really love.

If I give away all I have, even delivering up my body to be burned, but do it without love, I gain nothing (1 Cor 13:3). Actions with the outward veneer of holiness, but an inward disposition which lacks love, are hollow and vain!

Say it was my anniversary with my wife, and I got her flowers and wrote her a poem, yet I didn’t do it because I felt a strong desire to, but because I felt I had to in order to keep up appearances. Imagine I haven’t felt that passion for her in years, but still, I stay married—not from love, but from obligation. I have to fulfill my duties, not because I want to, but because it’s the right thing to do. Beloved, could anyone dare proclaim that this is love?

Rather than doing holy things for God merely out of obligation, we should ever be intoxicated with His love (Prov 5:19)! Instead of just fulfilling your holy duties for Him, be sick with love for the Lord (Song 5:8)!

Love is not merely an action—it’s an intoxication that seizes the soul and mystifies the mind, a sacred heart fever that burns with delight and ignites devotion.

What comes first? Does a man slay a dragon and then fall in love? Does he trudge into battle with a sigh, muttering, “I suppose I have to do this if I want to be heroic”? Or does he behold the princess—her beauty, her purity, her grace—and through the captivation of his heart, drive himself to conquer the world for her?

 Rather than just doing more, may we remember that our beloved’s love is more delightful than wine (Song 1:2). If we do that, how could holiness not but pour out of our hearts?

If you feel you don’t know this love, or are struggling to grasp it with your outstretched hands, then let the graceful words of our Holy God grace you like a gentle whisper, “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us” (1 John 3:16), “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:7-8).

A breathtaking love that looks at your flaws and says, “Well done good and faithful servant” (Matt 25:23). A tender love that sees your stains and says, “Behold, you are beautiful, my darling! Behold, you are beautiful!” (Song 1:15). A love so powerful it drives Paul to exclaim, “Who can separate us from the love of Christ?” (Rom 8:35).

My friends, holiness is not found in doing more—it’s found in being wholly captivated by the One who did it all. Rest in the cross of Christ. Be reconciled to your precious Father. Come lay down your burdened striving. Turn your eyes upon Jesus—and how could His glorious eyes like a flame of fire (Rev 1:14) not cast behind you the radiant shadow of holiness?

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