Resources
We might say that the greatest contribution the Puritans have made to the church’s understanding of the Bible is in their uncommon ability to apply its teachings to everyday life.
Sola Scriptura, one of the five “solas,” or watchwords of the Protestant Reformation, asserts that Scripture alone is the supreme, infallible authority for Christian faith and life. Known as the “formal principle” of the Protestant Reformation, this watchword summarizes the truth that Scripture is the ultimate criterion for all that we believe and practice. The Puritans inherited a well-developed doctrine of sola Scriptura from the Reformers. They championed its cause and brought it into fuller practical development as they sought to develop its implications more thoroughly than the Reformers had done in their generation.
We might say that the greatest contribution the Puritans have made to the church’s understanding of the Bible is in their uncommon ability to apply its teachings to everyday life. They took profound theological knowledge and turned it into accessible wisdom for living. Taking solid, Reformed, biblical, experiential, confessional Christianity, they applied it to the lives of people in the pew. They excelled in unleashing the full implications of Scripture’s doctrine into the context of the nitty gritty affairs of the everyday man. Sharpening Reformed theology into higher definition, they simultaneously sought to apply Scripture to every facet of our existence in God’s world.
The result of all this biblical reflection and application was the formation of a Christian worldview. Though the term “worldview” did not come into use until the eighteenth century in Germany, the Puritans certainly had one. They eyed the world around them and looked at themselves through the lenses or spectacles of Holy Scripture. They didn’t simply apply the Bible to life; they applied their lives to the Bible, surrendering themselves to the absolute authority of Scripture. They sought to subject God’s entire world to God’s entire Word. Always concerned with the “use” or practical application of Scripture, they sought to shape every area of life by the Word. Whether marriage, family, politics, work, recreation, stewardship, hobbies, entertainment, friendship, or whatever topic, it was to be formatively mastered by the Word of the Lord.
Peter Lewis wrote in The Genius of Puritanism that “Puritanism was not merely a set of rules or a larger creed, but a life-force: a vision and a compulsion which saw the beauty of a holy life and moved towards it, marveling at the possibilities and thrilling to the satisfaction of a God-centered life.”1Peter Lewis, The Genius of Puritanism (Sussex: Carey Publications Limited, 1979), 12. This “life-force” combined a theocentric vision of holy infatuation with God’s glory with scrupulous scriptural living. The consequence was that “every area of life came under the influence of God and the guidance of the Word.”2Lewis, The Genius of Puritanism, 12.
In the remainder of this chapter, we consider how the Puritans can help shape our lives by Scripture through the personal reading of the Word and the public preaching of the Word. Then we’ll attempt to summarize what they understood about how this influx of biblical truth should be assimilated and applied, namely, in how it should result in a life of consecration and God-oriented piety for the glory of God.
Excerpt from
Thriving in Grace: Twelve Ways the Puritans Fuel Spiritual Growth
By Joel R. Beeke and Brian G. Hedges
