Holy Ruthlessness / Holy Laziness

by Clement Wen

(For a translation of this article, please see 為何需要 神聖的無情 與 神聖的擺爛.) 

In Ephesians 5:10, the Apostle Paul instructs believers to “find out what pleases the Lord.” There’s a very strong active sense to this instruction. Believers are called to take active responsibility with regard to searching out and, with great scrutiny, discerning how exactly they should live in order to please the Lord. Because the overall context of Ephesians 5 frames this “active search” by way of what it means for us to “live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)” (vv. 8-9), there is definitely a moral component to the v. 10 instruction. We are called to live good, righteous, and truthful lives—and there is a generalness to such moral living that we are all called to “find out” and “live out.”

At the same time, however, I think the instruction needs also to be read with specificity. What does it mean for me, particularly, to “please the Lord” by way of the particular life and calling I’ve been given, and in view of the particular context and situation of the current moment or season of my life? In this second sense, how I am personally called to live in a way that “pleases the Lord” will inevitably differ from how others are personally called to “please the Lord.” After all, Paul adds to this a paragraph later, exhorting us to “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is” (vv. 15-17; the second part of this two-sentence instruction, “do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is,” brings necessary balance to the “making the most of every opportunity” phrase). Put in the form of a self-reflective question:

What does it mean for me, personally, in this current season of my life, given my own particular resources, giftedness, and calling from the Lord, to live in a way that is good, righteous, truthful, and wise, making the most of the opportunities I am specifically called to pursue, so that I am able to “please the Lord”?

At the most fundamental of levels, when it comes to answering this most important of questions, what we need is discernment—the ability to know what we should and should not engage in. After all, life in our contemporary world is incredibly busy and all sorts of “good opportunities” are constantly clamoring for our attention. Without a strong sense of what God has called us to do in any given season of our lives, it is overly easy to say “Yes” to too many “good” things so as to spread ourselves too thin. The fact of the matter is that many of our “Yeses” require corresponding “Nos” to other “good” opportunities so that we really can give our “Yeses” the focused attention and concentration that they deserve. The easiest example of this is marriage, in the sense that one has to say “No” to other potential partners in order to be fully committed to the one spouse that they said “Yes” to. Another easy example: if I’m teaching a class on Wednesday night, but a friend or relative invites me to have dinner with them on that same night, due to my physical space-time limitations, I simply can’t say “Yes” to both.

Life is such that we must make choices. Sometimes, the choices are difficult—but choose we must. Hence, we need discernment by way of an active willingness to “find out what pleases the Lord.” And once we’ve done our part to figure things out, we need what theologian John G. Stackhouse, Jr. (inspired by the late Clark Pinnock) has called a “holy ruthlessness” with regard to bravely, sometimes ruthlessly, saying “No” to “good” opportunities that don’t fit what we’re actually called to do, so that we can truly say “Yes” to what we’re supposed to say “Yes” to.[1] This type of “holy ruthlessness” is something many of us need more of. Put somewhat differently, for the sake of our callings, some of us need to stop being “too nice” to everyone.

Of course, there are times when we simply can’t escape certain commitments. But we also need to recognize that not all commitments require equal intensity—and this, too, is something we need discernment about. In the seminary environment where I teach in Taiwan, the typical course load for fulltime students every semester, along with different required school service and church ministry commitments each week, is extremely heavy. But even here, students would be wise to strategically discern which courses they will invest 100% of their energy (so as to aim for a grade of A), which will receive 85% of their energy (so as to aim for the grade of B), and which will only receive 70% of their energy (so as to aim simply to pass for the sake of graduating).[2] Students who believe they are called to further theological scholarship may invest more of their energy in deeply learning and researching the biblical languages and theology courses while those who see themselves as preparing for the fields of pastoral ministry or counseling might choose instead to invest the best of their energies in practical courses and experiential field and ministry internships.

As finite creatures who each have unique God-given callings, it is simply a fact of life that not every single commitment that requires our energy and engagement will receive 100% of our best effort. Some things, really, should only receive 70% of our limited strength so that we have the required energy to engage the more important commitments with the 100% concentrated focus that those more important commitments deserve. In a sense, in “finding out what pleases the Lord,” we inevitably also discern which commitments ought to deserve our 100%, which our 85%, and which our 70%. And for those commitments that we believe only our 70% is needed, we faithfully learn how not to put in more than necessary so that we reserve the best of our strength for the 85% and 100% commitments. In a sense, to “find out what pleases the Lord” means also discerning for which commitments we will maintain a sort of “holy laziness” about. Truth be told, this is the only way we can live with proper humility when it comes to acknowledging our limits as finite human beings—an anthropological finiteness that, when rightly respected, is in fact a great blessing to us rather than a curse.

Now, some might read what I’m writing here and protest that biblical passages like Colossians 3:17 call us to “excellence” (i.e., 100% effort) in all that we do because Paul writes there that in “whatever you do, whether in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” On this, I would like to submit to you that the perfectionist idolization of “excellence” is a modern misreading of scripture that has mostly been propagated by our (American) megachurch culture. Rather than thinking that Paul means here in Colossians that a perfectionist type of excellence is what we always should be striving for, I believe that “doing everything in the name of the Lord Jesus” in actuality means that we do everything in a worshipful manner that—because of our worshipful attitude—reflects proper proportions. In keeping with this, at least one aspect of what it means to “find out what pleases the Lord” is to prayerfully wrestle with what we are called to say “Yes” to (and, importantly, to what degree our “Yeses” are to entail) as well as what we are called to say “No” to. And once we have these things figured out, we faithfully, without apology, exercise both the “holy ruthlessness” and “holy laziness” that’s required so that, in Christ, by way of the Spirit, we truly can commit all of our words and deeds to the Lord, giving thanks to God the Father along the way.

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[1] I’m thankful to theologian John G. Stackhouse, Jr. for recounting his story about the personal advice of “ruthlessness” that he received from Clark Pinnock when he was younger, leading him to speak of our need for a “holy ruthlessness”; see John G. Stackhouse, Jr.’s blog post, “In Memory of Clark Pinnock: A Ruthless Theologian” (August 21, 2010), accessed May 30, 2023; available https://www.johnstackhouse.com/post/in-memory-of-clark-pinnock-a-ruthless-theologian.

[2] Energy levels here do not necessarily reflect what grade they will end up receiving. One can put 100% of their energy into a course and still get a grade of 70, while in other cases, we might put in only 70% of our energy into a course and get a grade of 95. This phenomenon should also be a consideration when thinking about how much energy to invest into something.

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If you feel like you could use some further development in your discernment process, consider joining one of our Hearing God workshops, where we explore practical ways of connecting with and receiving daily guidance from God on what He has planned for us and how to best go about our days. You can sign up for info about the next online session here:

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Some Thoughts from Project Arctos to Help Process Your Own

Holy Ruthlessness and Holy Laziness: 

Both Holy Ruthlessness and Holy Laziness involve saying “Yes” to some things and “No” to others. Oftentimes, “Yes” and “No” can be two sides of the same coin: If I say no to dinner with someone, then I may be freed up to say yes to something else. Do you struggle with saying “No” to some things that you feel God is calling you to say “No” to? What are the reasons? How does Scripture speak to those reasons, and how might you invite God into this struggle today? 

Maybe you struggle with saying “Yes” to something God is calling you to. What are the reasons you’re saying “No” to it? How does Scripture speak to those reasons, and how might you invite God into that struggle? 

Or maybe you’re just not sure what your calling is or what to say “Yes” to and what to say “No” to. A very important element here is to understand what is most important for any given day or season of life, which may be best arrived at through your own conversations with God.

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Rev. Dr. Clement Wen currently serves as Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology at China Evangelical Seminary in Taiwan. Prior to earning his PhD at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland (2015-2019), he was Youth Pastor at the Chinese Bible Church of Maryland in the USA from 2010-2015. He is the son of the late Dr. Yinkann Wen, former president of the KRC board of directors. Clement and his wife, Tracy, have two boys, Ethan and Micah.

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