The Gospel and The Twelve Rules
Jordan Peterson’s book, Twelve Rules For Life, offers
practical and psychological help to those seeking a better life – or Peterson puts
it, Life (existence for the whole planet across time). Taken as they
stand, Peterson’s rules provide protection against chaos and wisdom upon which
to lean
The rules, however, fall short. As Christians, we understand
that real Life originates in and is and upheld by Christ. The Gospel,
not personal will or ideals, provides our only hope. Without a Gospel foundation
and Gospel support, trial and time erode the wisest of ideals and the strongest
resolve into dust. Success comes not through more effort, but through God’s effort
– effort expended at Calvary – effort affecting us still.
Filtering Peterson’s rules through the lens of the Gospel
transforms them into statements of hope that convict, encourage, and ultimately,
reveal the Cross as the only root from which a truly better Life can sustainably
grow.
1.
Stand up straight with your shoulders
back because YOU ARE A CHILD OF GOD.
Peterson makes a strong point: Carry yourself
well, adopt the habits and mindsets that people espouse, and your likelihood of
success will rise. However, to the Christian, success begins and ends with
Christ. In Gospel culture, our success rests on the dignity, innocence and
worth we obtain the moment we identify with Christ. Whatever success we achieve
after God restores us becomes an extra benefit instead of our reason to strive.
Christ in us, our Reason and our Reward, matures us and offers the only assurance
of current and lasting success.
2.
Treat yourself like someone you are
responsible for helping because ALMIGHTY GOD HAS ALREADY HELPED YOU.
Christ’s sacrifice gives us a moral obligation
for self-care. Since Christ has called us beloved, we must act like the beloved
we are. Anything less cheapens His gift and the unarguable value He’s given us.
Anything less is a farce.
3.
GOD WANTS THE BEST FOR YOU. Befriend
people who feel likewise.
Christian friendships suffer pitfalls
similar all others. “Rescuing” friendships, shallow friendships, selfish
friendships, or fragile friendships all fall short of the healthy relationships
God intends. While Christians should, and do, befriend others with an eye for
serving them, the Gospel compels us to seek out friends who mirror God’s care. He
gives us hard, loving truths – and also His constant presence, both of which help
us grow. Because of this friendship, we’re empowered to seek and become friends
who do the same – not to the exclusion of other, less ideal relationships, but
with a clear-eyed discernment that ranks certain friendships as better than others
and eschews other friendships entirely.
4.
YOU ARE UNIQUELY CREATED TO INHABIT TIME,
so compare yourself to yourself, over time – but never forget your Creator.
Peterson’s argument deepens in the light of
our identity as creatures, created by God. In Him we find motivation to strive
for excellence as well as humility to recognize and grow past our weaknesses.
Failure or success can easily derail us even when we’re not comparing ourselves
with others. Recalling our Creator reminds us of our identity within His larger
story and helps us retain the dignity and humility (both required) for healthy
maturation.
5.
BECAUSE GOD DISCIPLINES YOU IN LOVE, do
the same for your children.
God’s guidance and consequences, both given
in love, shape our characters. To deny our children the same advantage,
especially when they are young and still unable to recognize God’s chastisement
for themselves, is to participate in their own destruction. Christ has loved us,
and we must love our children – not for the purpose of making them loveable to
ourselves or others, but because they are God’s beloved. When we treat
them as such, employing all the restraints and blessings that belovedness
implies, loveableness is likely to follow. But rather than being mistaken as our
greatest priority or an end unto itself, it will be a beautiful by-product of
their security in our love, and in God’s.
6.
Set your house in order before you criticize
the world, because GOD HAS GIVEN YOU A SPECIFIC SPHERE OF DOMINION.
As God’s redeemed people, we have been
ushered into a Kingdom that exists now and into eternity. It is expressed and
expanded with every surrendered thought, emotion, and act we perform. We participate
in this expansion in our own location, bound by time. Our impact dissipates,
however, when we focus on farther realms at the expense of our own. To care for
our bodies, our homes, our yards, and our businesses is to beautify time and eternity.
To ignore them for the sake of a more public “cause” cheapens the Kingdom and
dishonors its King. We must not do this. We must uphold His kingdom as holy
with every mundane or monumental task that we face. We must approach our house and
our sphere, however mundane, as if it were God’s, for it is. In doing so, we
build a platform from which we may rightfully approach and beautify other,
larger spheres, too.
7.
Pursue what is meaningful, not what is
expedient, because GOD INHABITS ETERNITY.
Peterson proves that small, wise choices
create grand, generation-spanning Good. The Christian motivation for such
choices, however, runs deeper than the knowledge that self-denial now
means better Life later. It rests upon the eternity of God. Zoom out on
any decision and include the truth of the Gospel, and you discover a paradigm
that necessarily places meaning over expedience, generosity over selfishness. Because
His gift transforms our deepest nature, we’re compelled to invest in a better present,
a Life-filled future, and a Kingdom that extends into eternity. Yet again, God’s
love, not human ideals, informs and empowers our behavior.
8.
Tell the truth – or at least don’t lie because
GOD’S TRUTH HAS SET YOU FREE.
Christians experience painful, transformative
proximity to Truth every day. Truth reminds us of our calledness, our belovedness,
and our sin. Truth also speaks, as a Person, from His residence within our renewed
spirits. As earthen vessels containing this divine treasure, we accept our frailty
along with our worth, and telling the truth becomes a natural response to the Truth
we have received. We speak difficult truths (when prompted) in love. We speak delightful
truths because they overflow us. Because both kinds of truths have set us free,
and because Truth (Jesus Christ) makes us freer over time, we speak truth with
our lips and lives.
9.
Assume whoever you’re listening to knows
something you don’t because ONLY GOD IS INFINITE.
Perhaps the only thing the stranger on the
bus or the ranting lunatic knows is their own story. But still, it is new
information. Jesus Himself walked the earth as a stranger. He, the all-knowing Divine,
frequently queried others about their thoughts and motivations. How much more
might we, wrapped in our own limitations, do likewise? This posture of humility
opens hearts, both others’ and our own, to connection. It creates possibilities
for knowledge and relationship that serving solitude never could. It allows us
to incarnate, like Christ, into the lives and experiences of those we encounter.
It creates space for Grace to unfold, and this is our greatest goal.
10. Be
precise in your speech because GOD KNOWS YOU INSIDE AND OUT.
Precision, like Truth, can protect us. Without
clarity, how will we (or anyone else) know us (or our desires) from any others?
This rule speaks to the necessity of speaking specifically rather than hiding
behind “safe” generalities. What, exactly, do we want? Who are we, exactly?
What, exactly, makes us angry, or happy, or sad? God spoke these truths clearly
through His Word – both the written Word and the Word of God when He walked
this earth. The clarity of His speech informs our own, empowering us to use
specific, difficult words without fear. Our fearlessness comes not only from
His good example, but primarily from His goodness – a goodness that
guarantees our security no matter the difficulty of the our particular words.
11. Do
not bother children while they are skateboarding, because GOD ENCOURAGES ALL
THINGS TO GROW.
Growth – ours and others’ – involves
danger, daring, and discomfort. In allowing us free will, God asserts our
freedom to explore and expects to grow wiser as a result. Why, then, would we
hamper that freedom in others? Developing comes at the cost of our safety: not
developing costs so much more. Over-protected individuals destroy their spheres
of influence rather than edifying them. Worse, they’re denied the dignity given
to all children of God. Because God gives us the right and responsibility to grow,
we must give the same gift to our children. Protecting children’s freedom to mature
is part of our divine calling and displays our own adulthood in Christ.
12. Pet
a cat when you encounter one in the street, because THE KINDNESS OF GOD STILL
LEADS YOU TO REPENTANCE.
Peterson’s final rule is the greatest: all acts
of love transform Life. This is true; but this is not why Christians perform
them. Our motivation springs not from the hope of betterment, but from the knowledge
that betterment has already taken place. God’s act of love has already
transformed Life – our own lives, Life across time, and the eternal Life
of this planet. His gentle act – more costly and condescending than petting even
the most dangerous cat on the street, makes us New. From this newness, we
extend ourselves, too – petting cats, washing dishes, saving lives, speaking
truth – and Life continues to transform. There is no other purpose. There is no
other cause. Rules won’t protect or redeem human lives, but Love will. And Love
is a person. God is Love.
