Conviction from Pilgrim's Progress

This week is Fall Break at school. During this break, I have been trying to catch up with my schoolwork (namely my Greek). In addition, I decided to read The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. It is not the easiest reads because of the old English style in which it was written.

That being said, there is a reason why this book has been so widely read. The book reads a sa history of a pilgrim named Christian as he tries to walk in the way (according to the commands of God). Bunyan wrote with great insight into the human journey through this world and thus there are parts in this book that deal with whatever situation the reader is in.

For me, I had just had a bad day where some of my old sins got a hold of me (again). As Providence would have it, I read about the encounter with Talkative, a character in the book that likes to talk about things instead of doing. One like in that section convicted me hard this week. Talkative asks "What difference is there between crying out against, and abhorring of Sin?" The character Faithful replys "Oh! a great deal: A man may cry out against Sin, of policy, but he cannot abhor it but by virtue of a godly antipathy against it". Not only do you need to talk the talk, but you need to walk the walk as well. Unfortunately, I failed at this this week and need to confess my error.

One other note, in this section, they tied the dietary laws of Lev. 11 and Deut. 14 to this part of human nature and God's command against it. Both of these passages give the distinction between clean and unclean land animals: "Whatever parts the hoof and it cloven-footed and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat." Lev. 11:3. The chapter goes on to say that they need both to do the right thing with their mouth AND have the right type of feet; having just one is not enough. The application is that Christians need to use our mouths correctly and have the right feet. We need to be able to talk to people about what is right but we also must be able to put it into practice. I had never thought of it that way before.

Now, if only someone could tell me why we cannot boil a young goat in its mother's milk (Deut 14:21b).