Spirituality is an area of ongoing interest to those outside the Christian faith, and so our neglect of these themes—motivation, repentance, and holiness—does more damage to our witness than we realize. If someone can look at your life and not see differences in your motive, a daily practice of repentance when that motive is off, and a continual striving for holiness in specifics aspects of your character, something is deeply wrong.

The more you read, the more you notice. That’s why I love reading so much. Over the last two years, I’ve read the entire corpus of books from David Powlison and J. I. Packer—two brilliant thinkers and spiritual giants. I’ll be sharing many thoughts about what I’ve learned from them in the coming months. Much of my work on Powlison is set out in the forthcoming book, Dissecting the Heart: Secular Psychology, Spiritual Warfare, and True Theology. The book comprises lectures by David Powlison that I’ve introduced and then packed with annotations. It’s a testament of theological passion and love for my friend, who is now in glory. As for my work on Packer, I’ll say more soon, but I’m very excited about it.

There are three themes I’ve found in Powlison’s and Packer’s work that get very little attention in contemporary Christian spirituality. And I’m convinced that this has crippled us. I hope and pray for change. Read on to see why. For each theme, I’m offering a quotation from Powlison or Packer (or both) and a few sentences about why it’s detrimental for us to not think about these things.

3 Neglected Aspects of Contemporary Spirituality

2. Motivation. “Motivation” is our language for what the Bible might call “heart-direction.” It answers the questions, “Why are you doing what you’re doing? What are you chasing after?” Or, as David Powlison would say, “What makes you tick?” For Powlison, what your heart chases after is a question not simply of what you want but of how your heart relates to God. Here’s how he put it:

Motivational dynamics do not simply operate within or between persons. The human heart has to do with God. So when the Bible describes the desires that obviously play within our souls and rule our lives, it does not portray them as hard-wired psychological or physiological givens: as needs, instincts, drives, longings, wishes. It speaks of them as morally freighted vis-a-vis God, as moral-covenantal choices: we are ruled either by cravings of the flesh or by repentance-faith-obedience to God’s desires. (The Biblical Counseling Movement, 288)

In simple terms, whatever motivates you to act reveals what you think of God—whether good or bad—and how you’re choosing to live in his presence. This is very practical. For instance, a sugar craving that leads to binge eating isn’t just an example of human behavior. It says something about what your heart ultimately values, what you think will satisfy you. And in this case, it isn’t God. That matters. All of our tiny daily pursuits matter.

Why is it detrimental for us not to think about this? Because if we’re blind to our motivations, then we’re blind to the roots of our behavior. And without addressing the roots, we won’t change. We’ll be stuck in a behavior loop that promises to satisfy us but never does, because only God can do that. At a basic level, we need to daily ask ourselves, “What am I chasing?” If the answer is anything other than “a deepening relationship with God,” then we need to practice the next item, which might be the most neglected and misunderstood spiritual exercise in our day.

2. Repentance. Repentance—turning your heart in the opposite direction and marching toward change by dependence on the Spirit of God—is a central teaching in both the Old and New Testaments. Many Christians in broader evangelicalism are simply oblivious to this, which is mind-blowing. They talk about Jesus and the cross, about forgiveness of sin, about the resurrection, about the comfort of the Holy Spirit. And praise God for these things! But repentance? That drops out. This is very odd, considering how much Jesus himself focuses on this, in addition to the book of Acts (Matt. 3:2; 4:17; Mark 6:12; Luke 24:45-47; Acts 2:38; 17:30; 20:21; 26:20). Jesus, John the Baptist, Peter, and Paul have a special place in their message for repentance. J. I. Packer wrote,

Repentance was . . . primary in the preaching of John, of Jesus, of Peter, and of Paul, and Peter’s last words on paper include the description of Jesus as “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9).

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