Should Just

Matt Johnson:

Stuck people already know what they should just be doing. They should just stop drinking to excess, they should just be more attentive to their spouse, they should just work harder, they should just stop masturbating. These two dirty words not only yield fruitlessness, they’re fertilizer for despair. The insidious, looming should / just is familiar and it sounds a little like this:

I should just be in the word more
I know I should just have more more faith
I should just trust God more

Hiding behind each of those familiar statements is a vortex of disappointment and failure waiting to happen. We’ve all tried to try harder. Depressed, stuck people need more admonishment about as much as they need a whack to the head with a tube sock full of rolled pennies. The problem is, Should / Just is packed to the brim with the conditional implications of law, not gospel. Remember--God’s law is perfect, holy and just but the law does not give, it only commands, accuses and judges. See, the gospel alone empowers obedience. So once someone has been crushed under the demand of the law, the gut punch of Should / Just isn’t helpful.

Broken people need less Should / Just impossibility and more Because / Therefore security. Because you are in Christ,because you are reconciled to the Father, because your sins are forgiven, therefore, go and [insert biblical command here].