In Defense of a Rule of Life

I had just finished speaking about the habits that every Christian needs to develop to grow. Every believer needs to be in God’s word. Every believer needs to pray. Every believer needs to be part of a local church. Every growing Christian practices these habits. Usually, when a believer stalls, I find that they’ve let go of one or more of these habits.

But it’s not enough to know what habits to practice. We have to go farther and decide how to practice these habits.

The conference leader assembled a panel after I had finished speaking. The panel contained a young adult in university, a young parent, a slightly older young professional, a middle-aged worker, and a retired person. The leader said, “We’ve heard about the habits that every Christian needs to practice. Now I want to hear how you work this out in your life.”

Every person on the panel answered differently, depending on their circumstances, life stage, and personality. Some read Scripture in the morning; some in the evening. Some prayed in structured ways; others wrote prayers; still others were spontaneous. They all participated in the life of the church, but their commitments to particular ministries varied.

I found myself encouraged. We all need to practice spiritual disciplines, but we enjoy some freedom in how to do so. It’s going to look similar for most of us, but each individual has to figure out how to make these disciplines work in his or her particular life.

In other words, we all need something like a Rule of Life.

What’s Wrong with a Rule of Life?

Last week, Erik Coonce wrote an article called What's Wrong with a "Rule of Life"? It’s a helpful article that makes some good points, and if you’re interested in this topic, you should probably read it.

Coonce questions whether our approaches to the Christian faith are too influenced by “our hyper-focus on individuality and a ‘bespoke’ lifestyle.” Fulfillment isn’t found through optimizing our lifestyles. True human flourishing is found in submitting to God's moral law as summarized in the Ten Commandments. Self-made rules may transform our behavior, but we need our hearts to be changed.

We should be wary of following the culture of the day. Character and contentment come from seeking to live by God’s commands, and God gives us grace that enables us to do so.

It’s hard to disagree with many of these points. Inasmuch as a Rule of Life is another attempt to find self-fulfillment by optimizing our lives, it’s doomed to fail. This can be a problem when creating a Rule of Life, and I appreciate Coonce’s perceptive critiques of that approach.

Why We Still Need a Rule of Life

I’m not ready to throw out the idea of a Rule of Life, though, for three reasons.

First: it’s not a modern idea, but an ancient one. Developing a Rule of Life may be trendy now, but it dates back to the fourth century and has continued throughout church history since then. Surely we can aim to avoid some of our modern distortions of the idea without losing the idea altogether.

Second, it’s not about life optimization but love. One day, while driving with a church historian who focuses on the Church Fathers, we got talking about the idea of a Rule of Life. My friend emphasized that the idea of a Rule of Life is not that we live our best lives. The idea is that we need to intentionally pursue ways to grow in our love for God and others. That, not self-optimization, is the purpose of a Rule of Life.

Third, we all need to work out how to follow God. For instance, I’ve preached so many messages about the importance of reading and being shaped by Scripture. Someone once challenged me, “I don’t need another sermon telling me what to do. I need someone to teach me how to do it.” A Rule of Life is simply a way that we work out what it means to implement the habits that every Christian must develop if we are to grow.

I don’t care if you call it a Rule of Life. Scripture doesn’t command that we use that term. Scripture is concerned, though, that we work out our salvation with fear and trembling, and that we give careful thought to how we follow Christ and grow in his grace. Every believer needs to do that, and I don’t really care what you call it.

I’m still a believer in the value of a Rule of Life when done well. Yes, every practice can be abused and twisted. The solution, though, isn’t to abandon good practices that can be done poorly. It’s to do them while avoiding the pitfalls.

So yes, you should probably still develop a Rule of Life, even though I don’t care if you call it that.