The Salvation of the Rich

Luke 18:23–27 and the Call to Renounce All

Please turn your Bible to Luke chapter 18. Preaching today will be in verses 23 through 27. I'll read all of 18 through 34 context. When you have Luke chapter 18, please stand for the reading of God's word.

And a ruler asked him, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments, do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and mother.

And he said, all these I have kept from my youth. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, one thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come, follow me.

But when he heard these things, he became very sad for he was extremely rich. Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, how difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.

Those who heard it said, then who can be saved? But he said, what is impossible with man is possible with God. And Peter said, see, we have left our homes and followed you. And he said to them, truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God who will not receive many times more in this time and in the age to come eternal life.

Amen.

Sacrifice, Holiness, and Alien Righteousness

You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we pray that you would open our eyes, our ears, our hearts to the sobering passage of the difficulty of salvation for the rich man. Pray that you would grant us a true humility in order that we might be saved.

Pray that you would show us the way into your kingdom. In Jesus' name, amen. To enter the kingdom of God requires great sacrifice, requires incredible sacrifice. Christ has told the disciples before, chapter 14, verse 33, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

There's a particular difficulty of this that applies to the rich. Now, it should be obvious that we live in a particular place, a very rich place. I have observed this on other occasions. Not only do we live in the richest country in all the world, we live in really one of the richest states in the whole country.

Beyond that, we live in the richest county in that country, more or less. And right here in the heart of Silicon Valley, this is a great temptation, the temptation of wealth to not sense our need for the gospel, to only be sensible to those things which we see and know and to trust in ourself and to trust in our own riches.

We've seen this before as we've gone through with Luke. But now we see this with a particular focus on how it is that we are to have a heart of sacrifice. What is impossible with man is possible with God.

Though man cannot gin up the ability to make the sacrifice necessary, God gives men hearts that are able to make that sacrifice, even as the disciples here have. So we should see in this passage the difficulty for the rich to enter the kingdom of God, also the difficulty for the poor to enter the kingdom of God, and the ability of God, the power of God to make man able to enter into that kingdom.

So first, we should simply recognize that it requires a great sacrifice. God does not permit anything into his kingdom other than that which is holy. We must be a holy people. We must bring that into his kingdom.

We must lay aside all that is ours, all that is for unholy purposes, and by unholy I don't even necessarily mean sinful. I mean any kind of purposes that are not according to his will, we must abandon all those priorities and we must follow only his priorities.

He has required this of us. Now this does not mean that what he has required of each individual person is in this life to lay aside all worldly wealth. That is a common misconception that people have.

But he has required this of some, and they have been called to a great calling to do this. But he requires of absolutely every one of us that we lay aside all our priorities and follow only his priorities.

We abandon our priorities and we follow his alone. Now you might wonder how does this fit with the notion that salvation is by grace through faith and not anything we do? How is it that can be said that salvation must be had through some great sacrifice, and yet it is also the case that it is not done through works?

Both of these are stated in scripture. Both of these are true, and yet initially seems like a paradox, seems like a contradiction. Well certainly salvation, certainly righteousness, our justification, our right standing with God and our being counted as righteousness is not our own righteousness.

It is Christ's alien righteousness. So what the sacrifice is needed for is not to be counted righteous in God's eyes. That is what is contrary to God's truth. And anyone who counts himself as righteous in God's eyes through their own works is denigrating his gospel in a way that severs them from Christ according to Galatians 5 .4.

You who would be justified by law, you have fallen from grace. These things are contrary to the gospel. Yet it is necessary that we make this sacrifice in order to be a holy people because even though our righteousness is alien and comes from Jesus Christ, that growing in holiness which also comes from God happens through us leaving things behind that would inhibit us in the path that God has called us to.

And so these things are both true. Yes, our righteousness is only from Christ. It is only an alien righteousness. Our sacrifice does not make us more righteous before God. However, without holiness, no one will see the Lord and we must pursue holiness.

That holiness, that unity of purpose can only be found in laying aside all that which is not set apart, all that which is not according to his purposes. When you think of holy, do not just think in terms of righteousness but also think in terms of dedication.

These are things which are to be dedicated to the Lord. Your whole life must be dedicated to the Lord. If anything in your life is not according to his purposes, it must be laid aside. All that which is according to his purposes may be held onto for the season that it is needed.

But this is something that is a matter of being all in. That verse that I read earlier, Luke 14, 33. Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. You must be willing to renounce all that you have.

You must not just be willing to do so. You must renounce all that you have in the sense that you are ready to lay it all aside. It is counted as nothing to you. You must be able to make that statement today if you are to come to the Lord.

We have gathered here in his presence. We are people who are hearing of his salvation. If you would benefit from his word, not rather be hardened, not rather be held in further condemnation having heard his word and turned from him, what is required is that you renounce everything so that it only be held onto for so long that it accomplishes his purposes.

You must hold it with a loose hand being ready to get rid of it all. You see this in other areas of life. You see this in war. A soldier cannot go into war with half of his mind set on retreat when the battle gets difficult and the fighting gets going.

You cannot have half of the troops abandoning the other half. This is something that we'll not do in the kingdom of God. And remember, Jesus is speaking in terms of a coming kingdom. He is speaking in terms of a military advancement.

This is required. People must be dedicated to that cause. Just to think about how this affected churches in a very real way, even recently. Think about how many churches were split apart during COVID because some were ready to lay it all on the line for the sake of the gospel, to lose everything for it, and others wanted to hold on to comforts and norms, to social statuses, et cetera.

And so churches are split apart because some were dedicated to the worship of God. Others were not. Those churches that were not at all dedicated simply eventually died. Those churches that were dedicated thrived.

Those churches which were half and half took a heavy blow as some abandoned others. All kinds of areas in life where you find that you must be all in. There cannot be impurities taken into the kingdom of God.

He requires holiness in his kingdom, and he is building for himself a holy people. You know, in fabrication labs, you know, fabs, where they make all kinds of chips and things, those places have to be so clean of any kind of impurities,.

Any kind of dust,.

Because if anything gets into one of the chips, the chips don't work anymore, and you have to throw them out. It affects everything else. The scriptural analogy, it's leaven, leavening the whole lump, right?

You want bread dedicated for a holy purpose, can't have leaven in it, or else it'll make the whole bread rise, right? Just one little piece of leaven will affect the whole bread, not just remain isolated in a way that you can just take it out.

Recently, I took my family to Joshua Tree National Park. There's a place in Joshua Tree called the Hall of Horrors, which is, I don't know exactly how long it is, but maybe half a mile, a half mile loop that is very narrow passageways in between these walls.

There's one passageway that was just so narrow, my feet had to be sideways, my body had to be forward, and there's a part at the end that was so low that you had to, from that narrow position, kind of just slide into it.

I found this so terrifying.

I didn't do it.

Ford was ahead of me, and he went down into it, and I thought I would try to maybe climb up and over, you know, go like this, climb up and over, but once I got to the top, there was no way to get down, so I had to figure out how to get back down into this thing or across this very narrow area that I was in, and, but at that height, you know, about two stories high, it's no longer that narrow.

It's more like four feet across at that point, and it's something where I could, you know, lean over and then kind of walk my way across, but now we're two stories high, so, you know, I'm sitting there thinking, man, I cannot just kind of like half lean into this and try leaning into this.

I have to, like, completely across that gap, just throw my whole body so that I would have enough pressure on either side to be able to walk this, and it was, that image came to mind. I was thinking about the need to be all in.

What happens if I were just to, you know, kind of half throw my weight into it? Well, then there wouldn't be pressure on either side, and so I would just slip down, you know, break my ankles at the bottom where it does get narrow, and that would not have been a pretty sight.

You must be all in to the kingdom of God. If any of you does not renounce all that he has, you cannot be his disciple. Now, this is a great difficulty for the rich man. It says here, but when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.

Jesus, seeing that become sad, said, how difficult is it for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God, for it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.

It is difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

The Rich, the Poor, and the Impossible Salvation of Man

Why?

The more you have, the more you have to sacrifice. Ever seen a kid that, you know, gets something and then has it taken away, right? He gets a lollipop, he's very happy for the lollipop, he takes the lollipop away, very sad about the lollipop, crying in a pit of tears.

If you'd never given him the lollipop, he would have been perfectly fine, but having had the lollipop and having lost it, you know, he's devastated, absolutely devastated. This is what it is like for the rich man.

No sense of how much God has given and the right for him to take it away, but just a sense of what he has as though it is of himself, as though it is a real loss and not a resetting. The rich do not have a sense of their need because they find their needs fulfilled by themselves.

This is the temptation of the rich. This is not true of every rich man, but it's true the more wealth you have, the greater a temptation it will be to not feel your spiritual need, to not feel your need for the gospel because you have your needs already all met by yourself, by your own wealth and your own riches.

Proverbs 30, eight through nine, gives us a prayer that tells us to pray that we would not have riches in order that we not say who is the Lord and have no need for him because all our needs are met. We should pray that we would not be so rich that we could not handle it and just say who is the Lord and forget him because we do not need him.

You know, think of it. Why is, out of all the areas in the world, why is atheism so popular in our particular area where we live? You might say, well, it's because people are very intelligent and it's a very, you know, intelligence-oriented thing.

Atheism, if you study atheism with any seriousness, it is the most philosophically bankrupt of every kind of religion that you can imagine. You have no way of accounting for any immaterial realities which are evident to anyone who thinks about things seriously, right?

Good and evil, people live their lives as though good and evil are real. The atheist lives his life as though good and evil is real, but then he says that they aren't, right? He lives his life as though ownership is a real thing, you know, as something that's been established by God.

That's not something that exists in a world that's just, you know, matter bumping into matter. Beauty is a real thing. Logic, atheists believe in logic. That's a real thing. It's not founded in the material world, right?

You get rid of this whole material world, one plus one is still two. Why is atheism popular, so popular in this area? It is not because of the level of intelligence that you have in this area. It is because of the wealth that you have in this area.

If you have wealth, you do not need any God. You are your own God. You can supply your own needs. You do not need to go to the needs of another. So you can see how this temptation works even in the landscape of religion in our own area.

People here often do not go to any God because they have all their needs met by themselves, and so they are complacent. Proverbs 1 .32 says the complacency of fools destroys them. The complacency of fools destroys them.

And Jesus gives this analogy here. For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. Perhaps you've heard that this could be referring to something else, a particular gate that was very hard for camels to get through.

They had to get down on their knees, or maybe it refers to a ship's rope and things like that. These were proposals that were made. Millennia after the Bible was written, these are not, these suggestions do not have much weight to them.

The analogy Jesus is giving is just what you see here. It is putting a camel, a whole large beast, through the eye of a needle, something very incredibly small. I used to have a friend in high school who found this passage very funny, and he would often remark that, well, all you have to do is liquefy the camel.

Of course, the joke there is you don't have a camel on the other side. The camel is destroyed if you try to do this by man's strength, right? You try to do this by your own strength, you try to save yourself, try to enter the kingdom of God, or have some kind of kingdom for yourself that's going to save yourself, you will be destroyed.

You will be liquefied. Now, people respond. They say, those who heard it said, then who can be saved? But he said, what is impossible with man is possible with God. Peter said, we have left our homes, followed you.

Oh, excuse me. What is possible with man is impossible with God. Who can be saved? So there is a response that if the rich cannot be saved, how can then the poor be saved? Now, the typical way of viewing this passage is that Peter is mistaken, right?

He thinks that something else is going on here, and so he doesn't understand that Jesus is saying it is more difficult for the rich than the poor. But Jesus never quite corrects him, and so I think there's at least a sense in which we can say that Peter's question is right, that there are some ways in which it is even more difficult for the poor to be saved.

In fact, that passage in Proverbs, Proverbs 38 through nine, which speaks to the rich also speaks of the poor. It tells us not only to pray that we not be rich, but that we not be poor in order that we would steal and profane the name of God, right?

So the poor face their own temptations. So there are several reasons why people would say that Peter thinks this, or excuse me, not Peter, but the people sitting here responding think this. One is that this rich man, if he is rejected from the kingdom of God, he will be an enemy of the kingdom of God.

If you have all the enemies of the kingdom of God being the rich people, being the most powerful, what does that mean for all the poor that are in the kingdom of God? How can they survive? I think this is an unlikely interpretation.

It's not a very usual one, but it does exist. This is the one that John Gill offers, that the people are worried about the opposition of the wealthy. The other one is that people are imagining this in terms of simony, right?

That God's favor can be bought, right? That you could purchase the work of the Spirit, you can purchase the favor of God with money. And so if wealthy people aren't able to do it, then how could the poor?

Another option here is that this is sort of a prosperity gospel. Well, if the wealthy people have their own, you know, if the wealthy are not good enough, then how could the poor be good enough? And in some ways, I think this may even be the closest to the truth.

This is the most common interpretation that these people have in their minds, some kind of prosperity gospel. But don't just think about it in terms of a prosperity gospel where God's favor and outward blessings happens through works and outward kinds of righteousness.

Think of it not in terms of God's favor, but just in terms of the natural ways that blessings happen. Often, poverty is a result of sin. Often, wealth is a result of righteousness, or at least, you know, outward good works, right?

This might not seem to be the case to you. You might be thinking to yourself, well, a lot of times there are very good poor people and there are very evil rich people, and a lot of times you can steal and become more wealthy that way.

These things are all true. You know, there are all kinds of possibilities that can happen. But just think in correlation. Often, those who do not follow the commands of Scripture, right, those who are not diligent as it commands to be diligent, those who do not exercise wisdom as it commands wisdom, the crown of the wise is their wealth, as it says in the Proverbs.

And so those who do not follow wisdom, those who do not follow after good works, often experience this through poverty. And if you are questioning these words, is this really the way we should think about those things, you know, go to a, go to the poorest place that you can in any one of these cities around here, you know, be it San Jose, Oakland, or San Francisco, and go tell me whether or not you see more outward works of wickedness than you would in one of the more wealthy places, okay?

You're going to find more outward works of wealthiness in the poor places, why? Because it's often that poverty is brought about by lacking wealth. And then on top of that, as that prayer said, poverty also has its own temptations, as does wealth.

So Peter, excuse me, not Peter, just these people, those who heard it saying this, in saying that are asking a sensible question that Jesus responds to without correcting, right? Jesus responds to them saying, what is impossible with man is impossible with God.

He doesn't say, actually, it is, actually, it is easier for the poor. It is impossible with both of them. Neither of them are good enough to enter the kingdom of God. The rich man cannot sacrifice. The poor do not have much to sacrifice, right?

They have little to offer. There are some ways that it's even harder for the poor. They have their own temptations. They do not have anything to offer the Lord, right? There is a difficulty there as well.

And Christ's answer to that is not, well, it's easier for the poor. It is impossible for both of them. In some ways, perhaps even more difficult for the poor. In some ways, more difficult for the rich.

And so what is the solution to any of this? The solution to any of this is the power of God. But he said, what is impossible with man is possible with God. God is omnipotent. God has all power in his hands.

He can transform man. He does this in various ways, right? He opens man's eyes to be sensible to his own poverty, right? He makes the wealthy know who he really is so that he can act in the way he needs to act.

But if the wealthy thinks that all his needs are met, he is not going to act that way. And then he can make the poor show the riches that are available in Jesus Christ so that he would pursue him knowing that there are true riches there.

Does this for both poor and rich. So God, through his spirit, makes us sensible to our own poverty, makes us sensible. By sensible, I'm using that word to mean, you know, capable of sensing, right? We've got five senses.

He gives us an additional sense, right? A sixth sense. So that we can sense our own spiritual poverty and sense his righteousness, the spirit working in us so that we would desire those things. And then he makes us, through that sensibility, willing to sacrifice.

The rich man went away sad because he had too many things. He couldn't see himself giving them up. But God, through his spirit, breaks down our coarse hearts, breaks down our stony hearts, turns them into hearts of flesh that we would be willing to give and eager to give.

Eager to lay it all aside, bold to be able to face any kind of obstacle knowing that whatever man takes away, he cannot take away the kingdom from us, that we have treasures in heaven, we have much wealth.

And so who cares about these small little things? Right, a very wealthy man, if you stole $100 from him, it would not be worth his time to pursue you either in court or even in person. It would not be worth a moment of his time if he were sufficiently wealthy to even deal with that because his real wealth is much greater than that.

Right, the same thing, if you find your wealth in the kingdom, even more so, doesn't matter if anything in this world is taken from you. The wealth that you have is so much more, it is not worth your time to worry about it unless it is something that God would desire, unless it is something that is for his purposes that you would pursue any kind of matter of justice.

In that way.

Christ, the Spirit, and the Treasures of Heaven

And then if he requires such a great sacrifice, how is it that we can, despite our poverty, even the rich not having enough to sacrifice to the Lord, how is it that that sacrifice can be made acceptable to God?

It's through the mediation of Jesus Christ because he has offered his own life. Our sacrifice is not just counted on its own apart from him as being not good enough, but it's through Jesus Christ that it is counted good enough.

I'll mention this more in the afternoon sermon, but in Leviticus there are provisions for those who cannot bring a lamb. If they can't bring a lamb, they can bring two turtle doves. If they can't bring two turtle doves, they can bring a 10th of Nephi fine flower, right?

How is it that these things are acceptable before the Lord just as good? Because the priest is offering them. We have a great high priest who has made a perfect sacrifice so that our sacrifices are counted sufficient.

Though we are not the rich man who is able to give much, even if we only have little, it is a sufficient sacrifice. All these things are possible with God. And so we must rely on the Lord in order for our own salvation.

And not just salvation in terms of our own righteous standing before the Lord, but in order for every aspect of salvation, in order for our continual holiness, in order for that great hope, that last day on which we will see Christ.

And so you should take these things into account and recognize any unwillingness you have right now, any tight-fistedness you have on anything in your life, any kind of possession you have that you would not be willing to lay down for the kingdom of God, you need to take inventory right now and be ready to lay it aside for his kingdom.

This is true with more than just wealth. Think about how many people have family relations where they are not willing to rock the boat and stand for the name of Christ because it would harm their family relations.

How many people are not willing to deal with situations in their, yeah, in their families and state what the gospel is because they know that their family would reject them for this? Or how many people are not willing to follow the commands of the kingdom in reconciliation because they know what it will entail, right?

Matthew 18 requires that we address sin by addressing brothers, but many are afraid of what that would mean for their relationships and their families, and so they do not follow Matthew 18 because it would tear things apart and they don't want the family torn apart.

Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you. Be willing to lay it all aside, your wealth, your family relationships, your employment, right? A lot of people end up in employment situations where they're required to do evil things.

You know, they might make all kinds of justifications for them. They might have to endorse various woke policies that go against the statements and truths of scripture, you know, using pronouns in particular ways that will satisfy their employer, and maybe you can make a justification saying, oh, well, you know, maybe they won't think that I mean it this way.

Maybe I can, in my head, mean it this way, but the reality is if you're communicating that sex is not as God created it, male and female, then you are engaging in sin, you are lying. You need to be ready to leave it all behind.

This must be something that is settled in your mind far before you enter that situation. Don't enter that situation and not have been prepared. Prepare yourself for that situation when it comes. You know, many people's jobs are just inherently evil, right, there are a lot of jobs that are fairly contrary to the interests of God, maybe focusing on just very wasteful entertainment, and you might more and more realize, you know, the work that I'm doing is not really good work, even though some people value it, it's not really good work.

If you have confidence about what God has called you to, it is easy to lay these things aside because you have great riches and wealth in Jesus Christ. If you do not have that confidence, it's very difficult.

Right, and there are some who have taken jobs enforcing various tyrannies, you know, all kinds of social programs that are designed to redistribute wealth and take it away from some and give it to others.

There's all kinds of government systems that do that, that are, you know, as you read scripture and you see what justice is and what God requires of the king and how, if you were to take up a position that is enforced by the power of the sword and then do those things which are contrary to what God has called of the people who wield the sword to focus on justice and justice alone shall you pursue, as it says in the law, these are things where you need to just abandon, abandon the station, but few people are willing to because of the implications, because then I would not have wealth.

Make peace with the Lord, renounce all your things so that you do not have one foot in one kingdom and one foot in the other. Be all in, all into the kingdom. Do not be in the kingdom as much as, so much as it doesn't require too much of you and then when it does, you're going to turn, tail and run.

Be ready from the beginning, count the cost ahead of time. And so pray for the willingness to. Pray for the willingness to sacrifice. And why are there some that are more willing to sacrifice than others?

Have you ever wondered that? God just called some to one thing and called others to another? Well, yes, that is the case, but that is happening not just randomly, not just entirely arbitrary, it is happening by the will of God.

God has given us a way to wrestle with him through prayer. Wrestle with him that he would call you to greater things, that he would call you to greater willingness to sacrifice, to even greater sacrifices themselves, that you would have much to proclaim on that last day of what Christ did through you, so that your boast, so long as you have great riches and wealth here, right, you have a boast in yourself and that boast lasts as long as this life does.

If you have nothing and give nothing, you can say that your boast is in the Lord, but on that last day, if you have not done anything, if you have not sacrificed for the Lord as he has called you to, there is not any kind of personal nature to that boast.

You see Paul when he repeatedly says in 1 and 2 Corinthians, he who boasts should boast in the Lord. He also talks in that same epistle in 1 Corinthians about his boast, like his personal boast that could be lost.

Okay, but his boast personally is in the Lord. Have you ever thought about that? It's not some abstract thing that remains a boast regardless of what he does in his life. It is something that he has it as a faithful minister and if he is not faithfully doing what God has called him to do, he no longer has that boast of God working in him.

Okay, so it is not a, it is outside of ourselves and that it is in God, but it is in ourselves and it is God working in us. So if you are to have some boasts that will stay with you forever, you know, these are not bad concepts, concept of boasting, you know, it's not, there is this good way of thinking about that boast as being yours personally, God working through you, something that you can proclaim in what he has done for all eternity.

Ask him to call you to greater things. Yeah, and do this. Do this ahead of time. Do not wait for that situation to rise. Also, pray for others. Pray for others to have that willingness to sacrifice. You know, as you see, if you pray for your brothers and sisters in Christ here in this fellowship, pray that they would be willing to give more of themselves, to dedicate themselves more wholly to the Lord.

Pray for me. Pray that I would be able to dedicate myself more wholly to the Lord. Pray that I would be willing to stand with more boldness, you know, renouncing, renouncing all that I have. And I would encourage you also to, to study the economics of the kingdom.

What I mean by that is, you know, study the reality of these, of these riches of the wealth that we have, how God works. You know, if the, what is happening through the power of God is you becoming sensible to your own poverty, you becoming sensible to his wealth.

This is not something that happens apart from his word. The means that he has given is his word to show you these things. So study the economics of the kingdom so that you would know your own poverty, so that you would know your own, his wealth.

It is, it is through that, that he would move you. It is not just through prayer, apart from any kind of, yeah, it's not through one-directional communication. It's through two-directional communication.

He will communicate to you, through his word, these truths. And what you should be praying for is that they would sink deeper into your heart so you would latch more and more onto them with a firm confidence in his promises.

And not only that, but he is more glorified. Not only is he glorified in prayer, okay, so when we pray, and we commit ourselves to giving him thanksgiving when the prayer is answered, all right, he is glorified by that because he answers prayer.

We recognize it's from his hand that we have such a heart to sacrifice rather than that desire coming from ourselves. You know, this man not being able to. If God does something in him, it will be apparent to all the disciples.

Wow, that was God working in him. Right, so as we pray, we commit ourselves to being thankful to God when that prayer is answered and he is more glorified. And because he is doing all these things for his glory, more, there are more situations where he works that way in order that he would be more glorified.

It is also the case that he is more glorified when we understand better how he is working in other ways too, not just him through prayer, but also learning more about how he works so that we can praise him for the various things that he is accomplishing.

You know, the less you understand it, the less you are able to praise him for it because you don't even know what you are praising for. Right, you can just praise him for the thing itself and then, like, what do you say?

You just say, thank you for having done this thing. But if you see all the things that God is accomplishing, if you understand his purposes, you are able to offer a more well-rounded praise that understands it fully.