Learning from Pilgrim’s Progress: Talking Without The Walking

I am reading through Pilgrim’s Progress and learning a lot from it. In this section, Christian is talking to Faith about a man called “Talkative.” This man is all talk but no walk as far as Christianity is concerned.

Here is what Christian says about him:

“Deceived! you may be sure of it; remember the proverb, “They say and do not.” [Matt. 23:3] But the kingdom of God is not in word, but in Power. [1 Cor 4:20] He talketh of prayer, of repentance, of faith, and of the new birth; but he knows but only to talk of them. I have been in his family, and have observed him both at home and abroad; and I know what I say of him is the truth. His house is as empty of religion as the white of an egg is of savour. There is there neither prayer nor sign of repentance for sin; yea, the brute in his kind serves God far better than he. He is the very stain, reproach, and shame of religion, to all that know him; it can hardly have a good word in all that end of the town where he dwells, through him. [Rom. 2:24,25]” Read more at location 1040

Talkative is a man that’s a hypocrite:

“say the common people that know him, A saint abroad, and a devil at home. His poor family finds it so; he is such a churl, such a railer at and so unreasonable with his servants, that they neither know how to do for or speak to him. Men” Read more at location 1045

Christian explains to Faith what it means to be a real believer:

“They are two things, indeed, and are as diverse as are the soul and the body; for as the body without the soul is but a dead carcass, so saying, if it be alone, is but a dead carcass also. The soul of religion is the practical part: “Pure religion and undefiled, before God and the Father, is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” [James 1:27; see vv. 22-26] This Talkative is not aware of; he thinks that hearing and saying will make a good Christian, and thus he deceiveth his own soul. Hearing is but as the sowing of the seed; talking is not sufficient to prove that fruit is indeed in the heart and life; and let us assure ourselves, that at the day of doom men shall be judged according to their fruits. [Matt. 13, 25] It will not be said then, Did you believe? but, Were you doers, or talkers only? and accordingly shall they be judged.” Read more at location 1058

A person that is a true believer has experienced grace, faith and love in his heart:

“Knowledge that resteth in the bare speculation of things; and knowledge that is accompanied with the grace of faith and love; which puts a man upon doing even the will of God from the heart: the first of these will serve the talker; but without the other the true Christian is not content. “Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.” [Ps. 119:34] Read more at location 1098

Faith explains to Talkative how the work of grace comes about in the heart of a christian:

1. By an experimental confession of his faith in Christ. [Rom. 10:10, Phil. 1:27, Matt. 5:19]
2. By a life answerable to that confession; to wit, a life of holiness, heart-holiness, family-holiness, (if he hath a family), and by conversation-holiness in the world which, in the general, teacheth him, inwardly, to abhor his sin, and himself for that, in secret; to suppress it in his family and to promote holiness in the world; not by talk only, as a hypocrite or talkative person may do, but by a practical subjection, in faith and love, to the power of the Word. [John 14:15, Ps. 50:23, Job 42:5-6, Eze. 20:43] And now, Sir, as to this brief description of the work of grace”
Read more at location 1113

Faith asks Talkative if he has experienced this but he is reluctant to answer. Talkative accuses Faith of judging him and is not willing to talk to him anymore and leaves.

There are many like Talkative nowadays. They like or tolerate religion but they don’t truly believe it. They love knowledge but it leads nowhere. A true believer’s life has been changed by the work of grace which comes through faith in Christ.

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Learning from Pilgrim’s Progress: Talking Without The Walking

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