Do you remember your elementary school report cards? You know the ones without grades? Instead of A’s and B’s you received an “E” for excellent, an “S” for satisfactory or an “N” for not satisfactory. The teachers could also select from a list of comments about your progress and behavior. Good or bad, my report cards were always heavy on the comments. I suppose that without grades they are helpful.

One of the comments was “Talks too much [in class].” If I was not being reprimanded for talking to my neighbor while the teacher was trying to teach, the poor kid next to me was getting in trouble on my behalf. I do not recall a single year from first through sixth grade in which I did not receive the dreaded ‘talks too much’ comment. Thank goodness there were other offsetting positive remarks, or I would have gotten in more trouble.

Recently I have been reading the Family Pilgrim’s Progress to my five year old son. This edition of John Bunyan’s classic short story has been abridged and annotated with special character studies to introduce the people in the story and explain their meaning. The pictures are cool to look at, too, like when Christian battles with the demon Apollyon.

The other day we got to Chapter 6: Vanity Fair. As soon as I started to read I began to feel uncomfortable.

6
VANITY FAIR

A handsome man had been walking along on the other side of the road for some time. Faithful now went over to him and asked, in a friendly way, whether they might walk and talk together for a while.

‘Delighted,’ the man replied. ‘I like nothing better than to talk about important things, such as prayer and faith, suffering and truth, Christ and the good news of the gospel.’

Faithful was most impressed.

‘Good!’ he said. ‘ What shall we talk about?’

‘Oh, anything you like,’ said the man. ‘Heaven or earth, past, present or future, big or small matters—you name it, I can talk about it!’

Faifthful wasn’t so sure he liked the sound of that, but he still thought the man would make a good traveling companion and went and told Christian so. But his friend smiled rather sadly and shook his head.

‘I’m afraid you’ve been taken in.’ he said. ‘I know that man. He’s Talkative, son of Saywell and lives in our town—in Prating-row, in fact. You haven’t missed anything by not meeting him. I assure you! He’s all talk and no action. He says all the right things, but his life is a mess!’

As the Pharisee in me was being exposed, I was simultaneously reminded that the freedom we have in Christ Jesus allows us to let go of the desire to appear good and instead grab hold of his righteousness.

‘Knowing about Jesus and obeying him are very different,’ Faithful pointed out, at which Talkative, looking very cross, said, ‘You’re trying to catch me out—so I won’t say another word!’

‘May I go on then, please?’ Faithful asked politely.

‘No one’s stopping you!’ said Talkative coldly.

‘Well, when God is at work in someone’s life,’ said Faithful, ‘he begins to hate wrong and then he turns away from it and asks Christ to forgive him. The moment he trusts in Christ, he beings a new life in which he wants to please his Saviour.’

Faithful paused, then looked pointedly at Talkative and asked, ‘Have you put your trust in Christ? Are you telling others of your faith in him? Does the way you live agree with what you say?’

And so there I found myself, in the middle of a bedtime story, repenting over my sinful failure to frequently walk the talk. There is a reason that we should preach the gospel to ourselves daily, because it is easy to be preoccupied, like Talkative, with “projecting the ‘nice guy’ image, impressing newcomers with our experience, and relying heavily on the regard of others. For most of us it takes a long time for the Spirit of freedom to cleanse us of the subtle urges to be admired for our studied goodness. It requires a strong sense of our redeemed selves to pass up the opportunity to appear graceful and good to other persons.” [1]. I am thankful for the continued sanctifying work of the Spirit, the constant reminders of God’s grace and the friends who, like Faithful, are not afraid to be blunt with me when it is needed.

1 – The Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning, p. 153.