Delighting in the Word: A Meditation on John Gill's First 'Holy Acting with Respect to Sin'
First, in approving, loving, and delighting in the law of God, which forbids it, and condemns for it. An unsanctified man cannot brook the law of God on this account; he is not subjected to it; nor can he be, without efficacious grace exerted on him; he despises it, and casts it behind his back: whereas a man sanctified by the Spirit of God, approves of the law of God, as holy, just, and good, and loves it exceedingly: "How love I thy law!" says David; and he delights in it, after the inward man, and serves it with his mind and Spirit (Psalm 119:97; Rom 7:12, 22,25). [1]
The above quotation is found in the chapter "On Sanctification" in John Gill's A Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity. An 18th century Particular Baptist, Gill's work and legacy are enormously influential even today, specifically among the Reformed tradition. In wanting to understand Gill's thoughts on killing sin (which was influenced by John Owen), I decided to read his chapter "On Sanctification." What I found in Gill, particular in his section on "Sanctification as Holy Actings", has been enormously helpful and satisfying. In his subsection, "Holy Actings with Respect to Sin," Gill presents eight actings that a regenerate person should make to mortify the flesh and to walk in the spirit. The first actings is "approving, loving, and delighting in the law of God."
Delight is war.
A war cannot be won without a weapon. Certainly, the war against spiritual powers cannot be waged without the weapon of the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (Eph 6:15). But as Gill points out, our having the word by itself is not an action against sin. An unsanctified (principally unsaved) man can read the Bible and still have no chance against sin. Why? Because the unsanctified man does not delight in the law of God. He does not submit himself to the Word. "Nor can he," says Gill, for the Spirit must put a new heart within him that fears the Lord and delights in the law. For the unsanctified, unregenerate, unsaved person, the things of God are foolishness to him, much less a delight (1 Cor. 1:18, 2:14).
Therefore, using the sword of the Spirit in the war against sin and Satan means much more than just reading a book. No, we wield the word of God by loving and delighting in it. We say with David "How I love thy law!" The word becomes sweet like the drippings of honey and of greater worth than gold (Ps 19:10). If, dear friend, you wish to win against sin, you must have a greater delight than your sin. Namely, your greatest delight must be in the Word of God.
And why is the word of God to be loved and delighted in above all? Because it shows to us who God it is. The Scriptures are perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, true, and of infinite value because they are given by and reveal the God who is perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, true, and of infinite value. In the words of Thomas Chalmers, the word of God grants us the "expulsive power of a new affection" [2] that radically outdoes the affections of sin. How does the word do this? It gives us God.
Let the delightful Word dwell in you richly
How does love and delight in the word of God exercise themselvs within the believer's life? First, true love and delight in God's word is demonstrated by an unmitigated allowance of it to pervade and saturate the believer's thoughts. In the words of the apostle Paul, love and delight in the Bible means to "let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another" (Col. 3:16). If you want to battle sin and to grow in your sanctification, the Word must have its home and its business within you. It must take up resident in all the rooms of your life. The outflow of a Word-saturated life is not merely putting to death the deeds of the flesh but also encouraging others through what you have been taught. Practically, as Paul shows, this means teaching one's self and others the truth of the Word through song: "teaching and admonishing one another through psalms hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God."
Obey the delightful word
Another exercise of love and delight in the law of God is the work of obedience. If God is all-together lovely, and his Word is truly beautiful because it reveals him, then that delight should spill into obedience. We obey because we love him as our Saviour, our Father, and as our King. And, as our King, we are subject who obey our King, "to whose laws and ordinances they cheerfully submit; esteeming his precepts, concerning all things, to be right, none of his commandments gievous; but, from a principle of love to him, keep and observe them." [3] If we desire to mortify sin, putting to death the deeds of the flesh, then we must vivify the things to which Christ has called us. As God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, we should seek to put on "compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience" (Col 3:12), among other things of which we are commanded and empowered to do.
Filling our heart with the delightful word and obeying it out of delight are ways in which we "walk by the Spirit." As we walk in the Spirit in these ways, we kill sin because we do not gratify the desires of our sinful flesh (Gal. 5:16).
[1] John Gill, A Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity Abridged: A System of Evangelical and Practical Truths, Deduced from the Sacred Scriptures, Edited by Jordan L. Steffaniak, et al (Wake Forest, NC: Hanover Press, 2025), 255.
[2] "The Expulsive Power of a New Affection" was a classic sermon preached by Thomas Chalmers in 1819. A recent update copy of this sermon that I highly recommend would be the one published by Crossway in their Crossway Short Classics series, which was foreworded by John Piper.
[3] Gill, 254. Perhaps I will look into diving into Gill's section on "Holy Actings with Respect to Christ," from which this quote comes from.
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