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Podcast
Espressive Individualism
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Transcript
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Hi, I'm Dave DeWitt.
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Today I want to talk about a movement called expressive individualism.
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Google search of March 19, 2024 says, quote, expressive individualism is a self-focused
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emphasis on personal happiness and self-actualization, as well as a claim that the internal self
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is the true self.
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Gospel Coalition adds these results of expressive individualism.
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Marriage is about your soulmate completing who you are, making you happy.
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Friendship is an avenue for mutual self-fulfillment.
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Churches are dispensers of religious goods and services.
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Their point is that marriage, friendship, and religion are only valuable if they serve
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you.
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Although it's become a worldview, expressive individualism is not something new.
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The idea was probably first illustrated in Shakespeare's Hamlet, written somewhere
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between 1599 and 1601.
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He said, to thine own self be true.
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Individualism is a term coined by French aristocrat and politician-philosopher Alex de Tocqueville,
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who died in 1859.
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Expressive individualism is a phrase introduced by an American sociologist, Robert Bella,
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in his book Habits of the Heart.
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Today it's become a movement which says to find your purpose for life, you must search
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your inner feelings.
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That's how one will be truly happy, which is the ultimate goal.
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The heart wants what the heart wants.
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Expressive individualism is abundantly poured out for us on social media.
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Social media has provided not only a platform for expressive individualism, but a financial
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basis for it.
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A friend of my daughter's recently posted on Facebook something which she said that
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I thought was interesting, put yourself first before everything else.
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She received many encouraging comments like, way to go, so proud of you, you be you.
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Expressive individualism says when we discover who we are, say LGBTQ or something, we should
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express what we find to the world.
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Expressive individuals believe people should not only accept, but praise you for fighting
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your individualism.
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It demands tolerance of everything, oh wait, except for biblical Christianity.
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What about the Bible and the individual?
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There's some truth in individualism.
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The Bible primarily focuses on the individual.
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In a sense, the Bible is a record of the people who God had individual encounters with.
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In the Bible, we read about Adam, Noah, Job, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua,
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Gideon, Deborah, Samson's mother, Samuel's mother, David, Elijah, Elisha, Ezekiel, Daniel,
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Ezra, Nehemiah, even among the apostles, we focus on Peter and John and later Paul.
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Many names can be added to this list, but there's two that reveal the addition of a
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collective commitment.
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When we come to Abraham, we learn that God, for the first time in history, added a collective
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commitment to his individual commitment.
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It's usually called the Abrahamic covenant.
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God added a genealogical commitment then to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
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people we now call the Jews.
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When we come to Moses, we learn that God made that genealogical commitment into a national
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commitment in Exodus 20.
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That national commitment to Israel was in place from the law given to Moses on Mount
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Sinai until the death of Christ, according to Romans 10.4.
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When we come to the apostles, we learn that the death of Christ was followed almost immediately
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by the beginning of the church age, also known as the age of grace in Ephesians 3, 2-9.
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During this church grace age, God's collective commitment to Israel was set aside until after
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he removes the church from the earth, the event spoken of in John 14, 1-3, 1 Thessalonians
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4, what we usually call the rapture.
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At that point, the church will be over, and God will once again reinstate his collective
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commitment to Israel.
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Where we live now in this church grace age, everyone must relate to God individually,
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including the Jews.
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But there's a collective corollary that we must recognize.
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Although God has no collective commitment to the church as an institution, our individual
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commitment to God requires a fellowship commitment to one another.
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We're responsible to love one another, stimulate one another to good deeds individually and
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in our assemblies.
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So during this age, God's commitment is to us, the individual believer.
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But two things are true.
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How we treat one another depends on our relationship with God, and our relationship with God depends
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on how we treat one another.
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In Matthew 22, 37-40, Jesus said,
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You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with
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all your mind.
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This is the great and foremost commandment, and the second is like it, you shall love
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your neighbor as yourself.
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On these two commands depend the whole law and the prophets.
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In 1 John 4, 20, it says,
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If someone says, I love God and hates his brother, he's a liar, for the one who does
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not love his brother or who he has seen cannot love God who he has not seen.
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In Philippians 2, 3, and 4, Paul wrote,
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Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another
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as more important than yourself.
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Maybe not merely look out for your own interests, but also for the interests of others.
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What's the Bible say about expressive individualism?
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Probably the best way to think about expressive individualism is by going back to the phrase
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in Shakespeare's Hamlet, To thine own self be true.
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It's a satanic strategy, but it's not a new one.
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Satan's method for getting Adam and Eve to obey God was not to tell them to focus on
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him, but to focus on their own well-being by thinking about their own self-interest
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apart from God.
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Genesis 3, 4-6 reads,
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The serpent said to the woman, For God knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes
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will be opened and you'll be like God, knowing good and evil.
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Then the woman saw the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes,
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and that the tree was desirable to make one wise.
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She took from its fruit and ate, and gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
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There are six things in the Bible that the Bible says about this idea of expressive individualism.
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First of all, our goal is to know God, not express our individualism.
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John 17, 3,
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This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, who you
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sent.
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Hosea 6, 6,
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For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
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Romans 10, 2,
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For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
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The second thing is, expressing our individualism is a formula for disappointment and disaster.
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Solomon, possibly the wisest, richest man in the ancient Near East, tried expressive
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individualism, and he had the wealth he needed to succeed.
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His conclusion was, in Ecclesiastes chapter 1,
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Vanity of vanities, says the preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
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I have seen all the works which have been done unto the sun, and behold, all is vanity
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in striving after wind.
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Asaph was envious of those who were successful in pursuing abundance.
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Then he wrote in Psalm 73, 17,
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It was troublesome in my sight until I came into the sanctuary of God, then I perceived
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their end.
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Jesus told a parable about a man with so much wealth he decided to build bigger barns to
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hold it all.
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In Luke 12, 20, he said,
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But God says to him, You fool, this very night your soul is required of you, and now who
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will own what you have prepared?
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Number three, the problem with expressive individualism of our heart is our heart's
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desire is deceitful, sick, and corrupt.
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Jeremiah 17, 9, the heart's more deceitful than all else and desperately sick.
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Who can understand it?
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In Psalm 14, 1 to 3, it says,
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They are corrupt.
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They have committed abominable deeds.
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There is no one who does good.
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The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who
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understand, who seek after God.
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They've all turned aside.
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Together they have become corrupt.
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There's no one who does good, not even one.
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Paul quoted this in Romans 3.
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In Matthew 15, 9,
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For out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts,
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false witnesses, slanders.
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Number four, we cannot focus on expressing our individualism and follow Jesus.
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Jesus said in Luke 9, 23 and 24,
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And he was saying to them all,
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If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily and
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follow me.
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Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake
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will find it.
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Number five, we cannot focus on expressing our individualism and follow the leading of
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the Spirit.
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Romans 8, 13,
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For if you're living according to the flesh, you must die, but if by the Spirit you're
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putting to death the deeds of the flesh, you'll live.
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Galatians 5, 17,
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For the flesh says its desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.
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For these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you
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please.
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Number six, it's God not expressing our individualism that gives us the desires of our heart.
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Psalm 37, 4,
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Delight yourself in the Lord and he'll give you the desires of your heart.
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Proverbs 3, 5 to 7,
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Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.
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In all your ways acknowledge him and he'll make your path straight.
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Do not be wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord and turn away from evil.
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In conclusion, expressive individualism dates back to the Garden of Eden when the devil
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convinced Eve that God was keeping her from expressing her individualism.
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The devil told her,
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For God knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you'll be
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like God, knowing good and evil.
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The devil's message to Eve included the idea that God is keeping you from expressing your
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individualism.
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We are, of course, individuals.
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We cannot escape our autonomy.
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We're born, live, die, and are judged by God as individuals.
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The Hall of Fame of the Faithful in Hebrews 11 is a list of individuals.
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It's not only appropriate but essential that we ask, how can I be the best that I can be?
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The real question then is not should I pursue my best individual best, but how should I
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do that?
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The Bible disagrees with the rest of the world.
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World says to look inside yourself and follow your desires.
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The Bible says to look outside yourself and deny your desires.
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The world says you should do what the devil told Eve to do, express yourself apart from God.
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Bible says you should express yourself by knowing God and keeping his commandments.
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The world says, as the girl noted above, to put yourself first before everything else.
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The Bible says you should conform yourself to the image of Christ.
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The world says your bodily desires are good because they express who you are, LGBTQ or whatever.
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The Bible says we are wretched people who need to be set free from the body of death.
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The ambition of the expressive individual is to be their own God in opposition to the
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God of the Bible.
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Expressive individualism is a worldview which promotes self-worship, which makes it a form
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of idolatry.
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Thank you for listening.
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A longer paper on this subject with the footnotes for the quotes is available on our website
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relationalconcepts.org.
