The Blessing of Biographies

Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation (Hebrews 13:7).

This verse tells us to look again (consider) at the outcome (end) of the faith of those who have taught us the Word of God, and we are told to imitate (follow) their faith. Paul called for Christians to be followers of him as He followed the Lord. There are men and women over the course of church history who have lived their lives for God's glory and graciously we have been given accounts of their lives and testimonies. There is much to learn from saints of old, that is why I believe we can benefit from reading good Christian biographies.

There are a number of ways biographies help us. First, they encourage us by letting us see what God did in the lives of His people and remind us that our God is bigger than our circumstances, sovereign, and working all things together for our good and His glory.
We are also reminded of the price that was paid by those who have named the name of Christ and reminded that the world hates us because it hates Christ.
Biographies give us a deeper appreciation for missions, the preservation of God's Word, and the power of God in a person's life to stand against all odds.
Biographies show us that the heresies we face today are not at all new but they have been faced and fought in years gone by and we stand thankful for those who have contended for our all.
Biographies open our eyes to grace as we see how God drew men and women to Himself by the power of the Gospel preached.
Biographies give us somewhat of a prophetic picture of what may happen to us if we stand for the truth as others did in their day and remind us that we will not always be praised for doing what is right.
Biographies help us by seeing dates and contemporaries of those we are reading and help us fill in the gaps of church history in our own minds.
Biographies that are honest help us to get the story straight about saints who have been wrongfully accused of good or bad and what was unclear to us about them is made plain.
Biographies of great saints make us want to be used by God in a great way, and they give us the desire to leave something behind that generations to come can look to.
Biographies remind us that God uses ordinary men and women with feet of clay to do extraordinary things.
Biographies remind us of the importance of thinking things through and help us to see our distractions from thinking such as television, the internet, and other time consuming attention thiefs.
Biographies remind us of the urgency of the Gospel and the importance of furthering it.
Biographies remind us that we don’t have to be perfect to be used by God Almighty. We all have blind spots. We can’t point them out because we can’t see them. When we read Christian biographies, especially those from previous generations, we can see their blind spots and how we can keep from falling into some of their errors. However, since we don’t have the ability to go into the future and read biographies of our generation that may point out our blind spots, it helps us to look to the past and see where others may have been right in some area that we are wrong in or perhaps some great doctrine that we have forsaken or ignored. That is why C.S. Lewis said that every third book you read should be outside of your own generation. Reading biographies or works by saints from the past helps us to see their culture, their literary style, their thought process, and the thoughtful and weighty explanation of those doctrines they held dear. We can see how they thought about Heaven and other beauties, and many times we are exposed to people who thought about precious things in ways we never have before.

I heard an illustration once that may fit here. If a fish never leaves the water he will never understand what it means to be wet because everything is wet. Wet is the only thing he knows and if he never leaves the water then he will never know the difference. The fish has no idea that there is land or anything else other than water. He doesn’t know the difference. I am convinced that if we read and listen to those only in our own generation, like the fish we will never know that there is anything different or that there is more out there because all we know is what is around us and we are not familiar with anything else.

Those who are dead have much to teach us and we are robbing ourselves of a grand treasure if we do not listen to them.

Albert Mohler has a post on ten great Christian biographies. These are some of his favorites and what he would probably consider “must reads.”

Some of us don’t have time to do much extra reading and that is why I thank God for audio resources. There are many on the internet that can be downloaded for free. I have been blessed in great way by listening to lessons learned from the lives of other Christians. There are two that stand out in my mind: one is Steven Lawson on the Life of Jonathan Edwards, and the other is John Piper on the life of William Tyndale.