Christian Classics - Wilberforce’s Real Christianity

William Wilberforce was a British politician who lived in the late 18th and early 19th Century.  He was also an evangelical Christian who is perhaps best known for his leadership in abolishing the slave trade in Britain, a public action that he thought was required by his personal faith.  If you would like to read more biographical information about Wilberforce, John Piper has generously made his biography of Wilberforce available as a free download from his Desiring God website.

He wrote a book originally entitled, A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians in the Higher and Middle Classes in This Country, Contrasted with Real Christianity. Quite a mouthful.  Understandably, the book has been republished under the title, Real Christianity.

Today marks the beginning of a shared reading of this Christian Classic being led by Tim Challies at his wonderful blog.  I’d like to invite you to join the reading and the conversation at Tim’s blog.

Wilberforce stated that his reason in writing Real Christianity as follows, “I’d like to attempt to contrast what we see in the lives of many, perhaps most, who make this claim (to be Christians) with what I understand the Bible teaches about what it means to believe in Christ.”  In an age where many profess Jesus as Lord with their mouth, but seem to live lives that are wholly separate from the Way Jesus commanded, this seems like an inquiry worth making in our own lives.

Titus 1:16 says, “They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works.”  And, 1 John 2:4 says, “Whoever says ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him…”

We read and study the Bible not in an effort to amass information.  Rather, our goal should be to lead changed lives.  Wilberforce intended to challenge his readers to see whether they led lives that genuinely reflected what they professed with their mouths to believe.  Reading this work now provides us with that same challenge.  And, it is one worth taking.