"Further, Take heed that you faithfully perform the business you have to do in the world, from a regard to the commands of God; and not from an ambitious desire of being esteemed better than others"
About this Quote
Brainerd goes for the jugular of religious ego: do the work, but interrogate the engine driving it. His warning isn’t aimed at laziness; it’s aimed at the more respectable vice of spiritual careerism, the hunger to be seen as unusually devoted. In a Protestant world where visible “fruit” could become social currency, he names the temptation that hides inside good deeds: ambition dressed up as obedience.
The sentence structure does the disciplining. “Take heed” sounds like a pastoral caution, but it’s also surveillance turned inward. He calls the reader to “faithfully perform the business you have to do in the world,” phrasing daily life as a vocation, not a stage. Then comes the pivot: “from a regard to the commands of God; and not…” The semicolon-like contrast splits motive into two rival loyalties, God’s command versus the audience’s applause. Brainerd doesn’t deny that esteem follows visible righteousness; he treats that desire as corrosive precisely because it piggybacks on virtue.
Context sharpens the edge. Brainerd, a young missionary famous for intense piety and early death, wrote in a revival culture where spiritual authenticity was constantly tested, narrated, compared. His line reads like an antidote to performative holiness before “performative” was a concept: a reminder that devotion can become a personality brand, and that the self can smuggle itself into service. The subtext is bleakly modern: even obedience can be a mirror, unless you insist on a different audience.
The sentence structure does the disciplining. “Take heed” sounds like a pastoral caution, but it’s also surveillance turned inward. He calls the reader to “faithfully perform the business you have to do in the world,” phrasing daily life as a vocation, not a stage. Then comes the pivot: “from a regard to the commands of God; and not…” The semicolon-like contrast splits motive into two rival loyalties, God’s command versus the audience’s applause. Brainerd doesn’t deny that esteem follows visible righteousness; he treats that desire as corrosive precisely because it piggybacks on virtue.
Context sharpens the edge. Brainerd, a young missionary famous for intense piety and early death, wrote in a revival culture where spiritual authenticity was constantly tested, narrated, compared. His line reads like an antidote to performative holiness before “performative” was a concept: a reminder that devotion can become a personality brand, and that the self can smuggle itself into service. The subtext is bleakly modern: even obedience can be a mirror, unless you insist on a different audience.
Quote Details
| Topic | God |
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