My wife and I have four sons. The first two were born during our time in Greenville, SC while I was studying at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. The third arrived during the first year of my work at Heritage OPC in Royston, GA, where I am still privileged to serve as a pastor. We named our third son Elijah Joseph. That may not strike anyone as being particularly important—who cares what a small-town pastor and his wife names their son? Well, we named him after Dr. Joseph Pipa. Since my former professor has been the object of much reviling very recently, I thought it fitting and timely to publish my rationale for my son’s middle name. At the very least, I hope it will honor Dr. Pipa, but I also want to provide another perspective on this man, for he has been a father in the faith to me. One might even say a true patriarch worthy of the name. Here are five blessings that Dr. Joseph Pipa handed down to me that motivated our choice of our son’s middle name.
He taught me to love the Holy Scriptures
I cannot recall exactly how many classes I was privileged to have with Dr. Pipa, but one major theme stood out above the rest: his love for and commitment to the Word of God. I learned very quickly that this man was relentlessly exegetical. Whether we spoke of man’s origin in Genesis 1, the development of the Covenant of Grace throughout the Bible, or the mystery of God’s decrees, speculation was given no countenance nor quarter. His model was not unique to him, but firmly and devotionally planted in the middle of the Reformed heritage. I thank God that his example and encouragements played no small part in fashioning those convictions in me. This is precisely what the Apostle Paul exhorted the church in Corinth, “…that you may learn in us not to think beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up on behalf of one against the other” (1 Cor. 4:6). In short, Dr. Pipa taught me and a generation of ministers, elders, and other servants of Christ, to love “the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it” (Jer. 6:16). Our age is one in which many reply “We will not walk in it,” just like they said in Jeremiah’s day. This is all the more reason I am grateful that Dr. Pipa instilled in me and my colleagues a love for the plain Word of God.
He taught me to love the church
In August of 2009 I sat in a classroom at GPTS for my first course. Professor Elkin told us in the very first session: “Brothers, if Jesus loved the church enough to die for her, I should love the church enough to be patient with her.” Those words have been vindicated—and tested—over and over through my nearly twelve years of work in the church. While Dr. Pipa did not speak these words on that occasion, he most certainly led his students with the same ethos. As he taught us about the importance of study, prayer, preaching, and pastoring, the goal was always to honor the Lord Jesus and to serve the church. He taught me by precept and example that the pastor’s goal was not to be the next great celebrity, not the next high-powered academician, but to prepare the next most needful sermon for the congregation in front of me. My goal was to be able to speak a word in season to the weary saint beside me, and to pray for them when no one else was with me. Additionally, he encouraged us to be engaged in the life of our elders, in the work of presbyteries, and in general assemblies (or their equivalents). In this way, he instilled in us the love of being committed and thoughtful churchmen, something I have sought by the grace of God to embody in my own ministry. I am thankful that I was taught by Dr. Pipa that I ought to spend and be spent gladly for the sake of Christ’s church (2 Cor. 12:15).
He taught me to preach
“It pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe” (1 Cor. 1:21). Preaching is not always popular, and sadly, much of what is called preaching today is impotent and effeminate. These are just some pressures that men face as they prepare for ministry. On the one hand, we must wrestle with what the Bible says about the great task of preaching, especially how it is at the forefront of the church’s great war (1 Cor. 1:23). On the other hand, we live in a cultural moment that is largely anti-propositional, hyper-psychological, and plagued by the itching ears that simply do not endure sound doctrine (2 Tim. 4:3-4). When I say that Dr. Pipa taught me to preach, I do not primarily mean here that he taught me homiletics, although he did. What I mean is that he taught me and my fellow students that we must preach. It is the solemn and sacred duty of that man, sinful though he be, who has been solemnly ordained to the ministry of preaching to open his mouth and speak forth the divine truth of the Word of God. People can criticize his model of sermons, they can criticize his emphases in sermons (and they can do the same for me as well), but what no one ought to criticize is his prioritizing of preaching itself. Iain Murray wrote, “The challenge to the church today is the same that it has always been. It is the challenge to believe that faith in God, and in the means he has appointed to build the church, are sufficient for all times. This entails resistance to any idea that a changing world requires priorities different from those of the apostolic or any other age. A failure to overcome that temptation has repeatedly led to periods in the life of the churches when attention to preaching wanes, both in pulpit and in pew.”[1] If ever the church needed to recommit to Paul’s admonition to Timothy, “Preach the word!” (2 Tim. 4:2a), now is the time. By God’s grace I am thankful for being taught this, and so is my congregation.
He taught me to stand for truth
Speaking of 2 Timothy 4:2, I would direct your attention to the next phrase, “Be ready in season and out of season.” Many believe that Paul is exhorting his protégé here to a life of readiness, as if Paul was only saying, “Timothy, make sure you are ready to preach on Sundays, and whenever ever else you have opportunity.” While this is true, it is not the only thing Paul means. Patrick Fairbairn cited these words from John Chrysostom, “…not in peace alone, or in quietness, or when sitting in the church. And if you should be in perils, if in prison, if compassed about with chains, if even going forth to death, at that very time convince, withhold not the word of rebuke.”[2] Speaking and standing against the prevailing winds of culture—civil or ecclesiastical—is difficult work. It is lamentably in our nature to go along with “the course of this world” (Eph. 2:2). There are many doctrinal flashpoints in the church today: the biblical account of creation in Genesis 1-2, the authorship of the Pentateuch, the continuing place of the Lord’s Day, the justification controversy, the continued onslaught of progressive forces constantly trying to make in-roads into Reformed denominations, and many others. Dr. Pipa encouraged us to watch, to stand fast in the faith, to act like men, to be strong, and to let all that we do be done with love (1 Cor. 16:13-14).
To do so in the church both presupposes and creates controversy, and yet this too is needed. “When you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized” (1 Cor. 11:18-19). This is nothing new for the church, for in every age she has needed watchmen to stand on the walls, sword in one hand and trowel in the other, for the good of the holy city of God (Neh. 4:18). The evangelical Anglican J.C. Ryle addressed precisely the same struggle in the late 19th century during his notable ministry: “A wave of colour blindness about theology appears to be passing over the land. The minds of many seem utterly incapable of discerning any difference between faith and faith, creed and creed, tenet and tenet, opinion and opinion, thought and thought, however diverse, heterogeneous, contrariant, and mutually destructive they may be. Everything, forsooth, is true, and nothing is false, everything is right, and nothing is wrong…You are not allowed to ask what is God’s truth, but what is liberal, and generous, and kind.”[3] In the long run, standing in a righteous manner for righteous things is the highest kindness, and would to God that more men be raised up for this great effort.
He taught me to think
Lest any think that this is a former student merely engaging in hagiography, perhaps here it is useful to say the following: there are things upon which I differ from my former professor. There are approaches and positions that I learned in the seminary classroom that I have determined to discard. A student of a fallen man need not mimic him in every respect—indeed, he ought not. I need not go into specifics, but I say that for this purpose: the very reason I have come to hold a few different positions from Dr. Pipa is due to the most precious thing he taught me. He taught me to think. He forced me to discern carefully between right and wrong. He required me to bring everything back to the Scriptures, as the Bereans did, asking whether these things were so (Acts 17:11). In his effort to model and require relentless exegesis, he submitted himself to that rule along with us. Dr. Pipa will defend that God’s Word is the only infallible rule for faith and practice as ardently as any. In his faithful instruction of the great doctrines of the Christian faith, and his humble articulation of the same, he bid us not follow him for himself, but to follow him as he followed Christ (1 Cor. 11:1). My greatest debt to Dr. Pipa is precisely here: he was not training seminary parrots to repeat after him, he was training men to be servants of Christ, that both student and teacher would stand for Him.
I do not suppose anyone who read this woke up this morning wondering why my third son’s middle name is Joseph. But in the ten plus years since my wife and I gave this name to him, I have never regretted it. No man apart from Christ is perfect. Dr. Pipa will be the first to bear witness to his profound need for the cleansing blood of Christ, and His freely imputed righteousness, received by faith alone. Yet we are called to give honor to whom honor is due (Rom. 13:7), and that is why my son’s middle name is Joseph.
[1] Iain H. Murray, Archibald G. Brown: Spurgeon’s Successor (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2011), 365-366.
[2] Patrick Fairbairn, A Commentary on 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2002), 383.
[3] Iain H. Murray, J.C. Ryle: Prepared to Stand Alone (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2016), 195.