In a season where we are obsessed about inconveniences stemming from government shutdowns and market fears, a longer historical perspective with clearer vision is needed. Then, again, since the shutdown began, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is flat and the NASDAQ is up 1%.. The essay below focuses on the needed demises of narcissism and hysteria. As Jesus put it, we need to pursue things that will not rust, be stolen, or suffer corruption. Our national life and markets may be shouting the same message.
John Calvin (1509-1564) began a widely-read section of his work by reminding his readers that one of the objects of God’s saving power was to bring the ethics of believers into accord with the holiness of God (Institutes, 3:6, 1). He also affirmed that one of the keys to life was the self-denial that could only come if a person realized that he and all his abilities were owned by God. Calvin said that one “should not speak, design, or act without a view to God’s glory. . . . We are not our own; therefore, neither is our reason or will to rule our acts and counsels” (3:7, 1). That kind of trust in God necessarily calls for abandonment of self. The first step of Christian maturity for Calvin was to abandon oneself and natural impulses and seek to have those replaced by a renewed mind which followed God in obedience. The “laying aside of private regard” for ourselves means that we are not our own persons but called to serve God. When one lives and leads this way and learns “to look to God in everything,” he is also “diverted from all vain thoughts” (3:7, 2).
Once that view lodges itself in our habits, it “leaves no place for pride, show, or ostentation.” On the other hand, Calvin realized that when people pursued selfishness first, they normally hit their target, and the result was vice or “a depraved longing for applause.” Read More»
David Hall | “Calvin Against Selfishness and Short-Sightedness” | October 14, 2025
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David Hall
Reverend David W. Hall is married to Ann, and they are parents of three grown children and grandparents of nine grandchildren. He retired as the Senior Pastor of Midway Presbyterian Church (PCA) in 2026 where he served since 2003. Previously, he served as Pastor of the Covenant Presbyterian Church in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (1984–2003) and as Associate Pastor at the First Presbyterian Church in Rome, Georgia (1980–1984). He was ordained to pastoral ministry in 1980, educated at Covenant Theological Seminary, and is the editor and author of several volumes, including Irony and the Presbyterian Church in America. You can find him on his Substack “Cheering Folly’s Demise.”
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