Are You Familiar With Indicatives and Imperatives? It's The Key To Christian Sanctification.

Any discussion of spiritual formation (or sanctification) into Christlikeness would be lacking without fleshing out the Biblical concept of indicatives and imperatives.  If we fail to understand this concept we risk the immediate danger of falling into legalism (that we can earn our right standing before God).

So, biblically speaking, what are indicative and imperatives? Indicatives explain what is true. They indicate the truth of something. Imperatives are commands, things that we should or must do. Here is the key:  In the Bible one will find that the indicatives always proceed the imperatives. What we must do is always rooted in what is true about us in Christ.

For example, Eph. 4:32 says, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” The basis for our forgiveness of other is rooted in the fact that God in Christ has forgiven us. The indicative is the truth or fact that we are a forgiven people. Thus, the imperative (or command) to be forgiving towards others should be the logical outworking of that indicative.

Other primary examples would be the whole book of Ephesians. Chapters 1-3 lay out all the indicatives (things that are true of Christians) and the following chapters 4-6 deals with the implications or imperatives (what we must do in light of what is true of us) of the great truths from 1-3. Titus 3:3-8 is also a perfect example.

3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. 8 The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people.

Notice how Paul writes about what is true of the Cretan Christians (and all Christians for that matter) in verses 3-7. These are the great indicatives of the Gospel. Once these are firmly in place in the minds of his readers, he tells them to “devote themselves to good works”. The indicatives are the ground of the imperatives. Notice that he doesn’t say, “If you want God’s kindness, righteousness, regeneration, and renewal, you better get to work doing good works!”

The great danger lies is the reversal of these two concepts, or placing the imperatives before the indicatives. Consider an example from parenting. Say a parent sees his son hitting his little sister. How should he deal with his sin in that situation? If the parent were to follow the Biblical pattern of indicatives and imperatives they would say to him, “Son, since you are a member of this family I cannot allow you to continue in this behavior. I love you too much to allow you to persist in hitting your sister. You must stop.”

See how this affirms his identity in the family? Since he is (indicative) a member of the family he must not behave in that destructive manner. Notice how different it would be to say to the son, “If you want me to love you and allow you to keep being in this family you better get your act together and quit hitting your sister!” This simply breeds legalism. It communicates to the son that the love of the Father and his identity as a son is contingent upon his right behavior. God never deals with us this way in the Bible. The indicatives always precede the imperatives. What I am to do is always rooted in who God say that I am. We don’t strive to attain our identity. Our striving flows out of our identity. This is crucial understanding for all of spiritual formation. Thus the challenge of the Christian life can be summed up as learning to grow into who God says we already are.