Why Do You Write? To Inform; Out of Pride; Or For Money?

Luther opined once

He [Martin Luther] deplored the abundance of books and writers: “There will be a boundless flood of books, for any and everybody will be writing a book to feed his pride, while others will increase this evil in quest of gain. So the Bible will be buried under a mass of literature about the Bible, and the text itself will be neglected, though the experts in the text are the best men in every discipline. A good disciple of Bartolus is a good lawyer. But today everybody hastens to consult writers.

“As a young man I made myself familiar with the Bible; by reading it again and again I came to know my way about in it. Only then did I consult writers [of books about the Bible]. But finally I had to put them out of my sight and wrestle with the Bible itself. It’s better to see with one’s own eyes than with another’s. On this account, because of the bad example, I would wish that all my books were buried. Otherwise everybody will imitate me and try to become famous by writing, as if Christ had died for the sake of our fickle glory and not for the hallowing of his name.”

I suspect that if the truth were told a lot of folk in our day write not so much to inform as to, they hope, become famous for their book and to make a boatload of money from it.  Meanwhile, their books don’t go very far in explaining or informing; instead, they merely ‘entertain’.

At any rate, every Christian writer needs to examine their motives with every book they offer.  What is its purpose? Its goal? Its aim?  Is it fame and fortune or formation in the Christian life?  If the latter, write on.  If the former, well, then, why?