The Expulsive Power of a New Affection

“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” — 1 John 2:15

Those who struggle with habitual sin are keenly aware of the despair and fatigue that comes from trying harder and harder to control the desire to do what is wrong in the eyes of God. For this person, there be times of limited success in overcoming sin, but eventually he/she falls back again into unhealthy patterns.

In The Expulsive Power of a New Affection, Thomas Chalmers argues that no matter how hard we may try, we’ll never overcome habitual sin in our lives unless we switch our affections from the world to Jesus Christ. Thankfully Christ loved us first and is more than willing to set us free if we’d only realize the true Gospel power that we can all have in our lives today.

Thomas Chalmers (1780–1847) was born in Anstruther, Scotland. He taught science and mathematics and also was a preacher. He began his larger ministry in 1815, at the Tron Church in Glasgow, where he became very popular. In 1823, he became a Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of St. Andrews. From 1828 to 1843, he was a Professor of theology at The University at Edinburgh. As a leader in the Disruption of 1843, he became Professor of Theology to the seceding body, among other activities.