Dad's bowling team had a habit of going to distant parts of Kansas one weekend a year for a state tournament. He didn't always do well, because the mantle above the fireplace had a small “I tried” trophy – showing a man holding his foot, apparently after dropping a bowling ball on it.

An old Broadway musical was titled How to Succeed in Business Without Even Trying. But is it good to “try” to do something - or is it wrong?

This can be a spiritual question. Some ministers talk as if “trying” to do things is not good enough for God, or even for them. In one case, I was barred from attending one group's worship services because I said I'd make my “best effort” to obey one unwritten rule – and that wasn't enough for the Pastor.

To try to understand this (assuming that wording is not sin), I opened my Bible and studied several words relating to “trying.”

E For Effort

But the study has to be taken with care, because “try” in Scripture can mean many things. Take, for instance: “Test me, O Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind” (Psalm 26:2).

King David used a Hebrew word which primarily refers to examination and proving. While effort is involved in that, the effort is made to confirm something is fit and ready – not in the hopes of achieving a goal.

Effort is a key word here. In my decades as a journalist, it was a slang term and a verb. A news team might be “efforting” more information about a breaking story. In most respectable dictionaries, it's only a noun.

Yet in the New International Version, the phrase “make every effort” appears several times. So clearly, there is something for Bible readers and believers to attempt to do.

Jesus advised in Luke 13:24: “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door...” This is in response to a question about being saved (verse 23).

The quote is more direct in Matthew's gospel: “Enter through the narrow gate...” (Matthew 7:13). Some ministers would take that to mean you shouldn't try to do it – instead, you should (to borrow from Nike) just do it.

Yet the words of Luke are roughly the same in every translation we checked – based on the Greek word agonizomai. It can mean entering a contest or, as Strong's Exhaustive Concordance puts it, “to endeavor with strenuous zeal.”

In other words, obeying Jesus's words means you make an effort to obey them. That may seem quite obvious, but some ministers have indicated there's a difference in approaches.

Jesus gave similar advice earlier in Luke, using different Greek words. “As you are going with your adversary to the magistrate, try hard to be reconciled to him on the way...” (Luke 12:58)

The New King James Version translates this as “make every effort.” Not only does this provide Biblical backing for judicial “plea deals,” it also supports attempting to do something – even if you don't know what the result will be.

Where else should believers “make every effort”? Related to Jesus's guidance about legal settlements is making peace in all aspects of life.

“Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification,” the apostle Paul advised in Romans 14:19.

“Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy,” Hebrews 12:14 adds.

The apostle Peter notes this means peace with God as well. “Make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him” (II Peter 3:14).

This indicates an effort to avoid sin, which Hebrews calls a “struggle against sin” which requires human resistance (12:4) .The Darby translation compares it to a wrestling match.

The New Testament writers also indicated growth in spiritual fruit (Galatians 5:22-23) is not automatic. It's also something which we must try to do.

The authors of Philippians recommended church members conduct themselves properly. Then the authors would know “that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27). Several other translations have the word “striving.”

“Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge,” II Peter 1:5 adds. Peter builds a stair-step of virtues which one late Worldwide Church of God preacher called in a sermon “From Dust to Divinity.”

At the end of the list, Peter recommends, “Make every effort” to confirm your calling and election (verse 10, CSB/New English Bible).

Why You Shouldn't Try?

Amazingly, as I wrote this article I received an unexpected email titled “Stop Trying to Get Better.”

It came from the Key Life ministry. I've remained on the mailing list of minister Steve Brown since he backed the old Worldwide Church of God (now Grace Communion International) during its changes in the 1990s.

“Assurance [of salvation] doesn't come from getting better,” Brown writes. “Assurance comes from wanting to get better... (emphasis added) It is all him” - as in God.

Brown bases that primarily on Ephesians 2:1-10, which includes the famous words: “By grace you have been saved, through faith.”. But other verses can be cited to support that viewpoint.

Being a child of God “does not... depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy,” Romans 9:16 says. The same thing is said of salvation in Titus 3:5 - “not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.”

Jesus put it bluntly in the New Living Translation of John 6:63: “Human effort accomplishes nothing,” while the Holy Spirit gives life. Galatians 3:3 adds, “Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?”

Sorting It Out

So are the Biblical writers contradicting themselves? Not if we consider what points are being emphasized.

The ultimate goals – salvation, eternal life and being in God's family – are up to God. Only by His mercy can you receive them. Brown's article notes Jesus Christ is “the finisher of our faith”(Hebrews 12:2).

But steps along the way – obeying God's commandments, peacemaking and developing spiritual fruit – are things you do. That's where it's OK to try. You can make the effort involved.

And if you do, as Brown puts it, “You will get better. That's a promise.” Even if some ministers might think you're going about it in the wrong way.

“There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God... Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter into that rest...” Hebrews 4:9, 11 says. It's truly worth following the cliché and giving it, “the old college try.”