Last post considered 2 John 9 (here @ Bible Gateway) and some of its implications for us as believers. At the end I suggested that there are those in churches who are not equipped to abide. Some have been trained not to. As an aside, Exodus 20:19, 21 (here @ Bible Gateway) was in my reading this morning. You will note the newly freed Israelis refused to come near to God. They asked Moses to speak to God and then tell them what to do or believe. Seems in many cases we are still following that old covenant model.
Back to equipping believers to abide. My wife and I reared 4 children, so far they have produced 8 grandchildren. Both our kids and theirs are following the identical pattern. That pattern is found in 1 Peter 2:1 – 3 (here @ Bible Gateway), Hebrews 5:12 – 14 (here @ Bible Gateway), and 2 Timothy 3:14 – 4:4 (here @ Bible Gateway).
Their intake of physical sustenance roughly followed the following steps:
It is not a big stretch to see the parallel for spiritual food, or in the case here, abiding. Much of what we consume in the church is preprocessed. Someone else has predigested the Word either topically or on a book of the Bible. Then they have served it up to us in either a message, a Bible Study Guide, a commentary, or a book on a spiritual topic. So we are abiding in their Word, their work, we are dependent on them for what we see in the Word. Which has significant implications for step 8.
It is not until we learn to use the tools of personal study; learn to prepare our own meals that we can truly abide in His Word. To effectively help others, we have to do so.
Those of us who know how to feed ourselves are tasked by the Lord to equip other believers to do so, Ephesians 4:11 – 16 (here @ Bible Gateway). Those of us who do not know how, need to find someone to help us become equipped. Based on the passages above, it appears certain that the Lord will hold us to account regardless of which side of the equation we fall.
Their intake of physical sustenance roughly followed the following steps:
- Predigested and processed liquid – milk
- Pablum
- Pureed and strained vegetables
- Solid food cut up into small pieces – the child eats with their hands
- Learning to use a fork and spoon
- Learning to use a knife to cut one’s own food
- Learning to prepare one’s own food
- Leading another through this process
It is not a big stretch to see the parallel for spiritual food, or in the case here, abiding. Much of what we consume in the church is preprocessed. Someone else has predigested the Word either topically or on a book of the Bible. Then they have served it up to us in either a message, a Bible Study Guide, a commentary, or a book on a spiritual topic. So we are abiding in their Word, their work, we are dependent on them for what we see in the Word. Which has significant implications for step 8.
It is not until we learn to use the tools of personal study; learn to prepare our own meals that we can truly abide in His Word. To effectively help others, we have to do so.
Those of us who know how to feed ourselves are tasked by the Lord to equip other believers to do so, Ephesians 4:11 – 16 (here @ Bible Gateway). Those of us who do not know how, need to find someone to help us become equipped. Based on the passages above, it appears certain that the Lord will hold us to account regardless of which side of the equation we fall.
Challenging thoughts, strictly Biblical, that can be seen among modern American Evangelicals. In fact, I would say it is a common result of the typical Evangelical Church situation in America.
ReplyDeleteSeveral years ago while we were members of a large congregation a pastor came from the presidency of a leading seminary. He was a fine man; one of our girls became best friends with their daughter (we were thrilled). He of course was literate in Greek and Hebrew as well a Biblical history and all the great theologians of the centuries. And I loved his sermons, twice, sometimes three times per week.
Without details, after one sermon I suddenly realized I was susceptible to an emotion of mentally "putting my Bible up on a shelf" and just listening to him. Why not? I don't know any of those disciplines like he does. What can I get beyond what he gives me?
If I was susceptible to that, what about others? To be honest, he also challenged me to go deeper myself. What what instructive to me was that after a strong commitment of many years of personal Bible study I could have a reaction like that.
What a privilege it is to be able to immerse ourselves in the Word of God in addition to the other resources available to us.
That is such a great example. It is so easy to become enamored of great teachers and then to choose to live off of the crumbs of their table. When we do that we miss the benefit that teacher experienced, both the struggle with the text and the grace of the Holy Spirit leading us into all truth, John 14:26 and John 16:13. What a privilege and joy to have the Spirit who inspired the text illuminate it for us. Then it is not just the teacher's it's ours.
DeleteWhat a great practical example!I can relate to the consequences of failure to train/equip others using the fundamental principle of raising kids you just mentioned! We concentrate more on training our kids to live out our cultural believes and practices, and when it comes to the word of God we consider it as the work of the Pastor or the Sunday school tutor! This same tradition transfers to the church and Christians have been made to believe they just need to know more of the culture and traditions of the particular church, and the pastor is there to give them the " spiritual food"! My observations with most orthodox and pentecostal churches in Cameroon! I' be been in this same situation! I and my husband finds it so challenging to systematically train our kids to be independent in their own studies and west for the knowledge of God! Reasons being that we exist in an environment where the practice is considered as " rebellion and disrespect to church authorities".
ReplyDeleteSo weird!!!
You, mentioned, " we exist in an environment where the practice is considered as " rebellion and disrespect to church authorities"."
DeleteIf you skim through the gospels that was the same charge the leaders of the Jews leveled at Jesus. He was bucking their authority.
As a leader, it does not matter what I know. What matters is whether I can equip others to learn what I have learned. That seems to be the force of Ephesians 4:11 - 16 does it not?
The challenge is not limited to Cameroon. By training, expectation, job description, and tradition, we expect our leaders, pastors, to teach to spoon feed us. That is not in line with either the Ephesians passage, the Great Commission or 2 Timothy 2:2.
As members of a body we have to pray for and encourage those in leadership to move toward what their Scriptural assignment is.