ODJ: personality or precept?
January 24, 2012
Don’t boast about following a particular human leader. For everything belongs to you . . . and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God (vv.21-23).
READ: 1 Corinthians 3:1-23
Twitter. Facebook. Podcasts. In mere seconds, we can receive biblical truths from around the globe. We can worship with our favourite worship bands and gain insight into life’s toughest problems from the latest speakers and writers. Never has the Word been so accessible at any given moment. While this level of information offers ever expanding opportunities for spiritual growth, our hope does not rest in technology or the words of man, but in the living Word.
I understand the seeming hypocrisy in my words. In no way do I intend to diminish the power of sharing our struggles, thoughts, or victories throughout our Christian journey. Furthermore, technology can be a powerful tool in that process. However, as the church, we need to challenge one another to make sure our eyes are on the Source and not the messengers.
In admonishing the Corinthian church, the apostle Paul pointed out the areas where we must stay focused in learning from those around us: Our maturity should not be determined by the people we know or profess to follow, but by the evidence of the Word becoming active in our lives (1 Corinthians 3:2-3); God is the author and finisher of our faith; we are the vessels through which God works (vv.6-9). God, not man, defines what is eternal and worthy of preservation. So our efforts should be for His glory and not for our own (vv.11-15).
The way to live out these truths is not to isolate ourselves from others’ ideas (Proverbs 18:1-2). God’s Word even tells us to follow the positive examples of other believers in our pursuit of Christ (1 Corinthians 4:15-16). Yet most of all, we need to remember that “Christ in [us], the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27 NIV) is the light the world so desperately needs. —Regina Franklin
How have you struggled with more time spent reading other books than reading God’s Word? How can we balance the biblical insights we gain from others with our own study of the Scriptures?
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Always reading other books cuts out the time you have for exploring the bible on your own and thus really digging into God’s word for yourself. This is my struggle. It feels like I have no opportunity to excavate and explore for myself but keep getting stuck reading what I’ve already known.
I don’t really think about this all that much but I do try and think for myself and make connections not mentioned to other possibly relevant parts of scripture or current issues. Maybe it’s because I very rarely study the bible raw, on its own as it is written, but instead always accompanied by other materials, whether questions or commentaries. The good of this is that I’m always revising what I know and can constantly learn from the new perspective of others, but the down side remains that I myself aren’t allowed to find and make my own discoveries from the Scripture. Hopefully there will be the opportunity for this to change in time.