“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” 2 Timothy 4: 1-5
Social media is a wonderful place to share our lives with our friends and family. It is also a place to share your views and ideas with people you don’t know. One of the wonderful aspects of sharing on social media is being able to share my faith with others. Whether that be with fellow Christians or non-believers people have some level of interest or intrigue about God, the Bible, and religion in general.
Now when we share our faith there comes a level of conflict and division. Of course non-believers will question me in circles attempting to cause me to slip up in my comments, wanting me to contradict myself and question me if I actually believe in what I believe in. What I find to be most problematic is the conflict among Christians. What is very clear is there is a great amount of tradition and presupposition that comes with what people believe. This is largely due, in my opinion, to biblical illiteracy coupled with failing to practice actual Spiritual Discipline and knowing how to do an actual Bible Study. First off, reading your Bible is not Bible Study. Second, reading your daily devotion or those curriculums called Bible Study is not an actual Bible Study. They can contribute to learning and study but a real Bible Study starts off first by removing our context, our world view, from the text and discovering the world view of the biblical authors. Next, if I approach the Bible to do a Study with my traditions and presuppositions leading the way then I should just forget going to the Bible. I’m not willing to learn, to get out of my comfort zone and to transform my way of thinking about God and His word. My theology is not the standard by which I should study the Bible.
So when I interact with others on social media what is evident is people want to be right… about everything all the time. I was once like this. Now what I find myself doing is encouraging people to look outside the box of their traditions, their theology, and their comfort zone. However, that is not how people take my comments. There are two reasons for this, one is obvious, people want to be right about the topic presented. Second, voice! Yes, they hear people’s comments the way they want to hear things. I connect this with daddy issues. If they had a rough, over commanding father who is always correcting and chastising them then when they hear correction they hear their father’s voice. Let’s face it no one wants to be corrected but they sure do want to correct everyone that doesn’t agree with them. That is why when teaching we must be patient.
When I am faced with dealing with non-believers I am reminded to not throw my pearls before swine (Matthew 7:6). Yet, when dealing with believers I am faced to believe I am dealing with a baby with a power tool. They know just enough Greek to be dangerous. No matter the amount of patient and compassion I present, people have a difficult time seeing comments as compassionate. They want to give correction but not receive correction and that can make growing in our knowledge more difficult. Our comfort zone can and will prohibit growth. A real bear to the bones Bible Study will make a person uncomfortable and if it does that is something important to confront and deal with. The problem isn’t God’s word, it’s our attitude. And when someone who had invested the time to study, and it is apparent they have, our attitude to not wanting to be corrected can inflate the division rather than develop unity.
Possessing the knowledge and sharing that knowledge isn’t being prideful. Not willing to receive the knowledge given is prideful. We are too proud to believe we need correction or encouragement or direction in the truth of God’s word. Scripture encourages us to seek knowledge and wisdom but we must be careful on how we present that knowledge to others. Some people are still on the milk and are not ready for deeper meatier things and they are not willing to face that truth about themselves.
I still have much to learn and I have learned so much more after the fact of my Seminary years. The journey has been wonderful discovering things about God’s word. I am careful with where I get my lessons from but I am willing to venture into areas most Christians will question why I go there. Such things I will examine is material from atheist, communist, evolutionist, and agnostics. Reading their material does not mean I agree with them but I have armed myself with their knowledge and God’s wisdom to confront those ideologies and handle them.
Social media is a wonderful place to share our lives with our friends and family. It is also a place to share your views and ideas with people you don’t know. One of the wonderful aspects of sharing on social media is being able to share my faith with others. Whether that be with fellow Christians or non-believers people have some level of interest or intrigue about God, the Bible, and religion in general.
Now when we share our faith there comes a level of conflict and division. Of course non-believers will question me in circles attempting to cause me to slip up in my comments, wanting me to contradict myself and question me if I actually believe in what I believe in. What I find to be most problematic is the conflict among Christians. What is very clear is there is a great amount of tradition and presupposition that comes with what people believe. This is largely due, in my opinion, to biblical illiteracy coupled with failing to practice actual Spiritual Discipline and knowing how to do an actual Bible Study. First off, reading your Bible is not Bible Study. Second, reading your daily devotion or those curriculums called Bible Study is not an actual Bible Study. They can contribute to learning and study but a real Bible Study starts off first by removing our context, our world view, from the text and discovering the world view of the biblical authors. Next, if I approach the Bible to do a Study with my traditions and presuppositions leading the way then I should just forget going to the Bible. I’m not willing to learn, to get out of my comfort zone and to transform my way of thinking about God and His word. My theology is not the standard by which I should study the Bible.
So when I interact with others on social media what is evident is people want to be right… about everything all the time. I was once like this. Now what I find myself doing is encouraging people to look outside the box of their traditions, their theology, and their comfort zone. However, that is not how people take my comments. There are two reasons for this, one is obvious, people want to be right about the topic presented. Second, voice! Yes, they hear people’s comments the way they want to hear things. I connect this with daddy issues. If they had a rough, over commanding father who is always correcting and chastising them then when they hear correction they hear their father’s voice. Let’s face it no one wants to be corrected but they sure do want to correct everyone that doesn’t agree with them. That is why when teaching we must be patient.
When I am faced with dealing with non-believers I am reminded to not throw my pearls before swine (Matthew 7:6). Yet, when dealing with believers I am faced to believe I am dealing with a baby with a power tool. They know just enough Greek to be dangerous. No matter the amount of patient and compassion I present, people have a difficult time seeing comments as compassionate. They want to give correction but not receive correction and that can make growing in our knowledge more difficult. Our comfort zone can and will prohibit growth. A real bear to the bones Bible Study will make a person uncomfortable and if it does that is something important to confront and deal with. The problem isn’t God’s word, it’s our attitude. And when someone who had invested the time to study, and it is apparent they have, our attitude to not wanting to be corrected can inflate the division rather than develop unity.
Possessing the knowledge and sharing that knowledge isn’t being prideful. Not willing to receive the knowledge given is prideful. We are too proud to believe we need correction or encouragement or direction in the truth of God’s word. Scripture encourages us to seek knowledge and wisdom but we must be careful on how we present that knowledge to others. Some people are still on the milk and are not ready for deeper meatier things and they are not willing to face that truth about themselves.
I still have much to learn and I have learned so much more after the fact of my Seminary years. The journey has been wonderful discovering things about God’s word. I am careful with where I get my lessons from but I am willing to venture into areas most Christians will question why I go there. Such things I will examine is material from atheist, communist, evolutionist, and agnostics. Reading their material does not mean I agree with them but I have armed myself with their knowledge and God’s wisdom to confront those ideologies and handle them.