Christians are lazy. There I said it. Most of us know it, few of us want to admit it out loud in church, and none of us really want to believe it's true of ourselves. But for the majority of Christians in America, I'm afraid it may very well be true and it's evidenced by a growing willingness to let others do our thinking for us. It seems more and more I hear things like "You have GOT to read So-n-so's book..." or "What's-his-name prophesied about..." or "Download Who-ya-call-um's sermon from the internet..." or "You should read Scott's blog about..." So, ok so that last one's not so bad but the rest begin to show a trend that is rather disturbing to me personally.
Of course as Christians we want to believe that all other Christians have the same sense of "Truth" that we do and no one has their own "axe to grind." We have this feeling like "But they're Christians too. Surely they won't try to tell us something that's not Biblically true." And "I trust him because I like the way he uses funny anecdotes, slick power point presentations, & never wears a tie." But the fact of the matter is that even in the best of circumstances it is possible that well-intentioned teachers could be teaching "logical Biblical extrapolation" instead of the simplicity of the Word.
Now before you jump to the bottom of this story & begin leaving me a message telling me how wrong I am, I ask you to read on; hear me out. I know that there are extraordinary Bible teachers out there, I've met many of them and my life has been impacted by them in many ways. I'm also sure you have a favorite teacher or two at your church (I know I do) and you may routinely listen to the head of a mega-church somewhere, or well-known radio or television expositor and there is nothing wrong with that. I know that they are not ultimately responsible for our "Christian Cholesterol Consumption" ... we are.
We have such full lives, don't we? We work our jobs, come home and play with our toys, watch our TV, spruce up our MySpaces, Facebooks, and MySpaceBooks (which may include planting our crops, managing our restaurants, and/or attempting to take over the world). It's not easy to make time to do mundane things such as read the Bible, is it? It takes time and effort and must be fit into our schedules around so many other "important" things. And why do it when so many others are obviously so much better at it than we are? Why not let them read the Bible, study what it says then feed it to us in watered down, sugary, milky little 20 minute sound bites? We have to go to church this Sunday anyway, don't we?
Sounds both reasonable and easy, doesn't it? The problem is that in order to sound relevant, or up-to-date it seems we can no longer stick to the "boring" simplicity of the Bible's message: love. We have to expound on the "old" ideas, illustrate with heart-touching stories, and extrapolate new ideas based on what logically makes sense. Like Paul warned Timothy in I Tim 1:4:
"Apparently some people have been introducing fantasy stories and fanciful family trees that digress into silliness instead of pulling the people back into the center, deepening faith and obedience."
-- The Message
Paul wanted Christians to know that "The whole point of what we're urging is simply love-love uncontaminated by self-interest and counterfeit faith, a life open to God" (vs. 5). But how will we know that's what we're getting if we don't know enough of the Word for ourselves? If we must take someone else's word for it?
Since Paul's day we are meant to have teachers, preachers and the rest. They play an important role in our Christian lives and carry a great responsibility to share the Word of God with us and the World. But today is not like Paul's day when "The Word" referred to a scroll of the Torah locked away in a Synagogue to be read out loud once a week. Today, most Christians own at least 1 or more Bibles in a variety of versions and some even have a study reference or two from their Bible college days. I even have "The Message" on my cell phone. So, even though I listen to them, respect them, and even submit to some of them, I have less need of those teachers and preachers than the Christians of Paul's day did. I can, for the most part, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, determine what the Bible is telling me for myself.
So, having said all this you should know that I am in no way trying to encourage you to NOT read Christian books, listen to your favorite Bible teacher, or watch that tele-evangelist you love so much. What I AM encouraging you to do is read the passages of Scripture they quote to you and determine for yourself if it really supports the message they are bringing you.
We had some "Bible teachers" come through our church in years past teaching an all-day seminar on a somewhat... controversial subject. I decided to attend to see what they had to say. The first half of the all-day seminar was amazing! Life changing exposition of scriptures I'd hardly ever read and didn't fully understand. I followed, each verse closely, and eagerly listened to what they had to say and by the end of the morning some of what they said changed the way I pray to this day. Each point was clearly supported by scripture references.
At the mid-day break, they announced the upcoming topic, which was part of the controversial subject matter. I turned to my wife and said "Watch, the Bible references will dry up and they'll begin relying on anecdotal evidence." After about 20 minutes or so of the afternoon session, my wife turned to me with eyes wide and said, "You were right! I never realized..."
So the moral of this Blog is "Listen to teachers you trust but don't just take what they tell you as truth." We must all understand that just because someone says "As it says in Matthew 24..." that doesn't mean that's what it says. You are ultimately responsible for what you believe. Make sure you believe it because that's what it says in the Bible, not just because someone told you.
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