December 22, 2008
Swayed
When I was employed as a bailiff I enjoyed listening to lawyer’s arguments. It was a challenge to weigh the evidence to see how my internal verdict compared to that of the jury. Some attorneys were more polished than others in their delivery, cross examinations and performance in the courtroom. Likewise, some witnesses had better credentials or were more believable than others. I think we encounter similar circumstances as believers. It’s our responsibility to be alert and keep the Word from getting lost in the presentation and delivery of the sermon.
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Gail;
-----I believe the mutuality and participation of the members of His body are over-emphasized in the church today. Individuality has a strong and important place in the effectiveness of His body. It is through the individuality of His believers that He delivers the various gifts and skills for building up and edifying one another. But of importance also is the individuality in which understanding settles into each of us. Paul said we all see dimly as through a mirror. (I Cor 13:12) None of our understandings are going to exactly match those of any other believer. And the relevance of our understandings is not the understanding, it is the one holding it. This is true for the preacher as well as the individual seated in the congregation.
-----So it is important that each believer take his own perceptions, and those he receives from others, ultimately to the Word of God in his own best Beroean effort. Multitudes of ideas and ideologies have come to fill the minds of the church. Most of them have the seeds of truth as well as seeds of inaccuracy, and many are nearly diametrically opposed to each other If they are not seen for what they are, thoughts of brothers and sisters emerging from the unique experiences and circumstances of each, they will lead to a distancing between us and a limitation of healthy fellowship. If taken for what they are, they elevate our understanding of each other and draw us closer to one another.
-----The scriptural search is not to disqualify your brother or his thoughts. At the least, it serves to help understand one another and settle your own conclusions closer to the Word. But even more important, it interferes with the germination and growth of the seeds of inaccuracy. It tethers the final yeah and nay of the acceptance of any thought by any believer to the same identical pole to which all thought in the church should be mutually tethered. That gives us a common beginning for all thought, even though the ends of all thought do not necessarily arrive at a common terminal.
-----Since much Boroean effort has not been given to the ideas circulated within the church over the centuries and today, the church is full of superficial undergrowth. It is massive and confusing. But, for the most part, it is the thought of brothers and sisters. Our intentions for being Boroean and its obligations to the church are not to whack down the underbrush for its inaccuracies. Surely each branch is taken seriously by some brother or sister somewhere. To whack it is to whack her. It is rather to be able to move the undergrowth aside enough to step through it and reach him for who he is, your brother. We are not about ideologies, we are about each other. When we approach theological thickets in this way, the confusion does not dissipate, it simply becomes irrelevant while your sister becomes relevant. And that makes Jesus smile.
Love,
Steve Corey
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