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doctrinal tiers
An Alternative to Doctrinal Tiers

An Alternative to Doctrinal Tiers

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You have probably heard the phrase “doctrinal tiers” at some point if you have been involved at Church for any length of time. Each Church I have attended in both my childhood and adult life have either mentioned doctrinal tiers or explicitly included them on their Church website. Suffice to say, at some point in your life I have no doubt you will encounter doctrinal tiers if you attend a Bible-preaching Church.

But what are “doctrinal tiers?” Is it a helpful concept? Are there any problems with using it? And is there a better way to solve the same problems doctrinal tiers tries to solve? In this post, I want to answer each of these questions and, in particular, propose an alternative to doctrinal tiers which I call “doctrinal uncertainty.”

What are doctrinal tiers?

Doctrinal tiers are a means to categorize different Bible doctrines in order of importance, orthodoxy or necessity of belief. The number of tiers, what each tier contains, and how the tiers are used varies from person to person and from Church to Church. I have seen them formulated as a pyramid and as a target. Essentially, doctrinal tiers is a way to answer the question “what doctrines and biblical interpretations can Christians disagree on and yet still be considered orthodox in their theology?“

Knowing what Biblical doctrines are essential to be considered saved and orthodox and what doctrines are “secondary” is a vital and practical distinction to make. And that is really all the tiers are: a method of categorization. It is a way of saying “this set of biblical beliefs you must hold to in order to be considered Christian, but these other issues, while important, have varying valid, orthodox interpretations.”

Generally “first tier” issues are the foundational doctrines of the gospel:

  • Who Christ is
  • What the nature of Sin is
  • What is the gospel
  • How is one saved

And so on. In contrast, secondary or tertiary doctrines include:

  • Infant baptism vs. believers’ baptism
  • The various eschatological interpretations
  • Views on Church structure

And others. From these lists, it is clear the first set deals with doctrines essential for saving faith while the second list deals with different practical matters of Church life and the interpretation of difficult passages.

Now, the concept of doctrinal tiers is important and helpful to a degree. By knowing where the lines of orthodoxy are drawn, Christians can contend for “essential” issues and agree to disagree on other issues. However, there are several problems with the doctrinal tiers model.

Issues with doctrinal tiers

1. Who decides how many tiers should their be and why?

This is a common problem I see when I read about doctrinal tiers: there is no “standard” for how many tiers one creates. Many Churches I know of have either two or three tiers. If you have two tiers, you divide up doctrines between necessary for orthodoxy and doctrines which Christians can disagree on. The three tier model adds another category, typically on doctrines which affect Church practice.

But hypothetically, one need not stop at two or three tiers. Why not four? Five? Ten? At some point the categories end up losing their usefulness, but I think this highlights an issue with the doctrinal tiers model: there is no limit to which you can categorize doctrines by degree of importance. As soon as you open the door for “ranking” doctrines so to speak, there is no reason you have to stop at two or three levels. This can create a situation where some doctrines are seen as “unimportant” simply because they are in a lower tier. Eschatology is a great example: I have met many people who refuse to study the topic because it is “less important.”

2. Who or what decides what doctrine goes in what tier?

This becomes more of a problem the more tiers you add to your model. Who decides which doctrines are essential and which can be safely disagreed upon? For the most part, Christians agree doctrines related to Christ and the gospel are tier 1. But what about different view on God’s providence in salvation? For some people, this is closer to a tier 1 issue than to other people.

Additionally, many of the tier 2 or 3 doctrines in Scripture have a direct relation to tier 1 doctrines. For example, your understanding of the doctrine of baptism (tier 2+) is not independent from what you believe about the gospel (tier 1). And as mentioned above, your view of God’s sovereignty in salvation (most of the time tier 2+) is integral to what you believe about the work of Christ on the cross (tier 1).

The issue with doctrinal tiers is someone has to sort all this out in a way that is not arbitrary. But if you examine what different Churches put into different tiers, you will find enough variation to call into question the process of how the doctrinal tiers are developed. Not every Church agrees with what doctrines goes into what tiers. How then does one discern what the “right” tier is to put a doctrine into? Without some objective or explicitly Scriptural process to decide what doctrines go into what tier, the decision potentially becomes arbitrary.

3. Is there a strong textual basis for doctrinal tiers?

A final critique of the doctrinal tiers model is the Bible generally presents itself as a unity of truth. What I mean by this is Scripture does not label its own doctrines or order them from “most important” to “least important”. Rather, the Bible is presented as God’s revelation to man as a whole. Moreover, doctrines are developed from synthesizing a wide variety of Biblical literature: poetry, prophecy, narrative, epistles, etc. Very rarely does Scripture explicitly say a certain doctrine takes priority over a different doctrine, such as ecclesiology (doctrine of the Church) being in a “higher tier” than eschatology (doctrine of end times).

There are two potential exceptions to this general rule. The first is the Bible puts an enormous emphasis on God’s plan of salvation through Jesus Christ. All other doctrines throughout the different literature forms of Scripture build and point to this central reality. Therefore, one could say the doctrines of Christ & the gospel are in a tier or a class of their own.

The second exception is those portions of Scripture which seem to elevate certain moral commands over other commands. Examples of these would be when God says “I desire mercy not sacrifice” in the Old Testament or when Jesus says the Pharisees neglected the weightier matters of the law. This seems to imply a priority placed on the moral commands of Scripture over and against the ceremonial commands.

These two exceptions, however, are insufficient textual evidence for the doctrinal tiers system. Doctrinal tiers as a model does far more than merely emphasize the importance of the Gospel and it deals with whole Biblical doctrines rather than Biblical commands. Therefore, it could be said there is little internal evidence that one can form tiers of doctrines from the text of Scripture. In fact, the internal witness of Scripture seems to lead readers more towards trying to unify the doctrines of Scripture rather than categorize them in order of importance.

An alternative: doctrinal uncertainty

So, while doctrinal tiers is not a terrible or useless concept, it has its problems and the question must be asked if there is a better way forward. I think there is: rather than talking about doctrinal tiers, Christians should instead use a concept I will call “doctrinal uncertainty.” What do I mean by “doctrinal uncertainty?” There are certain doctrines in Scripture that are clearer and require less interpretation and synthesis than other doctrines. To use a previously referenced example, building out a doctrine of the Church is easier than synthesizing an entire eschatology.

The difference between doctrinal tiers and doctrinal uncertainty is how you group together different doctrines. With doctrinal tiers, you group doctrines by how important they are or how necessary they are to be considered orthodox. Doctrinal uncertainty, on the other hand, orders doctrines by how clear the Biblical text is on any given doctrine, how much interpretation is needed on the part of the theologian to synthesize a doctrine, and how likely it is for any given two people reading their Bible to come to the same conclusion on a doctrine.

Therefore, a doctrine such as the Gospel is less uncertain because the amount of times Scripture expounds/describes the Gospel and the clarity with which the text speaks about it. By contrast, a doctrine such as “gifts of the Spirit” has more uncertainty because there are less texts which address the topic, some of the texts are open for multiple interpretations, and the wide variety of interpretations which exist on the topic.

The doctrinal uncertainty model orders doctrines not by an arbitrary or semi-arbitrary selection by a pastor or theologian. Rather, it looks at where the doctrine came from, what texts are synthesized to reach a given conclusion, and asks “how clear and certain is this conclusion? or are there other other valid, orthodox interpretations?” Therefore, the question of infant baptism vs. believers baptism is framed not in terms of “this is a doctrine which is not essential to the faith” but “this is a doctrine with which there is uncertainty and therefore there are several valid conclusions.”

What are the sources of doctrinal uncertainty? Or to put it another way, why do different orthodox Christians come to different conclusions with the same text of Scripture? I think there are three main sources of doctrinal uncertainty.

Sources of doctrinal uncertainty

1. Different interpretations of specific texts

Certain texts have ambiguous language which lends itself to two or more valid interpretations. Of course, Scripture must be compared with Scripture to choose a single meaning, but any ambiguity in a text introduces uncertainty to your exposition. A good example of this is the beginning of John 3:16. Many English translations say “For God so loved the world…” Certain translations, however, say “God loved the world in this way.”

Why the different translations? Because the Greek word houtos can either refer to a degree or a means. The first translation “For God so loved the world” would therefore mean “God loved the world to this great degree.” The second translation would mean “The way or means in which God has shown love to the world is…” The point here is not to argue for one of these or the other; you can do that in your own study. The point here is the language used in the verse introduces uncertainty.

Different interpretations of language in certain texts is one source of doctrinal uncertainty. Oftentimes, when part of a doctrine is based primarily on a few verses, this uncertainty can become significant if any of these verses uses ambiguous language. When two different Christians choose two different interpretations of an ambiguous verse, they may come to different conclusions on a doctrine.

2. Different synthesis of the data

This is probably the most common source of doctrinal uncertainty. Maybe all the texts you are studying are crystal clear. However, building a doctrine involved synthesizing those texts into a coherent statement on whatever topic you are trying to study. Sometimes, it is uncertain how certain verses fit together. This uncertainty in synthesis leads to uncertainty in the doctrine itself.

This is one reason why eschatology is possibly the most uncertain of doctrines: Christians continue to disagree on the topic because synthesizing all the passages which discuss eschatology is incredibly difficult and lends itself to several valid interpretations. Additionally, many of the individual texts use ambiguous imagery. The reason Christians should not divide over eschatology isn’t because it is a “second level” doctrine per se. Rather, eschatology has so much uncertainty built into it that dividing over it would be foolish compared with dividing over a clearer doctrine such as Christ and the gospel.

A quick look at the different doctrines many people put into the “second or third tier” of the doctrinal tiers system shows that most of these non-first tier doctrines are the ones which have more uncertainty around their synthesis of the Biblical data. Examples are eschatology, Church government, covenant theology, and so on. They are not second tier in the sense of less important than other doctrines. Rather, they have more uncertainty when interpreting all the Biblical data on the topics.

3. Different historical conclusions of the Church

There are certain doctrines which the Church has generally agreed upon for hundreds of years. These doctrines generally have less uncertainty then other doctrines. For example, the doctrine of the Trinity was expressed so clearly in the early Church, that there has been little deviation in interpretation among Bible believing Christians since then. However, other doctrines have always been interpreted differently throughout the history of the Church. If you are dealing with one of these doctrines, you will find uncertainty among the historical conclusions of the Church.

Many “second tier” doctrines are those which the Church throughout history has disagreed upon. I think one of the reasons God’s sovereignty in salvation (i.e. Calvinism vs. Arminianism) is often delegated as “second tier” has nothing to do with it’s importance. Rather, it is an issue that has long been debated throughout the history of the Church. This historical uncertainty leads causes current Churches to adopt a “don’t divide over this issue” stance.

Conclusion: doctrinal tiers vs doctrinal uncertainty

Both the concept of doctrinal tiers and doctrinal uncertainty are useful for understanding and categorizing the Bible’s teaching. They can, in fact, both be used together; one does not need to exclusively use one or the other. Christians must understand what Scripture teaches clearly about salvation and the Gospel while realizing certain texts are more difficult to interpret. Both doctrinal tiers and uncertainty are methods to get at this distinction.

However, while tiers are helpful, I think doctrinal uncertainty is in many cases a better concept to highlight. Doctrinal uncertainty captures not just the difference in relative importance of doctrine, but also the difference between how clearly Scripture presents a doctrine. Doctrinal uncertainty is inherently more focused on the text of Scripture itself. In this way, doctrinal uncertainty is an attractive alternative to doctrinal tiers when dealing with the question of why Christians disagree on some interpretations of Scripture and which interpretations are within orthodoxy.

This post is one of many tools and thought pieces for helping Pastors and those who teach at Church. Click here for more helpful tools. If you found this post insightful, share on social media below and subscribe. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram to get more content.

book quote of the week
How to Get More Out of Your Pastor’s Sermons

How to Get More Out of Your Pastor’s Sermons

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I always enjoy reading and recommending books on how to become a better Church member. There are many books on becoming a better preacher, counselor, or pastor but not as many focused on the average Church attender. Many believers don’t fully understand what their role is as a normal Church member. One outworking of this uncertainty is how people respond to their Pastor’s sermon. A question commonly asked is how to get more out of your pastor’s sermons?

One of my favorite books to recommend for instructing normal Church members is “Duties of Christian Fellowship” by John Owen. It is short, accessible, and intensely practical. If you have not read this book, I recommend you do so and then purchase a few dozen to give out at your Church. It truly is gold and I cannot possibly recommend it enough. Drop whatever you are currently reading and get through this book first; it is that important.

The first section of the book deals with the question of how to get more out of your pastor’s sermons. The quote below is worthy of consideration, particularly the last sentence.

The failure to consider these principles is the cause of all the negligence, carelessness, laziness, and indiscipline while hearing the world, which has taken hold of so many these days. Only a respect for the truth and authority of God in the preaching of his word will bring men to hear it soberly and profitably. It is also the case that men grow tired of hearing the word only after they have grown tired of putting it into practice.

“Duties of Christian Fellowship” by John Owen, emphasis added

What the quote means

“Duties of Christian Fellowship” is organized around “rules” for Church members. The first 7 deal with how Church members should interact with the Pastor and the second set of 15 focuses on how Church members should interact with each other. The quote given above comes after the very first rule Owen gives: Christians should regularly attend a local Church to listen to preaching and to partake in the ordinances.

But as in every era of Church history, not every person puts a high emphasis on the public preaching of God’s word. Owen’s answer is given in the quote: most of the time believers tire of hearing the word preached because they have long since stopped trying to apply the sermons they here. In other words:

If you fail to correct your life based on the sermons you hear, you will eventually become a passive listener.

What Owen does here is shift the focus of the question “how can you get more from your pastor’s sermons” from the pastor to the Church member in the pew. If you aren’t “getting anything” from the faithful preaching of God’s word, the first problem to examine is in the mirror, not the Pastor. What Owen writes is right in line with the first chapter of James:

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

James 1:22-25 ESV, emphasis added

Why it is important

It is easy to approach Sunday morning as a consumer rather than as a worshiper. This means going to Church thinking to get some type of “product” whether that is a “good sermon” or “authentic worship”. If you are not pleased with what you get, then the consumer-mindset blames the Pastor or the worship leader or someone else. And there is no aspect of corporate worship in which it is easier to think as a consumer than preaching.

In today’s culture, congregants can often attend Church wanting entertainment, a “positive, inspiring message”, or a practical self-help type talk. When you come to service with any of these expectations and those expectations are not met, you naturally blame the Pastor. “That sermon wasn’t his best,” you might say or “It was alright, but I wish it was more relevant or practical.” Worst of all, you can give the Sunday sermon the epitaph of “I just didn’t get much out of it.”

What I love about this Owen quote is it directly challenges anyone who listens to a sermon as a consumer. There are only two questions for you to ask after listening to your Pastor’s sermon:

  1. Did the sermon faithfully and clearly explain the truth of Scripture as God has communicated it?
  2. If so, how does my life need to change based on what God has communicated to me through the pastor?

Owen says to the person who “didn’t get much out” of their Pastor’s sermon that the problem is most likely a passive, rather than an active mindset. A believer with an active mindset goes to Church to hear the Word preached so their lives can be confronted and conformed to Scripture. A passive mindset leads to a “eh, I’ll take it or leave it” response to preaching.

Your heart as you drive to Church on Sunday should be brimming with anticipation not because you expect some entertainment or life-changing emotional moment. Rather, you should be excited that God is going to teach you through your Pastor so that your life can change to better reflect Christ in the coming week.

Takeaways

1. Spend more time reflecting on the sermon than on critiquing it

If you want to get more out of your Pastor’s sermon, step one is humility: your job is not to be the resident “sermon reviewer”. Rather, your job is the mull over the Pastor’s exposition in your mind until you are gripped by the truth of the text. To get really practical, watch closely how you talk to other people about your Pastor’s sermon. If you find yourself saying things along the lines of “this is how well I think my Pastor preached” instead of “this is what God taught me through the Pastor”, you might be taking on the role of sermon critic.

Focus your energy on reflection rather than critique and you will begin to get more out of your Pastor’s sermons.

2. Set aside times during the week to remind yourself of what your Pastor preached on Sunday

One of the reasons I have spent time designing tools to help you reflect on your Pastor’s sermon is most of the time you forget what last Sunday’s sermon was about by the time you get to the next week. Humans are forgetful, especially when we don’t use the information we hear. So if you want to better remember what your Pastor preached on, start building in times throughout the week where you revisit the sermon text, your sermon notes, or even listen to the sermon itself a second time.

This is also a great action to take with others. If your Church has a small group, that is a great context to reflect on the previous Sunday’s sermon. Perhaps you meet up informally with Church members during the week. That is also a great time to reflect as a group on what God is teaching you corporately.

3. Prayerfully consider what God wants you to start doing, stop doing, or continue doing based on your Sunday sermon

There are dozens of sermon application questions out there to help you practically live out the truths you hear. But if you want three simple and memorable questions to ask after a sermon, look no further:

  • What do I need to start doing in light of the sermon?
  • What do I need to stop doing in light of the sermon?
  • What things should I continue to do in light of the sermon?

I love this list because it is so easy to remember and gets at three aspects of God’s word: it instructs us what we should do, it corrects our behavior when it is sinful, and it encourages us to persevere in doing what is right. By thinking in terms of “start, stop, continue”, you can figure out what God’s word is communicating to you each week. Like I discussed above, both the Epistle to James and John Owen make it clear if you stop trying to apply God’s word, you are going to forget what you heard or think there was “nothing in it for me”.

If you want to get more out of your Pastor’s sermons, come to your Sunday service ready for your life to change.

Don’t get tired of hearing sermons every week: even on your Pastor’s worst Sunday preaching there is some truth God is sovereignly ordaining you to hear. Let us be doers of the Word when we hear it for there is no greater stewardship then obediently responding to God’s glorious Word.

Click here to read previous “Book Quote of the Week” posts. If you found this post encouraging and insightful, please share on social media below and subscribe below. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram to keep up with the most recent posts.
7 Discipleship Principles from Jesus

7 Discipleship Principles from Jesus

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Once Jesus was resurrected, He commanded His disciples to “go and make disciples of all nations.” But what does that discipleship look like? How does one go about obeying this command practically? How would the original apostles have gone about doing this? I think the answer is clear: Jesus had spent the past several years discipling the apostles, setting an example for how discipleship is to be done. In short, the apostles would have learned their discipleship principles from Jesus. And so should you.

In this post, I want to extract practical discipleship principles from Jesus by looking at how He behaved towards His disciples. This post will look at the Gospel of Matthew in particular. There are many different ideas and methods put forward today for how to disciple someone. But the most important and foundational principles are laid down by Jesus in the Gospels. You must internalize and meditate on how Jesus interacted with His disciples in order to be effective at discipling others in obedience to the Great Commission.

1. You must initiate the discipling relationship

While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he (Jesus) saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him.

Matthew 4:18-20 ESV, emphasis added

It goes without saying, but the 12 apostles didn’t choose themselves to become Jesus disciples. Jesus initiated the relationship. Jesus called the 12 from their different areas of life and commanded them to follow Him. Furthermore, in Matthew 4 Jesus states His goal with discipling Peter and Andrew: He will make these brothers fishers of men.

“Fishers of men” is an apt metaphor for discipleship. No one goes fishing by sitting at home and waiting for the fish to swim up on land and come to them. Fishing means going out and catching the fish yourself. If you want to disciple other people, you are going to have to initiate the relationship. If you sit around waiting to be swarmed by individuals dying to glean wisdom from you, you will be waiting a long time.

Fishing for men means taking responsibility to go out and find people to disciple.

Now, unlike Jesus who has all authority, not everyone you approach with immediately follow you as Peter and Andrew did Jesus. But this discipleship principle from Jesus still holds: if you want to have a discipling relationship with someone, you are going to have to take the first steps.

2. Discipleship involves both direct teaching and setting an example with your lifestyle

The 12 apostles were around Jesus for the length of His earthly ministry. During that time, Jesus both taught the disciples directly, and set an example by His conduct. The Gospel of Matthew contains several sections recording the teaching of Jesus, including the famous section “The Sermon on the Mount.” Beyond this formal teaching, the 12 apostles received teaching not given broadly, such as Jesus interpreting parables for them.

But it would be foolish to limit Jesus’ discipleship of the apostles to His teaching ministry. The apostles also:

  • Witnessed Jesus’ miracles
  • Watched Him respond to the Pharisees
  • Listened as He answered questions from the crowd with wisdom

And more. Because the apostles were around Jesus constantly, they had the unique position to both hear what Jesus said and observe how Jesus acted. And this “hearing and seeing” is crucial to any discipling relationship. Certainly a good amount of time discipling others will involve teaching. But just as important is how you yourself behave and conduct yourself.

If you disciple someone, you are not only saying “listen to me.” You are also saying “imitate me as I imitate Christ.”

Just like Jesus, you need to model in practice what you teach in precept. You oftentimes have more opportunities to display godly character in action than you do communicating godly characteristics in word.

3. Discipleship is honest about the joy of following Christ and the cost of following Christ

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Matthew 11:28-30 ESV, emphasis added

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Matthew 16:24-25 ESV, emphasis added

Jesus did not sugarcoat the cost of following Him. Neither did He undersell the peace and joy He provides. Discipling involves teaching this tension. Following Jesus will lead to suffering and difficulty in this world, but Jesus is worth it. If you lose either part of this tension, you will end up obscuring the Bible’s teaching.

A major part of discipling others is displaying for them the worth and value of Jesus. Since the Gospel is at the heart of the Christian faith, you always return to it. You show how it is Jesus and Jesus alone who gives rest for people’s souls. And this rest was only made possible by His sacrifice.

But at the same time, you don’t ever want to make Jesus sound like a “ticket to heaven” or a means to material gain or someone who demands nothing of His followers. Just as Jesus called His disciples to self denial and dying to themselves, so to you will make it clear to all you are discipling that following Jesus requires leaving behind much of what people hold onto in their flesh.

4. You cannot disciple everyone at the same level

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction.

And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.

Matthew 5:1, 10:1, 17:1 ESV, emphasis added

Jesus did not disciple every single person He came in contact with. Even amongst the 12 apostles, He chose three to disciple more intimately. Jesus on several occasions brought only Peter, James, and John with Him to witness key moments in His ministry. You can see these three “levels of discipleship” in the verses above:

  • Jesus had a large crowd of disciples following Him who He taught formally
  • The 12 apostles were specifically selected by Jesus to minister alongside Him
  • Of those 12 apostles, Jesus chose three in particular to devote the most of His time

What is point here? You cannot disciple every single person at the same level. If you have been given an opportunity to teach formally at Church, that is a form of discipleship. Whether a pastor or a teacher, you disciple the congregation by expounding the word to them. But you cannot possibly have the entire congregation over your house every week. You will have to select a subset of the congregation to prioritize when doing that kind of discipling.

But even within that subset that you prioritize, you cannot go deep with every single person. You cannot live out all aspects of a discipling relationship with that entire group of believers. Within the subset of the congregation you devote your time to, there might be a handful that you really disciple at a deep level. And that is okay.

Don’t feel like you have to disciple every person you meet at the same level of depth in order to fulfill Jesus’ command.

There is a breadth to discipleship to be sure, but there is also a depth of getting to really know a few Christians at the level where you feel comfortable sharing your struggles against sins, your doubts, your spiritual victories. Jesus discipled many people during His ministry, but not all at the same level. We would do well to take this lesson to heart when we strategically plan who to disciple.

5. Discipling others involves both asking questions and answering questions

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Matthew 16:13-16 ESV, emphasis added

As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

Matthew 24:3 ESV, emphasis added

This discipleship principle from Jesus you see throughout the gospels. Jesus is an expert question-asker. His questions get right to the heart of whatever issue or whatever person He is dealing with. Questions are tools to make the other person think and to confront someone else’s thinking. Matthew 16 gives a great example: Jesus asks a general question to frame the discussion and then asks His disciples directly “what do you think?”

If you want to disciple someone else, you will have to become good at asking questions.

It is always tempting to simply tell someone else what they should think. But the goal of asking questions is to lead the other person to see the conclusion for themselves. It takes a lot of practice but no tool is more useful in discipleship, besides prayer and Scripture, than asking good questions.

Of course, the opposite is also true: you will have to answer questions if you disciple others. This leads to another key principle: discipleship is not one-sided. You don’t get to ask all the questions; sometimes you will have to answer hard questions yourself. In Matthew 24, Jesus is asked about the end of the age and ends up teaching for some time before finally answering the question directly. Since you don’t have all knowledge like Jesus, you will often have to consult Scripture yourself as you are asked tough questions from those you are discipling.

6. Discipleship requires patient perseverance

Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Matthew 16:16-17, 22-23 ESV, emphasis added

I love the juxtaposition of these verses in Matthew 16. In verses 16-17, Jesus blesses Peter because of His confession. Soon after, Jesus rebukes Peter for adopting a satanic mindset with regards to Jesus death and resurrection. Why would Peter rebuke Jesus in the latter verse when he just confessed Jesus was the Son of God in the former verse? These verses illustrate a vital reality to keep in your mind: discipleship involves both encouraging and discouraging moments.

Think of your own life: is spiritual growth for you a never ending ascent into further and further godliness? Or is it more of a “one step forward, two steps back” kind of a process? Discipleship aims at teaching others to “observe all that Christ has commanded” but when you invest your time and life into others you will be hurt and disappointed often. One moment you will feel encouraged by the other person’s spiritual growth only to weep when you hear about a besetting sin this other person fell into.

What will you do when you get the discouraging news? Give up? Resign yourself to the fact that “it must not be working?” If you learn your discipleship principles from Jesus, you will take none of these options. Jesus persevered with Peter, despite Peter’s frequent mistakes, sins, and setbacks. Discipleship takes perseverance and patience. There is no other way. People don’t change overnight and sanctification is a life-long process. Don’t be discouraged when there are setbacks and issues to deal with. Instead, these setbacks are reminders to persevere in discipling since your work is never done “until Christ is formed” in the other person.

7. Discipleship requires involving someone in your life for a period of time

Stepping back for a moment, you realize that Jesus only had a handful of years to disciple the apostles. During that time, Jesus called them, the apostles went everywhere with Jesus, and Jesus taught them. But that time of walking with Jesus ended. It didn’t end Jesus’ death since Christ conquered death. Rather, Jesus sent out His disciples after His resurrection and then ascended into heaven.

The takeaway here is if you want to disciple other people, you are going to have to involve them in your life. Discipleship is not the occasional coffee shop meet up to catch up on life. Discipling also means inviting people to your home, being willing to talk when it is inconvenient, chatting as you do dishes, coordinating your schedules so you can frequently meet, including your family in discipling interactions, and a host of other things.

Discipleship is less about scheduled occasional meet-ups and more about constant continued closeness between believers as they live their lives week by week.

But don’t think every discipling relationship is a life-long commitment. People move away. Life-circumstances change. There is change and loss. A brother who discipled me in high school I stay in contact with, but I see him only occasionally. So he cannot be my primary means of being discipled. The brother who discipled me in college moved away a year or so ago. When he visits, we talk and go deep. But I need to be discipled by someone physically close to me, someone who can be involved in my life and I in his.

Enter each discipling relationship with a “season” mindset. What I mean by this is don’t assume you have an infinite amount of time to build up this person. You don’t. Instead, start the relationship with the mindset of “in this season of life, God wants me to invest in this person.” Then embrace the season, apply these discipleship principles from Jesus, and when that season ends, find the next person God would have you disciple.

Conclusion: Imitate Jesus, the ultimate disciple-maker

There is much more to say about discipleship and how to go about discipling others. In fact, future posts will look at what other Scripture teaches on the subject. But these 7 discipleship principles from Jesus in Matthew are a helpful and necessary starting point when thinking about how best to obey the Great Commission.

Don’t feel discouraged if you don’t live up to Jesus’ example. Remember: Jesus in giving the Great Commission also promised to be with His Church as they endeavored to obey it. Trust in Jesus, the ultimate disciple-maker, and rely on His strength as you go out and teach those around you what it means to live as a Christian.

This post is part of an ongoing series called “Becoming a Discipling Christian.” Read previous posts here. If you benefited from this post, share and subscribe below. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram for more content.
3 Common Barriers to Discipleship

3 Common Barriers to Discipleship

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In a previous post, I laid out the theological foundation for discipleship. Christians are commanded by the resurrected Christ to make disciples of all nations for the glory of God the Father. Jesus not only commands this: He also is with His Church as they perform this task. The question is why is discipleship not always a primary focus among Christians and in Churches? I think there are 3 common barriers to discipleship that keep believers from living in obedience to Christ’s command.

These barriers to discipleship are not legitimate excuses for disobedience. Rather, they are subtle lies you and I can allow ourselves to believe that keep us from prioritizing discipleship. In this post, I want to go through each of these common barriers to discipleship and show how Scripture addresses them. You will never become a discipling Christian if you don’t fight these three lies which pull you away from prioritizing pouring your life out for the spiritual benefit of others.

“I am too busy for discipleship”

Is any excuse more common in our modern world that “I’m too busy?” I hear the excuse almost daily and, if I’m honest, I hear the phrase come out of my mouth more often than I care to count. “I’m too busy” is our society’s magic bullet for excusing ourselves from something. It is another way of saying “I am not going to do that or make time for it.” And this “I’m too busy” excuse is used to dodge the command to make disciples both within and without the Church.

The barrier of “I’m too busy for discipleship” is insufficient for a number of reasons. The first of which I already wrote about in a previous post: the command is given by the authority of Christ.

No Christian should be too busy for obedience.

Part of becoming conformed to the image of Christ is conforming your life to Scripture. That means, among other things, you let the Bible set your life’s priorities. If you feel too busy for discipling others, then the first step is to remind yourself that Jesus sets your schedule, not you.

Secondly, I have been discipled by half a dozen men throughout the course of my life and every single one of them had a busy schedule. Every single one of them could have made the excuse “I am too busy for discipleship.” They had jobs, family responsibilities, were involved at Church, had aging parents, and a host of other things I probably didn’t know about. But the reality is you can have a lot of responsibility and still make time for discipleship. It takes effort, but God will give you grace as you seek to obey His word.

Finally, God has much to say about how His people use their time. Consider the following verses:

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.

..you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

Colossians 4:5, James 4:14, 17 ESV

Your time is a gift from God. Today is the time God has given you to live in obedience to His will and His commission to make disciples. If you have read this post or you have read Matthew 28, you know that discipling is the right thing to do. Therefore, to say you are too busy for discipling other Christians is sin per James 4:17. What is the solution? Ask the Lord’s forgiveness and start reworking your schedule so that you aren’t “too busy” for pouring your life into others.

“Discipleship doesn’t really work”

Rarely will you hear a Christian say “discipleship doesn’t really work” outright. Instead, it is an implicit assessment you and I can easily make each week. Discipling can be draining, time consuming, and seemingly fruitless. Why? Because you are spending time investing in sinful people. When discipling gets tough, it can become easy to think “well, this is a waste of time! There has got to be more effective and easy ways to serve Christ!”

You and I live in a “quick and easy”, “non-committal” culture. If you don’t like your job, you switch as soon as possible. Marriage problems? Get a divorce and find someone who can make you really happy. Is your food taking too long to cook? Just run out and get fast-food. This is what the culture values and if you are not careful, you can start wishing God’s plan included quick, easy, low commitment, low suffering obedience.

But discipleship is none of those things. Discipling takes endurance, patience, perseverance, love, and a host of other virtues. It involves sacrifice, suffering, and will sanctify you as much as you will help others. God’s plan for the nations involves making disciples and God’s plan will succeed. You must remind yourself that it doesn’t matter if you discipling others is “working” from your perspective or if it is “effective”. All that matters is you are being obedient to God’s plan.

When you are tempted to think God might have gotten it wrong by prioritizing discipleship, remind yourself of Isaiah 55:8-9.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

    so are my ways higher than your ways

    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8-9 ESV

Discipling takes faith: faith that God’s means by which people are brought into the Church and built up in Christ are the best means. Faith that God’s plans, God’s methods work even if you don’t fully understand them. If you find yourself doubting if discipleship “works” or wondering if it is as important as people make it out to be, the problem is most likely a lack of faith in God to accomplish what He promises in His word.

You must walk by faith not by sight if you commit to disciple others.

“I am not equipped for discipleship”

Maybe you are trying to make time for discipleship and maybe you do truly believe it is integral to God’s plan for your life. I think the most common barrier to discipleship is even simpler than these: you don’t feel equipped to disciple someone else. You don’t see yourself as the Christian who knows the most, who has the most spiritual experience, who is the wisest or as godly as other believers around you. Who are you to try to disciple a younger believer? Won’t you do more harm than good?

As I have repeated in this post, discipling others is a matter of obedience.

When you pour into others for their spiritual good, you are working in accordance with God’s plan for the world.

The question you have to ask yourself is: will God abandon you to obedience alone? Does God call you to do something that He will not equip you to do? The answer is no, of course. God, through the Holy Spirit, provides you with everything you need to disciple others.

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence

2 Peter 1:3, ESV emphasis added

You might not feel qualified or equipped. But Scripture says God has given you what you need to obey Him. More than that, if you are a Christian you have the Holy Spirit dwelling within you giving you the power to obey. If you want to become a discipling Christian, you are going to have to fight feelings of inadequacy with the truth of Scripture.

Remember also the promise of Jesus in Matthew 28: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Don’t focus on yourself and the ways you feel ill-equipped to disciple others. Look instead to Jesus and who He is. Is Jesus equipped to disciple others? Does He have all knowledge and wisdom? Then remind yourself that this same Jesus is with you as you seek to pour into others. He will give you what you need.

Conclusion: There are no barriers to discipleship

These 3 common barriers to discipleship can keep you from the joy and satisfaction of living in obedience to Jesus’ plan for your life. Discipling others is not easy, it takes a lot of your time, and requires you to rely on the Lord moment by moment. But that is the point. God calls you to toil for other people’s spiritual good because it also sanctifies you.

When Jesus was teaching His disciples, they didn’t always understand. Reading the Gospels, sometimes it seems like Peter takes one step forward and then three steps back spiritually. But Jesus calls you to follow in His footsteps by patiently and lovingly laboring and teaching other people God’s truth. You aren’t doing it alone: God is empowering you and equipping you every step of the way. None of these barriers to discipleship should keep you from living out God’s will.

Click here to view previous posts in the series “Becoming a Discipling Christian.” If you found this post helpful, share and subscribe below. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram for more content.
Foundations of Discipleship

Foundations of Discipleship

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Discipleship isn’t complicated, but it can be difficult. If you ask a believer who knows the Bible and seeks to live it out, I am confident they will tell you how important discipleship is. But how, in your local Church week after week, do ordinary Church members prioritize discipleship? And how do you become a “discipling Christian?”

As I said, discipleship can be difficult. Sometimes, it is good to go back to the foundational text for discipleship: Matthew 28. It is here you can see the theological foundations of discipleship and can clarify your thinking about what discipleship is, and what it isn’t. I want to give you some brief observations on Matthew 28 before giving you three foundations of discipleship from the text.

Matthew 28

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:18-20, ESV emphasis added

Let me make a few brief observations before we go deeper into what this text is saying. The first is simply this: everything Jesus says in these few verses is based on Him having all authority. All authority in heaven and on earth. There is no authority He is lacking. So, this last command, to make disciples, is based on Him having all authority.

This isn’t like your close friend suggesting you change jobs or move locations. This is the risen Christ who has more power than every human ruler combined. And this Jesus is telling His disciples what they are to do next. This command based on all authority in the entire universe is vitally important and not given lightly.

This leads to the next observation: Jesus uses all His authority specifically to tell His disciples to go and make disciples. Is that strange to you? If you had “all authority in heaven and earth,” would that be your command? To make disciples? I think most people today would use such authority to say “go therefore and solve all the world’s problems” or “go therefore and bring about justice and world peace” or “go and change the world.” But Jesus doesn’t say any of that.

Jesus does not command His disciples to solve all the worlds problems. But He also doesn’t tell His disciples to merely stay together as a group. Jesus doesn’t say “stay therefore together as one group and enjoy the fellowship and forgiveness I have bought.” Instead, He sends His followers on a mission. In order to see the greatness of the great commission, you need to think through all the things Jesus could have said, but didn’t.

So what does Jesus command? He tells his disciples to make disciples. Then Jesus clarifies specifically what this looks like: baptizing them and teaching them to obey all His words. An article in this months Tabletalk magazine describes this as “bringing them in and building them up.” That’s good. Baptism brings new believers into the Church and after that begins the lifelong process of building them up in Christ-likeness. This latter “building up” is what the Church often defines as “discipleship.”

Theological Foundations of Discipleship

Now that you have seen a couple brief textual observations from Matthew 28, I want to give three big picture theological foundations of discipleship. These three truths are crucial for you to understand if you want to become a discipling Christian. Unsurprisingly, each of these truths are centered around Jesus and God’s glory. If you don’t start with Christ and God’s glory, you will fail to understand discipleship properly and will likely become “burnt out” as you try to disciple others.

Foundation 1: Jesus is raised from dead and has all authority

As I mentioned before, Jesus commands His disciples to go and make disciples based on complete and total authority. During His time of earthly ministry, Jesus was a “man of sorrows” and had “emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant.” But this command for the evangelism and discipleship of all nations comes after Christ has defeated death. After He has paid for the sins of His people. Jesus was the suffering servant; now He is the glorious, resurrected King.

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:9-11, ESV emphasis added

Certainly the fullness of Christ’s glory will be revealed when He returns. But now, you and I live after His resurrection. This means Jesus already has all authority; He is Lord of history and Lord of the nations. But not only does Jesus have authority after the resurrection, He also has a people, His bride: the Church.

The Church’s desire is to obey Christ, their glorious resurrected King. So, when Jesus says “go therefore and make disciples,” it is not a painful duty for the Church to perform. It should be every Christian’s delight to obey the commands of their King. Jesus has proven His love and mercy towards you by dying in your place and defeating death on your behalf.

The question is “what then should I do?” If you are saved and believe in the gospel, Matthew 28 answers that question:

No matter where you go or what you do, your mission is to make disciples of all nations.

There are many avenues to obey this command. But the key is not to wait for a “perfect situation” (see my book quote of the week for this Monday). Obey where you are today. You don’t have all authority over your life. Jesus does. And He tells you “make disciples.”

You want to become a discipling Christian? Remember is it Jesus who has authority over your life and He commands you to make disciples.

Foundation 2: Jesus is always with His people

What is amazing about Matthew 28 is Jesus doesn’t just say “go make disciples”; He also says He will be with His Church as they go make disciples. And there isn’t an expiration date for this promise: Jesus says He will be with His disciples always, even to the end of the age.

How can Jesus say this when He is about to ascend back to heaven? If you have read through the gospels you know the answer: Jesus is not going to leave His disciples orphans. Once Jesus ascends, the Holy Spirit descends on the Church. If you read through the book of Acts, you see that the growth of the early Church was a Spirit-empowered growth.

On your own, you cannot make disciples of all nations. But Jesus never asks you to do it alone.

Don’t expect discipleship to be easy. As you seek to obey Jesus command, you will face suffering, persecution, road blocks, and every manner of difficulty. But none of these should ever hinder you as you obey Jesus commands. Why? Because unlike world rulers who issue laws from a far distance, Jesus doesn’t just issue commands. He comes alongside His people to help them accomplish His commands.

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say,“The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”

Hebrews 13:5-6, ESV emphasis added

Notice the logic of Hebrews 13: Christ will never leave or forsake the believer. He is the Christian’s sovereign, all-powerful helper. So, there is nothing to fear; nothing another human can do to you will stop God’s plan. If you are going to commit your life to obeying your King’s command in Matthew 28, you are going to need to rely on Christ and His strength. You will need to daily draw comfort from the truth that even if everyone else in the world forsakes you, Christ never will.

There is no one who can ultimately harm you when Jesus is your ever-present, ever-faithful helper.

You want to become a discipling Christian? Remember that Jesus is the source of your comfort and strength. There is no obstacle to your obedience which is too great.

Foundation 3: Discipleship is part of God’s plan for the world

The final foundation of discipleship I want to point out is discipleship is a vital component to God’s overarching plan for the world. From Genesis to Revelation, God’s goal is to gloryfy Himself among all people. It is through God getting the glory that blessing comes to us who believe. This plan was not just for one people group; from the very beginning God was going to bless the nations and save true worshipers from the nations.

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Genesis 12:1-13, ESV emphasis added

All the ends of the earth shall remember

    and turn to the Lord,

and all the families of the nations

    shall worship before you.

Psalm 22:27, ESV emphasis added

It shall come to pass in the latter days

    that the mountain of the house of the Lord

shall be established as the highest of the mountains,

    and shall be lifted up above the hills;

and all the nations shall flow to it,

and many peoples shall come, and say:

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,

    to the house of the God of Jacob,

that he may teach us his ways

    and that we may walk in his paths.”

Isaiah 2:2b-3b, ESV emphasis added

If you want even more verses, read them here. It is overwhelming the amount of times God clarifies in Scripture His end goal is His glory among all nations. That is where the whole story of Scripture ends:

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, f“Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Revelation 7:9-10, ESV emphasis added

If your heart is not excited by these passages, I recommend you study more deeply Biblical Theology. God’s plan is astounding, rich, and almost too good to be true. If you are not gripped by God’s plan for the world, you will not prioritize discipleship nor be effective in it. In order to do something well, you must have a clear goal in mine.

The clear goal of discipleship is God’s glory among the nations.

This makes it a joy to labor to bring people into the Church and then labor to build them up in obedience to Christ. The actual day-to-day tasks of discipleship might be wearisome. But if you keep in your mind that the goal of what you are doing is so God can get glory, worship and honor, you won’t be shaken by the ups and downs along the way. Biblical discipleship aims at God’s glory among all nations. Not moral improvement. Not “practical advice.” Your focus as you go about discipling should be on eternity, when the redeemed Church of God worships Him forever.

You want to become a discipling Christian? Spend your life not on your own plans and agenda, but labor for God’s glory among all people. Only that agenda is worth your greatest effort.

Conclusion

Discipling others may be the most important thing you ever do with your life. 100 years from now, almost no one will remember what you did in your life. Even your own great-great grandchildren likely won’t remember as much as your name. In light of death and the brevity of life, what can you do that really matters? If you are a Christian, you have the answer: go and make disciples of all nations.

Jesus has all authority and commands you to do this. He also presently empowers you to live in obedience to this command. And you know your time is not wasted, because making disciples is part of God’s plan for the universe. If you want to live for God’s glory, if you want to live in obedience to Christ, if you want your life to “count”, you are going to have to prioritize discipleship. A discipling life is a life worth living.

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under-discussed aspects of the Christian life
4 Under-discussed Aspects of the Christian Life

4 Under-discussed Aspects of the Christian Life

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Growing up, I expected the older I got, the less advice I would need. How wrong I was. I find myself constantly trying to glean as much practical wisdom from other believers as I possibly can. Books, podcasts, and online sermons are all helpful, but there is nothing like talking with a fellow Christian about how to live out your faith in Christ. With that said, I would say there are 4 under-discussed aspects of the Christian life. Aspects which I always crave more wisdom on than I can get.

Why do I call them under-discussed? These are topics which almost every Christian has to think and live through each week. No matter how different an individual week is, most Christians need to go to work, have to figure out how much or little to open up their home, interact with other people (both believers and non-believers), and function within a family unit.

Even though these are weekly contexts in which Christians live, I find they are not discussed enough. These topics are not taught on or even talked about in proportion with the amount of time Christians spend living within these contexts. In this post, I want to introduce the four under-discussed aspects of the Christian life I have in mind.

The Christian at Work

This might be the single most under-discussed area Christians need wisdom and teaching on. There are dozens of Christian books on how to study the Bible better and how to function within the local Church. And that’s great; all those books are good and necessary and beneficial. However, most of my week is not spent within the local Church. It normally isn’t even spent in front of a Bible. Most of my week is spent pouring myself into some sort of vocation.

Therefore, most of my practical questions I need answered, most of the interactions I need prayer for, and the context where I am called to glorify God most frequently is at work. In a secular office with a mix of believers, professing believers, and non-believers. You would think there would be more books on what the Bible says about work than there are.

Anyone who has read Scripture through knows God cares greatly about work: how you do work, why you do work, principles for effective labor. Your vocation is a fundamental part of who God has called you to be. As such, there is a lot of daily wisdom needed on how to work in a God-glorifying way.

Biblical teaching on work is especially important because of the temptations which often accompany it. You can idolize work, find your identity in it, work dishonestly, or use your vocation as a way to pursue worldly riches.

Christians everywhere need sound, Biblical teaching to clarify how to do their 9 to 5 to the glory of God and for the fame of Christ.

Pretty much every week I wish I had more Biblical wisdom for interacting at work. I don’t think I’m the only one.

Hospitality

Another task everyone does each week is scheduling. What the family is going to do, what events they are going to attend, and what things will they say “no” to. What normal Christian families do, don’t do, or plan to do each week ties into this idea of hospitality. I agree with Rosaria Butterfield’s emphasis on the importance of ordinary hospitality. But it is another under-discussed aspect of the Christian life where wisdom is needed.

When was the last time you were directly discipled on how to practice hospitality? In my experience, there are Christians who prioritize opening up their homes each week and who know generally what to do, while other Christians struggle with leaving their week and door open for others. Regardless of which camp you fall into, more Biblically informed wisdom and teaching would surely help local congregations get a better grasp on hospitality.

Building Meaningful Relationships

I have written before that I think most everyone is at least a little bit lonely. Humans crave connection. Beyond that, each person interacts with dozens of people each week whether you want connection or not. How should Christians interact with others? How do you cultivate meaningful relationships? There are so many surface level conversations and “friendships”, but how do you get to a deeper place of knowing the other person?

The Bible has much to say about how you are to interact with others, both within the Church and outside the Church. Yet, even though this is a vital topic on most people’s minds and the Bible has much to say on the issue, I have heard very few direct teachings on how Christians build meaningful relationships. Maybe once in a while a topical series on evangelism or discipleship pops up. But because interactions and relationships with other people are a daily reality for every Christian, I would argue there needs to be more discussion around how the Bible guides our relationships with others.

Family Worship

I have read many articles and posts on the importance of family worship. But often after reading those articles, I am left with a pervasive “that is great, but how do I do it?” Christians understand the importance of the family unit. Yet, I fear too little thought is given on equipping each family unit to function to God’s glory throughout the week.

There are plenty of Children’s ministries, Vacation Bible Schools, and other “Church family events” around, but I have yet to hear a formal walk through of what the Scripture teaches on family worship. I have seen examples of family worship done well, but as with hospitality, I generally see one group of believers who do family worship well and another group who does not prioritize family worship. I wonder if this is because they were not taught clearly what family worship is and how to do it well.

Implications

1. Pastors, please be aware of these weekly realities in your congregation

If you are a Pastor, Elder, or teach regularly at your Church, please keep these 4 under-discussed aspects of the Christian life in your mind as you prepare your sermon. Almost every believer in your body will have questions, struggles, or need wisdom in at least one of these areas. As much as your congregation cares about your subtle knowledge of the Greek, they are likely more concerned with how to honor God with their work this next week. Or when to schedule dinner with their neighbors. Or how to structure family worship each evening.

Teachers at Church have the high privilege of bringing the Word of God to bear on the most mundane aspects of daily life.

2. Discuss these topics with other believers

One of my favorite Proverbs is “there is safety in a multitude of counselors.” I guarantee other believers around you have thought about and wrestled with these four areas of day-to-day life. Most of the time, you won’t find whole books written on these topics or hear whole sermons preached on them. But you can grow in applying Biblical wisdom to these four areas by finding other Christians who are already doing it.

For example, some of the best, most insightful “teachings” I have had on Christianity and vocation have not come from a book or from a pulpit. They have come talking with a couple other brothers about their workweek: what things are easy, and what things are difficult. Don’t wait to get instruction on these 4 aspects of the Christian life. “Get wisdom” by taking advantage of the saints around you.

3. Think about these topics during Bible study & sermon application

If you want to grow in godliness in each of these aspects of the Christian life, you are going to have to constantly be on the look-out during Bible study and sermon application. Each text you look at, each sermon you hear, ask whether the text has any bearing on the four areas discussed above. You will be surprised with the frequency with which God speaks to these issues and the wisdom Scripture provides.

These four under-discussed aspects of the Christian life are only a few areas I personally have desired more teaching on. There are no doubt countless more. Just remember: God has provided in Christ everything you need for life and godliness, and His Word is the source of all wisdom and authority.

Christ is Lord of your normal, mundane work week just as much as He is Lord of the Church and Lord of history.

So let us work to better apply Biblical wisdom to each of these aspects of our lives.

For more of my reflections, check out the “What I learned from…” page. If you found this post helpful or encouraging, share and subscribe below. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram for more content.

how to work hospitality into your busy schedule
How to Work Hospitality Into Your Busy Schedule

How to Work Hospitality Into Your Busy Schedule

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Most Christians I have talked to like the idea of hospitality. Maybe they have read “The Gospel Comes with a House Key.” Perhaps they know a couple at their Church who is always opening up their home. But liking the idea of hospitality and actually inviting people over your house are two very different things. What is the biggest barrier to opening up your home? Oftentimes, it is scheduling. There are only 7 days in a week, so how do you work hospitality into your busy schedule?

Hospitality is having people over your house to talk with them, get to know them, and hopefully to have opportunities to speak into their lives. It is an avenue to discipleship, evangelism, and closeness with others. Hospitality is a simple concept and a much needed practice in our modern, disconnected world. Having strangers over to share a meal is one of the best ways to start meaningful relationships.

In this post, I want to you give three simple steps to start building hospitality into your week.

Step 1: Choose a day of the week you will open up your home

The first step is simple: set apart an evening for having people over your house. The best way to start a new habit is to schedule it. You aren’t going to wake up one day and decide you should have a dozen people over your house. It oftentimes starts with planning on having people over for one dinner.

Look at your typical week. Choose an evening you will keep free each week. That is the evening you will invite people over for dinner. Don’t schedule anything else for that evening. It is a time you are committing to opening up your home.

If you want to work hospitality into your busy schedule, you are going to have to commit to it.

Most good, eternal things require self-sacrifice. Hospitality is no different. You are going to have to sacrifice a night you could do something by yourself or with your family and commit to having people over.

What day do you choose? I know a couple who used to go to my Church who opened up their home every Sunday night. After Sunday night service, people would come over and fellowship around a meal to close out the Lord’s day. They had five kids, yet still managed to prioritize hospitality. I know another couple who has someone from Church over for dinner every Thursday. Sometimes, it is a visitor who just started coming to our Church who they invited over. Other times, it is a longtime member they simply want to get to know better.

My wife and I typically do Thursday night because that works best for our schedule. What is the pattern here?

If you want to open up your home, plan on opening up your home.

Get it on the calendar and make it the same day every week.

Step 2: Make a list of 5-10 people, couples, or families you want to focus on getting to know

Jesus impacted hundreds of people during His earthly ministry. But I find it interesting He focused primarily on 12 disciples, and even within that group emphasized three men to really build into. I think there is an important principle to glean from this:

You cannot disciple every single person in your local Church at the same level.

And that is freeing. Instead of trying to have every single person in the Church over your house at some point, sit down and make a list. Write out people you want to have over regularly. I would argue you should include single people in your Church, couples, and families on that list. And don’t just stop with your Church. Write down unsaved neighbors you want to get to know and have opportunities to share the gospel with.

I would limit the list to 5-10 people. You want to focus your efforts to some degree. Currently, I have 10 people I want to consistently have over. How do you choose who is on this list?

  1. Prioritize neighbors living nearby
  2. Think of people from Church who are younger than you or who you could have a disciplining relationship with
  3. Finally, add any people from Church you want to get to know better in general

Don’t feel constrained by this list. It is just a start so that you can perform step 3. You can of course have as many people over as you want. But you need to know the people you really want to focus on, the people you want to have over one-on-one and not in a larger group.

Step 3: Work through the people on the list every week until one of them agrees to come over for dinner

If you want to work hospitality into your busy schedule, you are going to have to pursue people. Remove the option of not having people over during a week. Now that you have a list, go from top to bottom and contact the people on the list one by one. Invite the first person or family over for dinner on whatever day you have set aside. If they say no, move on to the next person on the list.

Keep working through the list until you have a person agree to come over. The next week, move their name to the bottom of the list and work through it again. What is the point of this? You will have to consistently pursue the people on the list if you want to have any impact on their life. Everyone’s busy. But if you invite a person over for dinner three weeks in a row, that person will likely eventually make time for you.

You won’t make hospitality a habit if you only ask one person a week over and do nothing if they say “No”.

Having a list enables you to keep working until you get a “yes”. And as the months go by, perhaps your list will expand or shorten naturally based on who is available. Remember: these steps are only to start the habit of hospitality. As you grow and it becomes second nature, you might change your approach.

Work until hospitality is part of your busy schedule

You aren’t likely to wake up tomorrow and naturally be super social and open to having people in your home. You have to train yourself in godliness. A busy schedule should not stop you from practicing hospitality. It should drive you to work even harder to make sure you have a day set aside to open up your home and a group of people you consistently invite over.

Is hospitality hard work? Yes. But opening up your home gives you opportunities to speak into people’s lives in a way you never could in another context. As guests sit down for dinner, their guard goes down and you start to get to know each one another. Cleaning the dishes after dinner becomes an avenue to “make disciples” and an after-dinner walk gives a context for people to vocalize their doubts and struggles.

Work hospitality into your busy schedule. These three steps will get you started. But before you try any of these steps, pray God would open your heart so you open up your home joyfully to others.

Once you have people over, read this post to think through what meals to plan. Visit the “Building Relationships with Others” page to get tips on how to have meaningful conversations. If you found this post helpful, click below to share on Facebook or Twitter. Subscribe so you don’t miss out on any future posts and follow The Average Churchman on Instagram.

book quote of the week
The Dichotomy of Christian Character

The Dichotomy of Christian Character

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My Pastor recently bought a Jerry Bridges book called “The Practice of Godliness” for me and my fellow Deacons to read. So far, I have really enjoyed the book, particularly with Bridges’ emphasis on devotion to God. I highly recommend you pick it up if you have not read it. However, there is a sentence in the introduction of the book that intrigued me and I want to discuss today. The quote introduces a dichotomy in Christian character.

The last two divisions reflect the seeming dichotomy of Christian character: sternness with ourselves and tenderness towards others.

The Practice of Godliness by Jerry Bridges

What the quote means

Two different sets of character traits

Bridges writes this quote when he describes the overall structure of the book. The latter chapters in “The Practice of Godliness” are individual studies of different aspects of Christian character. The characteristics Bridges says believers should have related to themselves are holiness, self-control, and faithfulness. Bridges then lists peace, patience, gentleness, kindness/goodness, and love as characteristics Christians should have in relation to others.

Bridges goes on to say holiness, self-control, and faithfulness enable Christians to deal “sternly” with themselves. On the other hand, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness/goodness, and love are qualities which enable believers to deal graciously towards others. The quote given above is Bridges summary of the differences in these lists of Christian character qualities: believers are stern with themselves and gracious towards others.

I take the word “stern” to mean Christians don’t give themselves a pass. They discipline themselves. Curb sinful desires, subject themselves to self control, and expect faithfulness to the Lord and to others. However, when they deal with other people, Christians are “swift to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry.” Bridges rightly calls this a “dichotomy” in Christian character.

How you treat yourself as a believer is different than how you treat others.

Why it is important

The counter-cultural stance Scripture takes

At first glance, you might think this dichotomy between how you are to treat yourself and how you treat others makes no sense. Why should you treat yourself differently than you treat others? But I would argue most of us live in this same dichotomy every day, just in reverse: we are stern towards others, and very gracious towards ourselves. The dichotomy is not the issue; it is where you place yourself in the dichotomy.

I have written previously about the need for worldview-confronting teaching from Scripture. This dichotomy in Christian character that Bridges highlights goes directly against the wisdom of modern culture. When was the last time you heard someone talk about being “stern” with themselves? How often do you hear others use ungracious language with other people? Are people quick to notice your own sins and faults, or are they quicker to excuse themselves and point out the faults of other people?

It is easy to believe the worst about other people and the best about ourselves. Such a perspective does not come from Scripture; it is what everyone naturally does in the flesh. Just scroll through social media for a half-hour and you will see what I mean. There are countless online interactions which take one of two forms:

  1. Ungracious and stern criticism of others
  2. Dogmatic justification of one’s own stance and/or excusing one’s own behavior

It is just how the culture functions. Other people need self-control, to correct their behavior, and to meet their responsibilities. But you rarely turn the mirror on yourself. You can easily come up with a hundred excuses for why you do what you do. Self-justification is not a new problem.

The reason why Bridges’ quote stuck out to me is it sets the order straight. You and I need to “love our neighbors as ourselves” while at the same time “train ourselves unto godliness.” If you get the dichotomy wrong, you will not grow spiritually. You will end up overlooking the areas where you need to grow in Christ-likeness while at the same time becoming preoccupied with other people’s behavior.

If you truly knew the depths of your own sinfulness, you would spend more time working out your own salvation than you spend correcting other people.

Takeaways

1. Make every excuse for other people.

This is something my Pastor mentioned once while preaching through Ephesians. Christians should be quick to make excuses for other people. Someone cut you off in traffic? They probably have to get somewhere quickly. A family member responded harshly and unfairly to you? They most likely have something going on behind the scenes that has nothing to do with you. Pastor hasn’t returned your text and you asked if you could meet up? He no doubt is preparing the sermon and is deep into the text.

Sound crazy? That is because you and I are so accustomed to jumping to the worst case scenario when other people do things we don’t like. It is easier to assume a sinful motivation on the part of the other person than it is to control your own poor reaction to what they did. If you want to become a more gracious person, start defending those who upset you. It sounds odd, and it is a difficult habit to get into, but it is freeing.

Instead of assuming the world is out to get you, remind yourself of how Jesus reacted when people hated Him, misinterpreted everything He did, and ultimately crucified Him. If anyone could have played the role of “victim,” it was Jesus. But 1 Peter 2 says Christ behaved differently

 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

1 Peter 2:21-23 ESV, emphasis added

2. Try to go a single day without justifying or defending yourself. See how hard it is.

The flip side of making every excuse for the other person is refraining from defending yourself. Try it for a day. Don’t defend yourself or seek to justify yourself to others. How long will you make it through the day? For me, I might make it until I interact with my first person of the day. Deep is the human capacity for self-justification.

But if Bridges is right, and I think he is, part of Christian character is denying yourself and controlling your behavior. When someone tells you that you are wrong, the default response of your heart is “I couldn’t be.” When you are questioned, your first thought is “I can’t be wrong.” In fact, oftentimes you jump to the conclusion the other person must be wrong or in sin to even approach you.

If you want to grow spiritually, you are going to have to become stern with yourself. A good, memorable summary of this perspective is “suspect yourself first” or “suspect your own heart first.” That summary is from one of my favorite books of all time “When Sinners Say I Do” by Dave Harvey (buy and read this book immediately if you have not already). It is a book about marriage, but the principle applies to all aspects of life. You don’t know the sinfulness of another persons heart. But you do know your own heart.

If you are going to jump to a conclusion, jump to the conclusion that you are wrong or mistaken. Then work your way back from there.

If you want to have this mindset, you are going to have to refrain from defending yourself. Pause. Pray to the Lord “reveal any wicked way in me” before responding. Humble yourself that God may exalt you in due time. There is freedom in behaving sternly with ourselves and graciously towards others.

If you missed a “Book Quote of the Week” post, click here to view all previous posts. If you found this post helpful, please share and subscribe below. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram to get more content throughout the week.

hospitality
Meals for Practicing Hospitality

Meals for Practicing Hospitality

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When my wife and I first got married, we started reading an insightful book called “The Gospel Comes with a House Key: Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our Post-Christian World” by Rosaria Butterfield. I highly recommend it if you have not read it yet. “Hospitality” is simply having people over your house to get to know them, talk with them, and hopefully have opportunities to speak into their lives. In my experience, practicing hospitality almost always includes gathering around a meal.

So the question is: what are some good meals to make when practicing hospitality? When I was in college, my good friend and mentor had students over his house every Sunday night for a meal. Far from being boring, these meals were delicious (especially compared with college cafeteria food) and provided a context to hang out and talk after Sunday evening service.

In this post, I want discuss how to choose a meal when practicing hospitality and recommend a few meals that are ideal for having a medium to large group over for dinner. Use them at small groups, pot lucks, and any time the Church gathers for a meal or you open up your home.

What makes a good meal for having lots of people over?

Not every meal works for hosting large groups. You might have a dozen favorite recipes, but in my experience, there are three general characteristics of good meals to serve to large groups. Use these principles to narrow down what you plan to serve.

1. Easily scalable

This one is fairly obvious. If your recipe cannot serve 12 or more people, it probably isn’t a candidate for hosting larger Church groups. You don’t want to invite a group over having only made a small amount of food. Now, some recipes naturally are designed for large groups. These are perfect candidates for practicing hospitality. Other recipes might be originally for 4-5 people, but can be doubled or tripled for a larger group.

The key question to ask here is “Can I easily scale up this recipe for a large group?” If the answer is no, cook something different this time around. For example, I personally love steak. But cooking steak for a large group of people would be crazy to attempt; it just isn’t scalable. On the other hand, you can double or triple most pasta dishes without too much difficulty or extra work.

2. Cheap ingredients

When practicing hospitality, especially with a large group, the goal is to feed your guests and provide them with a context to fellowship with one another. Your goal should not be impressing them with your most expensive ingredients. Leave the truffle salt and caviar for a smaller meal. Cheap, filling ingredients like rice, pasta, and beans should be staples of larger meals. Look for recipes with basic, cheap ingredients and make sure any recipe you find does not require hundred rare seasonings.

Now, just because you should look for cheap ingredients and readily available spices does not mean your food should be bland. Part of the fun of cooking comes down to constraints and trade offs: given a certain amount of time to cook with a certain amount of ingredients, what is the most delicious meal you can make? It is a wonderful and fun challenge to limit yourself to essential ingredients and to still make a delicious meal.

3. Broad appeal

Hospitality is not the time to pull out that exotic meal you aren’t sure you will like or not. Don’t use your guests as tests for a new recipe. Stick with those meals and cuisines which has the broadest appeal. Most people have different tastes in food, different spice tolerance, and so on. Aim for recipes that most people, ages, and backgrounds would like. Ask yourself as you choose a recipe “is this something that the people coming would cook and eat on their own?”

As a side note, if your Church is like mine, you no doubt have members with food allergies or dietary restrictions. It is important to show love to these members by making meals which meet their dietary needs whenever possible. Every time you find or try a nut-free, dairy-free, vegetarian, or gluten-free recipe that you enjoy, save it for future hosting. It is always easier to make a single meal which everyone can eat instead of two different meals, one for someone with a dietary need and another for everyone else.

Some suggested meals for practicing hospitality

Armed with the principles above, I have full faith you can discern what to cook when having Church members over. However, to get you inspired, here are 6 general recipes or categories of recipes I have seen succeed when made for large groups of people. Each of these meet the criteria I gave above: scalable, cheap ingredients, and broad appeal. I have provided a couple “example recipes” for you to test drive for yourself under each category.

1. Tacos

This is a classic and it couldn’t get simpler. Brown the meat, season it, and then serve with as many toppings as you care to use. As long as you don’t make the tacos too spicy, it should be an easy to cook, easy to enjoy meal. Tacos are great because you can make them as simple or as fancy as you like. Making homemade guacamole is a great way to elevate a simple taco dinner.

Taco meat for a crowd

Homemade guacamole

2. Spaghetti Bake

I can’t tell you how many different forms of spaghetti bake I have had over the years. And you know what? Most of the time, it is a tasty, filling, crowd-pleasing meal. Italian food in general is ideal for hospitality since you can make it “in bulk” with cheap ingredients, and most people like it. As with tacos, you can make spaghetti bake as fancy as you desire; you have lots of choices. For example, you can use sausage or ground beef and you can either use homemade tomato sauce or opt for the store bought sauce.

Million-dollar Spaghetti Bake

Easy and delicious homemade pasta sauce

3. Poppy-seed Chicken

This is another recipe I have had in a couple forms of over the years. Most of the time I have had it with rice which makes it “go further” and guarantees guests leave the table full. You must remember to cook the chicken ahead of time but besides that it is a simple recipe with few ingredients.

Poppy-seed chicken

4. Pulled Pork Sandwiches

I have had pulled pork in many forms at many small group meals. There is simply no easier way to feed a large group than slow cook a pork shoulder, shred it with some barbecue sauce, and serve it with buns, coleslaw, and some chips. An added benefit of pulled pork is it is most of the time dairy free. There are dozens of recipes to choose from, some easy some complicated.

Basic, easy, delicious pulled pork

“Texas style” pulled pork

Fancier pulled pork

5. Zuppa Toscana

In the winter, a hearty soup is welcome at any table. Of all the soups I have had at different Church members’ houses, this is the most common. The combination of sausage and potatoes makes for a filling and tasty meal. If you want to mix things up, try using sweet potatoes instead of normal potatoes (I personally prefer it).

Zuppa Toscana

Similar soup but with sweet potatoes

6. Chili (Red or White)

Chili is filling and often cheap due to its use of beans. By browning meat with some seasonings and adding a couple cans of beans, you can cheaply feed a crowd. Serve the chili over rice and the meal will stretch even further. Another great characteristic of chili is you can cook it in a crock-pot. If you want to get even fancier, try making a white chicken chili. It is lighter, and has a more complex flavor in my opinion, but it will take a bit more work.

Slow cooker chili (Beef)

Slow cooker chili (Chicken)

Conclusion: Don’t let the meal keep you from hospitality

For those who don’t enjoy cooking, the meal aspect of having people over can become burdensome. I find that having a small list of “go-to” recipes can help alleviate this. Remember: the goal of having people over for dinner, especially a large group, is not to impress or draw attention to your skills as a cook. You simply want to provide a warm, welcoming context for spiritual conversation, friendship, and closeness.

For other posts I have written to help you interact in the local Church, click here. Share and subscribe below if you found this post helpful. Be sure to follow The Average Churchman on Instagram so you don’t miss any content.

communion
The Beautiful Picture of Communion

The Beautiful Picture of Communion

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My Church celebrated communion, or the Lord’s supper, this past Sunday. I have enjoyed this monthly ordinance for several years now, but this past Sunday, something clicked. The Lord helped me see several aspects of communion with a clarity I did not have before. God in His infinite wisdom does not merely give us doctrinal truth in bullet point form. He gives us pictures, metaphors, illustrations so you and I can see the gospel.

Today, I want to reflect on a couple aspects of communion and how these aspects help us remember what Jesus has done. Communion is a rich ordinance and I will not cover even half of its significance and symbolism. But here are three thoughts I had as I took communion this past Sunday.

In Communion You Come to Receive, not Give

I have been reading through the first five books of the Bible for the past few months. Whenever you work through Leviticus in particular, you can’t help but be amazed at the quantity and variety of sacrifices Israel needed to make. In the Old Testament law, you had to constantly bring animal after animal to die for your sins. And yet, despite the constant sacrifices, Hebrews says

For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Hebrews 10:4, ESV

Contrast this with Communion. When was the last time you brought a bull or a ram to the Lord’s supper? You don’t come to the Lord’s supper with a sacrifice. In fact, you don’t come with anything to give the Lord at all.

You come to the Lord’s supper with a single thing: need. A need for Christ’s righteousness, a righteousness only provided through His blood.

God, on the other hand, comes with the needed sacrifice. And it is a once-for-all-time sacrifice: Jesus. He died, He conquered death, and He ascended to the right hand of the Father. “It is finished” means God has dealt with sin in Christ. You don’t need to “bring something to the table.” You come to receive what God has done in Christ.

It can become so easy throughout the day to day grind of life to lose sight of this. You think that something you do can make you right with God, or at least you might think God’s favor is based on your performance. But you bring nothing to the communion table. Just your sin, inadequacy, shaky faith, and a desperate need. But the table is thankfully already prepared: God has provided Christ for you.

In Communion You Get the Cup of Mercy, not the Cup of Wrath

The “cup” mentioned throughout Scripture. It is a helpful metaphor the Lord uses to communicate spiritual reality to us. Several times in the Old Testament, God refers to the “the cup of His wrath”.

Wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering.

Isaiah 51:17, ESV emphasis added

Thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it.

Jeremiah 25:15, ESV emphasis added

When I read these verses, I picture a glass filled up to the very top. God’s just wrath against sin has reached the brim; it is about to overflow. And now, those who filled it must drink. When you drink something, you are “taking it in”. That is the picture here: those who rebel against the Lord must take the fullness of His wrath against their sin.

But that is not the cup Christians get. The cup of wrath is what Jesus drank on our behalf. One of the most profound portions of Scripture is when Jesus prayed in Gethsemane for “this cup to pass”. It was the cup He would drink on our behalf. Jesus took what you and I deserved: the cup of God’s wrath.

What a beautiful reminder it is when get a cup during communion! A cup not filled with wrath, but a cup reminding you of “the new covenant” in Christ’s blood. As you drink, you are remember that you have taken in Christ’s righteousness. There is not a cup of wrath left for you.

In Communion You Get the Bread of Life, not Mere Physical Provision

At my Church, my Pastor is preaching through John 6. He continually emphasizes the point that the crowds came back to Jesus after He miraculously fed them to get more food. But instead of feeding them physically, Jesus teaches them spiritual truth by calling Himself the “bread of life”. Jesus contrasts Himself with the manna Israel received from God in the wilderness. God’s provision was enough to satisfy Israel temporarily, but ultimately physical bread could not bring life. Jesus could.

Jesus provides for our physical needs, to be sure. “Every good gift” is from the Lord. But communion is a time to remember Jesus’ ultimate provision: eternal life. Jesus did not live and die so you could receive physical possessions. When you come to the Lord’s table, God is reminding you Jesus provides you with life.

Just like if you stopped eating you would die, without believing in Jesus you will eternally perish. Communion reminds us “the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” God provided manna to deal with His people’s physical needs in the Old Covenant but how glorious it is to remember God provided something so much more in Christ!

Jesus saves, He satisfies, He is all the Christian needs.

And we tend to forget that. Which is why eating a piece of bread each month corporately is a powerful reminder: without Jesus, you have no life. With Jesus, you have eternal life.

Conclusion: Don’t Just Go Through the Motions

Like anything you do regularly, it is easy to take communion for granted. But just like you should treasure each Sunday worship service, you should also thoughtfully and in faith enjoy communion each month (or however often your Church partakes of it). In communion, God is visually and physically displaying for you what the gospel looks like:

  • You don’t bring anything but your sin and need: God provides the sufficient sacrifice
  • You experience God’s mercy in Christ rather than God’s just wrath on your sin
  • Jesus has provided you with eternal spiritual life through His death and resurrection

What could be more practical than to be reminded of these truths? You and I need communion because we are so quick to forget and take for granted. Praise the Lord He knows exactly what we need: to be reminded of the things of “first importance.”

So next time you go to take communion, remind yourself of what you are actually doing. Meditate on the beautiful picture God is painting for you. See the gospel in every bite of bread and sip of wine.

Click here to read other reflections I have written on different aspects of life. Be sure to share and subscribe below. If you aren’t already, follow The Average Churchman on Instagram to get more edifying content.