Lesson 9 | Takeaways: discerning the key teaching points
Look for the means
Scripture does not take a just-do-it approach to our obedience. A life of faith is not a portrait of the virtues of human endeavor—of a dig-down-deeper-and-try-harder mentality. Rather, God has wrapped his commands in a wealth of instruction concerning the means and manner in which those commands are to be followed. It is therefore worth asking of the text: How am I to obey? By what means? What does this look like? Here, then, is a second category of takeaways: look for the means of obedience.
In the following video, John Piper models this pursuit of the means as he considers the command, “do not be anxious about anything” in Philippians 4:6-7. (The video will stop after the relevant portion has played.)