Lesson 9 | Takeaways: discerning the key teaching points
Life together
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. —Colosians 3:16 ESV
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. —Hebrews 10:24-25 ESV
Here are just two of the dozens of so-called one-another passages in the New Testament. It is amazing to consider the whole sum and scope of these texts that exhort us to love one another, encourage one another, to teach, admonish, and pray for one another, to live in harmony with and confess our sins to one another, to welcome, forgive and not pass judgment on one another, and many more.
With regard to our present task of discerning the key teaching points of a Scripture text, one of the vital means the Holy Spirit will use to help guide you will be the community of believers around you. Every one of these one-another commands involves bringing the word of God to bear on our life together as fellow believers. And so it is entirely appropriate to seek the counsel of mature believers as you work through the implications of a text for your life. Share your thinking with others, listen to their feedback, receive their corrections, follow through with their encouragements. In short, don’t run solo. Rather, do life together.
The problem is our social media culture yields networks of relationships thousands of miles wide but only an inch deep. Moreover, it is increasingly easy to attend a church without really investing in discipling relationships. We need to intentionally build practices into our daily and weekly routine that will nurture healthy relationships. Here are a handful of practical steps you might consider:
- Deliberately put your smartphone away during meals and other opportunities for face to face conversation. Don’t make the distant touch through social media more important than the vital connection with the person right beside you.
- Rather than a quick stop at the coffee shop, plan some extra time and invite a friend to join you for Scripture reading, prayer… and coffee.
- Seek out a small group fellowship for Bible study, prayer and ministry in service to others.
- Use your social media network as a tool for sharing insights from God’s word.
- Encourage a couple friends to read through a book of the Bible together or take a Biblearc Path course together.