To be a disciple means to follow Jesus’ teachings. Following his teachings requires us to be in the Bible daily. Here is one approach to getting more out of your Bible study. Here is the study guide I mentioned in the video. Download here.
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Matt Dabbs
April 10, 2024
7 Responses
Acts 2:42 – continued in the doctrine Of the apostles. Also, teach them, baptize them, teach them. Sticking with the gospels only does not meet all needs.
The gospels don’t meet all the needs but it is a start. Neither does Paul meet all the needs. You have to start somewhere. I will choose Mark over Romans for a start.
Good. But keep the balance in sight. Too many seem to be heading to red letter religion. If Jesus did not say it, it must not matter… makes fir bad theology.
I agree 100%.
Please explain your point a bit more.
When I have a conversation with Progressive Christians, I keep hearing the argument on some topics that, “Jesus did not say anything about this, so it does not matter.” And they are referred to by some as “Red Letter Christians.” Only the words spoken by Jesus matter, and writers like Peter, James, Paul are just reflections of their culture.
So where did Jesus say anything about elders, their roles, their character?
Where did Jesus say anything about relationship with the Gentiles?
And we can build a long list of topics Jesus never spoke about.
Yes, Jesus is THE example. But he is not the only one who speaks God’s Word tous. Yes, the rest of the New Testament is important, but they do not suppress the Gospels. Yes, the New Testament is important, but the Old Testament gives us an introduction as to Who God is, and how God interacts with creation.
In the Gospels, Jesus lives a life patterned after the Father. We are called to do the same – live our lives patterned after the Father. We are called to be holy and perfect (In both cases, patterned after the perfect and holy God.) Jesus exemplified that. So, from my perspective, if we pattern our lives after the Father, we are doing exactly what Jesus did. Not patterning after the Son, but Like the Son, after the Father.
Too much emphasis is put on the Son, where the Son emphasizes the Father. So, again, like the Son, let us emphasize the Father – through and because of the Son.
It seems too often “we” put the emphasis on the Son (Look at our song books etc.) One of the reasons I am excited, time and again, about Ephesians os because the first three chapters are showing us what the Father has done – through, by and in the Son. But at the beginning, there is the Father, and at the end, there is the Father.
What I have seen in at least the conservative churches of Christ is that we focus on Paul and less on Jesus in terms of doctrine. What Jesus said applied to people and what Paul said applies to churches, so we focus on what the church is supposed to do.
We will take a comment of Paul in regards to his collecting for the saints in another town as a command and walk right past a command given by Jesus to wash another feet.
And most of the sermons I have heard talk of what the church must do and the rules for that.
I think the beauty of Jesus is that he showed us what is Godly almost as much as he tells us.
He said “I came to seek and save the lost” and then he healed and fed and helped the needy. This was all part of the same process of love for mankind.
Not to say we should ignore the letters, but I would argue we should focus more on the man and His work and emulate that, instead of mostly focusing on emulating Paul who was emulating Jesus.