1 Corinthians | Knowable Word

It’s Worth It to Know Your People

January 23, 2015 By Peter Krol

I used to meet with a guy to study the Bible. He was a quick learner and teachable, and he became a good friend. In general, our Bible study was not extraordinary, but quite good nevertheless. I remember, however, the day the Bible study went from being merely quite good to being great.

The girl of this young man’s dreams had just broken up with him. He had the guts to meet with me anyway; in his place, I would have chosen to stay home in bed. Instead of having our regular discussion, I took him out and bought him the tallest mocha he could handle. Then we walked it off along a busy road and spoke of life, love, hurt feelings, and how God’s word spoke to us in those painful moments. Our time in the word paid back many dividends that day and launched us into weeks of richer study than we had yet enjoyed together.

According to the Lord’s perspective, no Bible study will succeed unless the leader loves the participants (1 Cor 12:27-13:13). In this case, I did something anyone would do, which was simply to listen, encourage, and enter this fellow’s life. Most of the time, however, I’m too stingy to pay the cost of loving others. Love feels like an interruption. It requires more forethought or creativity than I’m willing to invest. And it takes me away from other, more “productive” tasks on my to-do list.

Jerm (2008), Creative Commons

One of the best ways to love the people in your group is to get to know them. In a pristine world, we might be motivated to do this simply by knowing it’s what God wants us to do. But God has no problem motivating us to obey with the promise of reward, so neither will I.

When I struggle with the call to invest in relationships with people (Mark 1:17, 1 Thess 2:8, 2:17-3:13), I try to remember why it’s worth it. In particular, why is it worth it to build relationships with people outside of the Bible study meeting?

It makes your application more relevant. When you know what’s going on in people’s lives, you’ll be more equipped to help them make specific application.
It shows them Christ. When people know their leader cares for them personally, it’s easier for them to believe Jesus cares for them.
It sharpens your insight. You’ll know their highs and lows, and you’ll be able to steer the Bible study discussion toward those very things they have on their minds.
It bolsters your credibility. When they know you care about them, they’ll trust you. When you speak hard truths from God’s word, that trust helps the truth sink in more deeply.

Of course, we should love people because God wants us to. And he made the world to work in such a way that everyone benefits from honoring him. When you struggle to believe love is worth the inconvenience, remind yourself of how much more you have to lose than a bit of time or forethought.

One Vital Behavior Determines the Success of Your Teaching Ministry

January 16, 2015 By Peter Krol

Have you attended a Bible study with a leader who had no people skills? Have you been to Bible conferences where the speakers refused to hobnob with the proletariat? Have you taken a Bible class where everything you heard was true and precise, but you wondered if the professor had ever interacted with a live descendant of Adam?

What you do outside your Bible study meeting is just as important as what you did during it. You can reinforce the lessons you taught, or you can undermine them with your own hands. You can guide softened hearts into beneficial spiritual disciplines, or you can subsidize the calluses that deaden people to the very truth you proclaim.

It all depends on whether you live to serve the teaching, or whether the teaching exists to help you serve others. This goes for small groups, youth groups, Sunday school classes, and sermons. It goes for conference talks and classroom lectures. It even goes for 1-on-1 mentorship. Your teaching ministry matters, but it will be counterproductive if you don’t care about the people you teach.

By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:35)

Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. (Heb 13:7)

One Vital Behavior

I’ve spent many weeks focused on the mechanics of leading a Bible study. I’m a firm believer in a strong ministry of the word, and I affirm that bad (shoddy, false, ignorant) Bible studies are costly and dishonoring to God. But I also deny that the ministry of the word is limited to the truthful and precise words that pour from a leader’s mouth. The ministry of the word is incomplete apart from the love and mercy that pour from the leader’s heart.

Therefore, to all who want to learn how to lead a Bible study, I commend one vital behavior above all others: Love your people. Get to know them. Learn their names and their histories. Find out what in life encourages them and what discourages them. Ask about their disappointments, dreams, and values. Make sure you understand them before you disagree with them. Find out why they come to the Bible study. Ask them regularly how they think it’s going and how you can improve. Ask them what God is teaching them through it.

You’ll never be able to do all these things during the meeting itself. Love requires investment; a price must be paid. You’ll have to spend time with them (both in groups and 1-on-1). You’ll have to learn what they do for fun so you can learn to have fun doing it with them. You’ll have to express your love in ways they feel loved, which won’t necessarily be the same ways you like to express love. I write “you’ll have to…you’ll have to…you’ll have to…” not because your righteousness depends upon it, but because love has the inscrutable power of compulsion.

The Cost of Failure

Simon Webster (2011), Creative Commons

The success of your Bible study—or of any teaching ministry—depends upon this one vital behavior. Is that a naïvely bombastic claim? I think not.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. (1 Cor 13:1-2)

I’ve performed in orchestras when the gong and cymbals crashed at just the right time. Few earthly experiences are as moving as such powerful musical climaxes.

I’ve also performed in orchestras when the percussionist dropped the cymbals on the floor during the concert. Few earthly experiences are more embarrassing, more useless, or more counterproductive.

It is good for us to earnestly desire teaching gifts and to diligently develop teaching skills. But let us never forget: There is a still more excellent way (1 Cor 12:27-31).

Beware Sanitized Hypocrisy

July 25, 2014 By Peter Krol

The third practice for preparing effective Bible studies is to allow the message to change you. The fact should be obvious, but so often it’s not: We can’t teach what we haven’t learned. Our words are just words if we can’t show them by our lives. Paul said, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Cor 11:1, ESV), but his exhortation would have fallen flat if he hadn’t opened his life for them to see (1 Cor 9:1-7, 15-23; 10:32-33).

I’ve been really challenged by this point lately, especially when I feel pressed for time in my teaching preparation. It’s so hard to deal with the log in my eye before I try to remove the speck from others’ eyes!

But the biblical word for leaders who say one thing but do another is “hypocrite.” Of course, I might successfully avoid aggressive forms of hypocrisy: preaching integrity while robbing the church, promoting purity while secretly indulging immorality, etc. But how often do I sanitize my hypocrisy, justifying my sins of omission while passionately promoting their opposite? For example:

Do I exhort people to confess their sins, but I never confess mine?
Do I oppose pride and promote humility, but I’m afraid to let anyone see me when I’m weak?
Do I preach about how much people need the grace of Christ, but I don’t reveal an inch of my own need for the grace of Christ?
Do I urge people to love one another, but I believe my leadership position prevents me from having any close friends?
Do I want people to be open to feedback, but I never ask for it myself?

Shepherds shepherd, and leaders lead. This means they go out in front and don’t ask people to do anything they haven’t done first. So before Jesus asked Peter to feed his lambs and die (John 21:15-19), he was the Good Shepherd who laid down his own life for the sheep (John 10:11). So also Paul can beg the Corinthians to open wide their hearts to him after his heart was opened wide to them (2 Cor 6:11-13). And Jonathan can call his armor bearer to come up after him; Jonathan goes first to make them fall, and the armor bearer simply mops up after him (1 Sam 14:12-13).

This kind of leadership requires two kinds of vulnerability:

When preparing to lead a study, we must allow the text to change us.
When leading the study, we must explain how the text has changed us.

rikdom (2007), Creative Commons

This means that I must apply the Scripture to myself before I try to apply it to anyone else. And when appropriate, I must be willing to share these lessons to give people a model for how the text can change them. After practicing these things, I’ll be in a position to suggest further applications for others.

Hear Jesus’ warning against those who wouldn’t do what they asked others to do:

The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so practice and observe whatever they tell you – but not what they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. (Matt 23:2-12)

I have some ideas about why such vulnerability is so difficult, and I’ll write about them next week. But in the meantime, I’d like to hear what you think. Question: Why do you think it’s hard for us to be vulnerable in our leadership?

Big Bible Words: Glory

January 3, 2014 By Peter Krol

Though it won’t earn many Words with Friends points, “glory” is a big word.

Glory to the newborn king!

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Glo-o-o-o-o-o-o-ria in excelsis Deo!

Christians consider it a buzz-word. Non-Christians liberally biff it around. No less than two musical artists, three albums, and nine pop songs are named “Glory” (including the likes of Kanye West and Jay-Z).

We’ve got battlefield glory, the road to glory, the glory of love, glory days, blazes of glory, and morning glory. Through history, the British Royal Navy has commissioned or captured ten different ships named HMS Glory.

Glory is not an obscure word, but do you know what it means? Could you explain it to a child?

More Than Praise

We commonly treat “glory” as though it’s interchangeable with “praise.” So we give God “all the praise and glory” for good things. Whether we “praise” him or “glorify” him, we do the same thing: We speak well of him.

But there’s a slight difference between “praise” and “glory” that can be helpful to recognize. Glorifying something means more than speaking well of it; glorifying something means acting in every way as though this thing is the best thing.

For example, in my house, we praise dinner but we glorify dessert.

Dinner Series (2011), Creative Commons

I married a terrific cook. Countless culinary aspirants stew in jealous longing for a fraction of her talent. Because her secret arts have been known to bewitch hungry souls to the verge of insanity, an invitation to dinner at our house could make a killing on ebay. We used to have an after-dinner family chant that went, “Good cooker, good looker, good mama,” and we could have drowned out the mobs of Ephesus with it (Acts 19:34). Perhaps I exaggerate just a hair, but the point is this: We eat well here, and we’re not afraid to say so. We praise dinner.

However, dessert is what truly rocks this house. There is always, always, always room for dessert. A child could ask for seconds and thirds on homemade potato rolls and leave the table stuffed to the eyebrows, but he’ll never resist an offer of dessert. We Krols claim to have two stomachs; we reserve the second one for dessert.

Dessert always gets pre-eminence. It’s more important than toys. It’s more important than dolls. It’s more important than television. It’s more important (regretfully) than visitors. The children—who can’t hear me when I say, “Clean your room,” from two feet away—come running if I whisper, “Time for dessert,” from across the building. We glorify dessert.

God’s Glory

God is like dessert. He’s the most important thing (the weightiest being) in the universe, and we glorify him when we treat him as such. Giving glory includes offering him praise, but it also means so much more. We arrange our lives around that which we glorify. Whatever is most important to us will capture our attention and receive our time and resources.

Glory is not a difficult concept. Everyone glorifies something, which is why we talk about glory so much. We can discuss the idea simply with our children, our friends, and our unbelieving neighbors. We don’t need to toss the word around as another piece of Christian Klingon.

And, as the people of God, every little choice we make ought to show the incomparable importance and value of the Lord our God (1 Cor 10:31).

The Importance of Context, Part 1

December 6, 2012 By Peter Krol

“Pinky, are you pondering what I’m pondering?”

“I think so, Brain, but Lederhosen won’t stretch that far.”

The cartoon Animaniacs got a lot of mileage out of this joke. The two mice would find themselves in a pickle of one sort or another. Brain, the genius, would intuit a solution and ask his famous question. Pinky, the dolt, would take him out of context and say something so ridiculous that the joke never got old.

The joke isn’t funny, though, when Christians live it out in their Bible study.

Do you know what Jesus was talking about when he said, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them” (Matt 18:20, ESV)? Hint: it wasn’t about prayer groups. If you pray alone, Jesus is still with you (Matt 6:6, 28:20). Observe the context in Matt 18:15-20.

Who was God assuring when he said, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jer 29:11)? Hint: it wasn’t Christians who were struggling with a big decision. Observe the context in Jer 29:1-3.

What did Paul intend by his infamous “Love chapter” in 1 Corinthians 13:1-13? Hint: it was a rebuke, not a Hallmark card. Observe the context in 1 Cor 11:17; 12:31b; 14:20, 40.

Every Bible passage has a context. If we lift individual verses from their context, we endanger interpretation. At best, we might still hit on biblical truth; we just look foolish to the watching world when they see that a passage doesn’t mean what we think it means. At worst, we run into error, heresy, or unbelief, or we lead others into those things. Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons use the Bible to support their doctrines, too.

Why Does Paul Mention Muzzling Oxen?

September 7, 2012 By Peter Krol

Justin Taylor at The Gospel Coalition recently posted a great article on the New Testament use of the Old Testament. He examines how Paul quotes Deut 25:4 in both 1 Cor 9:9 and 1 Tim 5:18. Moses commanded Israel not to muzzle their oxen while threshing. Paul wants people to pay their pastor. How does the first support the second?

From Paul’s use of Deut 25:4, Taylor argues two key principles to keep in mind when a New Testament author quotes an Old Testament passage:

Never ignore the original Old Testament context
Be slow to assume that the New Testament writers are quoting things out of context

These are great principles for Bible study, and Taylor ably demonstrates them from this example. Check it out.

The Greatest Enemy of Observation is Familiarity

August 30, 2012 By Peter Krol

The first step of our Bible study method is Observation. Before we’ve even crossed the line of scrimmage, however, familiarity is right there to knock us down. When we think we know something, we stop paying attention to it.

For example, how many stairs are there in your house? What color are your father’s eyes? What is your license plate number? Name three left-handed people in your acquaintance.

As Sherlock Holmes says to Dr. Watson in “A Scandal in Bohemia,” “You see, but you do not observe.”

Let me give an example. I recently taught on Genesis 31, the story where Jacob runs away from Laban without telling him. My initial thought was, “I know what happens. Why does the story have to take up 55 verses, and how am I going to teach on it?”

So I dug deeper. I stared at the text and kept reading it over and over. Things started popping out.

For example, I observed that every other verse in Gen 31:4-16 makes reference to God. Up until now, Jacob hasn’t really mentioned God a whole lot.

Then I observed that the narrator calls Laban “the Aramean” (Gen 31:20, 24). That’s funny, because he used to call him Jacob’s “mother’s brother” (for example, see Gen 29:10 where he’s called that 3 times). So the narrator doesn’t consider Laban family anymore….

Then I observed that Laban calls God to witness their agreement (Gen 31:53), but do you see which god it is? “The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” The true God called Abraham to leave the household (and gods) of his fathers (Gen 12:1). Jacob knows this, but Laban doesn’t get it. Jacob swears by the true God, the Fear of his father Isaac (Gen 31:53).

I could go on. My point is not that any single observation is the silver bullet that unlocks a Bible passage. Instead, I’m suggesting that the way forward is always to keep observing. We must be willing to stare at a text until we don’t just see, but we observe.

I’ll give one more big example. One of the most famous passages in the whole Bible is 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. It’s the great Love Chapter. We’re so familiar with it, though, that we generally miss the point.

Read it again, one verse at a time, and ask yourself, “what is he saying here?” Observe carefully, and I think you’ll see that it’s neither romantic nor encouraging. It’s actually a stinging rebuke directed toward those who don’t know how to love their neighbor.

Let’s not just see. Let’s observe.

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