We, as Southern Baptists, claim to be people of the book. Yet, I don’t feel that we always put the necessary work in when it comes to teaching and preaching from that book. I recently read two messages on the same passage from SBC pastors and neither one of them referred to the context in which the passage was written. There was no grammatical-historical work done on the text at all. I feel that is all too common in our denomination. When we fail to take into account the context and purpose for which a text was written, then we can make the text mean whatever we want it to mean.
I really think it is important for all believers to study biblical backgrounds to some extent. You will find that when you have at least a cursory understanding of the contexts in which Scripture was written, you will have a fuller picture and a deeper understanding of its meaning. One example of a text that is often preached free from its context is Hebrews 10:25 – “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
Many of us have heard messages (or even taught them ourselves) from this passage about how important it is for us to be a part of a local church and for us to attend church on a regular basis. Now, I am not saying that is not a valid view, but does it do service to the intent of that verse? When we investigate the reason why this verse was written, we see a deeper (and more serious) understanding of this verse.
The book of Hebrews was written to encourage Jewish Christians to stay firm in their faith. They were being persecuted by other Jews because of their devotion to Jesus. They were tempted to return to full fledged Judaism. This isn’t just a message to lapsed Christians who preferred to sleep in on Sundays or to the person who says “I don’t need to go to church to be a good Christian.” To continue meeting together may have been costly for some of the recipients of this letter, but the writer of Hebrews was trying to tell them why it was so necessary for them to keep gathering, even in the face of this pressure.
One New Testament survey (Encountering the New Testament by Elwell and Yarborough) puts it this way:
“After initial courageous reception of the gospel in the face of bitter persecution (10:32-34), they must not throw away the high level of confidence they had attained (10:35). To stand firm is salvation; to shrink back would mean defeat and destruction (10:39).” The writer of Hebrews’ “central purpose is fairly elementary: Trust in the Lord and stand your ground” (349).
Our failure to seriously engage the Scriptures on a deep level was one of the biggest reasons for the 121 Forum. My hope is that we can show a generation of younger leaders (and older ones as well) that we Baptists in Missouri can be vigorous handlers of the Scriptures and that we can bring first century meaning to bear here in the twenty-first century.
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Bill,
I really enjoyed your session at the forum this weekend. I am interested in reading through your fuller work on this discussion of “leadership” in Paul, especially the background materials that enlighten it. Let me know if that is a possibility.
Thanks,
Josh Collins
Great points Bill! I have two fears along these lines. First, that we simply assume a knowledge of the 1st Century text and jump quickly to the application of this assumed understanding. I think we must ask the question, ‘How can we ensure that those leading within our ministries actually know the text?’
Most seminary programs require entry level courses into important areas only to focus more heavily upon areas of ministry specialty and practical concern. Seminaries are under pressure as they work to attract prospective students to reduce the intimidating requirements of extensive language study, back-grounds, etc. At the end of the day, everything done w/i ministry is necessarily linked to the text of Scripture. We need to encourage the hard, tedious, and never-ending work of Biblical studies.
Second, I’m afraid that most assume that context means simply the 2 verses before and after the verse being considered. Obviously, this concern would be mute if we addressed that which is outlined above.
It goes w/o saying, however, that these fears are equally concerning whether we are discussing older leaders or younger leaders. In all reality, it seems to me that younger leaders have more responsibility in this area because we had the privilege of attending seminary during the ‘good days,’ when our older counter-parts were not provided the tools that we have come to expect. They were fed liberal challenges to the text; we were fed Sola Scriptura.