A challenge to those who preach and teach:
The importance of "context" is well known when it comes to reading and interpreting the Scriptures faithfully and passing on that insight through the folly of preaching/teaching. The pillars of context are the historical, the literary, the theological/philosophical, and the sociological. But there is one that gets little attention - I'll call it the "spiritual context".
Consider the letter to the church in Colossae.
Paul says to these young Christians,
"...from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you."
This letter, this teaching, was written in the context of fervent prayer. The apostle Paul was writing to people he was in constant prayer for. All that he taught, all that he commanded, was based on the foundation of ceaseless communication with God. He would not have it otherwise.
How encouraging for these new Christians to read such a thing. How encouraging it is when someone tells us that they are praying for us.
There is a spiritual context to these epistles which is instructive for teaching today. It is as simple and as profound as prayer to God on behalf of those who are being taught. If someone wants to be a preacher/teacher, they ought to first be a pray-er.
The importance of "context" is well known when it comes to reading and interpreting the Scriptures faithfully and passing on that insight through the folly of preaching/teaching. The pillars of context are the historical, the literary, the theological/philosophical, and the sociological. But there is one that gets little attention - I'll call it the "spiritual context".
Consider the letter to the church in Colossae.
Paul says to these young Christians,
"...from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you."
This letter, this teaching, was written in the context of fervent prayer. The apostle Paul was writing to people he was in constant prayer for. All that he taught, all that he commanded, was based on the foundation of ceaseless communication with God. He would not have it otherwise.
How encouraging for these new Christians to read such a thing. How encouraging it is when someone tells us that they are praying for us.
There is a spiritual context to these epistles which is instructive for teaching today. It is as simple and as profound as prayer to God on behalf of those who are being taught. If someone wants to be a preacher/teacher, they ought to first be a pray-er.
No comments:
Post a Comment