Leaving Beyond – Grounded In Scripture

“We are to study, pray, and obey; God gives no secret knowledge to absolve our diligence.” ~ Richard Baxter

God has gifted Biblically qualified elders to proclaim His Word, but they do not have a special anointing that gives them access to secret knowledge withheld from you or me. They do not have new knowledge hidden from the church over the last two thousand years. God has gifted them to teach faithfully. He has not called them to bring new knowledge that would require us to trust whatever they say based on phrases like, “God told me” or “God gave me this word for us today.”

That God has been so gracious to gift the church with Biblically qualified elders who can teach and who are faithful to study and exposit His Word does not allow you or me to be lazy students of Scripture, nor can we leave discernment solely to others.

There are many false teachers as well. How can we know the difference? We must learn to study our Bible—faithfully, according to what the text says and means—so that we may rightly apply it to our lives. When anyone introduces a doctrine contrary to the text, we must be able to discern truth from lies, and even more so, truth from “almost truth.”

Friend, in a healthy church, there are Christians who have studied more and know more about the text than we do. If they are faithfully handling God’s Word, and it is evident in their life that they are being changed by it, we can learn from them.

But today, we don’t just learn from those in our local church. We now have access to many others who faithfully exposit God’s Word. Among them are wolves and false teachers. Again, we must be discerning—not by feelings or impressions. That is not discernment. We must be Biblically discerning.

When others are more knowledgeable of the text, we must be careful not to view them as having some “super-anointing.” Consider this: if God had given them a super-anointing with secret knowledge, how could we be held responsible for being deceived? If His Word is the sufficient and objective standard to which we are all held, then how could He hold us accountable if He had granted them secret knowledge? They don’t have it, though some love to convince the naive and gullible that they do.

We are responsible for studying our Bible so that we may not be deceived by others. We don’t get to be lazy, nor can we lay our responsibility on those who are faithful to study and exercise Biblical discernment. We can learn from them, but we cannot transfer our responsibility to them.

Open your Bible and study. If you feel like you will never grasp the text, and others seem to be talking past you, that is okay for a short time. But if, years or decades later, you remain at the same pace, could the problem not be them—but you? Have you decided you can’t understand, so you don’t try? Do you trust God to fulfill His promise to help you understand the text? If so, be faithful. He is faithful. Study! There will be a reward for your diligence. Keep studying. We cannot grow apart from the Word. You’d be surprised how many of those who seem to know the Word so well feel very inadequate themselves. The difference is they keep studying and do not allow doubts about their own ability to hinder them from obeying God.

Grace and Peace, y’all

Soli Deo Gloria

April J. Buchanan