The Leadership Team answers your questions.
(We apologize that technical difficulties degraded the quality of today’s recording)
Q1 (1:19). If we look at 1 Cor. 3:6 it says “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.” This verse seems (to me) to be applying different roles of equal value to members of the church; particularly outreach and discipleship. Are all followers of Christ required to do both? If this is so, then why does Paul only address “planting the seed” as his role?
Q2 (10:14). Why are there some churches that discipline their members for living in sin and yet others do not. Why? Also, if a person can be disciplined by a church for sinning and Christians struggle with sin all the time, how do you determine when a sin is “bad enough” to discipline? For example, there are sins like not reading your Bible or not praying or not giving to the Lord yet I never hear of anyone ever being disciplined for these things. Almost every incident I know of relates to immorality of some kind. Why is this?
Q3 (21:24). Periodically when reading in the New Testament, I come across a passage in which the writer cites an Old Testament passage that seems to have no connection whatsoever to what the writer is talking about. For example, in the following passages, the author specifically says that an O.T. event occurred to fulfill or complete a N.T. action. However, it seems like the writer is just pulling a passage out of the air. What am I missing? Three examples of this happening are found in Matthew 2:15, Acts 2:15-21 (specifically v.19-21 since that did not happen yet Peter said it was happening then), and Ephesians 4:8.
Q4 (45:09). Can you answer three questions I have from Ephesians 6:1-4? (1) Does v. 1 infer that kids who are not Christians (“in the Lord”) are not expected to obey their parents like Christian kids are expected to? Does this create a different standard for Christian vs. non-Christian families? (2) Does v. 3 mean that kids who obey the Lord are guaranteed a long life as a reward of obedience to their BTW. I heard this on TV the other day. The preacher said it is the way God marks the believer and (3) In v. 4 it says that “Fathers are not to provoke children to anger.” When can I know if the father is sinning by provoking the child vs. the child being wrong for getting angry? How do you know who is in the wrong?
Q5 (answer will be posted on future blogs). Is sex during an engagement period (two virgins, inevitably moving toward marriage) sin? Do Biblical condemnations of fornication or adultery apply to the betrothal period? I can think of plenty of arguments from wisdom, but I am having trouble finding Scripture to address the specific period of engagement/betrothal.
Submit a future GraceTalk question.
Leave a Reply