Comment Highlights for Week of April 10, 2011
As I mentioned in the first post in this series, I want to highlight some of the comments that have been left on my blog posts during the past week. Hopefully, this will give more visibility to some of the reasons that I love blogging – dialog and interaction.
Once again, there were so many great comments on this blog that it was next to impossible to choose only a few to highlight. Next to impossible… but not impossible. So, here are a few comments that I think more people should read.
Marissa asks some good questions in a comment that she left on an older post called “Women Serving in Context.” Here is part of her comment:
Do you think it’s really possible to submit to someone even though we disagree with them – if we are disagreeing with them because they’re wrong? After all, if the person in question is promoting sin, for example, let’s say the elders of a fellowship start teaching the church to steal, God would never expect us to submit to them or to their teaching when we know that what they want us to submit to is sinful.
Hence, the Bible only expects God’s people to submit to those who are living godly lives, we’d be crazy to submit to everyone, when we know that not everyone in the fellowship is preaching truth. God never told us to bow down to error.
And, in a comment on the same post, Arthur explains how he and his wife to submit to those with whom they disagree:
As far as the dealing with differences issue which IS the point of the post, we have over the course of the last year met with the church in all sorts of context. In some the women cover and do not teach. In others, where we are currently for example, the women don’t cover and do some of the teaching. While my wife and I are of one mind on this matter we still gladly fellowship with others of a different view even though we consider this an important issue because after all they are my brothers and sisters in Christ. What unites us trumps what doesn’t. My wife feels free to cover and likewise elects not to teach but we don’t break fellowship with those who believe otherwise.
Aussie John left a great comment and example on my post “People recognize shallow relationships among the church“:
The survey speaks volumes about the reasons why people “attend churchâ€.
One statement was particularly interesting to me: “A welcoming community makes it a positive experience for the entire congregation and visitorsâ€, reminding me of a time when my wife and I were given the opportunity to be with a Greek speaking congregation.
We understood very little, of what was said, but we left that meeting blessed more than ever before,or since,with a sense of Jesus Christ in the midst. Without doubt, they were family whose genuine love for one another,and for we, whom they had never met,was palpable.
That was a one off experience, of what the centurion Cyrus was speaking of when he said, “I cannot understand these people of the Way. They love one another, even before they meetâ€.
I also really appreciate this comment by Scott on my post “Which book of the New Testament do you wish you understood better?“:
Revelation.
I taught through this book over a period of a year and a half from a dispensational perspective. About halfway through I began to wonder if this was the right approach to the book, but it is all I was ever taught. Studying it for myself opened up new questions for me.
I have studied the various views but have not had enough time to really consider where I land. So I’d like to really understand Revelation better.