Why must we study in community?

Watch the complete sermon here: https://www.bridges.church/messages/whoever-has-ears-let-them-hear-revelation-2-3/

Hey, thanks again for sending in questions related to our recent messages. We’ve just concluded our series of this is my story, hearing from all of our different elders, some of our church staff, how God has worked in their lives in really very similar ways to how he worked in the lives of people in scripture. This last week we heard from Todd, who shared how different communities of faith really helped form him spiritually, taught him God’s word, enabled, prepared him to teach God’s word to others and the difference that that has made in his life. So the question comes in this week, why do we need to do Bible study in community?

Why can’t we just do Bible study alone?

If you remember when you were a student, whether it was high school or college, some of us studied better in groups, and some of us studied better alone. And we wouldn’t say one way is right or wrong. We would say, hey, find what works best for you when you’re learning math, right? But studying the Bible is not like that. Spiritual formation takes more than just vertical knowledge up to some teacher that maybe you don’t have a relationship with or just reading the Bible alone by yourself.

Not that it’s, you know, unimportant to read the Bible by yourself, but that can’t be all that you do. The Bible itself has commands in it, you know, to teach one another, admonish one another, encourage one another. You cannot do those things alone, so you cannot, you cannot faithfully live out scripture by yourself. It is impossible. The Bible assumes us being in community with others and other, and us having communal learning.

You might be able to be taught by someone who you have no relationship with. You just listen to good podcasts or something, but you won’t be able to teach others unless there is another person there. You won’t be able to admonish others, correct. You know, rebuke, encourage. Unless there are others there and they won’t be able to do it to you.

Our spiritual formation happens in large part because other people are speaking into our lives, things that we probably wouldn’t be able to see on our own. We have blind spots. We don’t know they’re there. We read scripture, you know, on some topic, and we think, hey, aced it, got it right. No more growth to do there.

But that’s because we have a lot of blind spots. And if we have other people speaking into our lives of like, hey, actually, no, you have some work to do on this topic that you thought you had aced. Unless those people are there, no possible way for us to grow in those areas because, you know, by definition, we can’t see them. We are blind to them if they are blind spots. So it’s not like learning math.

It is the formation of us as people, which cannot happen unless we are in community. And so, like Todd did, I will plug our life groups. If you are not currently in a life group, we so encourage you to get around people who can know you, who can remember you, who can encourage you, and who, hey, at times, can correct you as well. We need it. Every single one of us needs it.

And so I pray that every single one of us has it. Thanks for the question, and we’ll see you next time.