“Be Teachable. You’re Not Always Right.” – Toby Mac

While we did not talk about Toby Mac today in church, I thought about his words throughout the lessons of the  day.

One of my first thoughts, however, was about a passage in Luke that I bet I’ve read 10,000 times before and yet, I have failed to catch a phrase that took on new meaning for me today. In Bible Study, we were talking about the paralyzed man in the Book of Luke. His friends wanted Jesus to heal him. The friends laboriously sought a passageway through which they could bring the paralyzed man closer to Jesus. Ultimately, they settled on a plan to climb to the top of a roof and slowly lower the lame man from that roof.

I’ve heard that story many times before today, but I never before caught the following phrase just right:

 When Jesus saw THEIR faith, [not the paralyzed man’s faith but the faith of his friends], Jesus said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” Luke 5:20

Say what?

When Jesus saw the faith of the lame man’s friends…

I never quite caught that interpretation before today, and that was a message worth getting out of bed an hour earlier and attending Bible Study to hear. Today my church taught me to hear something I had never heard before

Jesus healed the paralyzed man because he was in the company of people who had faith in Jesus.

Although I’m a big talker when I finally get out among people, I tend to be a loner. On many Sundays, I have rationalized that I can read my Bible and worship at home. But worshipping at home alone [if I actually follow through and do it] is not the same as worshipping in a church.

A Church Is A Body of People

I have several weaknesses, and one of my infirmities is that I am easily discouraged and I easily become depressed. One of my more paralyzing bouts with depression was just before my daughter’s wedding. In the nick of time, my spirit improved. I have often told people, “I picked up my bed and walked.”

With those words, I was alluding to another story about another lame man who was healed by Jesus. But I missed the point of that story, too. In saying that I had “picked up my bed and walked,” I was selfishly suggesting that I had control over my well-being. I was suggesting that I was the healer–that I, by my self-control and my movement toward self-improvement, had changed my life. I was suggesting that by my own strength, I had beat depression.

I wonder if the lame man who followed the challenge of Jesus in the Book of John said: “I picked up my bed and walked,” forgetting that he could only do so by the power of Jesus, The message in Luke is different. Jesus says that he was healing the paralyzed man in Luke because of the faith of his friends. That passage suggests to me that association with other people is important. “No Man Is an Island.” Had I stayed at home today, I would not have learned what I did. I would have continued to operate with the part of the story that I had assumed was the full story.

I was taught several other things in Bible Study today.

For instance, the conversation between Jesus and Pontius Pilate was mentioned, and I was allowed to hear with fresh ears the question that Pilate asked of Jesus, “What Is Truth?” John 18:38.

The class discussed that truth itself might vary, according to who perceives it. What we have come to believe is truth might be no more than opinion. The things that we have decided are black-and-white issues might be vast pools of grayness–issues that might require another look.

As we considered the doctrines and beliefs of the masses, I was reminded that the popularity of a belief system does not mean that a belief is truth. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven,….” Matthew 7:21.

Although the Sermon on the  Mount reminds me of many of my own weaknesses and failngs, it is also a warning that the herd may be heading in the wrong direction:

Broad is the Way that Leadeth to Destruction

¹³ Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

Narrow is the Way to Life and Few Find It

¹⁴ Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Beware of False Prophets

¹⁵ Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

¹⁶ Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 7

¹⁷ Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. Matthew 7: 13-17.

Today. I was reminded in church that it is a good thing to continuously question my half-truths and to continue to learn. I was reminded that there are people around me who can add to my knowledge of the Bible.

Most importantly, however, I was taught that I need a church–a body of people– to teach me new things and to support me as I learn.