Unpacking Hard Things

Some things are just hard. Marble countertops. Knowing what to get my wife for her birthday. My thick head when it comes to the pursuit of my own pleasure.

These pale in comparison to some of the issues we tackle that we come across in our study. Understanding election. Divorce and remarriage. Will the rapture happen before, during or after the tribulation period? Will there even be a rapture? A tribulation? And, what about the Kingdom? Now? or Later?

"We have much to say about this but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil." Heb. 5:11-14

Notice, the author says the problem is not that the material is tough. It is tough. The problem is mature believers don't try to tackle them. We have become "slow to learn." As a result we have not trained ourselves to distinguish between good and evil; and implied, do good.

We cannot shy away from tough issues. Even the ones that are emotionally charged. And few are more emotional powder kegs than divorce and remarriage.

As we get together next week, please pray that we can all separate ourselves from our opinions. I appreciate all of you and what you feel and think. However, when we get to tough topics like this it is very important to let the words mean what they mean. Definitions provide firm boundaries for interpretation. Feelings are good. But facts provide boundaries in which our feelings can roam.

The cultural context in which they were written is important, too. When you do your study of the passages that pertain take the time to learn the context in which they were written and received.

The more work we all do in advance the more progress we will make in the hour we have.

Please don't come loaded for bear. Come asking good questions. I have always appreciated much more the good questions people ask me then the good answers they give me. And the best questions are the ones that the asker sincerely doesn't know for sure what the answer is.

I like that we're diving in to some tough water. This issue has been argued even for centuries before Jesus walked the earth. We'll argue a little bit ourselves, too. Remember, our priority to to walk away united.