What Should We Then Do?

As Christians, what are our responsibilities to God, to His Word, to His Son and to each other?

1. We need to know the Scripture. We don't have to memorize a whole bunch of verses, although knowing some in context would help. We need to know what the Bible is about and what it teaches about what it is about. The Bible is about God. It is His revelation of His character, His love fore His creation and His plan for its redemption.

When we read scripture, we need to discern its deeper, ultimate meaning. It is not helpful to quote many verses on a given subject, draw a conclusion about some attitude of God and form a faith system on them. That's what heretics and cults do.

For instance, if I read 2 Kings 9:24 "Then Jehu drew his bow and shot Joram between the shoulders." I cannot conclude that I should use a bow and arrow to shoot somebody. Nor does it mean that if I want somebody dead, if I use a bow and arrow it's OK. That's ridiculous, right?

Well, the Scripture says it and so if I am to follow Scripture I must do what this passage says, mustn't I? No, you mustn't. That is out of context.

How about Deuteronomy 21:15, "If a man has two wives and he loves one but not the other, and both bear him sons..." That means I can have more than one wife (as long as I don't want to be a deacon, since 1 Timothy puts the Kibosh on that). The Bible says it, so I can do it.

What we really need to do is to discover how these verses (and all of the other verses of Scripture) reveal God's character. How do they relate to His love for His creation? What do they tell us about His plan for our redemption? If you cannot find the answers to those questions in the Scripture you are reading, you are misinterpreting it.

Go back to school, dump your previously learned mistaken concepts and learn what the Bible is really about. Otherwise, forget it.

2.  We must see people the way God sees them. Without Christ He sees them as lost. With Christ He sees them as saved for eternity. This should be our passion. We must care about them the way Christ cared for us. He died for us. Are we willing to die in order to propagate the gospel?

What about the tribes in the deepest Amazon who have never heard about Christ?

What about them? Why haven't they heard? Have you told them about Jesus? If not, why not?

We have Internet, radio, TV, airplanes, boats, cars, trains and a myriad of other ways we could be reaching them to tell them about Jesus. Why haven't we? Weren't we told to do so?

3. We should have a passion to train new Christians. They are His babes, and He has charged us with the responsibility to help grow. Do you think "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it." is a reference just to physical children? Does it not apply to those who are just now saved, who know only the milk of the Word?

We should also have a passion for further training for those who are more mature in Christ. They need and want to grow, too. Don't worry. You will never train them in everything they need to be trained in, even if you started tomorrow and kept on until they die. There is ALWAYS more to learn to do for Christ.

4.  We should encourage membership in a local church. It is good to become a part of the family known as the "universal church," but to be effective ministers for Christ (and you DO know that you are a minister for Christ, don't you? If not, you need to get some of that training I was talking about in the section 3), we need to plug in to a local congregation.

You might think you can worship God anywhere, and you can. But you won't. You might think you can serve God anywhere, and you can. But you won't. Besides, the Word of God extols corporate worship, and you can't do that by yourself, no matter where you are.

5.  We must be leading people to serve in the local church (this also goes back to number 3). Christianity is not a spectator sport. People who are committed to being involved will be able to fill the needs of the church. We need to involve people in leadership, in music, in Bible teaching, in A/V ministry, in children's ministry and any other place there is a need.

6. People need to be led to take part in worship. We meet on Sundays for the very reason of worshiping God and celebrating the resurrection of His Son. Sunday worship should not be a time when we perform, either for ourselves or for the pastor. We should be celebrating Christ. Otherwise, we might as well go back to the Old Covenant way of doing things and forget about being religious.

7. We must call leaders who understand the true meaning of the Word of God, who are committed to serving Christ and His church and who set an example of dependability that people can follow. We must choose leaders of right doctrine. We must select leaders who plan for the advancement of the Kingdom of God in the church. We must find leaders who can coordinate and evaluate the functions of the church.

8.  We must invoke and follow the Holy Spirit as He gives us proper interpretation of the Word, as He leads us to effective leadership, as He gives us compassionate hearts and as He leads us to giving the best we have for our King.

Those are some of the things we must do as Christians and as members of the Body of Christ.