CHAPTER TWELVE

WHY LEARN IN THE CHURCH?

The institution of the church is a necessary,
helpful, God-given, and God-ordained means
of spiritual growth and development.
It is meant to be there—and it is meant to be used.

Alister E. McGrath

You've probably never heard of men such as William Friedman, Frank Rowlett, and Arthur Levenson, but they made dramatic contributions which helped to win World War II. They were cryptanalysts, and their work as codebreakers was unheralded and virtually unknown for fifty years afterward. Without their efforts, the war would have lasted much longer.

For instance, the turning point in the Pacific theater was the naval Battle of Midway. The Americans knew from intercepted messages that the Japanese were going to attack, but they didn't know where. Many thought the target would be the Aleutian Islands off the Alaskan coast. Their suspicions were confirmed when a Japanese fleet was seen steaming Alaska-ward. But American Admiral Chester Nimitz gambled and kept the Pacific fleet's only three aircraft carriers and his main force near Midway Island, primarily upon clues given to him by a handful of codebreakers at nearby Pearl Harbor.

As it turned out, the force sailing to the Aleutians was a decoy. Without the information given to him by the cryptanalysts, Nimitz would have split his fleet and almost certainly lost Midway and the Hawaiian Islands, leaving the West Coast of the U.S. without any outer defenses. Although few battles were as consequential as Midway, the outcome of many others was also decided by what was learned from the codebreakers.

The codebreakers of all the Allied countries in World War II were successful because they learned from one another. U.S. and British codebreakers worked intimately, sharing keys or potential keys to deciphering a code as soon as they were discovered. Even within each Allied government, no one could crack a code by himself. Not even the head of American cryptanalysis, William Friedman, who has been called by historians the most brilliant cryptanalyst ever, worked alone. Friedman was part of a team that collaborated for years and learned to interpret the meanings of encrypted foreign messages together.¹

God has not spoken to us cryptically in the sixty-six books which make up the Bible. Any person who has the Holy Spirit (that is, any Christian) has both the ability to understand the Scriptures and the right to interpret them for himself. This is taught in 1 John 2:27—“But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you.”

However, the New Testament also makes clear that God has given teachers to the church. We further know that every believer has much to learn about our infinite God and His written Word. And though we have the right to interpret the Bible individually, we also have the responsibility to interpret it properly. Christians have been given the Holy Spirit, who opens our eyes to know God through Jesus Christ and to understand the Scriptures, but we all have a tendency toward subjectivity. In other words, despite the competence the Spirit provides to all believers for knowing God and His Word, He doesn't grant complete knowledge of God to us or an infallible understanding of Scripture.

Because of this natural weakness, there is much about the Lord and His ways, His will for our lives, and the Bible which will seem like an encrypted enigma to us without the help of some fellow “code-breakers.” The codebreakers from whom God intends us to learn are our Christian brothers and sisters in our local church.

The Bible gives several reasons why you should learn in the church.

THE CHURCH IS “THE PILLAR AND GROUND OF THE TRUTH” OF GOD

In 1 Timothy 3:15 the Spirit of God guided the apostle Paul to describe the church as “the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” The church, including the expressions of the church locally, is like a pillar that supports something above it. And that which the church lifts up is the truth of God. God created the church and gave it the responsibility to elevate His Word. So anyone who is not learning in the church distances himself from the only pillar in the world which upholds the indispensable truth of God.

While writing this chapter I had a conversation with a young man who had grown up in the church, but had stopped attending. His college philosophy class had influenced him to consider other religions, and he began questioning some things he'd always believed. Another man from the church and I reminded him of the uniqueness of Jesus Christ and His claims. Unlike other religions, we noted, which are built on principles that can stand independently of the religion's founder, Christianity rises or falls upon Christ. We discussed with him the singularity and exclusivity of the message of the Christian church and the factual evidences—chiefly the resurrection of Christ—to support its claims. As he heard the truth that God has revealed for us in Scripture, the clouds of doubt began to dissipate. His help came when he was willing to learn in the church, “the pillar and ground of the truth.”

The world is not going to uphold the truth of God for you. It is in a faithful, Bible-teaching church that you will be taught the truth—the truth about yourself, the truth about God, the truth about your need to know God through Jesus Christ, the truth about living most wisely and abundantly, and the truth about Judgment and eternity.

In Hebrews 5:12 the author admonished his readers because so many of the things of God were still beyond their comprehension. He wrote, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.” Maybe you are like these Christians—you've been a believer for quite a while, but you haven't learned the things of God as you should. You would have to admit, “I understand some of the Bible, but much of it reads like a message in code.”

For instance, do you know what the gospel is; that is, could you write it plainly and concisely in a letter to a friend who asked, “How can I become a Christian?” Do you know the biblical evidences of salvation? Do you know how to pray? Do you know what your spiritual gift is? Do you know the attributes of God? Do you know the great doctrines of salvation—election, regeneration, justification, sanctification, glorification? Or are all these things as code words to you?

No one knows these things naturally, and the world doesn't teach you about them. The world doesn't even use many of these words. As J. I. Packer put it in the title of a book, these are God's Words, they have to do with eternal life, and the fact that only the church talks about them underscores the reason you need to learn in the church.

The church is a tainted trustee of these things, but it does have the truth. It is an imperfect messenger, but it has a perfect message. The church of Jesus Christ is the pillar which proclaims the message of the Man who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6, italics added). Stand afar from the pillar of God's truth and you will likely stand far from understanding His truth well.

CHRISTIAN DISCIPLESHIP IS MORE THAN ACADEMICS

Some will say, “I don't need the church to get the truth of God. I can study the Bible on my own. I can learn from Bible teachers on Christian radio, TV, and tapes. I can take correspondence courses or use my computer to study theology online. I can do a number of things like these without learning at a local church.” Not long ago someone who had stopped coming to church told me that she was doing fine spiritually because through radio she listened to seven sermons a day. Others have informed me they don't need to learn in the church because they go to seminary classes every day. Surely anyone who takes in such a torrential amount of truth doesn't need to learn from the church, does he?

For starters, I wonder if those who neglect the local church for these reasons ever hear a radio sermon or seminary lecture on Hebrews 10:25 about “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some.”

Additionally, there's more to discipleship than the intellectual part. The “academic side” is essential; after all, the only way to be transformed is “by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2). To grow in Christlikeness we must hear and process the truth. But Christian discipleship is more than mastering information.

Paul writes about this in Colossians 1:28 as he explains the purpose of his own ministry: “And we proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, that we may present every man complete in Christ (NASB).” As with Paul, our goal is not merely “teaching,” that is, transmitting facts about Christ and the Bible from one mind or notebook to another. Rather, teaching takes place “that [so that, for this purpose] we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” And by learning in the local church you learn more broadly and experientially than you learn from Christian radio, tapes, and so forth, although they can be extremely valuable supplemental sources. Learning in the church allows for dialogue, modeling, hands-on practice, and other means of learning which must accompany and complement the academic side of discipleship.

This is why it's both unwise and unbiblical to think of a minister on radio or television as your pastor. The only way he can pastor you is by talking to you. As important as solid teaching is, and as much as you may enjoy his style, pastoring is more than teaching. He could never be the kind of example to the flock (including you) that Scripture commands pastors to be (1 Peter 5:2–3), for you never see or hear him except in the artificial environment of the media. He could not say, as did the apostle Paul, “The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:9, italics added). He could never take you and others he “pastors” with him as he witnesses or ministers in hospitals and homes. Nor could you ever watch him apply the truth to his own life, especially in the day-to-day situations of which life is made. He could not hold you accountable through spiritual discipline. Learning in the church is always richer and better balanced than learning alone or through media.

If you are a serious-minded student of Scripture, of course you can get more thorough and concentrated teaching in a short time if you attend seminary than you are likely to get in the same length of time in a church. That's what seminaries are for. A seminary curriculum may require more time from you in one day than you would normally give to the church in a week. Seminaries are able to teach on a higher academic level than churches, for a church must often teach both well and poorly educated people at the same time. Seminaries can also require students to read books, write papers, take tests, and so on. But we still need to learn in the church, because Christian learning is more than just acquiring data.

GOD HAS PLACED GIFTED PEOPLE IN THE CHURCH TO TEACH YOU

The New Testament passages on spiritual gifts tell us that God has placed gifted people in the church to teach us. Notice the term “pastors and teachers” in Ephesians 4:11–12: “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” God has given gifted people to the church to equip the church, to do the work of the church, and to build up the church.

Romans 12:7, another spiritual gifts text, says that some within the church have the gift of teaching. The text refers to “he who teaches.” Not all teachers are pastors, or even “official” teachers with classes in the church. But God has placed in the church people with the gift of teaching so that He might teach us through them.

Jonathan Edwards wrote about how those who are not teachers should respond to those who are:

If God have [sic] made it the business of some to be teachers, it will follow, that he hath made it the business of others to be learners; for teachers and learners are correlates, one of which was never intended to be without the other. God hath never made it the duty of some to take pains to teach those who are not obliged to take pains to learn.²

Not only can and should we learn in the church from the teachers God places there, but we can learn from all Christians within the church. Although just three chapters earlier Paul wrote of people in the church who were specially gifted by God to teach, in Romans 15:14 he says to the entire church body: “Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.” Haven't you ever learned from someone in the church who doesn't have nearly as much Bible knowledge or Christian experience as you but who has a different spiritual gift that enables him to see things you cannot? Haven't you learned from a newly converted Christian whose freshness and excitement for the things of God rebuked you for growing complacent spiritually? You have to learn in the church to experience these unexpected teachable moments from the Spirit of God through the family of God.

But while realizing that we can learn from everyone within the church, don't forget that God gives certain people within the church gifts to teach the rest of us. These people love to teach. They revel in the research beforehand. They thrive in the theological discussions afterward. They warn us of false teaching. They guide us in the things of God. They build up our souls. Teachers in the church are treasures from God, and we reject God's gifts if we don't learn in the church.

GOD'S GREATEST COMMANDMENT IS TO LOVE HIM WITH ALL YOUR MIND

What does God want most from you? Jesus answered that when someone asked Him, “What's the most important of all God's commandments?” In Mark 12:30 He replied, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” What God wants most is your love. More than sacrifice, more than obedience, and certainly more than money, God wants your love. For if He has your love, He has everything else.

But notice that one of the ways you show your love to God is by loving Him “with all your mind.” Some professing Christians don't like that. They are willing, say, to love Him with all their strength. As indefatigable as ants, these folks will serve more faithfully than anyone else in the church. But they want to expend little mental energy loving God. And yet, to love God with every part of ourselves must include love from the head as well as from the heart and the hands.

Loving God with all your mind means loving Him with what you mentally initiate. Your mind is like a garden. The things you mentally initiate are the plants you purposefully put in your garden, the things that you go out of your way to bring into your mind. A wise person will turn to the place where Holy Scripture is proclaimed so that the truth of God will be planted in his mental furrows. Further, you can receive not only biblical teaching from godly men and women within the church, but also experienced counsel on seeding your mind with Christian biography, theology, spiritual classics, tapes, music, etc.

You also express love for God with your mind by what you mentally cultivate. Both weeds and good plants will grow in your thought-patch. If you want a successful garden you must learn to cultivate the right plants. Otherwise you'll have a tangled, overgrown confusion.

One way to till the right plants, that is, to develop the thoughts and thought-patterns that grow in God-loving ways, is to learn in a place that continually cultivates Godward thoughts. The church does that. The church teaches us: “Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things” (Philippians 4:8, italics added). If you aren't learning in the church you are certainly cultivating mental weeds that choke out love for God.

Third, you love God with your mind by what you mentally tolerate. You don't want to permit anything and everything that wanders or sneaks into the garden of your gray matter to remain. Just as you'd try to keep certain birds, rabbits, and other animals out of your backyard garden, so you shouldn't tolerate harmful things in your mind. You show your love for God by what you refuse to think about as well as by what you do think about. The truth of Scripture learned in the church will stand guard against those enemies that would ruin your garden. Nearly every week of my life God uses a word from His Word that I heard on Sunday to chase away thoughts that were not consistent with loving Him with all my mind. God wants us to devote our minds to things that increase the harvest of our love for Him, and learning in the church helps us do that.

LEARNING IN THE CHURCH HELPS PROTECT YOU FROM ERRORS

I think it is a grave error to insist that individual Christians, guided by the Holy Spirit, cannot interpret Scripture for themselves. (Recall 1 John 2:27.) We are not dependent upon the church to tell us what the Bible means. But this is not the full picture. The balancing truth to this is that if we do not learn with the church we are likely to drift into erroneous, individualistic interpretations of Scripture. Increasingly we will find ourselves at odds with the established teaching of the Bible and more frequently objecting to others, “Well, that's your interpretation!”

Ultimately we can only speak for ourselves, so when we advocate the meaning of a particular verse of Scripture there is a sense in which such an accusation is always true. On the other hand, there is only one true interpretation of any passage, even though it may have countless applications. And in most verses in the Bible the meaning is unmistakably clear and there has been near unanimity in church history on it. Learning in the church tends to guide us better toward this meaning and steer us from an individualistic understanding of the passage.

This has been part of the ministry of the church since the beginning. In Acts 18:24–26 is an illustration of how a good man learned from the church and thereby became an even better servant of God.

Now a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John. So he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.

Apollos “had been instructed in the way of the Lord” while in Alexandria. Moreover, surely through much additional study of his own, he became “mighty in the Scriptures.” And yet, despite his brilliance, education, preaching experience, spiritual fervency, and personal efforts to grasp the truth, he still held an inaccurate understanding of some key matters related to “the way of God.” Only when he was willing to learn from a couple in the church at Ephesus did he escape from the error he was inadvertently promoting. If someone as gifted and zealous as Apollos could misunderstand important doctrines without the teaching ministry of the church, so can we.

APPLYING WHAT YOU KNOW

Will you admit that you need to learn in the church and that you can learn in the church?

Will you participate in the most important way of learning in the church by listening to the preaching of God's Word?

Will you learn in the church by participating in a study group, such as a Sunday school class, discipleship class, Bible study, prayer group, etc.?

Will you begin now?

None of us has all insight, all understanding, or all spiritual gifts. As a result many of the terms, doctrines, meanings, and applications of Scripture may remain indecipherable without the “codebreakers” God has provided in the church. Are you wise enough and humble enough to learn from them?