How to Apply God's Word in Community
“… ‘knowledge’ puffs up, but love builds up.”—1 Cor. 8:1
Good Bible study is not merely for ourselves. It is also meant to help build up others. As the apostle Paul notes, we can easily fool ourselves, confusing knowing about Scripture with loving God and others.
Don’t get me wrong. Studying Scripture is vital to understanding who God is, who He has created us to be, and how we have fallen short. Steeping ourselves in Scripture helps us to understand God’s unique solution outlined in the gospel as well as how it changes our lives on a personal level.
But it doesn’t take long to realize that the Christian faith is not just a “God and me” relationship. Peace with God translates into peace with others. It should extend beyond an individual relationship to corporate relationship. It shows us how to live at peace with one another when sin separates us, but it also shows us how to bring peace to others in suffering and pursue peace with God as saints together.
Our knowledge should not lead us to be puffed up with pride. Rather, it should help us to grow in humility as servants, building up the faith of others.
So how can what we learn be passed on to others to help them grow?
Connecting With Others
One way to start is simply by gathering people together to discuss Scripture. Consider pulling together your best friends but don’t stop there.
Invite others who may be younger in the faith, come from a different theological background or culture, or perhaps not even believers at all. The greater unifying factor should be a desire to know God and his Word better, a desire to be truthful and honest, a desire to let Scripture change your life.
Some things you can do with this group are:
1. Analyze
Going through the 3 step process of observation, interpretation and application together will help you to keep each other on track.
Most likely, in a varied group, there will be different strengths. Some people may be great at details and some are good in the big picture. This will keep you from getting mired in the weeds of observation or interpretation or from making applications too quickly before adequately looking at the text.
A group is also great when you get to that interpretation phase. It is so interesting how we can read the same text and understand it differently. After discussing possible viewpoints, allow each person to do some research in different commentaries and then share what you’ve learned with each other.
2. Apply
Here are five ways we can help each other apply Scripture
We can use the Scripture to pray together, thanking God for the grace He demonstrates, praising Him for His character He reveals, and/or asking Him to help us live in line with these truths.
We can use what we’ve studied to speak words that reframe, comfort, or guide one another. Sometimes others can see things in our lives that we cannot. and vice versa.
We can repent and confess sin with one another. This is where being with people you can be open and honest with is so important. Groups where we can humbly admit the hard things and our struggles with sin helps us to go beyond the surface level and help us change where we need it the most.
We can brainstorm options for how to apply the text. Our collective brainpower can help us creatively consider ways to get God’s Word into our lives and help us flesh it out with specific detail.
We can help one another discern how Scripture can be brought to bear in our lives. Studying together helps us to develop a common language based on the Word to speak into each others’ lives.
3. Assistance and Accountability
Sometimes one of the most challenging applications do not involve activity at all but a change in how I think. Friends can assist us when the going is tough or I am tempted to turn my back or revert to old ways by reminding me of what we have learned together and helping me get back on track.
Sometimes friends can also provide accountability to stick to our resolutions to turn away from evil or to pursue good. Even better, we can seek to live out God’s Word together. We need one another to be able to stick to our plans and as we learn new ways of living.
Beyond Ourselves
I started writing this post because I wanted to not only practice abiding in Christ but also to begin letting what I have learned in my personal study flow out into the way I speak to others. I don’t want to merely study God’s Word for my own benefit. I want it to change me so that it flavors what I think and how I speak to others so they too can live out God’s Story.
I want to be an agent to help others connect the dots.
But this means I need to be in this process myself, doing the same thing first in my own life. It needs to come alive for me. Though I need not be perfect in practice, it should start seeping into my own way of thinking so that it can more naturally influence what I say to others.
Not only that, I have found a side benefit to speaking God’s Word to others: in my attempt to put into words what I have learned, I am also challenged personally. The truths become clearer as I articulate them. The mirror is once again put up: am I living up to the same Word I am sharing with others?
Here are some ways to start incorporating the fruit of your study into your conversations:
Make it a habit to talk about what you are learning with friends. Dare to go to a deeper level of sharing.
Pray for a friend using the passage of Scripture and then share it with them in your next conversation, or send your prayer through a text or email.
Briefly weave what you have learned into your conversations with your children. Of course, be age-appropriate as you do so. This helps them to begin to develop the language of Scripture in your home as “normal.”
Use what you have learned to develop a Bible study you can share with the women you disciple. Take them through Scripture with you! This will always challenge you to go even deeper as you prepare.
Consider how this might minister to someone who is not yet a believer. They too have troubles and trials. Is there something in the passages you have studied that can you can bring to bear as you walk with them?
Just as Paul preached the good news to Titus, he now tells Titus to “declare” what he has learned to others, with the confidence that comes from the grace of God in the gospel (Titus 2:15). He is to teach them how to teach others. That is how the good news of grace is spread.
This is also how we are to live in this world today. You and I have been given an incredible message. Let us learn it, live it, love it, and leave a legacy of truth to others today.
It’s the best gift we can give.
