This past fall, I travelled to Western Seminary for a week intensive. During my time there, the President of the seminary spoke on the “goal” of seminary. Referencing Paul’s words in 1 Timothy 1, he challenged us with the idea that Scripture is not meant to simply inform but to transform.

This was life-giving and perspective-shaping for me – to be reminded that God had a bigger purpose for my education…

Our study of God’s Word is meant to have a direct impact on our lives and the lives of those around us.

Amen.

But the truth is that often, I don’t really view God’s Word that way. Often times, I don’t feel a sense of responsibility or mission to pass on the truth that I’m learning to people around me.

And I don’t think I’m alone.

I’ll never forget hearing a missionary talk at a missions conference about the time he spent overseas training house church leaders. He commented that during his 14 hour days training local pastors and leaders, he rarely saw their eyes. The reason was that these men and women took notes the entire time, feverishly trying to write down every word this American, seminary-trained missionary was telling them about the Bible. Why?

Because for these house church leaders, they knew that they were responsible to teach everything they were learning to their families and local congregations. There was a burden – a holy weight and responsibility – on them to not let God’s Word stop with them but share it and teach it to everyone they could. Wow.

That’s a different picture of church.

My point is not to bash but to own and confess our lack of, in my opinion, Biblically faithful response to God’s Word (2 Cor. 9:11).

With blessing comes responsibility. That message is clear all throughout Scripture. We are meant to be a conduit not a sponge (Psalm 67:1-2), but how often do we approach coming to learn from God’s Word in this way? I think most of the time, we approach God’s Word with no intention of telling anyone else what we learn.

Some questions to think about – Who do you tell what God is teaching you? Who are you learning for?

If it’s tough to answer those questions, it might be because we are approaching God’s Word only as consumers and not as reproducers.

The truth is that from a Biblical perspective, I’m not just going to seminary for me, but for my family, friends, and others whom God will allow me to influence. And I’m not just going to church for me. And you aren’t just going to church for you. When we understand this, it changes things.

May God help us to approach these contexts and others saying, “God, what do you want to do with me?”, rather than just the consumeristic cry “feed me” or worse “entertain me”…

May God align our hearts to His. And may we be moved to not let His Word stop with us.