3. The person wrongly equates information with discipleship.
Ultimately, discipleship is about transformation and not information or behavioral modification.
While the Lord may use the careful explanation of a historical context or a word in the original language to melt a heart, information alone does not transform us. Teaching that is truly deep pushes me to love the Lord more deeply, to know Him more fully, and to obey Him more gladly.
4. The person has a “preacher crush.”
The apostle Paul rebuked the believers at Corinth for being unspiritual because of their loyalty to him or Apollos over their loyalty to Christ. In essence, some were saying, “I prefer when he teaches because he really helps me … .” And Paul reminds them that the messenger is nothing but a servant of the One who does the transforming.
In our day of podcasts, radio and Internet messages, it is even easier for people in our churches to develop a “preacher crush” where they hold up a pastor, often one not at their church, as the standard of depth.
In another passage, the apostle Paul told the young pastor Timothy that “a time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear something new” (II Timothy 4:3).
In some cases, pastors teach anemic messages. In other cases, people have a distorted view of depth, longing for something beyond the foundation of our faith. May God give our churches pastors who preach and teach the Word in season and out. And may we lead our people to continually stand on the foundation of our faith, the gospel of our Lord.
