DAY 3 OF 7
Yesterday I asked you to slow down and simply look at what Paul actually said in Ephesians 4:11–16. Today we're going to take what you noticed and do something with it.
We're going to ask questions.
Not questions just for the sake of questioning something. I mean the questions that come when you look honestly at the Word and realize, “I'm not sure I understand that yet.”
That's not a bad place to be. That's often where good study begins.
Start with the observations you wrote down yesterday.
What caught your attention? What surprised you? Was there something Paul said that you realized you had never really thought about before?
Maybe you've heard words like equip, ministry, unity, or maturity many times, but when you stop and think about it, you're not really sure what Paul means by them here.
Don't skip over those places.
Those are exactly the places I want you to notice today.
Now take those observations and ask what you need to understand.
If you noticed that the saints are being equipped for the work of ministry, you might ask:
“What does it mean to equip the saints? Who is actually doing the work of ministry?”
If you noticed that Paul keeps talking about us growing together, you might ask:
“What kind of unity is he talking about? What does it mean for every part to do its share?”
Those are examples. Don't just copy mine.
“What questions did the Word raise for you?”
You don't need ten of them. I would much rather you write down one or two honest questions that came from carefully looking at the passage.
This is important.
Once we have a question, our instinct is usually to go find somebody who can answer it.
Don't do that today.
Don't Google it. Don't grab a commentary. Don't start searching YouTube. Don't ask AI. And don't immediately look for a teacher who agrees with what you already think.
Just write the question down.
Let it sit there.
Today we're learning how to recognize the questions that come out of the Word. Tomorrow we're going to start learning how to investigate them.
I want you to be able to ask honest questions.
If the only reason you know what you believe is because I told you, then I haven't equipped you well enough.
But I also don't want you to simply replace my voice with somebody else's voice. The goal isn't to find the teacher, video, podcast, or website that gives you the answer you want.
I want to help you learn how to go back to the Word.
That is going to require something from both of us. I need to be willing to hear your questions, teach, listen, correct when necessary, and sometimes say, “I need to look at that again.” And you need to be willing to ask honestly, remain teachable, and let the Word correct you too.
So don't be afraid of the questions.
Write them down.
You don't have to answer them today.
Tomorrow, we'll begin looking for answers.