STUDY – Page 5 – Religion Detox Network …

STUDY ALONE AND WITH OTHERS
It is important for New Covenant disciples to balance personal study with time studying/discussing/sharing with others. In face, God has said that we must share the words that we hear God say to us with others in fulfillment of the command to make disciples.

But this does not mean preaching or teaching in a religious setting where pastors and rabbis preach for a wage, or engaging in organized evangelical events. We do not want to be guilty of displaying our righteousness before men and we do not want to guilty of practicing the sin of religion.

There will be times and places for private, casual, informal sharing. But they will be small, intimate gatherings like Jesus inner circle of disciples, where you will effectively disciple each other when you each share what God has revealed to you. Discovering who to share with and when is the tricky part.

Doing only one type of study, no matter how much, is not spiritually healthy. Those who study only for their own edification without sharing with others do not understand what it means to be a New Covenant priest.

Obviously, it is much easier to manage personal study time than to arrange time to study with others. It is possible to fit personal study into our schedules randomly and spend more time in personal study than it is to have a scheduled meeting time and place for group study. During personal study, it is easier to relax, slow down and listen to God’s voice explain scripture to us. In general, therefore, personal study provides greater opportunities for asking, knocking and seeking God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength.

Studying with others, however, provides advantages not present during personal study. First, if our study partner(s) have studied, we effectively multiply the benefits of study when we share with each other what we have heard God say to us. Plus, we have someone who may be able to answer questions that have come up during our personal study. And, if they expose their questions to us, we are challenged to study new topics.

Group study facilitates the “iron sharpens iron” and “wherever two or three are gathered” principles. Assembling a very large puzzle with three our four people is possible and efficient, but doing it in a large group is impossible. Small group study also fulfills the two are better than one and cord of three strands principles.

And here are a few other benefits of group study:

Two or three disciples can cover more territory in the Bible when they work together than when they work individually.
They can maintain a sense of community togetherness that they lost when they left religion.
There is a spiritual dynamic (i.e. power) that kicks in when like-minded disciples study together, ask questions and challenge and build each other up in an open, loving, accepting environment.
They can comfort and encourage one another when they suffer at the hands of their religious enemies.
They can challenge, correct and teach one another when they see a weakening of resolve to stay free from religion.
They can confirm or deny the truth of what they think they are learning by sharing with each other.

These are indispensable benefits of studying together with one, or two or, at most, three others. But, when choosing who to study with, disciples should be as sure as they can be that they are equally yoked (i.e. like-minded) with others who have escaped from religion. New Covenant disciples and Old/First Covenant religionists have very different perspectives on the Bible that will greatly inhibit fruitful communication.

The way to discover if you are equally yoked is to test to see if you are speaking the same language. People who are still religious will not understand the language (i.e. spiritual truths) of people who have broken free from religion. Spiritual interpretations of scripture by New Covenant disciples will be as unintelligible as a foreign tongue to Old/First Covenant religionists. New Covenant disciples will always want to interpret the Bible symbolically while Old/First Covenant religionists will always want to interpret it literally. One tries to always listen to God’s voice, but the other does not. Thus, if it is impossible to communicate with them on this basic point, joining with them in study may be a waste of time.

Finding someone with whom to study will be a challenge for New Covenant disciples because New Covenant disciples make no pretense about religion through clothing or speech. Furthermore, there is some risk in exposing non-religious beliefs to religious people. This is one reason why the Religion Detox Network website was created. See NETWORKING for how to use the website to make connections with people who might be good study partners.

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