Fluff

I was sitting and working on writing a Bible study the other day and the thought occurred to me, "Why in the world are you taking so much time to do this?" There are so many resources out there that I could use that would save me time and energy.

As I reflected on that a bit, I think it was for a couple of reasons. One is that I enjoy writing and teaching and challenging myself this way. The other reason is that there is a lot of "fluff" out there. I have found Bible studies that are shallow, misinterpret the passage, or take things out of context. They come up with a premise and then try to go and find Scripture to support it instead of taking the passage and seeing what it has to say.

Dan and I are always saying that in order to understand what God's word says you have to read it for yourself. Don't rely on a short devotional, Facebook memes or sermons. Open up the Word and read it and study it. Use scholarly commentaries to dig into what it's saying. 

When we become enamored with "pop culture" Bible teachers to tell us what God's word says then we do ourselves a huge disservice. And that's because people are fallible and make mistakes. They are sinful and stumble and fall. They can misrepresent things. I'm not saying that you should never listen or enjoy a public teacher or preacher, but they were never meant to take the place of opening up and reading the Word of God for yourself.

I always feel a bit of a check in my spirit when people are telling me how wonderful a particular popular speaker is and how I need to buy all their material. And they often are very gifted speakers and are preaching the truth. The problem comes when I sense people are starting to follow a person and rely only on what they say about God's word, rather than reading it for themselves. 


As I prepare to teach, to lead and share, I want to make sure I'm not teaching fluff. I want to make sure that what I teach is what the Bible is really saying about something and that I'm doing all I can to give meat to those I teach and not milk.

The problem with fluff is that it'll never fill you up and if you rely on it, your spiritual life will be fluff as well.

Hebrews 5:12-14 ~

Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the basic principles of God’s revelation again. You need milk, not solid food. Now everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced with the message about righteousness, because he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature—for those whose senses have been trained to distinguish between good and evil.