What are you talking about?
I mean, that while we are still not mature, this can keep us from understanding what we are told, as well as we could. And if we go through tribulation while we are still younger Christians, we can fail to benefit from it, as well as if we were more mature.
Our Apostle Paul, Goodie, had that "thorn in the flesh" thing. But at first he was not taking advantage of it for his benefit, I consider from 2 Corinthians 12:7-15. But, after he had a little talk with Jesus, you can read how he changed. So, even Paul needed to grow and mature, in order to be able to benefit from things he went through, as well as he could benefit.
People years after troubles can then learn and realize what they did not get, at the time of those tribulations. So, it is not the quantity of knowledge and tribulation which makes us who we are, but the quality of character which we develop
For example, while I was living with my mother, she could get mean and snotty with me, and I would hold my peace and not argue. And family members were quite impressed that I could stay with her for even years, helping her. But now I find myself to be more real in love and I see how I was not really being loving with her, and not being "swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath" (James 1:19-20) as well as I could have been. So, even though I might have been somewhat good with her, my level of maturity at that time was limited for how I might go through having times of trouble with her.
So, Goodie, we have the ability to get into pride about what we know (1 Corinthians 8:1), but also we can get into pride about what we have been through. It can help me to see how I have not handled things so well, in the past and seek God's correction of His love perfection so I do better n
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I think if you see seminary as just a study programme, then this might be true. But it's a lot more all-encompassing than that. Where i went, we prayed together at least twice a day; we had quiet days and retreats and were deliberately given space to do our own stuff with God. Even decisions about what to study had to be made in light of how we understood what God was preparing us for. It was a lot more than just an academic timetable.
Thank you for the clarification
In any case, whether we go through a formal educational program or not, it is our responsibility to make sure we have quiet prayer time and make sure with God about what He wants. And I understand we are "called in one body" (Colossians 3:15) to "continually" (Isaiah 58:11) be guided by our Heavenly Father in His own peace ruling in our "hearts". This is part of our basic Christian calling . . . "in one body", Paul says. So, this is for every child of God, not only for certain specially educated and ordained people. It is an education in itself, I would say, to discover how God personally guides us in His peace, all through the day while we are active in prayer, in church and family life, and while working . . . and driving in traffic
I thought if you did go to bible school it would be more than book learning anyway.
Good for you! I have more assumed it would be intellectual. But I might be speaking for how things were for me while I was not a Christian person in college. I should not let that feed into how I now would evaluate a Bible teaching seminary. But I imagine there can be groups who have more intellectual seminaries, if they don't believe God is personal with each of us His children, and if they therefore feel people are depending on their scholarship for leading them.
Also, I think I have seen how a younger speaker educated in seminary can be limited in the maturity of his or her message, while someone much older and mature can give a more mature message . . . with or without seminary. But experienced and mature ministers, who have gone to seminary after decades of serving the Lord Jesus, have said it could help to have educational background, but ones in their classes said their input from maturity and experience was very helpful in the classes. I see how God living in a person gives the real meaning of His word, which comes with growing and maturing. And this could be why Paul gives the qualifications which he does for someone to be considered to "take care of the church of God" > 1 Timothy 3:1-10 < there is nothing, here, about literary education, but what one gains by growing in one's household with the help of his wife < with the help of his wife!!!
The help of a lady of Jesus can be a very helpful seminary!!! Look at how Peter says a disobedient man can be won "without a word" > 1 Peter 3:1-4
You don't just look in the mirror and then forget what you look like.
Amen, as James says
While wealthy and privileged Romans prized education, they didn't necessarily bother to educate girls, slaves or what today we would call the "working class."
I understand that Jesus often spoke to ones who were not well educated. Ones understand that Peter and other disciples were uneducated fishermen. But look at how Peter became able to give us the first and second epistles of Peter. Even if then he still could not read or write, surely what really worked was how he could receive from the Holy Spirit . . . and what worked included his experience and growing and maturing in Jesus . . . and this coming with our Father's correction > Hebrews 12:4-11.
I think we really understand as Jesus grows in us, as our real living and loving meaning of God's word
I notice how often an epistle begins with ministering grace and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus. This grace and peace in us has us getting all which God really means by what we read. The spiritual blessing deeper than the words is the main meaning of the words, I now understand. And no amount of even correct words, alone, can make us get what really is God's love and guiding which is in the Holy Spirit. But God's grace and peace in us include how He corrects and cures our nature and personally guides each of us, more and more every moment in intimate and sweetly sensitive sharing with Him > Philippians 2:13, 2 Corinthians 2:14-15, 1 Peter 3:4 < this educates us in what is the meaning of His word.
If the early christians could not read, why would Paul write so many letters to all these different churches? Do you think only one person would have read them.
I would like to offer how Paul says for an epistle to be read "to" the people > 1 Thessalonians 5:27.
Maybe its better I not go to theology school and think im so much smarter than the early christians who professors are now teaching were illiterate and ignorant and that modern day americans (yes, singling out a people group, just one country out of so many) are so much more literate. I dont know. It just seems to puff people up with pride.
Well, what this world might prize can be what God despises > Luke 16:15, 1 Corinthians 1:20-31.
So, being literate does not mean you are smarter. I think I have discovered how some of the greatest geniuses are people who know how to communicate and make their marriages work . . . while others can relate only with book knowledge and intellectual language. So, it doesn't matter if ones in earlier times were educated or not
And I think you have said you have benefitted from sharing with other Christians while you have been studying; so you already may know that it can be good . . . how you make it >
It's what you make it,
how you take it . . .
just don't you fake it!
And in case someone else does show pride and snottiness about being educated and what he or she thinks oneself to know . . . don't let that get you nasty and haughty against the person, or else you are letting him or her reproduce bitterness into you.
"Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you." (Ephesians 4:31-32)
Anywhere we go, there will be ones who need us to help them get real with God and learn how to love.
