PROBING QUESTIONS

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

1 Corinthians 4:7

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Questions.

We have been exposed to them ever since we were newborns, even we didn’t really understand what they were.

Initially, there questions would come when we would be distressed in some way or to see if we either whether or not we liked something. They might have included:

“What’s wrong?”

“Are you not feeling well?”

“Was that good?” (usually referring to when we were introduced to new foods)

As we get older, we found our parents using new questions which meant to challenge us like:

“Where are you going?” (always asked if we said we were leaving the house on our own)

“How is school going?”

and

“Why did you do that?” (typically the question after we have gotten in trouble for something)

Well, as we become adults, guess what?

We don’t get away from being questioned.

It happens at home. It happens at work. And yes, it happens at church or anytime we choose to do Bible study. For you see, the Bible is full of probing questions, mostly because the Lord wants to lead us towards honest self-reflection so to expose anything within that might be a hindrance to us becoming the believers He wants us to be.

When Jesus was asleep in the boat as a fierce storm came, prompting His disciples to wake Him over fear of capsizing, we find Him asking the disciples a question before rebuking the wind and waves and bring immediate calm. The question was simple:

“You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Matthew 8:23-26

And then He followed it up with, “You have so little faith!”

How many times have we found the storms of life come upon us and instead of trusting our Lord would help us, we run to Him immediately to jostle Him when He is already fully aware of what we’re going through before we ask. Before He brings us resolution, how many times has He asked:

“Why are you so afraid?”

Associated with this was when Jesus called Peter to step out of the boat and onto the water. Walking toward Jesus, Peter starts out well enough but then the winds started to buffet him and he became unsure of the situation and so he started to sink, crying out to Jesus to save him. After Jesus pulled him up out of the sea, He had one question for His disciple:

“You of little faith, why did you doubt?” Matthew 14:31

Here, we may see this equally apply to us when we may first approach a challenge with faith but when we see circumstances trend against us, we start to question whether or not we can actually make it through and, like Peter, we start to go under, crying out to the Lord for help. As He rescues us, He does so asking:

“Why did you doubt?”

So why all this discussion about probing questions and the scriptures?

Because we see three more of them in our continuing study of 1 Corinthians, chapter 4. Let’s look at them one at a time, shall we?

1. What makes you different from anyone else?

The world always encourages a person to form some identity and do so in a way is different from another. This is a process that breeds individualism, the polar opposite of what the Lord expects. He desires that our focus be more on what makes us the same, namely belief in Him and His Son Jesus, rather than a deliberate attempt to be distinguished.

What would make us different from another?

We all were made by the same Creator who breathed life into us and dictates everything in our lives from that point on. He sees everyone as equally precious and values everyone of His children the same. Certainly, no one is disqualified from gaining salvation is their wish to have it.

The Lord challenges our tendency to want uniqueness by asking us, “What makes you different from anyone else?”

We should respond by embracing the beauty of unity, the unity He expects.

2. What do you have that you did not receive?

We have a tendency to act like we are different from someone because of some special gift or talent we might have. We can get puffed up inside our own sense of self-importance to where we can boast about how great we are without acknowledgement to the Lord who blessed us with everything we have. 

We all should seek and find the gifts the Lord has given and then use them for His purposes, giving thanks to Him for the blessings He has bestowed. For He has blessed us with what we have for a reason, so that His will might be done and people would see His majesty, goodness, and greatness revealed.

3. And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

Since nothing we have was gained by our own merit but rather by way of the providence and provision of the Lord, then we should divert attention to Him and away from ourselves. We need to do this to avoid falling into the trap of prideful bragging. Instead, we should be giving the Lord all the honor, glory, and praise.

Probing questions. We find then all through the scriptures and we should embrace every single one of them, no matter how much they challenge or convict us. For when we do, we allow the Lord to expose flaws that need corrected so we can become the people He wants us to be.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com