How To Teach Like JesusНамуна

“Guiding to Transform” 

This must have seemed like an odd criticism to the Pharisees. Their whole religious tradition was built around the Law. These rules touched every area of their lives. Any regulations added to them were only intended to help protect Israelites from never breaking the Law. 

But the sad truth is that you can follow all the rules and never be transformed. It’s a dangerous position to be in because rule-following looks so much like holiness. Once someone equates godliness with following the Law, it’s hard to convince them that they’re far from God. 

When it comes to religious instruction, it’s easy to fall into the rule trap—especially when we’re instructing youth. We need to be careful that we don’t use Bible stories and biblical passages to reinforce a rules-oriented view of Christianity. 

We want to help others see behavior and practice through a benefit-oriented lens (1 Cor. 10:23). Do the choices we make draw us closer to Jesus or move us further away? Spiritual maturity is about learning to judge the constructiveness of our decisions and not assume we’re spiritual because we follow a laundry-list of rules.