by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
You get out of a sermon or Bible lesson what you put into it. This is illustrated by two groups of people toward the same preacher. The first group was from Corinth. They were not “open” to Paul (II Corinthians 6:11-13) and justified their lack of interest in anything he said by ridiculing anything they could, even dismissing him as an apostle. There was carnality, spiritual immaturity (I Corinthians 3:1f) at the heart of why they chose to be cold and unaccepting of him. These brethren could have been made spiritually rich by Paul if they had taken a different attitude toward God, His word, and their brother in Christ. Corinth had members who lost a great spiritual opportunity for growth and unity simply by not opening their hearts to love Paul and respect the word of God he was preaching.<\/p>\n
The second group heard Paul, but with a different attitude. To the Thessalonians, Paul wrote: “For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe<\/em>” (I Thessalonians 2:13). The same man, same style, same message, but two completely different responses. The first group is not open and treats his word as that of a mere man instead of the precious word of God. They missed out on a great opportunity to learn from an apostle of Jesus Christ. The second group was open and treated Paul’s words with great respect, recognizing that he was preaching the word of God<\/strong>. This allowed his preaching to work effectively in them. The difference was all in the attitude they brought to the table when Paul preached the word of God. James said this problem can be solved. “Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls<\/em>” (James 1:21). The attitude one brings makes all the difference as to what you get out of sermons and Bible classes.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry Wane Benton You get out of a sermon or Bible lesson what you put into it. This is illustrated by two groups of people toward the same preacher. The first group was from Corinth. They were not “open” to Paul (II Corinthians 6:11-13) and justified their lack of interest in anything he said…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[634,1506,522],"class_list":["post-94238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-attitude","tag-hearing","tag-listening"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":37210,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-change-your-mind\/","url_meta":{"origin":94238,"position":0},"title":"Is it wrong to change your mind?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, If someone stated they were never going to do something that wasn't wrong can they change their mind and not be in sin? For example, if I said I was never going to get married and then change my mind and get married is that a sin? I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":59573,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/sin-in-the-church-a-study-of-i-corinthians-69-10\/","url_meta":{"origin":94238,"position":1},"title":"Sin in the Church: A Study of I Corinthians 6:9-10","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 24, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton The church at Corinth had many problems in living the Christian life. Their problems did not come from a rebellious attitude toward God. Most of their problems came from a misunderstanding of God's law. In I Corinthians 5:1-8, Paul takes the Corinthians to task for accepting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25399,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/paying-uninspired-gospel-preachers\/","url_meta":{"origin":94238,"position":2},"title":"Paying Uninspired Gospel Preachers","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 27, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry W. Benton In discussing the right and expectation preachers ought to have for adequate financial support, I appealed to Paul's statements in I Corinthians 9:4-14 for the proof of that rightful expectation. A man of the house-church persuasion responded, and I think the exchange hits on some very\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":94638,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/restricted-by-your-own-affections\/","url_meta":{"origin":94238,"position":3},"title":"Restricted by Your Own Affections","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 17, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton There were some at Corinth that did not like Paul for one excuse or another. Perhaps they did not like his appearance, his style of oratory, or skill in the same, but whatever was the excuse, they were not thinking correctly. There were carnal members who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28721,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-the-natural-man-unable-to-choose-anything-that-is-spiritual\/","url_meta":{"origin":94238,"position":4},"title":"Is the natural man unable to choose anything that is spiritual?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I had someone quote to me I Corinthians 2:14. Does this mean that the natural man will not choose anything that is of a spiritual nature?\u00a0 I believe that we have a free will to choose what we so desire, but if we were all in times past a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92291,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/division-in-a-local-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":94238,"position":5},"title":"Division in a Local Church","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 21, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Robert L. McDonald via Expository Review, November 1984 \"And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94238\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}