by Hugh DeLong<\/p>\n
Paul includes many instructions on living as a disciple. Some we tend to emphasize more than others, but they are all inspired by God. I find the most difficult ones to follow are the ones that don’t fit my personality or abilities. I know I am not alone in this, for most of us tend to gravitate towards the instructions (commands?) that are easiest for us to follow.<\/p>\n
For example, Colossians 4:5-6: “Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person<\/em>.”<\/p>\n In our exuberance to spread the gospel, we can easily become overbearing and even insulting. Such pushes us to begin using ‘carnal weapons’ – insults, threats, intimidation, etc. We find that going down this path often closes doors of communication rather than causing people to want to follow Jesus.<\/p>\n What does your speech sound like to your ‘opponents’? How gracious are the words that you use? Maybe you can detect why this is often one of the more difficult characteristics of discipleship to actually follow. This is particularly true on any social media platform. When we have no real face-to-face encounter with the people we are communicating with, it becomes easier to lose any graciousness. Just read the comment section on almost any post anywhere on the internet and see how ungracious the responses are.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Hugh DeLong Paul includes many instructions on living as a disciple. Some we tend to emphasize more than others, but they are all inspired by God. I find the most difficult ones to follow are the ones that don’t fit my personality or abilities. I know I am not alone in this, for most…<\/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,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[667,118],"class_list":["post-94469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-organization-of-the-church","tag-paul"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":90594,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/ii-corinthians-and-paul\/","url_meta":{"origin":94469,"position":0},"title":"II Corinthians and Paul","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Hugh DeLong \"There are many things I disagree with Paul about\u2026\" This was how my grandmother concluded our discussion on being faithful to the teachings of the New Testament. In Paul's time, not everyone who was converted remained faithful to acknowledging Paul as an apostle of Jesus and thus\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":40759,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-people-find-no-place-for-repentance\/","url_meta":{"origin":94469,"position":1},"title":"When People Find No Place for Repentance","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry W. Benton If grace so freely covers all sin without repentance, why was Paul so concerned that he warned night and day with tears about people in the church teaching false doctrine? I have a hard time reading Paul's warnings to Timothy and come away with the modern\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":53840,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-unleavened-bread\/","url_meta":{"origin":94469,"position":2},"title":"Why Unleavened Bread?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 12, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Why do we use unleavened bread when we partake of the Lord's Supper? At the first level of understanding, we recognize that Jesus used unleavened bread when giving instructions for the Lord's Supper (Matthew 26:26). We know this because it was on the occasion of the Passover\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/unleavened-bread-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":53851,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-passover-lamb-and-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":94469,"position":3},"title":"The Passover Lamb and Baptism","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 19, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew W. Bassford The story of the first Passover is familiar to most of us. In Exodus 12, Moses instructs the Israelites to take an unblemished male lamb, slaughter it, eat it as part of a ritual meal, and apply its blood to the doorposts and lintels of their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/lamb-300x210.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7057,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/didnt-the-christians-in-troas-worship-on-the-sabbath\/","url_meta":{"origin":94469,"position":4},"title":"Didn’t the Christians in Troas worship on the Sabbath?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: You will realize that in Acts 20:7 the meeting and breaking of bread were done in the night, meaning, or if we may presume, that these people had been worshiping together on the Sabbath. Since we know that a day then started at sunset, so Paul did preach to\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":18404,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-church-be-scriptural-without-elders\/","url_meta":{"origin":94469,"position":5},"title":"Can a church be scriptural without elders?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm having a problem reconciling attending a church without elders. The Bible doesn't lay out an alternate plan for church leadership. What does a church do in lieu of leaders? Can a church be scriptural without them? Who is responsible for the growth and protection of new members if\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94469","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=94469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94469\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}