Skip to content

Add your phone number?

Optional. Nothing is sent unless you choose it.
The Historic Faith
Sign in

Jumpstarter 9 of 10

Ideas to help restart your discussion
Secrets of the Kingdom Life  /  Chapter 26, The Limitations of Church Standards  /  Discussion Questions
All Questions
Question 9
Bercot says our “primary relationship and loyalty is to Christ himself,” yet we should also have a “healthy, supportive, and submissive relationship” to the church; where is the line between submissiveness that aids discipleship and submissiveness that becomes a way to avoid personal obedience to Jesus?
Another way to ask: When does submitting to church leaders help you follow Jesus, and when does it become an excuse not to obey him personally? Where should the line be?

Direct Answer In Bercot’s framing, submissiveness aids discipleship when it supports obedience to Christ, but it becomes avoidance when a person treats church standards as the ceiling of obedience and ignores Christ’s broader commands. The line is crossed when loyalty to the church replaces an “obedient love-faith relationship” with Jesus.

Support from Transcript:

  • He calls the church “essential and integral,” and says we should have a “healthy, supportive, and submissive relationship with our church.”
  • Yet “our primary relationship and loyalty is to Christ himself,” and we need “an even stronger obedient faith-love relationship with Christ.”
  • He stresses limits: “No church can create our inner life for us” and cannot watch us “around the clock.”
  • The problem is “Christians who ignore scriptural commandments just because those commands aren’t part of their church standards.”
  • He urges viewing standards as “the minimum level of Christian conduct,” not the full measure.
  • “Just because our church hasn’t formally addressed” a teaching “doesn’t mean we are free to ignore it.”
Discussion Follow-ups A practical diagnostic from the transcript: do I obey only what my church measures, or am I personally pursuing prayer, Scripture, love, mercy, and Christ’s commands even when no one is checking?

Jumpstarter 9 of 10
Back Questions Next