Four Reasons What You're Learning in Church Isn't Changing You

Some people can sit in a pew, go to seminary, even be preachers for years on end without being conformed to the image of Christ through what is taught. Here are some reasons that might be the case.

1. You're sitting under preaching and teaching that isn't faithful to the Word of God. This happens in various ways. Maybe it isn't faithful because the teacher believes false things. Maybe it isn't faithful because the teacher doesn't understand how to exegete Scripture and completely ignores the actual meaning of the text and replaces it with something else. Maybe it isn't faithful because the teacher believes true things but does not teach the whole counsel of God. Hence, only basic things are taught and the Christian cannot grow beyond them. Either way, if the Spirit uses the truth of the Word to create His people, then absent of the Word, no growth can take place, since the instrument of the Spirit has been removed.

2. You're just not listening. Maybe you just find the truth of the Bible boring. You'd rather daydream or think about things you want to think about. Your mind wanders to what you'll be doing afterward, or maybe you just don't work hard at concentrating, so your mind just drifts. Either way, faith, and transformation, is through hearing and hearing through the Word of God, so you cannot be transformed by what you do not hear.

3. You're in unrepentant sin. In this case, you may hear the Word fully, but your idolatry, sexual immorality, unreconciled relationships with believers, etc. have caused the Spirit to shut you out. Hence, the Word is dead. It has no supernatural force behind it in order to create growth through the renewing of the mind and washing in the Word.

4. You're not saved. You just don't have the Spirit to begin with, but you have been culturally/naturally conditioned to believe certain Christian truths. The Word, in general, is just a deadening object of intellectual discussion and philosophical thought, or it is an emotional mechanism to cope with psychological and sociological issues. Church is your club or self-help group, but you yourself are void of the Spirit.