Do you have a “graduate degree” in Christianity? Many believers take their faith seriously enough that they make a diligent study of it over a period of many years; more years than they spent in formal education. This is worthwhile and admirable. Have you noticed that academics speak to each other in terminology that the layman doesn’t understand? One risk of the increase of knowledge is that it makes your faith inaccessible to outsiders. Don’t assume that they are familiar with the terminology that you are so accustomed to.

Are you familiar with the passage that says you should love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? It is easy to memorize and just think of it in terms of your whole being, but you can also unpack each item. To love God with all your heart and soul addresses the passionate aspect without which love cannot exist, and these are mentioned first for a reason. Yet your mind is also involved in the full expression of love, and you can practice your faith with intellectual rigor, but there is still another part. Love is not content to be idle and passive.

When you partake of communion, what passage of scripture is most commonly used? Are you accustomed to hearing, do this in remembrance of me, or so let a man examine himself? These are valid and applicable to the situation. What about except you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man you shall have no life in you? This is just as pertinent and applicable but rarely used because it is so offensive to human sensibilities. My own disciples were offended and some of them quit following me but others remained because I had the words of life.

Does your faith make you a better or worse person? Do you find this question offensive? Yet I addressed it in great length in my interactions with the Pharisees. They were as devout and diligent in their practice of faith as you could ask for. Yet their practices made them less loving, caring, and compassionate, and provided them with excuses for their bad behavior. Their faith took them further away from me and made them worse people than if they had made no profession or affirmation of faith. Don’t think this issue is limited to a small sect that only existed for a short while.