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Over the years, I have learned that using questions is a powerful way to engage with people on a deeper level. When I was younger, I thought arguing was an effective form of communication. I was very wrong. But, as I’ve grown older, and my hair has become dusted with silver, I’ve come to realize there’s a much better way.
Asking questions is significantly more effective if your desire is to advance a conversation, discern someone’s position, determine current understanding, impart knowledge, influence thought, and challenge disagreement. And the quality of your questions and how you present them not only determines their effectiveness, but also directly influences the quality of your relationships.
Paul asked many questions, as any good teacher should, and his questions have stirred the imagination of Christians for two thousand years. Look at a few examples extracted from just one chapter in one of Paul’s letters (I Corinthians 9):
• Would you ever go to war at your own expense?
• Would you plant a vineyard and not eat of its fruit?
• Do you believe when I speak that I’m teaching as a mere man?
• Does not the law say the same as what I am presenting?
A quick review of Romans, Paul’s greatest “theological treatise,” and you will discover that 92 times he asks a question (depending on your preferred translation). Here are a mouthful of them to chew on:
• “What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way!
• “Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.”
• “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”
• “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!”
• “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not!”
• “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God Jesus Christ our Lord did!”
Thinking about questions reminded me of two things. The first was that asking questions is what I’ve done for many years as I’ve helped disciple many young people in the faith. It has been quite effective. And the the second was a poem that my wife Andrea wrote (added below), at the request of my son Cyrus, to be included in one of his poetry books. Its title speaks of one of the most powerful questions we could ever ask, “Why?” It poses the question, “Why don’t we seek answers from all the grey-haired wisdom keepers who are still alive today, instead of always asking Siri, Google and ChatGPT?”
In his letter to Romans, Paul often asked why…
• “Why do you judge and show contempt for your brother?”
• “For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?”
• “Why not say, “Let us do evil that good may come”?
• “For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?”
• “Why does God still find fault?
• “Why have you made me like this?”
As we venture into Paul’s letter to the Romans, let’s all answer and ask: who, what, when, where, how & why?
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