Swiss Cheese Faith
Recently, I was visiting with a powerful man of God from our congregation. We were discussing my recent book, Foundation Stones, and he mentioned how important it is to ensure people reinforce their faith with truth. He felt that, as Christians, we need to guard ourselves against ignorance regarding important doctrines and theology, so that we may know God better and not be vulnerable to the deception of the world. It was then that he used a term I had never heard before, the Swiss Cheese Model.
To explain, he told me how, years ago, one of his kids really started struggling in math. Their teacher began tutoring them and found the problem. He said, “She is struggling with…” and he named the concepts that she would have learned several grades earlier. He said, “Until she can master that, everything else will be a struggle for her.” She had holes in her understanding of important mathematical concepts that were stunting her growth in new areas.
This man compared his daughter’s struggle in math to Christians having holes in their faith systems. Just like swiss cheese looks complete on the surface, on the inside, there are big holes where substance is missing. People may have been saved for several years, but they still don’t understand foundational doctrines or how to explain them to new believers.
Why do we have Christians with this swiss cheese kind of faith? We have too many people relying only on the church and their pastor to sustain their spiritual growth.
It is true that the Church has a responsibility to teach sound doctrine. Pastors and teachers should be well-versed in the important doctrines of the Christian faith and should be teaching them. However, that will only get you so far. If it were up to the amount of great teaching available in the world alone, everyone would be absolute experts in the faith. However, these things cannot be learned by osmosis.
What can we logically conclude from this? If you are not well-versed in these doctrines and truths, then it’s your fault. Please don’t blame your leaders if you’re not growing in Christ.
Some statistics show that the average person is using YouTube upwards of an hour a day. Just YouTube. That doesn’t count the other apps we’re scrolling through. If we’re willing to spend that much time a day for entertainment, the problem is not time. The problem is not having access to the teaching. The problem is that you are not making your growth in Christ a priority.
What would happen to our faith if we replaced some of those YouTube hours every week with focused prayer and study of God’s Word? Let’s not let the internet curate our faith. Let’s rely on intentional and relational pursuit of God from our hungry hearts.
Take Ownership of Your Faith
As we close one year and step into another, my heart is to fill up those holes in our walk with Jesus. I’m not satisfied with the swiss cheese holes in my own faith, and I feel a call by God as a pastor, shepherd, and teacher to help our congregation fill the faith gaps in their lives. There are several actionable steps to doing this that I see from 2 Timothy 2:
2 Timothy 2:15 NKJV
15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
No. 1: Be Diligent
Be Diligent. The Greek word for “study” is spoudazo and means to make effort, be earnest, labor, study.
When you first start studying God’s Word it resembles an infant waiting to be spoon-fed something pre-chewed and easy to swallow. This will only serve the purpose for so long. As you mature, you should want more substance. That means you have to use your own fork, knife, and maybe even your fingers, to get the food from your plate into your mouth! Then, you have to chew and swallow it. It takes a lot more effort to digest whole food than it does baby food.
Do you hunger for more of God? Do you hunger for more of His Word, or do you hunger for someone else to dig it out for you so you can simply consume it like it’s a product?
We see a powerful story of this concept in the book of Acts. After being rejected by an unbelieving crowd, Paul and Silas traveled to another city where they found a people with a different heart:
Acts 17:10-12 ESV
10 The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. 12 Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.
Notice, these Jews didn’t simply ‘consume’ the message that someone else had put in front of them. They went and studied it for themselves. They heard about some ‘holes in their cheese’ and weren’t content to let it remain that way. They received the Word with eagerness. Then they examined the scriptures daily to see if what Paul and Silas were saying was true. This is an excellent heart! These Barean believers were adamant about having a faith that was robust and resilient! Can that be said of your faith today?
No. 2: Approved By God
Next in our text, Paul told Timothy that if they would diligently study, it would reveal who they were…
The Greek word for “approved” is dokimos, which means to be accepted, proven to be real, tried, authentic and full of integrity, like a valuable coin or precious metal.
God is always refining His people. My concern is that we would not be corrupted in our faith. I challenge you that if you find you have a hole in your faith, seek God and His Word until you settle it in your heart.
1 Peter 1:6-7 ESV
6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Never get to a point where you think you’ve arrived in your faith. While there is breath in your lungs, there is more to learn! You always have more holes in your cheese to fill! Continually add to your faith:
2 Peter 1:5-11 ESV
5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. 11 For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
No. 3: Rightly Divide
As you study diligently and show yourself approved to God, you’ll find you have a passion to rightly divide God’s Word. What does this mean?
Rightly Dividing. The phrase orthotomeo is a Greek verb and means to handle aright, to teach the truth correctly and directly. To cut new veins (like in mining)
As with most good things in life, something that can be used correctly can also be used incorrectly. Your passion as you study God’s Word should be that you get to the very heart of God’s original intention for the entirety of His Word. You must learn to interpret it from the intention of its original writers in its original culture, and in the context of the entire Bible. This keeps us from “cherry-picking”, applying our 21st-century American context to it, and making it say something it wasn’t intended to say.
This requires study, trust, and dependence on the Holy Spirit to reveal His heart. We must not rely on our human intellect alone to understand something spiritual from God. God’s Word is sharp, it’s complete, and it stands alone. It interprets itself, which is why we must rely on the Word of God to interpret the Word, and not simply our modern context. Pray and ask God for His help as you study. If something you hear around you sounds off after you’ve asked God for help, trust that the Holy Spirit is helping you discern truth. You are learning to rightly divide the Word.
Hebrews 4:12 ESV
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
John 14:26 ESV
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
Much like a miner is looking for precious new veins of gold in the rock, we must diligently dig for more of God in His Word. We must view every moment of pursuit like a treasure hunt that could yield the world’s most precious and valuable find. That find is the freedom of God’s truth moving in our lives and filling our lack with His sufficiency!
No. 4: Truth
As we are filling up the holes in our Swiss Cheese Faith, we must recognize that we are searching for ultimate truth. There are no multiple versions of truth based on the emotions and preferences of individual people. By very nature, God is right. Which means anything contrary to Him is a lie. We must know the truth of God. We must rightly divide the Word of Truth. This means we must dig for it and then believe it with all our hearts.
John 8:31-32 ESV
31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
We cannot be content to leave massive holes in our faith. Are you a Swiss Cheese Christian? Do you have Swiss Cheese Faith? If you do, it is your responsibility to fill it up. If you come across something you feel weak in, it’s time to get to work. It’s time to study. Don’t just wander around waiting for a pastor to speak on that topic. You dig for it! You go after God and pursue His truth until you are free!
The lack of truth is bondage. It is a weakness and vulnerability. Truth sets us free, builds us up, and makes us ready for the storms of life. It gives us the opportunity to witness to others about Jesus, and gives us the freedom of heart that we all long for. Truth is synonymous with Jesus. Truth is not just an abstract concept. He is a person.
Friend, do not be content with Swiss Cheese Faith. Study God’s Word. Get good resources, like the Foundation Stones Podcast that this blog post was inspired by. Get the first volume of the Foundation Stones book to help strengthen the important bedrock understandings for your faith (Click here to order on Amazon).
Go to church because you’re hungry for God, not just another social event. Certainly listen to great pastors and teachers. However, most importantly, cry out to the Holy Spirit (the Spirit of Truth) to teach you straight from His Word. The Bible promises He will teach you! If you’re not growing, it’s not your pastor’s fault. It is your fault. Own it and get to growing! Let’s build our Foundation in Christ one stone at a time!
