by Wyatt Shelton Miles III

“Now I know in part.” That was the Apostle Paul, writing under inspiration. If it was true for him, it is certainly true for all of us.

The call to humility is the most neglected Christian virtue of my lifetime. I don’t know everything—not even close. Fifty-plus years of pastoral experience have humbled me. Early on, I thought of myself as the teacher, but it wasn’t long before I realized I was just a fellow learner. I am grateful for the spiritual, biblical, and pastoral insights of the many laypeople I have pastored, and I am also grateful for the insights and differing perspectives of pastoral colleagues.  

I have had frequent occasion to remember my late father’s sage observation. He frequently said, “I have never met a man so learned that I couldn’t teach him something, and I have never met a man so uneducated that I couldn’t learn something from him.”  If this is true with general knowledge (my dad was a farmer and a sawmill owner/operator), it is doubly true in the realm of faith. We encounter the infinite, transcendent Lord of the universe with our puny little minds and life experiences and seek to comprehend the incomprehensible.  

I think of how God addresses our need, how he reveals himself in the written word, with images and snapshots from differing perspectives. Paul Minear, in his book Images of the Church in the New Testament, lists 96 different images of the church:  Body of Christ, People of God, New Israel, God’s Temple, People of God, God’s Field, Bride of Christ, and so forth. And it dawned on me that if that is true of the doctrine of the church, it is likewise true of many other biblical doctrines that we church people argue over—too often riding our favorite hobby horse and failing to discern the truth in other images, other perspectives, and other experiences.

And like Paul, if we see at all, we only see part of the picture. But in our priesthood, there is always the possibility that we see differing parts of the picture. And in our priesthood to one another, if we will both share and receive, there is the possibility that because of our life in Christian community we will see and understand more than we ever could on our own.

We are like the Indian parable of the blind men describing the elephant (ear=fan, leg=tree trunk, tail=rope, side=wall, tusk=spear, trunk=massive snake). They were all correct; but in assuming that they each had the definitive answer, they were also all wrong. And we especially are wrong when we fail to be grounded in God’s definitive word and in God’s self-portrait in Jesus, who—like the Apostle Paul—calls us to be known by our love one for another—even when our cultures, backgrounds, educations, experiences, and perspectives are different.

We need each other in order to function as a body, and that is why we serve with one another: so we can learn, teach, and serve Christ more effectively—together.  

Wyatt Shelton Miles III is the BGAV President for 2025.