Where is the discussion?

I am currently apart of a bible study looking at the life of Paul. At the last session we answered questions about God's view of work. We read the passages Genesis 2:1-7, Genesis 2, and Luke 5:1-11. The questions seemed to just skim the surface and not include any trigger for a dialogue on the cultural background for why these words were written.

One question particularly troubled me. "Describe the most important elements of being successful in your work." The women gave answers such as: learn and develop the skills you need to do for your job, set goals, have a joyful patient attitude. Yes, I agree that these are all GOOD characteristics but from the passages we read from the bible the only instruction I saw was to "work hard." I wrote down things like have integrity, be honest, work efficiently, be flexible and attentive but no where in the reading did I see these attributes. I learned these attributes from my culture, from those older than me that have taught me and from my own experience. This is not to say that the bible doesn't point to having these attributes elsewhere but it did not say these things in the verses I read for this particular lesson.

This lead me to conclude that we as Christians are following the model that our culture says is a "good person" and not what the bible calls us to be or do. We are taking American cultural norms and putting them on the bible instead of looking at what the bible says and truly discussing what it has to say outside of what we think or feel. Are we trying to fit the bible into our American lives or are we letting the bible inform us on how we should live our lives? Should we look to the bible as a way to improve the lives we have already planned for ourselves or should we look at the bible to tell us what to do not how to do what we want to do?

Comments are not just welcome but sorely needed: where is the discussion? Where are the comments with reasons other than I feel... or I think... those have their place but should be backed up at least 50 percent of the time with some reason other than yourself.