Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.
I don’t think of myself as a teacher, even when I am teaching. This verse is why. I don’t want to be “judged more strictly.” Yet to the extent that I do teach, I am sure James’ words will apply.
So let me tell you what I teach:
I teach that God is real and that Jesus is his Son.
I teach that the Bible is written by God and exists exactly the way He wants it to be.
Everything else comes from the Bible and God Himself.
The teaching principle I rely on is that we all decide for ourselves what we are going to believe is true. I can’t force anyone to believe anything. I suppose if I wanted to, I could force someone to say that they believed such and such is true, but that is not the same thing. Real belief happens deep inside.
Knowledge and understanding are very personal. I can tell you what I know, but that is not the same thing as knowing it. For example, I can tell you how to tighten a bolt, but I can’t make you know how hard to tighten it. That is something a person learns by doing. If you under-tighten a bolt, it might fall out later. If you over-tighten a bolt, it might snap in two. Tightening a bolt just right is a bit of an art, a skill one develops with experience.
The same kind of thing happens with the Bible. God tells us something, but often we cannot understand it until we try to do it. Sometimes we try too hard. Sometimes we do not try hard enough. Doing helps us begin to understand what it is that God wants us to do.
Unfortunately, God has a lot of helpers who want to “interpret” what he is saying. This is why there are so many Christian denominations. People with different understandings teach different things. That is why we end up arguing instead of loving each other as Jesus intended.
So how does this happen?
Let’s take a simple example illustrating the proposition that 1 + 1 = 2.
Do you see a picture that illustrates 1 + 1 = 2? What if you see something else? What if you look at the drawing of apples and see tomatoes? What if you look at the drawing and conclude that one plus one equals fruit? Does one plus one equal circles?
There are an infinite number of wrong “interpretations” and only one right understanding. If someone looks at that illustration and decides that basic math is about fruit they are wrong. If they write a commentary about math based on fruit then their commentary is wrong. Believing that they are right has nothing to do with being right. God isn’t God because we believe in him. God is God because he is God. He is God whether or not we believe in him.
That is why we need the Bible. If it was up to us, we would never be able to figure out God on our own. We need Him to tell us who He is. Our job is to listen and to try and understand.
Application: Read the Bible. Think about what God is telling us. Do what He says.
Food for Thought: What standard will God judge teachers by?
I have said in several occasions that this is my least favorite verse in the Bible, not because there is anything wrong with it, but because there is something wrong with me. And I do teach Scripture a decent amount. So I work hard to try to get the timeless principle of a text and I also depend on a lot of grace. The tool of the teacher is the tongue. And James is about to point out the problems with the tongue – which reveals the problem in the heart. Teachers are judged strictly because they can lead others astray, sometimes by accident. That is why each of us should know God’s word and let the Holy Spirit be our first and preferred teacher.
Rich,
Thank you for the thoughtful comment. I appreciate you as a teacher of the Word because you are faithful to the text and your heart is faithful to God. Thank you for all you do!