Teaching

Yesterday I had the following response to the WFTD Bible question.

How well do you know the Bible? The Bible instructs that not too many people should be teachers of the Bible. Why? James 3:1

“It depends on what kind of teaching you are referring to. All Christians ought to be teachers of the bible to others, as put forth to us at Matthew 28:19,20. Titus 2:3,4 says that older women are to be teachers of what is good. However, at 1 Tim 2:11,12, it says women are not permitted to teach, but should be silent. Obviously the bible does not contradict itself. There are two types of teaching being referred to here. One is the teaching or disciple-making work to the unconverted. Secular and biblical evidence supports the fact that all Christians of this time were involved in this work. All Christians should play a part in this, to spread the word about God’s kingdom through Christ Jesus (Matt 6:10). The other type of teaching would be that of men who take the lead in the Christian congregation. Not all are qualified for this position. As it says in Eph 4:11-12, everyone had their own place, some were apostles, some were prophets, some evangelizers, some shepherds and some teachers. These were special positions given to members of the congregation. All Christian men should have been reaching out for such a position (1 Tim 3:1,2) Just as today, some are able to take the role of missionaries by going to foreign lands. Not all of us are able to do this be it financial, health, obligations, etc. All Christians have different skills and circumstances that they can use in different ways to further the good news about Jesus.

The problem in Paul’s day was stated at Hebrews 5:12, where he says “Although you ought to be teachers in view of the time, you again need someone to teach you from the beginning the elementary things of the sacred pronouncements of God”. 1 Tim 5:17 brings out that teachers should be worthy of double honor. So possibly there were those who felt there was special prominence with the role of teacher. This is shown by the example of Diotrephese, who liked to have the first place (3 John 9). Also 1 Tim 1:7 brings out those who wanted to be teachers, but did not perceive the things they were saying. So James wrote the advice in James 3:1 to warn such ones to beware their motives for looking for such a position, as one could seriously harm the congregation if they had the wrong motives/attitude for doing so.”

Excellent response. I might add that some new Christians might be well advised to get anchored in their faith and study the Bible prior to launching a teaching and/or preaching career. As this reader quite capably pointed out, all of us should be spreading the good news about Jesus Christ; however before we start teaching the finer points of complex scripture, we should have read and studied the Bible extensively. Also it is very important that as listeners of Bible teaching we should test their teaching with what the Bible actually states, as the Bible clearly warns that there will be false teachers, especially as we head towards the final days…(now).

____________________
2 peter 1
But there were false prophets
among the people, even as
there were false teachers among
you, who will secretly bring in
destructive heresies, even denying
the Lord who bought them and bring on
to themselves swift destruction.
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How well do you know the Bible?
The Bible states that the wages of sin is ________? but the gift of God is _________?
Romans 6:23





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