Responsibility With Teaching

For some time now I have been trying to encourage people not to rely so much on man’s teaching. I have stated that all disagreement and division within the church is caused through adopting the teaching of one man above the teaching of another. The only division caused by the truth comes through the exposing of error: the dividing of darkness from light.

There is an urgent need for Christians to accept responsibility. We have the scriptures and we have the promise of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said the Holy Spirit would be our teacher. God has provided everything we need to guide us and to keep us in the truth. We need to trust His Spirit to teach us His word instead of putting our primary (and often only) trust in man’s teachings.

When I’ve written about this before a common response has been to point out that teachers are included in the ministry gifts mentioned in Ephesians (Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers.*)

There clearly is a God given place for GENUINE teachers.
Genuine teachers not only lead us to understanding in areas where we are lacking, they also train us to search the scriptures for ourselves, thereby decreasing our reliance upon their ministry.

Any teacher who promotes ideas contrary to scripture is not a God given teacher.

Any teacher who makes him or herself above question is not a God given teacher.

Any teacher who makes sure students remain reliant upon him/her is not a God given teacher.

Too often laziness encourages us to rely on teachers more than we should, to the extent that we don’t keep THEM accountable for what they teach. By holding them accountable, not only are we guarding our selves – we are showing true love to the teacher, helping THEM stay on the right path with their doctrine and teaching.
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*Ironically, many who readily cling to teachers are equally ready to dismiss any present day reality of the first two ministries in that list