Be careful about human leaders and teachers!  But what about New Testament writings?

Please follow the BLOG Etiquette to stay on topic and pass the moderator’s check.  Bold, underlined text below = future links to the BLOG pages.

It amazes me that as often as the New Testament tells us that we should seek the Holy Spirit to be our “One Teacher,” how many people want to still be bible teachers.  I also did for years, because so many churches and 5 bible colleges erroneously preach this as the epitome of serving God!  Many people think that I do all this research and write these comprehensive studies and post them on my website to be a teacher for others. They think this is because of an erroneous “definition” of teaching that has been handed down to them as a “tradition of men” that then erroneously “filters” every subsequent discussion about teaching.

If you do a careful study of why the NT writers wrote what they did, especially by looking for their stated purposes, you will see they weren’t trying to teach so much as they were reminding of what God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and His prophets have already said (a).  And they certainly believed that the teaching of Christ by the means of the Holy Spirit was never going to stop – but not just through a few “great men of God” throughout history, but now for every one of God’s servants, and especially “from the least to the greatest among you” (b) for “this promise is for your children’s children, to ALL those far off called by God, both My men and maid servants” (c). <Notes> a) 1 John 2:21-28, b) Hebrews 8:11 citing Jeremiah 31:34, c) Acts 2:17-18, 38-39.

Much of NT writing was simply to be a witness or testimony (a) to encourage trusting-relying-faith in Christ (b) and to encourage unconditional-love for one another (c), the only 2 official, universally binding commandments for the New Covenant Way!  However, they did spend a lot of time correcting errors by stating already-taught truth of God, and warnings against Jew & Gentile religious teachers of commandments (d) that would detract from salvation by unconditional-favor-of-grace through trusting-relying-faith (e) in Christ. <Notes> a) Matthew 24:14; Luke 21:13, 24:48; John 21:24- 25; Acts 8:25, 10:42, 20:21, b) John 20:31; Acts 20:21; Romans 1:8; 2 Timothy 1:13, c) 1 Timothy 1:5; Philippians 2:1-2; Colossians 2:2, d) 1 John 2:26, e) pistis: relational conviction of trusting reliance.

In the same way, 99% of what I write is simply organizing and presenting in a fresh unfiltered way from the original languages, what has already been taught by God, Jesus, His apostles, and prophets. So, in no way do I consider myself a teacher, nor do I desire to be one. I write to be able to see the plainly-stated truth in an organized way so that I can stay focused on “the main things” so I don’t end up “majoring in the minors.” The “main thing is to keep the main things the main things!” And I believe this is so valuable that I pass it onto others, to provoke them to stay focused as well, and for SpiritMusicMeetups for the Body-of-Christ to BLOG and learn from each other.  I explained why “I am NOT your teacher” on the Bible-Info – BT4 page.

James 3:1 gives a strong warning: “Not many of you should ongoingly be teachers (a), my brethren, having already known, with ongoing results, that we shall be judged greater.”  James is trying to dissuade all these people trying to come in to be teachers!  Paul was upset Christians were becoming followers of even Christian leader-teachers like himself, which he said was being very “fleshly” (human) and was actually dividing the Body-of-Christ (b), clarifying that “being imitators of me, only as I am of Christ” (c) and “following the pattern of sound logos gospel messages that you have heard from me – by the means of [singular] trusting-relying-faith and [singular] unconditional-love that are IN Christ Jesus” (d). Here’s that “trusting-relying-faith and unconditional-love” connection again – this is the ONLY way Christians were to follow even Paul, only in this way, by imitating Christ!  See also Coaches and Facilitators. <Notes> a) didaskalos, b) 1 Corinthians 1:12, 3:4, c) 1 Corinthians 11:1, cf. 2 Thessalonians 3:7-9, d) 2 Timothy 1:13 – see the Only 2 Commandments page.

Shouldn’t “Follow Me” be Christ’s invitation alone (a)?  I witnessed the Church of Christ that I was saved in during college in 1982 split because of an enthusiastic, but misguided, teacher-leader fall into sin. When this happened many of his followers fell away from Christ and went back to their previous ways, including drugs and promiscuity. Why? Because they had the religion of church-ianity that follows people instead of a genuine fellowship with Christ!  But Jesus said that “His sheep follow Him, for they have already, with ongoing results, mentally ‘seen’ to perceive/know (b) His Voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they have not already, with ongoing results, mentally ‘seen’ to perceive/know (c) the voice of strangers. . . . My sheep ongoingly hear/listen-to-understand (d) My Voice, and ongoingly I experientially, relationally know (e) them, and they ongoingly follow Me” (f). <Notes> a) Matthew 4:19, 8:22, 9:9, 10:38, 16:24, 19:21; Mark 1:17, 2:14, 8:34, 10:21; Luke 5:27, 9:23, 59, 18:22; John 1:43, 12:26, 21:19, 22, b) eido: prophetic understanding, c) eido, d) akouo, e) ginosko, f) John 10:4-5, 27.

Click on Pic