JAMES HAS A SIGNIFICANT WARNING to share with anyone who aspires to teach the world of God. “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways.” (James 3:1-2a) He adds, as counterbalance, “Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.” (James 3:2b) Jesus’ words are even more strident and challenging. “Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck.” (Luke 17:1-2)
These admonitions are significant. They are meant to emphasize the holiness and the power of the scriptures, and are part of a standard of culpability and integrity expected of those who teach them. Paul’s words to Timothy are similarly instructive: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” (2 Tim. 2:15)
Jesus has very harsh words for those who lead others astray. They are found in the seven woes in the Book of Matthew. To experience woe means *“how greatly one will suffer” or “what terrible pain will come to one.” Jesus is speaking to the “teachers of the law and the Pharisees,” whom he calls “hypocrites.” (Matt. 23:13a) “Woe to you.” he says, “You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to get in.” (Matt. 23:13b)
While the first woe seems harsh, Jesus’ next words are literally damning. “You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.” (Matt. 23:15) Five more condemnations follow. The scribes and Pharisees are “blind guides” who cannot distinguish between the holiness of the altar and the gifts of sacrifice that are placed upon it. (cf. Matt. 23:16-22) They are “hypocrites” who are faithful in the smallest details of the tithe, but who ignore “justice, mercy and faithfulness.” Jesus describes this myopia in a metaphor. “You strain out a gnat, but swallow a camel.” (cf. Matt. 23:23-24) Jesus uses the next two woes to describe these religious zealots further as “hypocrites,” as they concentrate on pious appearance but “inside are full of greed and self-indulgence.” He says, scathingly, “on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” (cf. Matt. 23:25-28) The teachers of the law and Pharisees are in a long line of those like themselves, and “are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.” (cf. Matt. 23:29-32) He says to them, “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?” (Matt. 23:33)
For the final woe, Jesus first speaks of both the near and the ongoing future. He tells them, and their successive generations of scribes and Pharisees, “I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.” (Matt. 23:34) He then utters that which *“will bring them great suffering and pain,” saying, “And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth.” (Matt. 23:35) He adds that “all this will come on this generation.” (Matt. 23:36) And this is exactly what transpires during the lifetime of that generation of scribes and Pharisees. After the greatest prophet’s blood has been shed, they will witness God’s retribution as their nation is destroyed.
These sobering thoughts necessarily draw us to an examination of today’s church of Jesus Christ. It has its own history of the legalism and myopia of “scribes and Pharisees” that have become the predominant influence over the teaching of the church at various times. Dead churches, dead denominations, and dead movements of God litter the historical geography of the church because of this. The battle to keep the door to heaven open to seekers is exactly that. Jesus spoke to this both in his earthly time and prophetically for all time. “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it.” (Matt. 11:12)
There are two kinds of violence here. One is that of the false teachers, who rob the word of God of the true power of salvation and sanctification, creating a façade of the true church. “They mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error.” (2 Pet. 2:18)
The second kind of violence comes from those who are driven, as Jesus was, to forcefully sweep aside the false teachers, grab hold of the door of heaven, and swing it wide. Isaiah said of the Messiah that he would “Open the gates, that the righteous nation may enter.” (Isa. 26:2) The prophecy speaks of both Jew and Gentile nations, and the Hebrew word for “open” means not only to open, but **“to throw open.” And Jesus says, as both promise and challenge, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” (Rev. 3:20)
Paul says, “The things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this.” (2 Tim. 2;2, 7)
Q. Am I qualified to teach others?
*Louw-Nida 22.9.
**Strong’s 6605.