Teachers

“My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.” -James 3:1-2

Teachers are a gift from God, because through teachers we know the way of truth, and how to walk straight in the spiritual life. Teaching is one of five ministerial gifts that Our Lord Jesus Christ gives, as it says in the Epistle to the Ephesians, “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:11-16).

Today, however, so many false teachers have arisen, to a startling degree. This has come because of the rise of more tolerant Protestantism and because of the love of being a teacher for the experience. In this society, it is considered a great thing to think for oneself, and unfortunately the west applies this to the Bible. This is wrong for two reasons: Firstly, how do we know our thinking is right? Secondly, the Bible never, ever encourages thinking, but rather change of thinking (metanoia), the word which we translate as repentance. Repentance doesn’t just mean to stop sinning, but it describes our life after coming to God. So today, anyone picks up the Bible, and is a recent convert, he doesn’t know what the Bible says and teaches and hasn’t experienced its practical application and all of a sudden wants to teach! His church however doesn’t accept the idea, but instead of being humble and obeying and submitting to the church, he leaves and starts his own church so he could be the teacher and pastor. And unfortunately this is what has led to the number of Protestant denominations numbering between 20,000 to 30,000 and all because of significant doctrinal differences.

Another reason for this explosion in number of false teachers is the fact that the things they teach appeals to those who are not of a sound mind, just as St. Paul the Apostle instructs St. Timothy in his service as a Bishop, “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables” (2 Timothy 4:2-4). St. Peter warns the entire Church in his Universal Epistle saying, “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction” (2 Peter 2:1-3). This is a very dangerous point, do you see what he says, “There will be false teachers among you… denying even the Lord who bought them.” At this point, they cease to be Christians, and become cultists, because as I have pointed out before, the word “Christian” means “Of the Nation of Christ,” and if one denies Christ, he ceases to be a Christian.

A Teacher has to be an example to his students, which is why St. James the Apostle says, “My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many things,” then he continues to say why, “If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body” (James 3:1-2). This means he has to be an example to those he teaches as well as those he doesn’t, so they can see Christ both in his deeds and his words. And when it comes to word, the teacher should be excelling, not just like anyone else from the laity, but one who can accurately and deeply bear witness to God. Today teachers teach in a very superficial and in a way teachers shouldn’t teach. Especially in the Church these days, they research something and learn about it for a couple of days and then they teach an entire congregation about it! No, this shouldn’t be! It should be that the teacher should teach from the richness of the wisdom he has been given, and not in this superficial sense. This method of teaching something one just learned a couple of days before causes so many problems, such as answering questions. A teacher should not answer questions he doesn’t know the answers to. This will only cause confusion on the part of the one asking, and might cause him or her to question the faith because the teacher couldn’t answer. This fact of the teacher answering, and knowing he doesn’t have the answer to the question, is a manifestation of pride, because then they lose sight of God and His plan for teachers to spread His message, to the teacher answering because he doesn’t want the people to question his understanding.

In the ancient times, during the centuries right before and after the New Testament, teachers didn’t teach from a curriculum, and they didn’t teach on a topic that they spent the previous day researching, they taught from the richness of their wisdom and taught with enthusiasm, and with great conviction. This is evident in the style of the New Testament writers, especially in the Epistles, where the Apostles talk about Christ in the Old Testament, and later on in the Church Fathers when they further expounded on the faith. The Church Fathers were educated in this same exact manner, and one sees it very clearly in the writings of such fathers as St. Clement of Alexandria, St. Augustine, and St. Cyril of Alexandria. They also expressed their own thoughts and meditations, which unlike today’s generation, was illuminated by the Holy Spirit and focused completely on the Person of Jesus Christ. Salvation comes through none other than Jesus Christ. These Church Fathers by far had the Holy Spirit in a much greater measure than today’s generation has. They expositions are truly beautiful indeed, and they taught by a very simple principle, and that was to teach what you know. For a very small example, concerning the verse in 1 Thessalonians 4:4 which says, “To possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,” some of the Church Fathers said this referred to yourself, and others said it refers to your spouse. Now to someone who doesn’t understand the theology of the Church, they would see this as a contradiction, but we knowing that the husband and wife become one during the Sacrament of Matrimony, see it as a revelation from the Holy Spirit. We shouldn’t teach something we don’t know, because our faith is not a set of ideas and far away doctrines, it is a living faith, it is a life itself. So if something seems far to one of us, we shouldn’t teach on it, and we should spend time in prayer to God until we come to the level where the full effect and implications of any doctrine is fully realized in our lives. Then we can have the Spirit of God to the measure that they had Him. They did not have Him because they were saints, but we venerate them as saints because of the work He had in their lives. We should follow the example of the many saints that have come before us, “since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2).

And glory be to God forever. Amen.