Monday April 25, 2022

Scripture James 3: Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. ² We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check. ³ When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. ⁴ Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. ⁵ Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. ⁶ The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. ⁷ All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, ⁸ but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

Life Lesson: What you say can not only reveal what you believe, it can literally steer the direction of your life and the lives of those who are listening to you.   

– James says, “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.”  Why would those who teach be judged more strictly?  The answer is simple and obvious, it is because those who teach are in a position of greater influence than the average person. This issue is of prominent concern among parents whose tiny children are being inundated with sexual education that is entirely inappropriate for their age but also confusing and destructive as it promotes gender neutrality.  

– False teachers or false prophets are in a position whereby they can influence their audience away from sound doctrine and toward things taught be demons, for example in 1 Timothy Paul writes, 4: The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. ² Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. ³ They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.” 

– Again in Galatians 1, Paul wrote, 1: ⁶ I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— ⁷ which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. ⁸ But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! ⁹ As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!

– Cults such as Mormonism, and Jehovah’s Witnesses are perversions and distortions of the Gospel that lead people away from a saving faith and into spiritual bondage. God takes what we say seriously because of the influence we can have over others, especially pastors and teachers of the Word. Therefore, when we allow the perverse culture around us to influence what we teach/preach or how we teach/preach in an attempt to make the message more palatable for the secular minded, we are moving in a direction whereby we are no longer being led by the Spirit but led by the spirit of the age/Satan.  Subsequently, we rob the Gospel of its power, we malign the purity of God’s Word, and lead the potential seeker away from the truth that can save them and instead cause them to trust in the lie we have fabricated that is based upon our sinful biases.