To Be Teachers

Growth in Godliness

There have been more than a few godly men in history who have understood how serious Ekklesia structure is for the body of Christ.

If the last 57 years of being a Christian has taught me anything, it has taught me that correct definitions can be easily confused.

To Be Teachers, Believers Must Begin by Properly Defining the Christian Life

What does it mean to believe? A person who believes in God is a deist. "You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder" (James 2:29).

What is a Christian? A Christian is a follower of Christ. Christ is the Son of God.

What does God want? Answer: God wants to be loved for who and what He is and not for what He can provide in a world where people are governed by lusts, pleasures, idolatries, luxuries and all wickedness that prefers God dead so we can obtain our sinful desires.

Does God want you to be Happy? First, what does it mean to be happy? Happy is favored by luck or fortune. Happenstance: a circumstance especially that is due to chance. Happiness is dependent upon circumstances.

A Content person, at peace and joy, is not dependent upon circumstance but on the presence of God, who imparts an eternal perspective about all of life affairs.

What pleases God? Answer: the person who experiences peace and contentment due to loving God more than temporary happiness due to "good" circumstances.

Why did God create man? Answer: "Let us make man in our image, after our likenss." The man was made in the image of God on the day he was created. He was made good but naive, like a child. All men fall in sin as part of the Adamic race, Romans chapter 5. Those ordained to eternal life are set on a path to maturity (to be made in His likeness) through chastening (Hebrews 12), and choosing to partake of the sufferings of Christ (Philippians 3), and taking up their cross and following Him, Matthew 16).  

To Be Teachers, Believers Must Mature by Proper Behaviors

The writer to the Hebrews did not write to a disciple like Timothy, and neither was he writing a so-called Pastoral epistle; he wrote to all Jewish believers at that time. He taught that Jesus Christ fulfilled the sacrifice of a New Priesthood and a New Covenant. He warns all disciples, "...by this time you ought to be teachers..."

One New Testament book later, James wrote, "...To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad..." He also wrote to his Hebrew brothers to tell them, "Let not many [of you] become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment" (3:1). The scriptures cannot contradict themselves. However, after explaining in twelve verses the evils of the tongue, he went on to admonish his hearers to become teachers by their behavior.

"Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and [so] lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace" (James 3:13-18).

To Be Teachers, Believers Must Mature Beyond the eleven Disciples' Petty Jealousies

Judas never became regenerated by the grace of God. Before the cross, the eleven continually argued about who would be the greatest in the kingdom of God. Even at the Lord's table, they argued about it. Petty jealousy, selfish ambition, arrogance, and lying against the truth were their lot for three years. Think about it! The disciples often asked Jesus Christ directly or argued among themselves, who is greatest in the kingdom of God? For three years, Jesus stood among eleven men, daily producing the works of God and proclaiming truths never voiced so plainly, accurately, and completely. How do men ask who is greatest in the kingdom of God when Almighty God, the I AM THAT I AM is standing before them?

For the past 2,090 years, people of faith have not witnessed Jesus personally doing a miracle, proclaiming the Gospel, putting false, elite, hypocritical leaders in their place, and promising the total ruin of their corruption of God's religious system. Is our faith so great, and are we so mature, that we should blindly follow the leading of religious men who call themselves mature through seminary training and divide the "Church" into countless denominations, even if they are men devoid of constant prayer and fasting and will not permit themselves to be held accountable for their choices?

A Word to the Wise: To Be a Teacher, a regenerate believer must stand on his studies of God's word, step out from under the tutelage of self-proclaimed Pastors who seek to build large congregations to pay the bills for unnecessary buildings when houses can suffice for people who step up to plant ekklesias, who in turn will not gain their own following to grow a large congregation that will only bolster their pride.