Instructions Not To Instruct

It is an exciting thing to think that as an adult we could inspire others on in their walk with Lord through teaching a class at church or in a home Bible Study.  But in the book of James anyone thinking about becoming a teacher needs to think twice.  Read James 3:1 -

“Not many should become teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive a stricter judgment;”

It is serious business to become  a leader and a teacher for the Lord.  We are held to a higher standard.  We are human and will make mistakes and stumble in sin, but we are expected to live as exemplary of  a life for the Lord as we can.  Many eyes are upon us a teachers.  What we teach, we must do or others will not want to learn from us.  God will hold us accountable for what we teach, as well.  We need to be prayed up and studied up before we teach.  We need to know God’s Word and teach it accurately.

So James is really imparting some important instructions to us in this verse.   Not everyone is meant to be a teacher.  It is a calling and a gift from the Lord.  So if you like the idea that you could inspire others and could impart wisdom to them, think twice.  Those are not the reasons to teach.  Your reason should be the fact that the Lord has called you to teach and given you the gifts you will need.

The Wisdom of Discipline

Raising up children can be a difficult thing.  I remember as a kid I said that I would never do some of the things my parents did.  Well, I did end up doing some of the things my parents did.  It isn’t until you have children of your own that you see why your parents did the things they do.  The Bible has a lot of great wisdom contained in it for bringing up your children.  The Holy Spirit can also help you raise your children.  Other Christian parents are also a great resource for wisdom on dealing with your children.  In other words, you are not alone.  Both of my children were very different.  We sometimes had to use different approaches when it came to disciplining them.  All children need disciplined at one time or another.  No child is perfect.  Some will test you until you have reached your last straw of control.  Even if you don’t have children yet, or just help baby sit others kids, some good planning and training ahead of time can be of benefit.  For example, knowing what the Bible says will be a good place to start.  Here are three great verses that teach us some wisdom about disciplining children:

Proverbs 13:24 - The one who will not use the rod hates his son, but the one who loves him disciplines him diligently.

Proverbs 19:18 - Discipline your son while there is hope; don’t be intent on killing him.

Proverbs 22:15 - Foolishness is tangled up in the heart of a youth; the rod of discipline will drive it away from him.

Some parents and some parts of society/culture think that children should be allowed lots of choices and freedom.  That they will naturally do what is good for them or learn from their mistakes.  The first thing parents or caretakers for children need to remember is that we are all born with a sinful nature and none of us are ever going to naturally do what is good for us and many of us don’t learn from our mistakes.  The Bible teaches us that if we love our children we will discipline them, just like God disciplines us.  It is out of love that we show them what is right and wrong.  We want to protect them and show them the safer and better way to go.  In the next scripture we see that if we let a child go their own way, we may get so stressed that we get to the point we just want to shake them and wake them up.  I know my teenagers sometimes pushed me to the limit.  Not that I would want to kill them literally.  This verse is really making more the point that when someone keeps going down the wrong path in life it is like you are the one helping them to harm themselves.  It’s like intending to kill them when you don’t help them or getting them going in the direction that is safe.  In the last verse we see the age old concept that young people are fearless and may make foolish decisions based on their lack of experience or wisdom.  Sometimes kind words of wisdom are not enough and they need to be warned much more strongly.  Yes, even the rod of discipline might be needed with some personalities.  For different children that rod may look very different.  It might be grounding, no TV or an actual rod, etc. 

People are afraid to discipline thinking that their child won’t love them, but in reality discipline will keep them safer and they will still love you.  Sometimes we were strong with our kids, but they always knew where we stood and in the end still loved us.  They can look back on things now and understand why we did the things we did.  So use the wisdom of discipline to improve your child’s life and future.

A Common Sense Time to Answer a Mocker

When dealing with mockers and scoffers have you ever noticed how they throw lots of arguments and rationale out at you that don’t really make a whole lot of sense?  They are so bent on their opinion that they pick really lame foolish arguments to attack you.  You also know from a spiritual standpoint that they are being foolish to the point where they might be hindering their own spiritual well-being.  We have a tendency as humans to want to argue back and make our point.  We love debating and proving ourselves right.  We really do want them to see the truth.  We really want them to have a strong faith in God and in the Bible.  However, a lot of times when we debate and argue, we really don’t get anywhere with them.  We just end up frustrated and angry.  We make them frustrated and angry.  We even sometimes drive them further away from God.  We really need to study how Jesus dealt with mockers and scoffers.  He used different approaches.  We never did see him just argue and debate with them.  Sometimes He answered their foolish questions and statements and sometimes He didn’t.  This goes back to a bit of wisdom we find in Proverbs 26: 4-5.

“4 Don’t answer a fool according to his foolishness, or you’ll be like him yourself. 5 Answer a fool according to his foolishness, or he’ll become wise in his own eyes.”

It sounds like two contradictory verses, but really they are not.  It’s just learning wisdom or common sense in dealing with someone who appears to be foolish.  Sometimes it is necessary to answer them and sometimes it is just not worth it.  We need to learn to depend on the Holy Spirit and study God’s Word to get a handle on how to answer a mocker or scoffer.  We will gain common sense as we study Jesus and how He took care of those people in His life.  We will gradually gain enough common sense to know when it is the right time to answer a mocker.

Wisdom Dealing With Mockers

In light of the recent skepticism and mockery created by the recent false prophecies of a certain religious group, we need to address as Christians how to handle being mocked or respond to the mocker and skeptic.  As Christians our witness is put on the line by all those around us proclaiming to be Christians, as well.  So when groups like this do things that put Christians in a bad light, we are going face more pressure from the world for our faith.  We need to know how to respond.  Jesus gave us the best demonstration of wisdom when it came to those who deliberately mocked and scoffed at Him.  All throughout the four gospels you will find accounts of Jesus being ridiculed, laughed at, and asked skeptical questions.  Many of the questions He was asked were just to make Him look bad and place Him in jeopardy of the law.  When it came to His last days on Earth we see Him deal with mockers and scoffers even more frequently.  During His various trials before the Jews and conversations with Pilate we see Him being continually accused.  In Mark 15: 3-5 we read:

“3 The chief priests were accusing Jesus of many things, 4 so Pilate questioned him again,
Aren’t you going to answer? Listen to all their accusations! 5 Again Jesus refused to say a word, and Pilate was amazed.”

In our own human nature, we want to defend ourselves.  Jesus was the only truly innocent man there ever was.  Of all people, He had a right to defend Himself.  He also had all the power and wisdom to defend Himself that He needed.  Yet, in His wisdom He chose not to respond to the mocking and accusations.  His actions really did speak loudly for Him in the end.  By the time Pilate was done with Him, he felt Jesus was innocent and should be released.  Think about how you would feel about Jesus if you knew that He didn’t go innocently to the cross for us.  If Jesus lashed out at His accusers, and punished them for what they were doing, what would you be thinking about Him?  By the way He responded we see Him more as that true gentle, peaceable, loving Lamb of God.  We see Him as the true sacrifice for sin.  If He had gotten revenge on those who blatantly did wrong against Him, we would probably have a whole different view of Him.  He did more for the faith by staying strong and silent, then by coming back at those who mocked.  Even on the cross Jesus asked that the Father forgive them and in wisdom stated, “For they know not what they do.”

Mockers, scoffers and skeptics truly don’t know what they are doing.  They react out of worldly conditioning and sinful natures.  We need to learn to respond to those who come against us for our faith in wisdom like Jesus did.  We need to remember where they are at spiritually and if it were not for Jesus, we would be there too.

Simply Wise

Don’t you just love it when things are simple and easy.  God seems to have designed that in to so many of the things He created or the things that He wanted us to do.  For example, He created all the perfect and simple food we as humans needed to eat to stay healthy and strong.  He gaves us vegetables, fruits, healthy fats, and proteins to eat in a balanced fashion to help us to thrive physically.  Yet, in our sinful nature we come along and make things more complicated and we decide to mass produce foods that require genetic engineering, preservatives, additives and other processing to make it.  All of which is turning out to be very fattening and unhealthy for us.  When it comes to food, simple is better.  He even made salvation a simple matter.  We just simply need to believe that Jesus is God in the flesh and that He died for our sins and that He rose from the dead and now sits at the right hand of the Father.  Then we come along as humans and complicate the message.  Some groups make works a requirement to be saved.  Some make a religious belief system the requirements for being saved.  All these religious groups have complicated what God made so simple.

These things we do as humans to complicate matters really show we are very simple minded.  In other words as humans as the online dictionary puts it we are “Lacking in subtlety or sophistication; artless or naïve, stupid or silly; foolish.”  We are foolish when we make things more complicated than need be.  Yet, even God knows our simple mindedness and provides us with s simple solution to make us wise.  He gave us His word to make the simple wise.  Read Psalm 19: 7-

“The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;”

Jesus is the Word.  He gave us Jesus as the first step to becoming wise.  Then just learning the Word through the studying of the Bible will further the process of becoming wise.  What an easy system.  God makes things so simple for us.  Wisdom can be simple and can make wise the simple.

Balancing Our Self-Worth

Sometimes as Christians we let our egos or our lack of egos lead us astray when judging our worth.  We start trying to figure out where we fit in to the scheme of things.  Are we as good as our fellow Christian brother or sister?  Or are we better?  When in reality we should be using some good common sense and faith supplied to us by our Heavenly Father to determine that we are not better or worse than anyone else.  Romans 12: 2-6 says,

“2 Don’t be like the people of this world, but let God change the way you think. Then you will know how to do everything that is good and pleasing to him. 3 I realize how kind God has been to me, and so I tell each of you not to think you are better than you really are. Use good sense and measure yourself by the amount of faith that God has given you. 4 A body is made up of many parts, and each of them has its own use. 5 That’s how it is with us. There are many of us, but we each are part of the body of Christ, as well as part of one another. 6 God has also given each of us different gifts to use.”

We can balance our self-worth by using the good common sense God gave us to realize that He created us all the same.  We are all humans with the ability to do good or to do bad, to make mistakes or to learn from our mistakes, etc.  We can finish balancing out our self-worth with the faith that God has given us.  He has not played favorites and given gifts to some people to do His work, but He has given one or more gifts to each of us to use for His glory.  We just have to choose to use them.  When we do, He will bless us and we may even receive more gifts from Him.  So it is up to us.  No one has a better chance to please God.  We all have equal opportunity to love and serve Him.

So when determining your self-worth by balancing the scales with sense and faith you will soon realize we are all the same on God’s scale.

Instructions Not To Instruct

It is an exciting thing to think that as an adult we could inspire others on in their walk with Lord through teaching a class at church or in a home Bible Study.  But in the book of James anyone thinking about becoming a teacher needs to think twice.  Read James 3:1 -

“¹ Not many should become teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive a stricter judgment;”

It is serious business to become  a leader and a teacher for the Lord.  We are held to a higher standard.  We are human and will make mistakes and stumble in sin, but we are expected to live as exemplary of  a life for the Lord as we can.  Many eyes are upon us a teachers.  What we teach, we must do or others will not want to learn from us.  God will hold us accountable for what we teach, as well.  We need to be prayed up and studied up before we teach.  We need to know God’s Word and teach it accurately.

So James is really imparting some important instructions to us in this verse.   Not everyone is meant to be a teacher.  It is a calling and a gift from the Lord.  So if you like the idea that you could inspire others and could impart wisdom to them, think twice.  Those are not the reasons to teach.  Your reason should be the fact that the Lord has called you to teach and given you the gifts you will need.

The Perfect Model

We all have people we inspire to be like.  We think they hold the character traits, or intelligence or beauty that we would like to have in our own lives.  Most of us want to be the best we can be.  We may read self help books or attend seminars that are meant to improve us.  We go to college.  We watch shows to teach us the latest trends.  We may even pick certain friends or where particular clothes.  The truth is to be the best human being we can be, it only makes common sense that we should model ourselves after the only perfect human being there ever was, Jesus.  We shouldn’t be modeling ourselves after other imperfect humans.  Wild rock stars and beautiful movie stars tend to be vain or egotistical. Popular politicians and genius scientists tend to have moral views that may not be like ours.  Doctors and lawyers might be greedy.  There is no one on this earth that would be the best choice for us to emulate.  Every human we might look at whether common, elite, smart or beautiful will have flaws.  So model yourself after God in the flesh, Jesus.  I John 3:2 – “But friends, that’s exactly who we are: children of God. And that’s only the beginning. Who knows how we’ll end up! What we know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we’ll see him—and in seeing him, become like him. All of us who look forward to his Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus’ life as a model for our own.”