Be Not Many of You Teachers
The admonition in James 3 is one of those points that we often feel the need to add a disclaimer to when defending our position on the issue. Despite our defensiveness, I believe we are more on the same page than we realize. This is one of the reasons why bringing, teaching and keeping are all so necessary to complete the entire model of evangelism within our congregations.
Matthew 5:16 says we should, "Let our light so shine among men that they will see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven." This is often cited to be "teaching" people by our actions—but is it really? Perhaps it is more of a drawing or bringing than teaching. Someone seeing me doing a good work doesn't necessarily think, "He must be a Christian because he took time to help that older lady put her groceries in her car. Praise the heavenly Father for what he just did!" If the person is not a Christian or has not spoken to me before and only has my action to base a thought on then, well, they have no basis to give the Father credit and praise for how He has worked in my life.
Likewise, the woman at the well in John chapter 4 is often said to be a teacher. But is she? If so, she wasn't very good at it because the townsfolk of Samaria said, "now we believe, not because of what you said but because we have heard for ourselves and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world." The words concerning what the woman said to the townsfolk in verse 39 almost seem contradictory. The passage said, "Many Samaritans from that town believed in Him because of the woman's testimony, ‘He told me all that I ever did.’" I italicize the word "because" for a reason. The word is "dia" in the Greek and it means a "channel of an act." In other words, the townsfolk heard her say, "He told me all I ever did" and it was her saying this that channeled them to Jesus. It was then that Jesus was able to teach them in such a fashion that they could (and did) establish their faith. Hence, she brought, He taught. Jesus used her status to be effective in bringing someone (a whole town in this case) to Him.
This blog is about teaching in this sense: opening up the Bible with a lost soul and sharing the salvation news in such a fashion that the lost soul can believe that Jesus is indeed the Savior and will obey Him. I am not discounting the tremendous value of a good example that would draw people, but that clearly falls under the umbrella of “bringing.”
The two opposing ideas I addressed in the opening statement are categorized like this:
1. Every Christian is responsible for teaching lost souls.
2. Not every Christian is a teacher.
It is obvious that the position I hold to is number two. We are not all teachers that are skilled enough to be able to handle the Bible as "a workman that needs not be ashamed, handling aright the word of truth."
1. To say that everyone is a teacher is to say that the brand new Christian has the ability to open up the Bible and have such an understanding of its contents that he could move about the book with ease, explaining in detail the questions a lost soul may have. It is my experience that it takes at least a year and a half of weekly study to bring the new Christian to a point where they walk on their own faith. Some far less time and others more. This book contains app. 750,000 words that cover a span of about 1600 years during its writing period. To expect a new Christian to immediately grasp it in such a way to share it is, at best, unrealistic and unfair. (However, they can do what the woman at the well did and "channel" their friends and family to someone who has that ability).
2. The principle of the body is so important in many ways. The Bible refers to a new Christian as a "babe" regardless of their age. If a 40 year old man is baptized then he needs to be treated with the respect of being 40 years old in years but still a babe in Christ. I think of a lady at Waterford who returned to the church after being gone 40 years. Michelle and I took her under our wings and encouraged her not just to bring her family, but also on "how" to bring them. We cautioned her about being overly aggressive or impatient, about how to make sure people are seeking and leave them alone if not, and about Jesus' statements that a prophet is not without honor except in his own town and kinfolk. Matthew 10:16 says there are wolves out there so be wise as a serpent yet innocent as doves. A new Christian has no idea what this means and for us to send them out untrained and uncounseled is not in line with the New Testament. Protecting our babes is the command, not throwing them unprepared out into the wolf pack. We worked daily with this lady and in the first 3 years after she returned she was responsible for bringing 103 people to us that either came to worship or we had a Bible study with them! I have no idea how many she spoke to but we had interaction with 103! Now here’s the question: should I have stopped her from bringing people to me to study with after about 25 and tell her she had to teach them herself? That was 7 years ago and to this day she will say she hasn't got the patience or ability because of her health issues to teach people. For me to condemn her to hell because she hasn't been a "teacher" to me is beyond my ability to grasp from anything I read in Scripture. She has blossomed amazingly with her talents God blessed her with in being able to bring a steady flow to us to teach.
3. In James 3:1 there are two separate times that James makes a clear distinction between teachers and non-teachers. His initial statement is very concise; "Be not many of you teachers." We can have our thoughts on how many is "not many" of you, but one thing is crystal clear and that is that James is saying, "Out of all of you in your congregation there is a small percentage who should become teachers." Clear distinction between the "not many teachers" and the many "non-teachers." His second clear distinction comes in his reason why only a small percentage should teach. He said teachers will receive stricter judgement. Stricter than whom? Non-teachers, of course. If we continue to force those who aren't gifted with the ability to teach to get out there and teach we are placing them under stricter judgement. We need to steer far away from that.
4. In 1 Corinthians 12:28-29, Paul said in the church God placed apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, gifts of healing, etc. In verse 29, he asks if all are apostles, are all prophets, are all teachers, etc. The obvious answer to these questions is clearly "no." While this does include the age of miracles in the early church, it doesn't remove the reason why different positions were necessary and that all together they make up the body.
5. In all of my travels, I have yet to find a congregation that has in place a system that mentors every new Christian to spiritual growth. I see new convert classes in many places and that should continue. But what is missing is the attention to each person to receive the same 4 areas of growth that Luke 2:52 says Jesus grew in. (I believe since the Holy Spirit moved Luke to say Jesus grew in such a manner then we would do very well to follow that ourselves and set up some system where each new Christian is given the mentoring to do the same). We have over 30 people at Waterford who in some way have an immediate effect on the lives of new Christians. Since 2011, we have baptized 83 people, 19 of our own children. That leaves 64 from outside the congregation. Of these, 24 did not allow us time to follow up with them or they moved away very soon afterwards. Every single one has left the church. However, of the 40 who either kept coming to worship with us or would allow us to teach them weekly, 36 are still faithful! That's 90%! By the way, 25 of those have brought their contacts to us because we instructed them how to approach people in love. This is sustainable evangelism.
Although this sounds more like the "keeping" area it is important to inject it at this point. Had we not trained our members to understand the needs of the new Christians and hold training classes to better involve them with the the babes who were willing to let us, the 40 would have gone the way of the 24 and left the church. There is a critical need to make sure we don't send everyone out as a teacher because it neglects the other areas that Jesus said we are to be on guard for. The new souls in turn become bringers by inviting their friends and family, the teachers can then step up and teach and now that develops a new set of babes to be keeping and mentoring!
I would equate this to a baseball team that spends its resources on hitters. Their lineup may be full of powerful hitters but that neglects pitching and defense and it is unbalanced tremendously. Or a football team that is heavily into their offense, so much so they spend their draft picks and money on offensive players. This takes away from their defense and special teams. We cannot over emphasize one area of evangelism so much that it neglects the other areas.
The asterisks I mentioned earlier are usually in defense of a stand that has been chosen and the person taking a stand refuses to listen to Scriptural reasoning. I had a discussion with someone who took the opposing stance I took. This person took the stance so far that he said, "If a Christian doesn't teach someone the Gospel before he dies he will go to hell." I asked him a few questions:
What if someone is baptized and is so ill that they never recover from a hospital bed and die within a very short period of time? Asterisk.
How about someone who is killed in a car accident after being baptized and never has a chance to teach someone? Asterisk.
You see where I am going with this. Here is where great care must be given to the statements we make and conclusions we draw. As we mature, we must always keep our minds open to further counsel that the New Testament lays out about every subject, whether teaching or anything else.
Even the brand new Christian has a role in evangelism but they certainly are not a teacher, yet. What is critical is that we make sure we identify where their needs are and meet them. This includes surrounding them as much as they will allow us to by feeding them with the milk of the Scripture, which eliminates sending them out to teach someone meat when they need milk themselves. The regular meeting with the new Christian allows us to give ourselves to them, develop relationships with them, find out their interests, talents and abilities which allow us to aid them in their finding ministries God has designed for them to be in, becoming part of the body.
Perhaps a more effective statement would be to say, "Even the newest of Christian has a key role in evangelism. Most likely it is as a bringer so let's make sure we help counsel them on what the Scriptures say on this topic so they draw people instead of running them off."