The Power of the Pulpit

 

 

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we    who teach will be judged with greater strictness. James 3:1
The scariest thing about teaching is our responsibility before God to those being taught. Parents, Sunday School Teachers, Bible study teachers, and pastors, will be judged by a stricter standard because of that responsibility.

I doubt that many who read this article will be pastors. I am more likely to hit women like me, the parent (grandparent) and Sunday School teacher..

Many may think this doesn’t apply because they are not teaching God’s Word in a class. But, even those who are claiming Christianity and sitting under the teaching of someone else have a responsibility to check that teaching with scripture:

1 John 4:1 says, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

The Apostle Paul called the Bereans more noble than others he had taught because they searched the scriptures to see if Paul and Silas were speaking correctly. Here is the story from Acts 17:

The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. (Acts 17:10-11)

The Bereans checked Paul’s teaching. Yet, we think it is somehow insulting or disrespectful to question the doctrinal teaching of our pastors.

If the Bible says we are to “test the spirits” and that those who receive the teaching of the Word of God with eagerness and then check it with scriptures, are more noble than those who don’t, shouldn’t we be checking our Bibles against what we are taught?

We know what the Bible says vs. teachers and preachers who succumb to pressure and temptations to have life be more comfortable. God’s Words are not consistently comfortable, but they are consistently good for us.

Psalm 119:1 says, “Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the Law of the LORD!”  Verse 9 says following God’s Law will keep our way pure. (Read more benefits here in Psalm 119)

There are too many who unquestionably follow whatever they hear from the pulpit, maybe their own Pastor or on the radio or podcasts, without ever checking what they hear. Even when someone else questions it from scripture, they believe the one in their church over the One of the Bible.

Like the Bereans, we must recognize that it does not matter who says it, if it is not consistent with the Word of God, it is wrong.

In His prayer before the crucifixion, Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”  It is this Truth that sets us free (John 8:32).

In our complacency, we attribute more authority to the pulpit than we do to the scriptures. By example, we are teaching the  next generation where they will find truth. We cannot sit under unbiblical teaching and wonder why we are losing the next generation to the world.

Will you check what you hear with the Word of God?