Religious Teachers
by Hugh DeLong
"Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples, saying: 'The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them'" (Matthew 23:1-3).
When you read of Jesus’ opposition from religious leaders and teachers, these verses jump out as a conflict (e.g., Jesus’ exchange with these teachers in Matthew 15). Some see it as only applying under the Old Covenant period, and since we are no longer under it, we simply don’t have to deal with it at all. Convenient, and true to some extent.
Others broaden this from ‘Moses seat’ (and scribes and Pharisees) to all current religious teachers, especially the one teaching on this! I.e., it becomes a convenient demand that you are to obey them. You do well to question these teachers!
The Apostles’ teaching—i.e., the message revealed through the apostles and prophets (cp. Acts 2:42, Ephesians 3:1-5) —remains our authority. It is an ‘external’ authority that we can check, validate, and follow. This does not mean just any or all interpretations of this message, for we must still determine its teaching.
Within this, elders and teachers have a place. Obey your leaders (Hebrews 13:17) – but again, validate their teaching, for not all teachers teach truth!
There will always be false teachers among us (cp. II Peter 2:1 and all the other warnings concerning being misled by such). They should follow Paul's example in his reasoning from the Scriptures (Acts 17:2, 17; 18:4, 19:8)! And we should follow the example of the Bereans in studying their presentation with the Scriptures and thus validating (or rejecting) such teaching (Acts 17:11-12).
This means you need to learn, study, know, and keep the revealed message. OK, start with this article! How do you ‘read this’? What will you do with it? What is your relationship with the teachers you are associated with?
