by Hugh DeLong<\/p>\n
“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’<\/em>” (Matthew 23:1-3).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Others broaden this from ‘Moses seat’ (and scribes and Pharisees) to all current religious teachers<\/strong>, especially the one teaching on this! I.e., it becomes a convenient demand that you are to obey them<\/strong>. You do well to question these teachers!<\/p>\n
The Apostles’\u00a0teaching<\/strong>-i.e., the\u00a0message revealed through the apostles and prophets<\/strong> (cp. Acts 2:42, Ephesians 3:1-5) -remains\u00a0our authority<\/strong>. It is an ‘external’ authority that we can check, validate, and follow. This does not <\/b>mean just any or all interpretations of this message, for we must still determine its teaching.<\/p>\n
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!<\/p>\n
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 <\/b>follow Paul’s example in his reasoning from the Scriptures (Acts 17:2, 17; 18:4, 19:8)! And we<\/strong> 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).<\/p>\n
This means you <\/b>need to learn, study, know, and keep the revealed message. OK, start with this <\/b>article! How do you ‘read this’? What will you do with it? What is your relationship with the teachers you are associated with?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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).…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[478,1511,936],"class_list":["post-97375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-false-teachers","tag-preachers","tag-teachers"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":94766,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/jesus-warns-teachers\/","url_meta":{"origin":97375,"position":0},"title":"Jesus Warns Teachers","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 25, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Hugh DeLong Text: Luke 11 Wow! What a busy day in the life of Jesus is recorded here in Luke 11! The thing that jumps off the pages is the opposition that is building against Jesus. He went about doing good - and they hated him. He told them\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69073,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/jewish-sects-some-terms-considered\/","url_meta":{"origin":97375,"position":1},"title":"Jewish Sects: Some Terms Considered","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 28, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Fred A. Shewmaker via Truth Magazine XVI: 6, pp. 9-11 December 9, 1971 Available sources of information on this subject are quite limited, and much of the information available is questionable regarding its accuracy. Nevertheless, I believe that studying this subject will be profitable. Those who pursue such a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67916,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/woe-to-you-scribes-and-pharisees-hypocrites\/","url_meta":{"origin":97375,"position":2},"title":"Woe to You, Scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites!","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 4, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Allen Dvorak Biblical Insights, 14(9), September 2014 There is no uncertainty about the compassion of Jesus during His earthly ministry. Various individuals and groups were the objects of His compassion (e.g., Matthew 9:35-38; Luke 7:11-15). But Jesus was also frequently involved in controversy and sometimes handed out sharp rebukes.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16800,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-were-the-scribes\/","url_meta":{"origin":97375,"position":3},"title":"Who were the scribes?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why would the scribes be involved with seeking the death of Jesus? I thought scribes did the writings, copying of the manuscripts, etc. Did they have authority as well as the Pharisees? What part did they play in the temple activities then? Answer: One of the duties of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":61048,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-are-so-many-afraid-to-call-a-dog-a-dog\/","url_meta":{"origin":97375,"position":4},"title":"Why Are So Many Afraid to Call a Dog – \u201cA DOG\u201d?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 29, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Brian A. Yeager When one reads of false brethren and those teaching errors (false teachers\/prophets) throughout the word of God you find that they were labeled, at times, in colorful ways. Of the watchman in Israel, Isaiah penned the following: \"His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31722,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-jesus-was-born-under-the-law-argument\/","url_meta":{"origin":97375,"position":5},"title":"The “Jesus Was Born Under the Law” Argument","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry W. Benton The Argument Stated: Jesus was \"born\" under the law (Galatians 4:4) and he died on the cross to \"end\" the Old Testament law of Moses (Romans 10:4; Colossians 2:14). The Argument Answered: First, while Jesus was born under the law and lived perfectly under the law,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97375\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}