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Wednesday, October 29, 2008

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Who Is Your Teacher?

"A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher" (Luke 6:40).

During the years that I worked as a teacher in a Bible school, I often considered the meaning of this particular verse.  I suppose there may be some teachers who might use this verse to enforce the fact that they were above their students, but that was never my thought.  I felt privileged to be called a teacher and I would wonder if I was doing enough to teach and train my students.  I don't think I even saw it as clearly then as I do now, that I was passing on to them not only the good in me, but unfortunately, I was also restricting their growth in the areas where I was lacking.  I wish now that I could have been so much more so that they could have become more.  On the positive side, one of the things that I often told my students was that whatever good they saw in me was also available to them and they could get it from the same place that I had received it.  I wanted them to have everything good that I had received and more.

In my life, I have sat under a good number of teachers and pastors and learned much.  I hope that that has been your experience as well.  God has given these people to the body of Christ for our benefit, "to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:12).  It is this last bit that should always push each us even beyond our teachers.  And any teacher/pastor worth their salt should take the attitude of John the Baptist who told his own disciples that he was not the one but merely was there to point the way (John 3:27-30).

Paul commended the Berean church for going beyond his teaching and searching the scriptures to find out if what he was saying was true (Acts 17:11).  What they were really doing was taking advantage of all that they had received from this human teacher but then going beyond that and allowing God's Holy Spirit to do what Jesus had promised he would do:

"But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you" (John 14:26).

"But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.  He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.  He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you" (John 16:13-14).

Every teacher enjoys it when their students learn new things.  It is a joy to watch someone catch on and grab hold of something that they have never seen before.  But we are all intended by God to put in the extra effort to go beyond any human teacher no matter how gifted or knowledgeable to attain to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:12).  If everyone who is fully trained is like his teacher, to get to the place of fullness in Christ, we need to be taught not only by or through Jesus' human representatives but by Christ himself!  Only if God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit is our teacher can we get to the place that he desires!

In other words, Sunday School, Bible study groups, Sunday morning messages, and yes, even Faith Forward challenges, however good and beneficial all of these things can be, will never be enough to teach us what we need to grow up into Christ.  The Holy Spirit has to become your teacher and mine in a very real and personal way.  The writer to the Hebrews lamented the state of the church in his day, and what he said could be said just as easily of the church of today:

"We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn.  In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again.  You need milk, not solid food!  Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.  But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil" (Hebrews 5:11-14).

Take advantage of good teaching wherever you can find it.  Make sure that you are in a church that teaches the word in a way that encourages your growth.  But do not be satisfied with only those meals that someone else has made.  Jesus said that we will become like our teachers and nothing more.  If we don't really pay attention, we will assuredly be less than even that.  However, if we allow ourselves to be taught by God himself through his word and Jesus through his Holy Spirit — if God becomes our teacher — then we can and will become like that Teacher!  That is God's plan.  That we grow up into him.  That we go beyond milk and prepared food.  That we become like him, our heavenly Teacher!  Who is your teacher?  For you will most certainly be like him!

"As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you.  But his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit — just as it has taught you, remain in him" (1 John 3:27).

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