James 3:1 “My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.”
The Lord Jesus as the good Shepherd is very protective over His sheep, and He does not take kindly to any who would feed His sheep with anything that would cause them to stumble. In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit through the apostle James counsels’ believers not to be eager to become teachers in the church. When He makes this statement He is not referring to those who are called by Him to teach the gospel, for they have no choice in the matter, but rather He is referring to ordinary believers who may have a desire to teach the bible. It is these disciples that the apostle James counsels to exercise caution in this area, because they are exposing themselves unnecessarily to a stricter judgement on that day. Sadly there are numerous saints in the church that are desirous to teach the word of God, not understanding the eternal ramifications of their actions. It is far wiser for ordinary saints to rather leave the teaching of God’s word to those whom the Lord has called and enabled to teach. However this is not to say that ordinary believers should never teach the word of God, because God has made provision in His church for that to happen, through the vehicle of elders in the church. Elders are ordinary disciples that are appointed by the ministry gifts to shepherd the local church, and part of their shepherding function is to teach the word of God (1 Timothy 3:2). In the case of elders however, the ministry gifts are required to first test potential elders to make sure they meet God’s required standards as laid down in scripture and only those who qualify are then placed into the position of elder in the church (1 Timothy 3 & Titus 1). And so these elders would be able to teach the word of God with confidence and will therefore be able to stand up to the stricter judgement that they will incur on that day.
1 Timothy 1:5-7 “Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, (6) from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, (7) desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.”
So what does the Lord mean when He says that those who teach His word will receive a stricter judgement on that day? The answer is simple. Believers who do not teach others will only be held to account for their own actions on that day, whereas believers who teach others will be held to account for both their own actions and the actions of those they taught. In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul mentioned certain believers who were “teaching the law”. Paul went on to say that these individuals didn’t actually understand what they were teaching even though they thought they did, for Paul stated that what they were teaching amounted to idle talk and fables. Obviously mature believers are not affected by those who teach such foolishness; nevertheless baby believers are affected because they don’t know any better. And so you can readily see that on their day of judgement it will not go well with those believers who have taught error to the church. For the Lord will hold them to account for the negative impact that they had on the lives of His saints, for the Lord says that He will require their blood at the hands of those who have taught error to His church (Ezekiel 33:8).
Michael E.B. Maher
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