A Warning To Those Who Want

To Become Teachers Of Gods Word

James 3.1
Sunday, September 2, 2012

I.

James deals with a new topic

We are now in chapter 3:1-12. Here we see James dealing with a new topic. This is
the classic passage in the NT that deals with the importance of the tongue. Last
week I discussed with you in general what the Bible says about the tongue or our
speech.
We have an article posted in our bulletin board that summarizes what I taught last
Sunday. The article is entitled Fill Your Mouth With Life, Not Death, by Jon Bloom.
But let me read portions of it.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21).
Words cause death. People die because of something said. Tongues can be weapons of
mass destruction, launching holocausts and wars. Tongues can also be the death of
marriages, families, friendships, churches, careers, hopes, understanding, reputations,
missionary efforts, and governments.
But people also live because of something said. The tongue can be a tree of life
(Proverbs 15:4). Tongues reconcile peoples and make peace. Tongues can make
marriages sweet, families strong, and churches healthy. Tongues can give hope to the
despairing, advance understanding, and spread the gospel.
So what will come out of your mouth today, death or life?
It will all depend on whats filling your heart. Jesus said, . . . out of the abundance of
the heart the mouth speaks (Luke 6:45). A critical heart produces a critical tongue. A
self-righteous heart produces a judgmental tongue. An ungrateful heart produces a
grumbling tongue. But a loving heart produces a gracious tongue. A faithful heart
produces a truthful tongue. A peaceful heart produces a reconciling tongue. A trusting
heart produces an encouraging tongue.
So fill your heart with grace by soaking in your Bible. And pray: Set a guard, O Lord,
over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips! (Psalm 141:3).

Now James has much more to say regarding the tongue here in chapter 3. In this
chapter we see James using vivid word pictures to illustrate how powerful, influential,
destructive, evil, and inconsistent our tongues can be. But before he does that he
first addresses the issue of teachers. 3:1 reads, Not many of you should become
teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with
greater strictness.
In todays study we will look at three things:
1.
2.
3.

What did James mean by teachers?

Why was there a need for such warning?
Does this warning intend to discourage people to communicate Scriptural truth?

I.

What did James mean by teachers?

The Greek word for teacher is didaskalos (pl. didaskaloi). It means

instructor, teacher or master. (This is why the KJV uses the word
masters instead of teachers.)

Didaskaskalos occurs 58 times in the NT, 48 of those are found in the

Gospels; 41 refer to Jesus. Jesus assumed the absolute title of being called
"The Teacher"
-

Matthew 26:18 ESV He said, "Go into the city to a certain man and say to
him, 'The Teacher says, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your
house with my disciples.'"

John 13:13 ESV You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.
[In the Greek the noun teacher is preceded by an article and so literally it is
The Teacher.

Among the Jews, teacher was often used of any who had an official teaching
or preaching role such as the Scribes, Pharisees, and teachers of the Law.
These teachers were regarded with great respect and honor because they
were well-versed in the Holy Scriptures and expounded them.

These teachers were expected to be the experts in Scripture. This is why in

John 3:10 Jesus rebuked Nicodemus who was a Pharisee and a member of
the Sanhedrin, the Teacher of Israel, and yet he did not understand what
Jesus was talking about.

A related word to teacher during the time of Jesus was the word rabbi.
Rabbi was a loose designation for any respected teacher. It means my
master or my great one.

In John 3:26 John the Baptists disciples addressed him as rabbi, as was
Jesus.

In John 1:38 the term rabbi is explained for the readers as meaning teacher.
Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, What are you
seeking? And they said to him, Rabbi (which means Teacher), where
are you staying?

Rabbis were master teachers and were given great honor and respect by their
fellow Jews. We see this in the comment of New Testament scholar William
Barclay. He has very interesting things to say about the rabbi during the time
of Jesus:
Rabbi means, "My great one." Everywhere he went he was treated with the
utmost respect. It was actually held that a man's duty to his Rabbi exceeded
his duty to his parents, because his parents only brought him into the life of
this world but his teacher brought him into the life of the world to come. It
was actually said that if a man's parents and a man's teacher were captured
by an enemy, the Rabbi must be ransomed first. It was true that a Rabbi was
not allowed to take money for teaching and that he was supposed to support
his bodily needs by working at a trade; but it was also held that it was a

specially pious and meritorious work to take a Rabbi into the household and to
support him with every care.

Because of this it is no wonder that in the gospels, many rabbis greatly

enjoyed their prestige and privilege. In Matthew 23:6-7 Jesus said, they love
the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and
greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.

Obviously, these self-seeking motives should never have any place in the lives
of those who claim to be children of God. Listen to the words of Jesus in Mt
23:8-12:
8 But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all
brothers. 9 And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father,
who is in heaven. 10 Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor,
the Christ. 11 The greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 Whoever
exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

II.

In light of that background, why did James give this

warning?

Let us go back to James 3:1 and with that background we can have a glimpse of why
James would give this warning.
James was addressing believers. He calls them my brothers. And he tells them,
Not many of you should become teachers. Why?
Here is what I think what may have happened in the churches James wrote to.
John Stevenson: As the gospel came to the cities throughout the Roman Empire,
both Jews as well as Gentiles came to believe in Christ. For the first time, Jews and
Gentiles were intermixed in a single church. The Jews had been raised in the
Scriptures. They were already familiar with the Old Testament.
And surely they thought that because of their knowledge of Scripture, they could be
teachers to these Gentiles who were ignorant of the same. In Romans 2:17-20 we
gain some insight into this mindset of the Jews.
17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God 18 and know his
will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; 19 and if
you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in
darkness, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the
embodiment of knowledge and truth.

Apparently it was also common in the early church for a mature Christian man to
have opportunity to speak in a service. In 1Co 14 Paul gave some regulations to the
church at Corinth by writing, When you come together, each one has a hymn, a
lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for
building up. (1 Cor. 14:26).
As a Jew himself, James knew how most of the Jews were thinking. He was aware
that too many Jewish believers considered themselves the experts in the Law who
should teach the ignorant and so they were overly anxious to speak up and show off
their knowledge.

In addition to that, coming from the background that I discussed regarding rabbis,
many Jewish Christians desired to become teachers for wrong reasons. They too
wanted to carry some of the honor and admiration given to Rabbis. If a man goes
into teaching the Bible because of a secret desire for status or recognition, he is
doing it for self and not for the Lord.
And so James writes, Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers.

III. Does this warning intend to discourage people to

communicate Scriptural truth?
MacArthur
By giving the caution Let not many of you become teachers, James does
not, of course, mean to discourage such people from communicating their
scriptural insights. Nor does he want to hinder in any way those who are
genuinely called by God to be official teachers of His Word.
It is Gods will for all of His people to articulate His truth as accurately and
thoroughly as they are able.
o

When Joshua objected to the godly prophesying of Eldad and Medad,

Moses mildly rebuked him, saying, Would that all the Lords people
were prophets, that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them! (Num.
11:29).

In the Great Commission, all Christians are called to go therefore and

make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all
that I commanded you (Matt. 28:1920).

Paul said, It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the

office of overseer [a preacher-teacher], it is a fine work he desires to
do (1 Tim. 3:1). Of himself he wrote, Woe is me if I do not preach
the gospel (1 Cor. 9:16).

Jamess point is that no believer should begin any form of teaching

Gods Word without a deep sense of the seriousness of this
responsibility.
To sin with the tongue when alone or with one or two other persons is bad
enough; but to sin with the tongue in public, especially while acting as a
speaker for God, is immeasurably worse. Speaking for God carries with it
great implications, both for good and ill.
The grave responsibility of declaring Gods Word is presented twice in the
book of Ezekiel. Through that prophet, the Lord said,
Ezekiel 3:17-19 ESV "Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the
house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give
them warning from me. 18 If I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' and

you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way,
in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his
blood I will require at your hand. 19 But if you warn the wicked, and he does
not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die for his
iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.

That warning is repeated in Ezek 33:79.

The writer of Hebrews speaks of preachers, teachers, and other church
leaders who are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to
give an account. (Heb. 13:17).
With godly satisfaction, Paul was able to tell the Ephesian elders who met him
at Miletus, Acts 20:26-27 ESV, Therefore I testify to you this day that I am
innocent of the blood of all, 27 for I did not shrink from declaring to you
the whole counsel of God. (Perhaps Paul was thinking of the warning in
Ezekiel when he said those words.)
The teaching of erroneous, misleading, and confusing theology was a problem
in the church at Ephesus while Timothy ministered there. In 1Timothy 1:3-7
Paul instructed Timothy to
3 charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, 4 nor to
devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote
speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. 5 The aim
of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and
a sincere faith. 6 Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered
away into vain discussion, 7 desiring to be teachers of the law, without
understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they
make confident assertions.

Some were even teaching outright blasphemy and had suffered shipwreck in
regard to their faith (vv. 1920).
1 Timothy 1:19-20 ESV holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this,
some have made shipwreck of their faith, 20 among whom are Hymenaeus
and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to
blaspheme.

Peter and Jude give the severest possible warnings against heretical teachers.
Peter said,
2 Peter 2:1-3 ESV But false prophets also arose among the people, just as
there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive
heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon
themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and
because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed
they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not
idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

Jude wrote,
Jude 1:8,10,16 ESV Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their
dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones.
10 But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are
destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.

 16 These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires;

they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.

Pauls warning to the church at Ephesus, given through Timothy, applies to

teachers in every church:
1 Timothy 6:3-5 ESV If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not
agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that
accords with godliness, 4 he is puffed up with conceit and understands
nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about
words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, 5 and
constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the
truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.

Not only false teachers, but also those who ignorantly and carelessly interpret
the Word in order to impress others with their knowledge and understanding
are a great danger to the churchand are in danger themselves from God.
Many teachers in the church today are poorly grounded in Scripture and illequipped to teach it. Such teachers who misrepresent Gods Word can do
more spiritual and moral damage to Gods people than a hundred atheists or
secularists attacking from outside. That is why it is so foolish and spiritually
dangerous to have newly converted celebrities, or any other new convert, as
well as untrained and unaccountable preachers, speaking and teaching.
Paul warned that an overseer should not be a new convert, so that he will
not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil (1
Tim. 3:6).
When the apostle himself was converted, the Lord trained him in the Arabian
desert of Nabatea for some three years before he began his apostolic ministry
(Galatians 1:17-18 ESV nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were
apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to
Damascus. 18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas
and remained with him fifteen days.).
James does not intend to restrain those who are called and gifted by God to
teach, those who are genuinely qualified, knowledgeable, and prepared. But
he admonishes everyone who has opportunity to teach to take great pains to
consider the seriousness of teaching the Word of God and to make sure that
he has an accurate understanding of any truth he attempts to teach. Like
Moses, he should make every effort to be sure that what he says corresponds
to what the Lord spoke (Lev. 10:3). Even after careful study, he should pray
with utmost sincerity, Lord, let me say only what You are saying in this
passage and help me make that truth clear to those who hear.
The great Scottish Reformer John Knox was so awed and burdened by the
responsibility to declare Gods Word faithfully that, before his first sermon, he
wept uncontrollably and had to be escorted from the pulpit until he could
compose himself.

Closing Words

Let me close with a personal testimony about the honor and danger that
come along with becoming a teacher of Gods Word.
I remember that when I was a young minister of Gods Word, my pastor
commented that if I was not preaching I was a nobody; but when I stood
behind the pulpit to preach, I became another person because of the
anointing of God upon me. In the eyes of some ladies, I even looked more
handsome when I was teaching so that several of them even had a crush on
me. This is a common experience of young preachers who are single. Because
of the impact of my radio ministry where people were getting saved,
enlightened, receiving hope, etc., people imagined me to be somewhat larger
than life. And perhaps because of this influence, there were those who wanted
to be like me, a teacher of Gods Word with a radio ministry for wrong
reasons. All they want perhaps was to the gain the prestige of being known in
many places and the honor connected to it.
But this task of preaching is a burdensome task. Many dont know that others
have threatened to kill me because of some things that I have said. Some
have misunderstood me and have left our church. While those experiences
may have brought pain to me, these were actually the best part of my work.
The Lord Jesus said that if others revile you and persecute you and utter all
kinds of evil against you falsely on my account, rejoice and be glad, for your
reward is great in heaven (Mt 5:11-12).
But what is really dangerous about my position is when these great things
that the Lord is doing in my life begin to get into my head and I become
proud. It is wrong when I start to think that I am somebody when I am
really a nobody. It would be sinning when I begin to enjoy the honor and the
praise of people and start thinking that the church exists for me instead of I
for the church. This would place me under the same condemnation that Jesus
uttered against the scribes and Pharisees.
What is dangerous is when many who listen to me over the radio would want
to be become teachers like me because of the prestige and the honor
connected to the responsibility. If these things are so, James has a word for
me and for the others, Not many of you should become teachers, my
brothers.