Why Risk the Heavy Responsibility of Being a Teacher?

Sometimes the words of scripture seem to be written in bold type or inscribed on an envelope personally addressed to me. Even the verses about godly mothering and the warnings to contentious wives don’t hold a candle to Jesus’ cautionary words to teachers in the Sermon on the Mount:

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:17-20)

These words would have landed like a shockwave to anyone among Jesus’ listening crowd who was in the know. The scribes and Pharisees were THE religious elite. If their meticulous and very public righteousness couldn’t qualify them for heaven there was little hope for anyone else. However, Jesus was tuned into the difference between God’s righteousness and the standard of righteousness the scribes and Pharisees were teaching.

Fear of being legalistic has made some believers think of the law as a barrier. “Christianity is all about relationship,” they claim, and yet the truth is that rules enable relationship. So while it is true that we will never earn God’s favor through obedience to the law, it is equally true that Jesus lived a life of perfect obedience to the law on our behalf—and we are called to a life of Christlikeness.

When I teach and when I write, I want to be sure to be clear, accurate, and biblical—and I see the importance of modeling what I teach. Jesus is clear: it’s do and then teach. His little brother James picks up on the warning: “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” (James 3:1)

Why in the world, then, would anyone take the risk? I read the answer that works for me on a snowy day in early April. The storm had taken out our electricity (which somehow renders us all completely useless whenever it happens), and so I picked up The Confessions of Augustine, a book I had been intending to tackle “someday.”

In Book One, Augustine enumerates and extols God’s attributes and excellencies:

What art Thou then, my God? What, but the Lord God? For who is Lord but the Lord? Or who is God save our God? Most highest, most good, most potent, most omnipotent; most merciful, yet most just; most hidden, yet most present; most beautiful, yet most strong, stable, yet incomprehensible; unchangeable, yet all-changing; never new, never old… And what had I now said, my God, my life, my holy joy? Or what saith any man when he speaks of Thee? Yet woe to him that speaketh not.”

His response to God’s majesty is to speak of it, to teach. However inadequate the words may be, it is his “holy joy” to share what he has seen of God’s character and majesty. Despite the deficiency of his expression, the biblical warning to teachers, and the heavy responsibility, Augustine was resolved to show up and tell the truth.

Elisabeth Elliot wrote: “My task is to love God, to make God loved, and to lay down my life to this end.”

So I will continue to speak the truth that is in me.

And to trust God with the rest.

Praying Together

Lord, we echo the words of Augustine for we’re well aware that our words fall short of your glory—and yet how can we bear to be silent? Help us to obey your commandments and to teach others to do the same. May we show your greatness and the reasonableness of an obedient life by the choices we make, the words we say, and our love for you.
Amen

Let’s continue this conversation:

• Does Jesus’ warning to teachers stop you in your tracks?
• If you are a teacher, what motivates you to keep on teaching the Bible?