James 3:1- Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Becoming\na teacher of God’s word is a wonderful ambition. God desires that\nall Christians know and understand His word so well that in every\nmoment they are ready to teach. It is a good work with great rewards\nat the end. However, it is one that comes with some very serious\nresponsibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tAs\nJames warns in the third chapter of his book, we will be judged with\ngreater strictness. This is a two-fold warning. First off, the\nworld will judge us more harshly. We will live in a fish bowl and\nall our actions will be nick-picked and monitored night and day. As\npeople who proclaim God’s word, we are doubly expected to live it\nourselves. If we fail in this regard, our opponents will quickly\nsnatch this up and we will lose our influence and our ability to\nreach souls will be lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tSecond,\nI believe God Himself will expect more from us. While the standard\nby which we are judged does not change, the fact that we are taking\nother people’s souls into our hands. Teachers are responsible for\nhow a person perceives and understands God. If we fail, especially\nwhen we do it knowingly, God will hold us responsible for the loss of\nthat soul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tJames\n3 brings out these two warnings, but there is one more that every\nprospecting teacher needs to be aware of. As mentioned above we are\nin the spotlight much more often then other Christians. We are often\nthe ones who make a vocal stand against sin and those who practice\nit. When the world sees this, they will retaliate, often in a harsh\nand harmful way. In these moments, we may be alone in a physical\nsense. Men will not always be by our side and we have to face the\ndangers of the world alone. If we cannot handle such a scenario, we\nhave no business being a Christian, let alone a teacher of God’s\nword.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tThese\nare the top three warnings every man of God needs to take into\nconsideration when thinking about teaching. We can be a great\ninfluence for the gospel or we can wind up hindering its work. If we\ncannot live the life of a Christian, we have no business being a\nteacher and if we are like the stony ground and buckle under\npersecution it is not the life for us. However, if despite this we\nstill desire to be teachers then by all means go for it, the Lord\nneeds you. As a final word of encouragement, remember that God will\nbe with you, wherever you go!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
James 3:1- Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. Becoming a teacher of God’s word is a wonderful ambition. God desires that all Christians know and understand His word so well that in every moment they are ready to teach. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wmadisonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wmadisonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wmadisonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wmadisonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wmadisonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=124"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wmadisonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125,"href":"https:\/\/www.wmadisonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions\/125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wmadisonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wmadisonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wmadisonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}