Who is our Teacher?

By Linda and Tom

“But you are not to be called 'Rabbi,' for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth 'father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called 'teacher,' for you have one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” Matthew 23:8-12

I have to confess something. Years ago when I read the above scripture I only “saw” one part: “And do not call anyone on earth 'father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.” I think it was because Tom was raised Catholic so I picked up on the “father” part and wondered why, since it so clearly states “do not call anyone on earth 'father”, they opted to call their priests “father”?? That just seemed so strange to me… hadn’t they read this scripture??

But, fast forward a few years, I realized that I was just as guilty of not reading the scripture because that is not all this scripture is saying!! Apparently God, being “God”, knew what we would end up doing as a church and he warned us against it ahead of time! The Catholic Church isn’t the only ones who missed this scripture. Don’t we as believers call our Pastors, Leaders and Ministers “teachers”? Don’t we look to THEM for our insight into God? Apparently the Catholic Church isn’t the only ones who missed this!

Just to make sure I was understanding what Jesus was saying, I looked up the words Jesus said NOT to call people to get a better feel for His meaning. Here are the definitions for the words from the concordance:

Rabbi = Of Hebrew origin with pronominal suffix; my master, that is, Rabbi, as an official title of honor: - Master, Rabbi.

Father = apparently a primary word; a “father” (literally or figuratively, near or more remote): - father, parent.

Teacher = a guide, that is, (figuratively) a teacher: - master.

(Just as a side note, I was raised Hindu for a few years and was taught to call the Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda, “Master” when I prayed to him. DOH! I find this so interesting that the very words Jesus said NOT to use are being used by different religious groups!)

So, going back to the above scripture, I think the key statement Jesus makes is “…for you have only one Master and you are all brothers…”! His point being that we are all equals and on the same “level”. We are not to be above or below each other, although we can be ahead or behind someone on our journey’s road. Another reason we should look to God as our Teacher is that we are all human and broken and we see things through very different “filters”, and if we look to one another to be taught, won’t we lead each other astray? I know I am guilty of that!! I don’t mean that we shouldn’t share our testimony or experiences on our journey with the Lord, that is good stuff and it helps and encourages us. Jesus even calls us to be “witnesses” (Acts 1:8) but there is a big difference between “witnessing/sharing” what I have personally experienced or learned and imparting the experiential “knowledge” of God.  When a person teaches it is “gnosis”, which is intelligence or head knowledge. What the Spirit teaches is “Epignosis” which is experiential knowledge (“My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.” Job 42:5 …“Taste and see that the LORD is good” Psalm 34:8). Paul prays that the Holy Spirit will give us the “knowledge” of God (Colossians 1:9 and Ephesians 1:15-19). And He is the only one who CAN do that. We, as a body and individual believers should look to God alone to reveal Himself to us so that we can truly “know” Him (Epignosis), and not just “know about” Him (Gnosis).

Just so you don’t think I am making all this stuff up, here are some scriptures I found of Jesus confirming who our Teacher should be:

“When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say." Luke 12:11-12 (see also Matthew 10:19-20)

“Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.” Mark 13:11

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: 'They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me…” John 6:44-48 (“All your sons will be taught by the LORD, and great will be your children's peace.” Isaiah 54:13)

 “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Matthew 11:29

“… These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. All this I have spoken while still with you. 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 14:24-26

(Did you catch that?? Let’s read that last part again: “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.”)

“However, when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all Truth; for He will not speak things originating from Himself, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will make known to you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will receive from what is Mine and make it known to you.” John 16:13-14

Here is another scripture in 1 John:

“I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as 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 2:26-27

I think we have all have fallen into a trap of looking to each other to be taught rather than looking to God! Jesus tells us in the above scriptures that we need to look to the Holy Spirit (ultimately it is God) for our teaching, understanding and knowledge. He didn’t say for us to set up a hierarchy, or look to each other, placing the more educated over the less educated.

 I believe the trap we have fallen into is what Jesus mentions in this scripture:

“Jesus called them together and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,  and whoever wants to be first must be your slave--just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Matthew 20:25-27 (see also Mark 10:42-45 and Luke 22:25-27)

Have we become more like “the rulers of the Gentiles” and taken up the world’s ways, placing ourselves above one another and “exercising authority” over each other?? He says “NOT SO WITH YOU…” Yet… isn’t that what we have become?? Aren’t we told that our “leaders” have authority over us? Don’t they claim to be our “covering”? Jesus demonstrated a “Bottom up leadership model, not a top down one “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve,” We need to lead by serving and not serve by leading. (“For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” Matthew 23:12)

Here are a couple more scriptures to consider. In 1 Corinthians and Galatians Paul is saying that he was NOT taught by any man but by the “Spirit of Jesus”. And he made it his mission to tell people about Jesus so they too could learn from Jesus themselves, through the Spirit, about who God is.

“When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God... I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power…-- but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit…  This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment: For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 2:1-16

“I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.” Galatians 1:11-12

In conclusion, this is “my” understanding, and can even say my experience, of who our Teacher should be, but I want to encourage you to seek, and to ask God for yourself if these words are true! Don’t just take my word for it :)

“You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” John 13:13-17

I want to echo Paul’s prayer for us all: “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.” Ephesians 1:15-19

Father, I thank you that you have given us everything we need for life and godliness and You are fully able to teach, guide and direct us when we look to You for all things, but especially when we seek to KNOW You and love You with ALL of our hearts. With all my love, your daughter, Linda :)

The BODY of Christ…

Part 2 - The Continuation of “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb”…

“Bridal Theology is found nowhere in Scripture. It is a false teaching that has its roots in the Roman Church as far back as the third-century A.D. The church is most often described as Christ's body, but again, never as a "bride". http://www.looktotheeast.com/bride_of_christ.htm

In my last blog I wrote out the first part of the process of my astonishing discovery that the “church” is NOT the “Bride of Christ” as I had been taught and believed for most of my Christian walk. And initially, my first thought was that Israel was the bride, but after some more research I am not convinced of that either. So, at this point in time, I am inclined to believe what the Revelation 21:9-10 scripture states very clearly, that the bride of the Lamb is the Holy City of Jerusalem. Not the Church, and not Israel (I know, it is kind of weird to think of a “city” as the bride… but that is what it says). Then I listed all the scriptures that stated what Jesus called the Jewish believers and He mostly called them Friends and Guests (of the wedding banquet) and a couple times, children, sons and daughters. Never did he call them “bride” nor did he ever allude to it. Again, if the church or Israel WERE the bride, I would think Jesus would have said SOMETHING about it… right?

Jesus spent most of His time with the Jewish community, but it is understood that Paul’s ministry was to the gentiles so in this blog I wanted to address the terminology Paul used, which is that we are the “body” of Christ. In some of the websites I researched on the “bride” topic there appears to be some confusion regarding a couple scriptures (two in particular) that Paul used in his writings to the gentile believers. These scriptures are being used to back up the belief that the church is the bride. But, if we remove the “bridal theology” filters, we can clearly see that most of what Paul talked about was that we are the BODY of Christ and he never says we are the bride. The scripture in 2 Corinthians 11:2-5 is one of the scriptures used to back up the bridal theology:

“I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough…” 2 Corinthians 11:2-4

The following is an excellent explanation regarding the above scripture that I couldn’t have said better: “Paul’s point was to encourage the Corinthians to remain faithful to Christ and his gospel (1 Corinthians 15.1-4). Paul constantly had to defend his ministry–from both unbelievers and believers. From his words in this passage he recognized he was not the most polished speaker. But in terms of knowledge, he was far ahead of anyone else: he was God’s apostle to the Gentiles (Romans 11.13). The risen Lord had commissioned him and revealed to him secrets no one else knew.³ Paul’s choice of words to the Corinthians, “present you as a pure virgin” was to illustrate his desire for holy living for these believers, not to teach that the Church is the bride of Christ–any more than Paul taught that he was their mother (Galatians 4.19) or their father (1 Corinthians 4.15).” (doctrine.org)

Here is the other scripture that is used to promote the church as the bride, but they stop short and don’t finish reading the statement Paul is making. He never says we are the bride and if we keep reading, he clearly says we are the BODY several times:

Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church-- for we are members of his body. Ephesians 5:22-30

I think that Paul, like God, uses the analogy of “marriage” to try to help his readers understand the “intimacy” aspect of our relationship with Christ. The goal of pursuing God with all our hearts is so that, as we get to know Him, we become more and more like Him. Being renewed and transformed into HIS likeness. “My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you…” Galatians 4:19 “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-- his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:2 “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 3:18. Which makes more sense when we think of being a part of His Body.

The two scriptures I mentioned above are the only ones that can remotely be used to promote the bridal theology but in most of the letters Paul wrote he used the Body of Christ analogy more than any other, and never does he use the term “bride of Christ”. Oh, and just as a side note here, Paul is the only New Testament writer that uses this “body” terminology. None of the other writers use this term and neither does Jesus. This seems to be strictly a “Paul’ism” and a term only he used to describe our purpose here on earth until Jesus returns. Here are the many scriptures where Paul uses the “body” analogy:

“Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” Romans 12:4-5

“Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.” 1 Corinthians 10:16-17

“The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body-- whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free--and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” 1 Corinthians 12:12-27

“And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” Ephesians 1:22-23

“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit-- just as you were called to one hope when you were called“   Ephesians 4:1-4

“It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 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 4:11-13

“He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.” Colossians 1:17-18

“Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.” Colossians 1:24

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.” Colossians 3:15

If nothing else, these 9 scriptures clearly stating we are the body, in my mind, overwhelm the two scriptures that, if you try real hard, and are looking through a “bridal theology” filter, can sort of make a case for the bride… So, the next question is, can we be the body and the bride?? Possibly…?? But, I am not seeing this in scripture either. I keep going back to what JESUS said, and He didn’t say anything regarding this at all. He just says that we are His friends and guests. His words have the most weight and authority in my mind.

So, to wrap this up, this is how I now see this whole Bride and Body thing. Again, not that I have figured this all out, and I get that there is still a lot I don’t understand, but this is where I am right now. During Jesus’ ministry here on earth He referred to us as friends and guests. Once Jesus died, was resurrected, and ascended to sit at the right hand of God, He commissioned us, the Christian believers (Jews and Gentiles alike), to be His hands, feet and voice spreading the gospel until He returns. Paul’s terminology for this is that we are His BODY here on earth, and Jesus is the HEAD. We are doing His work and, as we pursue our relationship with the Lord, the Holy Spirit will move in and through us directing us to do His will, for His Kingdom purposes. When it is all said and done, after the current heavens and earth pass away and the new heaven and new earth is formed, we will be invited to the wedding banquet (or supper) of the Lamb, as friends and guests of the Son of God, and celebrate with Him in the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, His bride! (Tom is pretty sure there is major significance to the City being the bride and we are asking the Lord to show us)

Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear." (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.) Then the angel said to me, "Write: 'Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!' " And he added, "These are the true words of God." Revelation 19:7-9

Father, I thank you so much for this opportunity to search the scriptures to find Your truth. I know I have SO much more to learn and I pray that I am able to see and hear Your truth as you remove the “religious” and “doctrinal” filters that I have incorrectly believed for so long. YOUR truth, Lord, is all I want! Only You. With all my heart, Linda :)