WWJD By Dr. Richard Youngblood
Question: Why should one trust what influential
preachers and scholars of the past taught about the church and salvation?
Although Christians have greatly benefited from the
men and women of faith who have gone before and have taught them about our
Lord, in the end they should follow the Lord and not these people. The early Corinthian believers became divided
among themselves because of loyalties to their favorite teachers. Thus, the Holy Spirit guided the apostle Paul
to say to them: “What,
after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe-- as the Lord has
assigned to each his task. I
planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it
grow. So neither he who plants nor he
who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow” (1 Corinthians 3:5-7).
Certainly, we should honor and respect those who
have faithfully taught us the word of the Lord.
The writer to the Hebrew Christians called upon them to “Remember
your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you.
Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith” (Hebrews 13:7). But no matter how prominent or influential
one of these teachers may have been, he was only human. Therefore, we have a responsibility to go to the Bible to see that what they taught
us is truly the “word of God.” We should
also examine our teachers to see if their lives are consistent with the
teachings of God’s word. When the life
is not faithful to the word of God, the message is most likely flawed.
Throughout the New Testament, the emphasis is always
placed upon the words of God in contrast to the words of men. To the Thessalonian
Christians, the apostle wrote: “And we also thank God continually
because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you
accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God,
which is at work in you who believe” (1
Thessalonians 2:13). Of the words of the
prophets, Peter stated: “For prophecy never had its origin in the will
of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). Jesus and his apostles warned his followers
of false prophets who can deceive us into believing things that do not come
from God (Matthew 7:15; 2 Peter 2:1).
This is why the Bereans were commended because
they “examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was
true” (Acts 17:11).
I am convinced that many of the religious divisions
among Christians of today have come about because of loyalties to human
traditions and prominent preachers or scholars of the past. But the best way to honor those who have faithfully
taught us is to examine everything they say and do in light of scripture. We need to study for ourselves and become
more knowledgeable about biblical teachings.
We need to weigh carefully and critically what we have been taught and
what we are being taught. This is why I
always try to give biblical references for what I write in this weekly
column. I pray that my readers will not
follow me, nor any human teacher, but examine the word of God so they can
follow Jesus. The prophet Isaiah said: “All men
are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass
withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever” (Isaiah 40:6-8
as quoted in1 Peter 1:24-25).
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