Who is Your Teacher?

Jesus said, "And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ." (Matthew 23:10).

According to the writer of Hebrews the entire body of believers are to be teachers. How can this be when Jesus commanded that we are not to be called teachers? The context of what Jesus said above was the Jewish system, which consisted of men called Rabbis, Masters, and Fathers. Jesus came to do away with that system and replace it with His Community of the redeemed. In that sense, no man is a master or teacher, for Jesus is the Teacher in each one of us. While all believers do not have the same function, ALL are to be teachers in their sphere of functioning. Christ is to be all in all (1 Corinthians 12:6).

When the body of Christ does not rise to the level of maturity where all are teachers in Him, there are grounds for concern.

For though by this time you ought to be teachers (didaskalos), you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. (Hebrews 5:12)

The word teacher used here is the same Greek word didaskalos (teachers) used in Ephesians 4:11, the text used by today's religious hierarchical structure to justify the "fivefold ministry offices". Today the word is used to propagate the notion of an elite cast of professionals who fill the supposed "office" of teacher or pastor/teacher etc.. Hebrews makes no such distinction. It saw teaching as the responsibility of the all within the community of redeemed. The body cannot ultimately come to spiritual maturity by an elite few, but, in order to reach maturity, all members must be involved in the process.

Paul said an elder (Greek prespitos) must be "apt to teach." As a believer matures in Christ, by The Teacher Christ, he should be learning a few things and one of them is the ability to teach what has been learned. The religious hierarchal system prevents believers from growing into maturity, and so we have "church goers" "ever learning" but never maturing, because they are being spoon fed by the denominational professional denominational pablum keeping believers spiritual babes always needing milk, but never able to share from a level of maturity that draws others up into the full measure of Christ.

 We need to apply something from the apostle John's admonition toward the late first century community of the redeemed. Consider the following passages from his first epistle.

But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him. (1 John 2:20, 21, 27)

Notice how careful John is not to usurp the job of the Holy Spirit. When he  wrote, "You do not need that anyone teach you," he was also referring to himself. The believers did not need John to lead them into all truth. They were so well established in their relationship to the Holy Spirit that they needed no man to teach them. This is the only true objective for teaching. There is a big difference between pointing people to Jesus "the Teacher" and being the teacher in place of Jesus. Maturity and discipleship can be known only in union with Jesus the Teacher as each member of the community of redeemed shares what the Teacher has taught them.

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