Wisdom in Teaching

 

In a most loving fashion, James begins to exhort his fellow believers concerning the privilege of being a teacher. He refers to them as brothers, because they are – yet, they seem to have lacked discernment concerning who should be teachers and who should be listeners.

The word “masters” translates the Greek word “didaskalos” and applies to those who are well-learned and are capable of instructing those who need understanding. In the NT it refers to one who teaches concerning the things of God and the duties of man. “The Jews were especially prone to this presumption. The idea that faith (so called) without works (James 2.14-26) was all that is required, prompted “many” to set up as “teachers,” as has been the case in all ages of the Church. At first all were allowed to teach in turns. Even their inspired gifts did not prevent liability to abuse, as James here implies: much more is this so when self-constituted teachers have no such miraculous gifts.” (JFB)

Amassing teachers with neither understanding nor previous instruction themselves would certainly produce a wide-ranging system of beliefs based upon personal opinion rather than being founded upon God’s truth. Using a method of instruction based upon personal opinion would damage the Truth of God’s Word beyond recognition and bring God’s judgment upon the entire congregation.

Being righteous is, by definition, being rightly aligned with the truth. Here, James explains that teachers cannot be rightly related to Christ if they do not know the truth about Him. Thus, the teachers would drag down the learners into a morass of indefinable religious beliefs.

Notice that James speaks of “knowing” and offers this warning that they would receive the greater condemnation. “Knowing” translates the word “eido” which indicates a recognition of something – full comprehension and understanding. In other words, James says that these people should know full-well what would happen should they continue in this process. Evidently, some of these had previously been teachers and had skill in instructing others; however, while they had the ability they did not have the knowledge base to attempt what they were doing.

Some years ago, I sat in a training session as a certified volleyball official. The scheduled instructor was not there, so a substitute was inserted at the last minute. This substitute was an excellent basketball and softball official and was a well-recognized rules instructor in those sports. Her knowledge and understanding of the rules of volleyball, however, were severely lacking. She had confidence and marched forward with her thrown-together presentation that left some of the newer officials gasping for explanations. In our group were several veteran officials who tried to help her out only to become a bunch of conflicting voices in a cacophony of noise. I sometimes wonder if the freshman officials were ever able to recover from the quagmire of the many teachers.

Often, in the learning lab of life, we desperately try to interject our opinion into a disorganized world only to become a sound rather than a help. “Receive” translates “lambano” and is in the middle deponent voice indicating something applied personally. This is no small matter because it indicates something that will affect not only the listener but also the teacher. The reason is obvious. The pretense of knowledge adds to the teacher’s responsibility and condemnation.

James in a humble, conciliatory spirit includes himself: if we teachers abuse the office, we shall receive greater condemnation than those who are mere hearers.

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