In Matthew 23: 6-11, Yeshua said to call no man “teacher”, among other things. Was He being literal here? Are we really prohibited from having teachers and leaders?
Video with slides below. Courtesy of Rumble
Audio only below. Courtesy of Spotify
A common misconception that comes up with those of us who have come out of mainstream Christianity, and very often with those who have been in oppressive ministries like the former WCG, is to reject ministers, preachers, and leadership altogether. I see this a lot among my brothers and I entertained a variation of this for quite a few years myself. I’ll explain at the end how I realized my own error.
Slide 2 “And they love the place of honor at banquets, and the seats of honor in the synagogues, and personal greetings in the marketplaces, and being called Rabbi by the people. But as for you, do not be called Rabbi; for only One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers and sisters. And do not call anyone on earth your father; for only One is your Father, He who is in heaven. And do not be called leaders; for only One is your Leader, that is, Messiah. But the greatest of you shall be your servant.” (Mat 23:6-11)
I know what you’re saying. “But Chris, it says right there not to call anyone a rabbi or a teacher or a leader. You’re all washed up.” Except He also says not to call anyone your father but we know that can’t be true because we have to call our parents mother and father.
Here’s an earlier version of a message I gave at Sukkot this year on reading the Bible. How to Read the Bible – First Century Christianity Part of that message addresses taking the bible too literally. I’m no fan of titles or hierarchal leadership systems in church settings, but the reality here is that Yeshua is not being completely literal here. We have to read through the entire passage to understand what He’s getting at. He is making sure His disciples know they are to be servants and not lords over the people because they were about to become some of the most influential leaders and teachers in history. He was telling them to be like Moses – servant leaders – and to explicitly NOT be like the haughty religious leaders of their day.
So it sounds like I’m contradicting scripture here, so I guess I better get to the proof texts.
The only person in the NT to be called Rabbi, meaning the literal word Rabbi, is Yeshua. But the other word for teacher is G1320 Didaskos (different from Rabbi) but is when He says not to be any teachers, He uses this word. The reason we know He’s not being literal is because this exact word used later to describe teachers in the Church of God.
Slide 3 And He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Messiah; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Messiah. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of people, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is, Messiah, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. (Eph 4:11-16)
For the record, the word for teachers here is the same word that Yeshua said to not call anyone. And this is but one of many passages I could use to show teachers and leaders in the first century church. Clearly He didn’t mean for there to be no teachers. That would be preposterous because His disciples, which are the equivalent of talmidim and mean students, became Apostles and then went off to teach the world about the Son of God. This passage defines a lot of leadership roles in the NT assembly. What are the reasons for these leaders? To build unity, protect against false teachings, increase knowledge in the Son of God, and allow for the body to grow in love. Yeshua was not railing against having leadership and teachers, He was railing against the widespread misuse of these offices. The proper usage of these offices is to build each other up in love, not try to tear people down and spread division. In fact, these offices exist to deal with the miscreants who bring division and strange teachings.
Earlier I mentioned I would let you know how I realized my error in rejecting leadership. This story is two-fold. The first reason is the brutal reality that it just doesn’t work. Somebody has to take the lead if anything is going to get done. We only get to have assemblies because peopl step up to lead them. We only get to have Sukkot sites because people step up to do the work to host them. I was in an assembly for many years that “had no leader” but in practice they had one, everybody knew who it was, and if he hadn’t taken the lead to organize and get the basic stuff done, it would not have happened. When we went off on our own, I became the same guy. I was constantly eschewing official leadership but it made doing stuff very difficult because I technically did not have the authority to spend the group’s money or sign contracts. And then I realized there’s nothing wrong accepting the gifts Yahweh has given us. In fact NOT using them risks committing the unpardonable sin! The fact that people misused authority in the past is not a reason to reject it. It’s a reason to not abuse it and use it properly.
The passage above says these gifts and offices are for the equipping of the saints. I like to give the message about how to read scripture when I go to sukkot to fulfill this mission. That message let’s people know some simple things that will help the bible become a lot clearer. At Sukkot, I also demonstrated software to teach us how to read Hebrew and how to get the Masoretic Text on our computers. Why? Because it took me 20 years to get to the maturity of the faith and I want it to take less time for you. I want to empower you to get to the knowledge of the truth on your own time and in your own way. I trust the Ruach ha Kodesh, the Holy Spirit, to lead us into all truth. You may be interested in different topics that I have ever been interested in, so if I can help you to get on that path quicker and more accurately, then I believe I have used my gifts well.
My example for this are the men who trained me to speak and teach. They were secure enough in their faith to let me learn while doing and I want to keep that tradition going. Because that’s the maturity of the faith.