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High Calling

High Calling

Words of Faith 5-8-2020

Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2020

Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com

Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL

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James 3:1

    Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.

 

        I have often struggled with this text because it makes it so hard to recruit Sunday School teachers!  But then I wonder, after all, do we not all teach?  With every gesture, word, and action before observant children?  In the way, we respond in the workplace?  As we care for and attend to relationships that are important or difficult?  We teach who Jesus is in our lives.  

        But James was speaking of the official calling.  In Judaism, there were no preachers.  They were teachers.  Rabbis.  Those who had been schooled carefully by question and answer now would teach in the same way.  Jesus was the Master Rabbi bringing spiritual truth to life through parable and illustration.  He would hone the Word to its razor-sharp point of truth so that it would penetrate the soul. 

         But James knew that teachers could get lax.  There was so much respect for the Rabbi yet Jeremiah also warned of the "false teachers" with their false prophecies and dreams.  Jesus warned of the same.  Remember, it was the teachers of the law and the legal experts that had such a hard heart for the truth of God and sought to trap Jesus. 

         So, James warns us.   Don't presume to be a teacher without knowing you will be judged more strictly.  It is a high calling.  It is one thing to blunder in understanding some truth or another for yourself.  It is quite another to lead others astray because of carelessness or laziness.  Want to teach?  Study.  Pray.  Study more.  Pray harder.  And if you have a really important class-- no not the one full of Adults...  the one with children...  be extra careful and pray one more time that you have got it right.

           Who will you be teaching today?

 

    Lord, teach through me today.  In all that I do be the Rabbi that is needed.  And Lord, should you call me to a position of teaching, give me the grace to study and pray hard.  I will take it seriously.  In Jesus Name, Amen.

 

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© Jeffrey D. Hoy 2009, 2020

Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy - Faith Fellowship Church (EFCA)       

2820 Business Center Blvd.

Melbourne, Florida 32940 (321)-259-7200

Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com

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The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2010 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.