Instruct One Another

         I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another. (Romans 15:14)

          Paul had never met the members of the Roman Church. His letter to the Roman Church was his introduction of himself to them. It wasn’t so much his resume as it was a resume of his doctrine. He knew some of them, as the long list of people to whom he says to say “hi” in chapter 16 shows, but he had not reached Rome yet when he wrote it.

           In today’s passage, he wrote that he was confident of three things. The Roman Church was:

1)      Full of Goodness

2)       Filled with Knowledge

3)       Competent to Instruct One Another.  

          It seems to me that the third could only be true because the first and second were true.           

            A small reason he could be confident of these things is that he had heard about 1 and 2, and knew some of the membership. A bigger reason he could be confident of all three was that he knew that the Holy Spirit worked among them (partly because of #1.) The key in this one another passage is that Paul viewed this group of people as competent to instruct one another. The Church is supposed to instruct itself.

          After competence, the next issue in this is that the Church is responsible for instructing itself. We don’t like being told what to do, but if the Church isn’t teaching us what is right and wrong, and correcting us when we’re wrong, the Church is not doing its job. Just as the Church should deal strongly with those who molest children or embezzle money, the church should deal strongly with all matters that Scripture makes clear are wrong.

          Some people believe they have the option of walking away from “organized religion” but more often than not that leads us away from Scripture, not to it. Often, these people are standing in judgment of the Church, usually with claims that the Church doesn’t have the right to judge them. They say the Church is full of hypocrites, but they are being hypocritical themselves because they are judging others for judging. They are refusing to love others because others don’t love them the way they want to be loved. If they sin against the Church in this way, can they truly expect to remain faithful to God or to His Word?

          Another facet of this instruction is that Paul was writing to a group, to the Church at Rome. It wasn’t just a couple people controlling all the rest. When there is a group of diverse individuals, instruction by one can be confirmed by others, or errors made by one can be recognized and corrected by others. Groups that are too small or too large find this more difficult, but no matter what size the group is, eventually, the Church will have to address the teachings of the group, and either approve or disapprove them.

         This is why we need the Church. We need instruction that can only be provided by a group of people whose goal is to glorify God – not to glorify or please themselves.