Skip to main content

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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Shepherd!

                 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep . (John 10:14) God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Genesis 3:14) The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths     for his name’s sake. Even though I walk     through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil,     for you are with me; your rod and your staff,     they comfort me. (Psalm 23:1-4) For the Jews, it was politically incorrect to make claims about yourself as a teacher (or possibly as anything else.) Teachers were expected to take pride in the...
Post a Comment
Read more