James 3:1

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

The Message: Don't be in any rush to become a teacher, my friends. Teaching is highly responsible work. Teachers are held to the strictest standards.

Teaching is, on the whole, a respected profession. If you are a teacher, people look up to you, respect you, and even today, more years later than I care to remember, I still have that fear and dread inside whenever I meet a teacher! I wasn't a bad child, I always behaved at school but I went in fear of the teachers. I know from talking to other mums I am not alone here and I always have that slight fear, insecurity, or whatever, on parents evening that somehow, my child's teachers will know/think I don't measure up to their ideal of a "good" parent.

Being a teacher is a responsible post because you can shape the leaders of the future. Your words, your teachings, can have a profound impact on a child and can build them up, spur them on to achieve their full potential, or they can knock them down, give them scars that will remain for the rest of their lives.

But it is not only children who are influenced by teachers. What about the preachers we have on a Sunday morning, the teaching from the pulpit? Our ideas, our beliefs, our faith can really be affected by the things people say from the position of authority behind that pulpit (or whatever they stand next to, because certainly in our church, there is no pulpit). You only have to do a quick search on the internet to hear stories of how people have had their faith shaken when they went to such and such a church or heard so and so preach. Wrong teaching can have catastrophic results when it goes against the teachings in the bible.

So James is emphasising here just how responsible a position it is when you become a teacher and that we shouldn't all rush to become one as teachers will be judged more strictly, held to higher standards than non teachers. This is because it is so easy to lead people astray, cause them to wander off the straight and narrow path onto the wide road that leads straight to hell. Your words, your ideas, your teachings can shape the faith of a person, can show them the way to God or lead them in completely the opposite direction.

The standard for everything should be the bible, the word of God, and yet so often today, the standard we live by is how others are going to react. Will we fit in with the world? Are our views politically correct? Will we give offence to x, y or z if we stand up and say something is wrong? As a result, the teaching of the church has been watered down, the bible is adapted to fit the situation, the person or people we are talking to. The gospel message is not seen as being the only way to God, as even some ministers have said that people can become Christian and yet still stay within their old faith i.e. still go to the mosque or temple to worship….

The danger is that if you are a teacher, and you are teaching something that goes against the bible , then you are running the risk of not only dragging yourself down, but others too. It is such a responsibility being a teacher, letting others know about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. If your doctrine is wrong, others could be led astray as a result which is why teachers are held to a higher standard than others.

This doesn't mean that you should never become a teacher for fear of that you might get it wrong (and let’s face it, we all get it wrong at one time or another, at the very least) , but that you must always be checking to make sure that what you are teaching is biblically correct and not let the ways of the world, let the prince of this world, the enemy, the devil, sway you into teaching something incorrect. Your whole lifestyle must reflect what you teach - it is no good saying one thing and doing another, because what sort of example is that to others? No wonder there is always so much fuss of a Christian minister is found out committing adultery or whatever.

Strong words from James but then teachers can have an affect on others that will last a lifetime, so they need to teach what is right.